The title of this portion of
Acts chapter 3 is called The Message Behind the Miracle. The
Message Behind the Miracle. That's basically what we want
to unpack today as we continue to work through the book of Acts.
So in Acts chapter 3 we looked at the ministry of the Apostle
Peter and John as they ministered to The lame man at the temple
beautiful and we dealt with the language that went all the way
up to verse 11 and basically we identified the theme of the
third chapter of the book of Acts and that theme was given
by the Apostle Peter as he spoke to the reason why God had been
so gracious to heal this man is given in verse 13 now the
God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob, the God of our fathers,
hath glorified his son Jesus, whom you delivered up and denied
him in the presence of Pilate when he was determined to let
him go." So as we work our way through the book of Acts, what
we know will be the motive of God the Father is to glorify
God the Son through these unique events which will transpire in
the life of the apostles, the glorification of the son of God
by God, the father through these unique events that will transpire
in the life of the apostles. That means that we will deal
with the theological significance of things like miracles and signs
and wonders, which are critical to our understanding of how God
works. So some people will say things
like, um, You know, God still heals today. And we would say
yes and no, because that statement by itself, while being true,
is not sufficiently developed. And those kind of narrow statements
often are negated by the fact that they aren't fully developed.
So if you if you if you make a statement like that, God still
heals today. If you don't qualify, it can be both affirmed and rejected. And for a prudent student of
the Word of God, you want to be able to know what do you mean
by God still heals today. If you mean that God still heals
today in the same fashion in which he healed in the first
century through apostolic ministry, we would disagree with you. We
would firmly disagree with any church who espouses the notion
that God actually heals today in the same fashion in the which
he healed in the first century precisely because there were
purposes behind the healings that were done then that are
not needed now. Therefore, the manner in which
and the purpose and design for which those healings took place
would be they would not be necessary today. So what we will discover
as we go through the book of Acts is that the primary source
of healings will be the ministry of the apostles, not just any
Tom, Dick, and Harry, or even Susan, Sally, and Jane, especially
in our present egalitarian age where we have to make sure we
acknowledge both men and women today. We're doing miracles. You didn't see that in your Bible.
You don't see in the Bible where anyone did miracles. And the
book of Acts will be a study concerning the historiography
of the church. And yet there will be clear discipline
practices that will be engaged upon that not anyone engaged
in. That is, let's keep it very distinct
that what we are dealing with is chiefly, not exclusively,
but chiefly the ministry of the apostles. This is why the book
of Acts has ultimately been called the Acts of the, what? Apostles. That's fundamentally what you
are reading is the Acts of the Apostles. The early church, first
100 or two years after Penn died, after the uh... the apostles died off they struggle
with whether or not the book should be called the acts of
the apostles are the acts of the holy ghost and ultimately
they landed on the acts of the apostles which is a right conclusion
because to merely say that what's taking place in the book of acts
is the acts of the holy ghost is to do what deny instrumentality
let's say that The Holy Spirit healed you of a sickness, a disease. But you failed to identify the
means or the instrument by which that was done. Wouldn't you be
leaving out a critical piece of information? Let's say the
spirit of God healed you of a disease. But what he did by healing you
of that disease was to use a doctor who was specifically qualified
in that category of medicine with the wisdom and knowledge
to be able to assist you in your healing. Are you guys hearing
me? so that you were indeed healed,
but the healing was through a process and instrumentality that God
has chosen to consistently use throughout human history. So
some of you know, as I do, that growing up in church and the
naivete and ignorance of a religious background and religious experience,
you were susceptible to unlearned men and women who told you that
the Bible will affirm that God will heal you of your toothaches
and heal you of your headaches and heal you of your diseases
and you don't have to go to the doctor. Who's ever been through
those kinds of religious shenanigans? Most of us have. Well, that's
because the pastor, teacher, whoever it was, was not disciplined
enough to know that God uses means on a steady, steady line. And he intends to work through
means to accomplish his goals to teach us how important it
is for us to recognize different disciplines, different offices,
different vocations. And all of these different offices
and vocations are gifts of God to humanity. Some of us have
fallen prey to the arrogance, unfounded arrogance that we can
simply believe God for our healing. And then not only in some cases,
did we remain sick and get sicker until we almost died. But in
many cases, because of an arrogance and unbiblical and unsound assumption,
people have died waiting for God to heal them. as opposed
to going to the doctor. Am I making some sense? Because
this is absolutely true. And then, even more radical than
that, after in the face of the evidence that God has spoken
clearly in Providence, that you are misinterpreting the Scriptures,
And therefore, the application that you seek for is not coming
to pass because God doesn't set aside his principles of truth
simply because of your erroneous faith. You still didn't get it. There are people who still believe
that God will act in a fashion in which he did in the first
century today, when there is absolutely no evidence anywhere
in the world that he's doing that. Now, I don't want you guys
to fall prey to that because that's not biblical faith. It's
not even a real understanding of how God works providentially. Now, having said all that I said,
I am not saying that God does not heal, am I? See, right thinking
people understand to negate one thing does not mean to negate
something else or affirm the opposite. You know that for me
to simply say that God uses means does not mean that God does not
heal. It also does not mean that God does not work in special
cases. I've said this before, God will work at times in very
unique cases where he performs a healing, but it will often
be in a situation where there won't be an opportunity for people
to monopolize on that healing. Take advantage of that for the
purpose of personal aggrandizement. There's no doubt that God can
heal. There's no doubt that God does
heal. The question is, what is the normative means by which
God heals people and how does it comport with God's larger
objective of healing? What are the normative means
and how does it comport with God's larger objective of healing?
Said all that to say that as we get into our text You'll understand
that the healing of the lame man and John chapter 3 was not
an end in itself Peter and John did not start
a church called a healing ministry of Peter and John You guys hear
me. It wasn't an end in itself and
Christians ought to get that and The meat the map the miracle
that took place had a message behind it and that's where we
are in chapter 3 verse 13 and following I'm gonna read in chapter
3 verse 13 through 26 and we're gonna come back and unpack it
develop it according to your outline So Peter has already
stated that what you guys see taking place is a notable miracle
that will not be controverted. It will not be overthrown. It
will not be argued. It will be evident. It will be
obvious. It will be public. We will have to deal with the
consequences of this notable miracle when the rulers hear
about it. But we want you to know that God did this in order
to glorify his son, Jesus Christ. And then he develops the reason
for which that was done. And verses 14 and following,
but you denied the holy one and the just one and desired a murderer
to be granted unto you. And you killed the prince of
life whom God had raised from the dead, where of we are witnesses.
And his name through faith in his name has made this man strong
whom you see and know. Yea, the faith which is by him
has given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all. Now,
brethren, I know that through ignorance you did it, as did
also your rulers. But those things which God before
has showed by his mouth, by the mouth of his prophets, all of
his prophets, that Christ should suffer, he hath so fulfilled. Therefore, you all should repent
and be converted that your sins may be blotted out when the times
of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord and
he shall send Jesus Christ, which was before preached unto you,
whom the heavens must receive until the times restitution of
all things which God has spoken by the mouth of all his holy
prophets since the world began. For Moses truly said to the fathers,
a prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of all
your brethren like unto me. Him shall you hear in all things
whatsoever he shall say unto you and it shall come to pass
that every soul which will not hear that prophet shall be destroyed
from among the people. Yea, and all the prophets from
Samuel and those that follow after as many as have spoken
have likewise foretold of these days. Ye are the children of
the prophets and of the covenant which God made with our father,
saying unto Abraham, And in your seed shall all the kindreds of
the earth be blessed. Here's the last verse. And unto
you first, God, having raised up his son, Jesus, sent him to
bless you. in turning away every one of
you from his iniquities. Thus is the reading of God's
word. We'll be able to work through our outline and see the framework
of Peter's message very clearly. If you pull up the PowerPoint,
point number one in your outline, the impact of the miracle, the
impact of the miracle, the impact of the miracle. Verse 11, and
as the lame man, which was healed, helped Peter and John, all the
people ran together unto them in the porch that is called Solomon's,
greatly wondering what occurred. The miracle took place and the
lame men by divine providence, latches hold to both John and
Peter and James, Peter and John, right? Peter and John, to let
everyone in the temple know that these are the means by which
I was healed. He associated with the instrumentality
of his healing. He did not deny it. The lame
man didn't go around and simply say, God healed me apart from
instrumentality. God healed me all by himself. God healed me without the special
means of these two persons. No, he is giving visible witness
in the temple. of his identification with the
instrumentality of the apostles who are the means by which the
miracle takes place. Are you guys getting that? That
becomes then a public testimony of a unique calling on the part
of these apostles. I think I shared that with you
last week, or three or four weeks ago, back when we had our last
class. The capacity or the ability that was given to the apostles
were many gifts, one of which was the ability to heal. Now
mark this, the apostles did not have the ability to heal at whim. That means they weren't given
the gift of healing in such a magnanimous way that anytime they wanted
to heal, they could heal. They could only heal according
to the will of God. The apostles did not have the
spirit without measure as Jesus did. The apostles couldn't heal
anyone they wanted to at any time. They could only heal according
to the will of God when it was God's will to perform a healing
because all healings had a message behind it. So if there was not
a message that was preceding the potential for God to be glorified
through Christ, there would be no need for a healing to take
place. Otherwise, we're healing arbitrarily.
and we're healing whimsically and we're healing just because
we want to call attention to the gift of healing that we have,
which is the problem in our present day churches of which this is
why I deny the unique office of apostolic calling after the
first century and the end of the apostolic. So everyone who
calls himself an apostle today is either a farce, a scam, or
they are operating out of what we call the small a apostle.
And if they are operating out of the small, a apostle, well,
that applies to you too. You are an apostle in that sense,
because as we're learning, every one of us are set to preach the
gospel in that sense, but there is no large, a apostle whatsoever. If you actually understand what
the qualifications of an apostle are, are you guys hearing me?
And we already have dealt with the implications of taking on
an office that is not authorized by God for you. This is the problem
in our present evangelical church as well. We talked about this
years ago. If you adopt to yourself an office,
like apostle or prophet or healer or whatever, bishop or archbishop
or whatever, and that office is not given to you by divine
authority, then you are setting yourself up to abuse people because
you're operating out of a calling that's not actually yours. The
implications of taking on the role of an apostle is the implication
of sustaining the foundation of the church when the foundation
of the church was already laid. The apostles are foundation ministries
to establish the gospel upon which the church was built. The
implications of a sustaining of the apostolic office then
would suggest or assert that we are still building the foundation.
This is what we learned when we went through that three week
class on tongues, didn't we? And when people embrace the idea
that we're still speaking in languages and we're still receiving,
as it were, certain gifts in what they call the continuationist
mode, then we're still laying foundations. Now, either the
Word of God is true or it's not. Either the foundation is laid
and no one else can lay that foundation according to 1 Corinthians
3. The foundation has been laid and that foundation is Christ.
Now, every man builds upon that foundation, every minister. But
you are not laying the foundation over again. It's already laid.
So when a person calls himself or she calls herself an apostle,
she basically is waging war against biblical truth. I say that only
to say that is what you're going to see in the book of Acts is
a unique ministry accomplished by the apostles exclusively. And in this context, The impact
of the miracle was, and it was designed by God to draw people,
to draw people to Peter and John. Look at the last part of verse
11. And it says, and they ran together, all the people ran
together unto them in the ports that is called Solomon's, doing
what ladies and gentlemen? Greatly wondering. Now, we've
been thinking this one through and working this one through
ever since we opened up the book of Acts. What the apostles are
doing is extending the ministry of Jesus Christ, which he did
when we see him operating in his calling through the gospel
of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. And the one undeniable expression
or impact that was made upon the people whenever Christ healed
or preached or taught was that they were amazed, that they were
astonished, that they were marveling. Acts chapter two, verse seven.
Remember, the 120 in the upper room, they're speaking in unknown
languages, right? The languages of other men, and
listen to what verse seven says. And they were all amazed. And they marveled, saying one
to another. And then we see it again, also,
down in verse 17. Let me see here. No. There's
another place where it's spoken. Verse 12, and they were all amazed
and were in doubt saying one to another. What means is now,
ladies and gentlemen, what we have taking place here as our
first point says, and you can leave the point up, leave the
point, point number one, leave that up. Greatly wondering this
idea of being astonished or being taken aback or finding oneself
marveling is a messianic signet. It means that Christ is present
by his spirit doing something of such unusual level that you
know that you are in the presence of God. The people are now taken
back because they can give no human reason for why this miracle
took place other than God did it. This is what happens when
you actually meet God in the ministry of the word. How do
we know Jesus shows up in the ministry of the Word, in the
ministry of the people of God? Because a kind of amazement and
a kind of marveling takes place in the soul. This is true even
in the preaching of the Gospel. When the Word of God illuminates
the mind and the heart You come to a clarity of certain biblical
truths at a level you had not come to before. Don't you marvel? Aren't you astonished when the
truth is made plain to your soul? By the way, I think I said this
last time. This is something of which we would always want
to experience. Even in your own private study.
Let me see if I can drive this home. When you open your Bible
and you read your Bible, what you want God to do is to cause
you to marvel at its truth. You don't want to read your Bible
like Reader's Digest. You don't want to read it like
Jet Magazine. You don't want to read it like
some superficial, carnal piece of data. You want the Spirit
of God to take the Word of God and apply it to your heart in
such a way that it opens your eyes and creates the kind of
impact in your soul that causes you to pause. Have you ever been
there? You're reading and there's such
an illumination of the text that you have to stop, sit your Bible
down and just go into suspended animation and marvel at the revelation. That's what you want. You want
God to take you up in the spirit and cause you to think through
the profundity of his word being open to you. You do not want
to go through a casual reading of scripture and it have no actual
impact on your soul. You really don't want to see
that occur in worship as well. So obviously, as we are kind
of contemplating the application of the presence of Christ in
the ministry of the word, what we are asking for is for God
to make an impact in our life every time we come together with
him, right? make an impact in my life. By the way, what'll
help you, particularly when you come out to study, if you get
off of work at five o'clock and study is at eight o'clock, and
that's what it's gonna be every time now, eight o'clock, go home
and take a nap before you come. Don't do 50 different things,
come in and think the Holy Ghost is just gonna take away your
sleep. Okay, get a little nap in, pull your car to the side,
come early, park way over in the dark areas where people might
be inclined to break into the car, recline your seat back and
take a nap for 20 minutes and honor God with your bodies. Am I making some sense? Honor
God with your body. And so, uh, because you want
to be impacted by the word. So what we're saying is greatly
wondering is a, is a pattern of things in the gospel of Luke
chapter two, verse 46 through 48. I wanted, I just want you
to see a couple of them and the gospels again, and we won't have
to visit this again. I don't think, but I do want
you to know that what we will see taking place in the book
of acts is precisely what we saw taking place in the gospels.
I know I said it before, but I want to just read, Capitulate
those things for our own souls benefit acts chapter Luke chapter
2 verse 46 through 48 Listen to what it says Luke 2 46 says
this and it came to pass that after three days they found him
that is Jesus in the temple sitting in the midst of the doctors Both
hearing them and asking them questions Now look at verse 47
and all that heard him were what? At his understanding and his
answers, even at 12 years old, he was blowing away the doctors
of theology with the kind of questions and prudent answers
he was giving them in the temple because God was with him. Even
then, that's what was happening. And so then, we look at another
one. Over in chapter 4, verse 33 through
37, chapter 4, I'm sorry, let me quote verse
48 in chapter 2 again. Verse 48, And when they saw him,
they were amazed. Now, who is this? Mom and Daddy. And his mother said unto him,
Son, why have you thus dealt with us? Behold, your father
and I have sought thee sorrowing. And he says unto them, How is
it that you sought me? Unfortunately, the old King James
language doesn't actually grasp the way he would have stated
this. I think you probably have become sensitive enough to know
that sometimes the way Jesus spoke to his mother and others
almost seemed a bit irreverent, right? But it's simply because
the language now is removed 400 years from the King James writing. And so we need to be a little
bit more sensitive to it. And he's simply asking the question,
what is it that's in you that's moving to ask me these questions
in this way? Do you not know that I must be
about my father's business? That wasn't irreverent. Had it
been irreverent, he would have been disobedient. Had he been
disobedient, he would have failed to be our representative and
substitute. Children are not to be irreverent
toward their parents. Am I making some sense? So whatever
you derive from this text, what you do not derive is just because
he's the son of God, he gets to be disrespectful or irreverent
to his parents. Nothing could be further from
the truth. Sometimes we just have to work with the nuances
of the language. Okay, now chapter 4, verse 33
through 37 is another account where Jesus is doing ministry.
Chapter 4, verse 33 through 37. if you have your Bibles. And
in the synagogue, there was a man which had a spirit of an unclean
devil and cried out with a loud voice saying, let us alone. What
have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? Art thou come
to destroy us? I know thee who you are, the
holy one of God. Jesus rebuked him saying, hold
your peace, come out of him. And when the devil had thrown
him down in the mist, he came out of him and hurt him not.
Verse 36, here it is. And they were all amazed. and
they spake among themselves, saying, What a word is this! For with authority and power
he commanded the unclean spirits, and they came out. And the fame
of him went out into every place of the country round about."
You see, ladies and gentlemen, when Christ went about doing
ministry, the depth of power was so very clear that all people
could do is marvel. Now they're third parties to
an engagement between him and the demons. They're standing
back observing how Christ spoke masterfully to demons. Now you will notice, will you? You will notice that Jesus doesn't
wrestle with demons like priests do in these movies, right? The devil is not throwing Jesus
around. Jesus winning one round. Devil
winning one round. Jesus running, getting some water.
You understand that the biblical depiction of the sovereignty
of God in Christ is of such a magnitude that the only thing you see is
total subjugation on the part of the demons towards Christ.
There is not the least bit of irreverence, assault, battle,
conflict, tension going back and forth between Christ and
the demons. At no time. Are you hearing me? At no time. And what's important to note
about that is this. If you have a small view of God
and a large view of the devil, you have a distorted view of
the truth. If you have a small view of God,
like many churches do, and a large view of the devil, you have a
distorted view of biblical truth. The devil is not as big as people
make him out to be. This is utterly a tragedy in
religion. And Christ is not as small as
people make him out to be. This is a travesty in religion. For Christ, who appears as God
in the flesh, is so clearly in control of the creature he made,
called the devil, that he merely tells him what to do and he does
it. By the way, When we see this
same scenario in the book of Acts, in the life of the apostles,
it will be the same way. You will not see the apostles
going through three rounds of ring fighting with devils, winning
one round, losing another, finally beating him in the third round.
They will masterfully deal with the demonic powers on the same
level that Christ did. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? This is very important for a proper understanding of
the character and nature of God. Verse 37, and the fame of him
went out in every place of the country round about. Let me see
if I can do one more. No, go back to our text. I'll
make mention of these as we go back. Go back to Acts chapter
three. So then what we see taking place with John and Peter, as
they were going to the temple for prayer, is an opportunity
for God to manifest His glory, manifest the glory of Jesus Christ
through their ministry, by the healing of this lame man. And
it then becomes an opportunity to proclaim a truth, which brings
us to point number two in our outline. Point number two, and
you have it in your outline too, the testimony of God in Christ.
That's where verse 13 came up. I want to state it again. And
then I want to quote some verses to affirm this, because this
is truly the reason why God performed miracles through the apostles,
the God of Abraham and of Isaac. Stop, go back to verse 12. Let
me establish this premise. And when Peter saw it, when Peter
saw what we were talking about, that the folks were gathered
together in swarms because of the healing of this lame man,
When Peter saw it, he answered unto the people, you men of Israel,
why are you, what's the word, marveling at this? Or why look
ye so earnestly on us, as though by our own power and holiness
we have made this man to walk? Now, what is he doing? He's deflecting
what otherwise might have been a glory or an honor attributed
to them, when in fact Peter and John would have known this is
not about them. Immediately, they dissuade the
people from an inordinate respect of even the apostles, knowing
that this is not about them. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? Now watch what he does. He says, for the God of Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob, this is a language device that would have identified
the people to whom he was speaking as the God who actually owns
their fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers.
He has glorified his son, whom you delivered up and denied him
in the presence of Pilate when he was determined to let him
go. So here we go again. We have the testimony of God
being manifested. We have the indictment of the
people and their rulers being affirmed both in this verse and
the next verse. This is the two edged sword.
One is God is glorifying his son. This is exactly what Jesus
said in John chapter 13 verse 31 and 32. John 13, 31 and 32. Listen to what Jesus said. This
is right before Jesus is crucified. This is where he knows he is
about to turn the corner and be betrayed by his own people.
And notice what he says as he speaks to his heavenly father
in John 13, verse 31 and 32. This is how Christ thinks through
the suffering that he's about to endure by the rejection of
the Jewish people and then being put to death by crucifixion.
Verse 31, I'm going to start at verse 30
and he then having received the sock that is Judas Iscariot went
immediately out and it was night. John uses his language to describe
the darkness that setting in on the whole nation of Israel,
in particular, the rulers who are governed by the devil, who
are now going to move out with a band of soldiers and authorities
to come take Jesus. This is a very dark night. Verse
31. Therefore, when he was gone out,
that is Judas, Jesus said, now mark these words, ladies and
gentlemen, now is the son of man what? And God, which is his
father, is glorified in him. Do you see this? Now, this is
a unique expression of Christ's interpretation of what he was
about to go through in terms of being betrayed, suffering,
and then being killed. Well, now think about this as
the son of God. He views suffering as an aspect of his glory. He
views being put to death by the betraying hands of his own people
and the denial of his disciples and the forsaking of his disciples,
the abandonment of his disciples, leaving him as the sole object
of the wrath and antipathy of both the devil and the rulers,
Jews and Gentiles as his glory. There's a lesson in that, right?
There's a lesson and it really is a very strong biblically redemptive
lesson that I don't think we always get. And that's this.
There is glory always to be had for the people of God on the
other side of suffering for Christ. There is glory always to be had
for the people of God on the other side of suffering for Christ. Now, if you pause, you think
this through, You understand that the statement that I'm making
really does require maturity. Because you and I, we know by
nature when folks come at us the wrong way, we don't see glory
at all. All we see is adversity of which
we are willing to, by any means necessary, halt and stop. And we're asking for God's power
to help us do that. Am I telling the truth? But our
savior understood that it's critical to walk by faith and not by sight
and to be able to depend upon God. Who governs all things. Who providentially brings about
circumstances of which we say God rules. But so many times
we actually frustrate that proposition by acting as if he does not rule.
when adversity comes into our life and we want to turn it in
another direction. See what I'm getting at? Does
God rule? Does he bring trouble into our
life? Does he bring difficulties and hardships and obstacles into
our life? Sometimes unaware, sometimes
at times where he hasn't even given us a warning. Does he bring
them into our life in order for us to stand and believe God through
those things? Has he demonstrated in your life
on occasion, those rare occasions that you might be able to count
on one hand out of all of the years of your Christian walk,
where you just simply stood and said, okay, God, okay, this time
I'm just gonna trust you through it. I'm gonna wait until you
get me on the other side of this, and I'm gonna see how you actually
show up in my life. I'm not gonna fight this, I'm
not gonna argue this, I'm not gonna debate this, I'm not gonna
rationalize this. I'm gonna wait on God. You know
those rare occasions where we have done that? Well, you can
count on one hand all of the time. I've been a Christian 35
years. And when you do it, he comes
through. And when you get on the other
side, you actually learn more about God than you ever would
have by merely fighting prophetess. See, this is one of the perspectives
of a Christocentric calling that you've got to have when it comes
to trouble in this life. You and I cannot always seek
to avoid trouble if we're called Christians. And in the event,
this is the manner in which Christ is viewing the suffering that
he is going through. Here's what he says. He says,
now is the Son of Man glorified. The moment that Judas leaves,
he knew what Judas is about to do. Judas has already made the
agreement with the rulers. that he was going to betray Jesus.
He simply needed to know where Jesus was going and he knew where
Jesus was going because Jesus always went where he was about
to go now, to pray in the garden of Gethsemane. And he was headed
to go tell the chief priest and the rulers and get his 30 pieces
of silver and betray the son of God. Jesus said, now is the
son of man glorified. Now watch this. He says, and
if I be glorified, then God is glorified in him. Here's the
other application that's critical for you and me. When I am God's,
what is most important is not merely me simply being able to
overcome the trial. That's true, I want to overcome
that trial. I don't want to fail if I can
help it. I don't want to deny the Lord
if I can help it. I don't want to defect if I can
help it. I do know there's a remedy for
that if I do, but I don't want to. What I do want to do is to
see God glorified in it. You guys get that? That's the
other side of it. See, I don't want to just overcome
the trial so I can tell saints that it's possible for us to
overcome the trial. If you wait on God, God will
give you the grace to overcome it. You'll be able to triumph.
You'll be able to victory. See, that's still a bit narcissistic. It's still a bit self-centered.
It's still a bit about me. Am I making some sense? And I
would suggest to us that the idea of us simply wanting to
be able to discover the power to overcome trials is an adolescent
understanding of what it means to be in Christ. That for me
to simply be able to overcome trials is not where God wants
me to be in my thinking. What he wants me to be able to
say is, how are you going to be glorified in this mess in
my life? Will this glorify you, O God?
Will this actually advance your glory? Will it advance the glory
of your Son? Will it cause men and women to
look to Christ? If it does, then that's my chief
joy. See, now in John chapter 13,
what we are discovering is that what Jesus meant in John chapter
4, my meat is to do the will of Him that sent me. It meant
that it was really, truly an intrinsic part of His being to
glorify His Father. It was truly a part. And I would
submit to you, Saint, that this is an area and discipline in
our life that we are probably woefully lacking in. Living for
the glory of God. Am I making some sense? So let's
go on. Here's what he also says in this
text. And that's this. Now, if God be glorified in the
sun, God also shall glorify him himself it shall straightway
glorify him now you ask me what that means that's a bunch of
terms put together that almost seem to be absurdly redundant
listen to it if God be glorified in him then God also shall glorify
him in himself it shall straightway glorify him so tell me how much
you got out of that What I can say is the son is doing this.
Exercising faith as a human being. And a God who has demonstrated
himself faithful to him from the moment he assumed a human
nature. And has trained him up from a child to believe that
the purpose for which he exists is to glorify God. And that the
reciprocal benefits between the father and the son is this. that
every time the Son glorifies the Father, the Father has purpose
to glorify the Son. He is now moving towards a place
of expecting His reward for Him submitting to this dynamic of
a relationship where the Father has been glorified through the
Son over and over and over and over and over again. See, He's
on the other side of His active work of righteousness, he's about
to enter into his passive work. His active work has been his
obedience since the moment he was a child. Obeying God's commandments,
living honorably with his parents, growing up in obedience, living
like a man, suffering whatever ridicules and inhuman elements
he may have experienced as a child like you and I did, perfectly
obeying his dad. Now he is about to passively
enter into suffering and depth of suffering of which he is able
to say God is going to bless me with glorifying me as he glorifies
himself in me because that's what he has promised me you guys
see that he's promised to glorify me as he glorifies himself after
all if you remember what the father said in Matthew chapter
3 when the heavens opened up this is my beloved son in whom
I am well pleased and The father was already pleased with him.
And he was pleased with him before he entered into his active ministry.
And then he said it again in Matthew 17, when the heavens
opened up with Peter, James, and John, this is my beloved
son in whom I am well pleased. Listen to him. Remember that?
So the father has already asserted publicly his pleasure with the
son. What I am getting at is that
here's what I'm getting at. That throughout the process of
Christ's life, It wasn't the son merely acting in sort of
an automatic way in obedience to God without there being the
tangible evidences of God's presence in his life and affirmation of
sonship in his life that was taking place all along his ministry.
The father was constantly affirming the son in his unique calling
and purpose. And now he had reached the crescendo
of his calling. And that is he's about to be
crucified and in the heart of the Son is the joy that God will
be glorified in Him and therefore glorify the Son and the Father. Thus we have in this second point
the unity of the Father and the Son in the glory of the Father. What? Through the Son. The unity
of the Father and the Son. Isn't that comforting? Why? Because we are sons of God as
well. And we are one with God the Father through God the Son.
Are we not? Is that true? Okay, before I go to my next
point, are you comforted by your union with God? Does that comfort
you that you are brought into union with God the Father through
God the Son? And all of the implications of
union with Christ, do you understand the blessed, blessed privilege
of being a child of God? That ought to bring a great deal
of comfort to your soul, union with Christ. And it goes on to
say, The unity of the Father and the Son in the glory of the
Father through the Son. Does that apply to us? Is God
the Father glorified through his children? Of course he is. And that ought to be our delight
as well, shouldn't it? that the fact that I have union
with God, the father through God, the son, and in the same
way in which God, the son glorifies God, the father, I being a son
of God, a daughter of God, want to be able to glorify God, the
father. And in fact, I am guaranteed to glorify the father because
I'm a son. See what I'm getting at? All
I need to do is be who I am and I will glorify the father. All
I need to do is be who I am and I will glorify the father. Theologically
though that means that as a son, I'm called to suffering you got
that go back to acts Let's keep moving got about 30 minutes So
what the Apostle Peter and the Apostle John are getting ready
to do is explain to their Jewish brethren the joy of the Lord
Jesus Christ at the right hand of God the Father and As God,
the father glorifies the son for having accomplished eternal
redemption for the people. But as we've been going through
the book of acts, one of the things that you and I also are
learning is that the apostles are laying the foundation of
Christ should have crucified in order to establish a whole
new church. And that means indicting the
rulers for their crime of crucifying Christ. Every time they preach,
they're going to say, you crucify and kill the Lord of glory. This
is going to indict the Jews, but it's going to be necessary.
Watch out. Peter appeals to them to embrace this reality. Verse
14, verse 13 and 14, a lot of part of verse 13, whom you denied
and delivered up and denied him whom you delivered up and denied
him in the presence of pilot when he was determined to let
him go. Does Peter sound like he was there? See what we're
talking about is the historical event where in Christ was judged
by Pontius Pilate in the presence of the Jewish people when Pontius
Pilate wanted to let him go. Do you guys remember Pontius
Pilate said three times? I find no fault with this man. This is a righteous man. I don't
know why you guys want to crucify him. I find no fault with him. And what Peter is saying is the
Roman rulers by right of adjudication and examination found Christ
innocent of all the crimes of which you allege. And you still
wanted to kill him. These are indicting words. Indicting
words, verse 14, but you denied the Holy One. Ah, you see what
he's doing? The Holy Spirit, in the life
of the Apostle, is taking the Jews through the Old Testament,
particularly through the book of Isaiah, and saying, Jesus
is the Holy One. You know, that's the terminology
Isaiah used a lot. The Holy One of Israel. The Holy
One of Israel. The Holy One of Israel. Of which
the Jews lauded believing in, and looking for, and trusting,
and wanting, but you denied the Holy One. It's a device of language
that strengthens the indictment, the legal indictment against
the Jews. And the just one, and you desired a murderer to be
granted unto you. And our third point, the indictment
of the people and the rulers. So, who was the murderer that
they had desired instead of Jesus? Barabbas. Do you remember what
they said? Give us Barabbas. Luke 23, verse
17 and 18, give us Barabbas. So there are three points in
this particular point that I want to call your attention to. First
of all, the rejection of the truth. By the time the Jews crucified
Christ, they had three and a half years of being confronted with
the impeccable preacher, the flawless prophet, and the Messiah
that all the scriptures said would come. They had been confronted
with three and a half years of perfect love, perfect obedience,
perfect righteousness, perfect messages, a perfect person, a
perfect testimony. They were completely overwhelmed
with God's witness through his son, Jesus Christ. And what did
they do? They rejected that truth, didn't they? See, the term rejection
of the truth may seem to be a simplistic concept to you, but when we think
about it in terms of Jesus, This put many of the Jews on the border
of blasphemy of the Holy Ghost. Do you remember the account in
Matthew chapter 12 where Jesus had been in the midst of his
healing and the rulers had started saying he cast out devils by
Beelzebub? That's rejection of the truth.
It's rejection of the clear and explicit testimony of the power
of God working through the son of God to cast out devils affirming
that the kingdom of God was at hand. So people call me a lot
of times and they write me and they ask me the question. So
what does it mean to blaspheme the Holy Ghost? And I've said
publicly, you guys have heard me. It's something that is not
really easy to do. Now, don't let people tell you
that blasphemy of the Holy Ghost is something as simple as unbelief.
If that was the case, we all blaspheme the Holy Ghost and
no one could be saved. One of our sisters called in
the show two weeks ago. Well, I believe blasphemy of
the Holy Ghost is just simply unbelief. I said, wait a minute.
Unbelief, that's a sin for which Christ died to save me from. I'm born an unbeliever. By the
way, you may not know this, but you were too. Okay. And so unbelief is part of our
native fallen nature. Wherever there is faith lacking,
unbelief is present. Christ died for unbelief. So
now unbelief may be at the root of the idea of blasphemy of the
Holy Ghost, but blasphemy of the Holy Ghost requires a whole
lot more evidence than just simply incredulity. It requires you
having had all of your senses, your physical senses, your visual
senses, your hearing, your audio senses, you are being present
there while He performs miracle after miracle after miracle after
miracle. You hearing His preaching, His
teaching, you're being subject to so much of the testimony of
God in Christ that your conclusion that he is operating out of the
power of the devil has to be a power given to you by the devil
in order for you to be blinded by the evidence that could only
conclude that this is the Son of God. In other words, that's
a powerful working of the spirit of darkness to allow you to still
prevail in unbelief over all of that overwhelming evidence.
which by the way, all of that overwhelming evidence is, uh,
is unaccessible to us today. Are you hearing me? You and I don't have the privilege
of being able to say we know what Jesus looked like. We know
the cadence of his speech. We know his height. We know his
size. We know his mannerisms. We know, where he went. We know
what he did. We saw his facial expressions
when he healed Peter's mother. We saw how he dealt with the
layman, with the blind man, with the hawk and the withered. We
hung out with him. We heard his laughter. We heard
his sorrow. See, we're talking about evidence,
ladies and gentlemen, of the presence of the God-man among
us, right? You and I don't have that. That's why the Bible says,
blessed is he who hath not seen and yet believes. So the coming
of Christ into the world in His incarnation gave the world at
that time, particularly the world of Jewry, a level of witness
of which presently you and I do not have an opportunity to bear
record to. And hence, for our own purposes, it's very difficult
for us to be able to rise to the level of unbelief that would
merit the blasphemy of the Holy Ghost. You guys got that? And
I'm thankful for that. Be honest with you, I'm very
thankful for that. Because what if, what if child of God, what
if we could say that we were there when he lived and did ministry
and served and did all those things? What if we observed everything
that he did the way the apostles did and the way the Jews did
and way the Gentiles did. And then he leaves. And we are
still struggling with unbelief the way you and I are today.
Are you hearing me? The conflict in our conscience
would be greater today than it would because to whom much is
given, much is what? Are you hearing me? To whom much
is given, much is required. And this is where God lauds,
L-A-U-D, faith. in the Son of God, in the post-resurrection,
exalted, reigning in heaven, therefore not present down here,
faith that He gives you and I to trust Him on an everyday basis,
not having all of those external empirical evidence. Am I making
some sense? See, I used to hear my religious brother, they were
believers, I used to hear my brother talking about, well,
it's no different now than it was back then. I mean, faith
is faith. No, no, you're giving me a flatline interpretation
of faith. I don't accept that. Are you hearing me? No, no, no.
Faith is designed uniquely by the evidence that's furnished
for faith to be able to operate. So some faith is small. Some
faith is greater. It's all based upon the evidence
that nurtures that faith. Am I making some sense? And so
to whom much is given, much is required. I'm thankful, but I
am sure that if you and I were there and God didn't put his
hand on us, guess what we would have done. We would have rejected
the truth too. Secondly, they embrace falsehood, didn't they?
All throughout Christ's ministry, he explained the scriptures.
He soundly interpreted them. He drew their crystal centric
conclusion. He let everyone know that the
scriptures are testifying of him. John chapter five, verse
thirty nine. I want you to see five thirty
nine through forty three. That will be under the second
heading embracing falsehood. This will have application to
us to embracing falsehood. So what do we do as the professed
people of God, when we are confronted with the gospel in such a powerful
way as were the Jews. And you know how the gospel is.
The gospel actually explains the truth of scripture as it
points to Jesus Christ, and then exposes the falsehood of religious
interpretations that do not exalt God. Isn't that true? Let me
say this again because I get this with people frequently they
have been under false religion false teaching false doctrine
They didn't know anything else. All they knew was the era of
falsehood and they they knew something was not right. I but
they didn't know what it is, what it was. And then all of
a sudden they hear the truth of the gospel where the gospel
is comprehensively explaining biblical truth in a coherent
fashion, summing it up in the person and work of Jesus Christ.
And the lights are cut on and they go, I got it now. I know
what I was missing. I was missing Christ. And they
start feeling bad. They start going, man, I'm dumb. How could I have missed him all
those years? I've heard people say that a
lot. They come pastor, I'm 795 years old. I've been in the church
for 655. And how did I miss Christ all
these years? As if intellectualism is access
into revelation. I say, stop being sad. Cause we're all dummies. A revelation
of the truth is a gift from God and he gives it to whomsoever
he wills at the time that he does. But now if I don't catch
people at that stage of them feeling sad and sorry about how
slow we are, I catch them when they're mad, upset and ticked
off with the church. I'm mad at those preachers and
those teachers who did not point me to Christ and give me a clear,
solid exposition of it. And now they're on a campaign
to kill all the false prophets. If they don't repent, those false
prophets are going to hell and they're going to burn in the
lowest parts of hell anyway. Be sure of that. Be sure that
the lowest parts of hell are reserved for people who lie on
God. So get over your being mad. You got that? Get over your being
mad. God has a controversy with all false prophets himself. Your job is to be thankful that
your eyes were open to the glory of God in Christ before you breathe
your last breath. That's right. And so as we deal
with the scripture, notice what it says. He told the rulers,
you are searching the scriptures. See that phrase, search the scriptures.
It's in what we call the indicative verb form. It's not an imperative.
It's not a command. It's an indicative. It's a state
of being. You are searching the scriptures. Israel was very religious. They read the Tanakh all day,
all night. They wrote it on phylacteries.
They put it everywhere. They were very religious. In
them, you think you have eternal life. Now, that's an interesting
proposition because there are lots of folks who find their
security in the scriptures themselves. And that's where the error is
made. The scriptures themselves are a means to an end. Whoa. So you got in our evangelical
church folks who are what we call bibliologists, bibliologists,
idolaters of the scripture. Whoa, that's cold. Is that cold? People who idolatries
the Bible. You can idolatries the book by
falling short of worshipping the true and the living God by
means of the revelation that comes through the book and worshipping
the book, worshipping doctrines and worshipping teachings in
the book rather than worshipping the God to whom the scriptures
point. Oh, think about it for a moment. Think about it for a moment.
So Israel had fallen prey to preserving the scriptures, writing
the scriptures, watching over the scriptures, stewarding the
scriptures, but not understanding that the scriptures are a light
to lead them somewhere else, a signpost to take them somewhere
else, a prophecy to lead them somewhere else, and they worship
the scriptures and miss the author. You got that? So when the author
showed up, they failed to see the author because they were
blinded to the message in the scriptures. Are you guys hearing
me? It doesn't matter how big your
Bible is. You can carry a big Bible and be a big ignorant dummy. You can carry a little Bible
and be a little ignorant dummy. It's not the size of the Bible.
It's the efficacy of the truth of the scriptures that leads
you to the source of life, which is God himself and the person
of Christ. You guys got that? It's not the
size of your Bible. You can have 120 font if you're
that blind. You got this room and you show
for, come on, I want to show you 120 font on your big screen,
on your wall, Bible verses. And fail to realize that the
Bible is meant to lead you to Christ. So Timothy was told in
first Timothy chapter three, around verse 15, Timothy, from
a child, you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to
make you wise unto salvation through Jesus Christ, your Lord.
Got that? How many of you grown up in the
church and remember your parents and this, they should have did
this, I did this. I taught my children Bible verses from the
time they could go dada and mama. They quoting Bible verses. You
understand that? I'm teaching them whole Psalms.
You have to, they have to sit up and learn all of Psalm 119,
quote it back. And then I had to quote it back
to them and learn Genesis chapter one, learn John chapter one,
the whole thing. And boy, we just, oh, look at
the kids. And listen, they're learning
it. Why not? They ain't got nothing else in
their brain. Stay with me for a moment. What a blessing. You
know, this is the reason why you teach it when they're young,
because you need to know that when you get older, you end up
giving your brain over to so much folly and fodder that there's
very little room for the word of God. This is part of our struggle
as grown folk. All I need is one witness. So
don't pretend that I'm being abusive because I'm taking my
children and teaching them to think scripture. No, I'm teaching
them the word of God because the Bible says teach it to them.
And I'm amazed that they could remember the scriptures. I go
to work all day long, come home half tired, and they start tugging
on me. Daddy, Daddy, you know what time
it is? Okay. Time to read the scriptures,
time to meditate, time to recite Bible verses. And they're reciting
them accurately because they got it from me. And I'm going,
man, look at how much these children can absorb biblical truth. By
the way, you need to do that with your kids. because when
they reach a certain age and they get involved in other academic
disciplines and social disciplines, they're not going to have the
time to study the Word of God. Are you hearing me? It will already
have been in them and they will have to wrestle with the witness
of Scripture given to them by memorization because of the obedience
of parents who raised them up in the Word of God. Every now
and then my kids would gather together with me and my wife
on our on days we're celebrating and talk about how I tortured
them with Bible verse memorization. Oh, do you remember dad keeping
us up till 11 o'clock at night, memorizing Bible verses? I say,
yeah, but aren't you saved now? Yeah, but still, you know. It's a tension, isn't it? What
I'm saying is the tension. I shared that with you so that
you wouldn't go out of here saying, Pastor Jesse has a low view of
scripture. Nothing could be further from the truth. You can't listen
to me teach and preach and say that I have a low view of the
scriptures. What I don't have is a wrong view of the scriptures. I understand that the scriptures
lead me to a person. And that's where the life is.
Are you guys following me? So that the objective for studying
and learning is that it might lead us to Christ. Search the
scriptures, which is what you're doing, but in them you think
you have eternal life, and they are they which testify... By
the way, let me say something about that second clause again,
in the Hebrew culture and the Jewish culture. If you go back
and read Jewish writings, if you read the Halakha or the Haggadah,
if you read the Jewish writings, if you read their midrashes,
if you read their expositions, you know what they laud? The
law of God. They laud the Word. You know,
everywhere they give interpretations to the scriptures where we say
this is pointing to Christ. You know what they say? This
is pointing to the law of God. Or it's pointing to Israel. They're
blinded by the letter, which is what Paul said kills. It's
the letter kills. It's the spirit that gives life.
And without the spirit taking the letter and pointing us to
Christ, who is the life, we're stuck in the letter. And when
you go to read their interpretations, you go, uh-uh, they missed it.
They totally miss Christ. Here's the reason why. Because
in the letter, they thought they had life. Am I making some sense? Last line. And they are they
which testify of me. That's the key to biblical interpretation,
which the evangelical church still misses today. The plum
line that must be dropped every time you listen to a preacher.
The plum line that must be dropped is this. Is he, did he preach
Christ? If you don't drop that plumb
line, you don't know what true worship is about. Are you guys
hearing me? That's the objective for all
true worship and exaltation of the son that the father might
be glorified through him by the spirit of God in the life of
God's people. If you don't ask the question,
did they preach Christ? You're missing the whole point.
So let's go back to our text. Oh, I'm sorry. Verse 40. Verse
40. Listen to what Jesus did. And
you will not come to me. Do you see that? That you might
have what? Oh, what an indictment. Watch
this. They came to the scriptures.
They read the scriptures. They embraced the scriptures.
They protected the scriptures. They preserved the scriptures.
but because of a flawed understanding of the aim of scripture, they
rejected Christ. You will not come to me that
you might have life. Verse 41. I received not honor for men,
verse 42, but I know you. Oh, that you have not the love
of God in you. That's amazing. because the Jewish
people would equate their fervor and passion for the scriptures
as equal to loving God. Got that? The Jewish people would
have equated their fervor and passion for the scriptures as
equal as loving God. In John chapter 7, when the Pharisees
were arguing about whether or not Jesus was Messiah, Nicodemus
came to them and said, doth not our law say that we are not to
judge a man before we hear him out? And they said, are you one
of his disciples? These people who do not know
the law are cursed. Do you guys remember that? These? No, you don't. You don't remember.
Go back there. You might as well get it. John
chapter seven. See it for yourself. Now I want
you to see the point that Jesus is making as he explains the
difference between a proper understanding of the purpose of the law and that which the Jewish people
had. Listen to what they say over in verse 47, verse 46. I'm
sorry, verse 40. Then answered the Pharisees,
are you also deceived? Because they had come to the
soldiers and told the soldiers to take Jesus. And the soldiers
said, man, how can we take this man? Have you heard him preach?
Verse 48. Have any of the rulers of the
Pharisees believed on him? Now here's the litmus test of
orthodoxy. Whether the Pharisees believed
on him, right? You guys got that? Listen to what it goes on to
say. But this people, this people who know not the law are what?
So now what the Pharisees say is, if you don't know the scriptures,
you're cursed. I.E. if you know the scriptures,
you're what? Blast. See, they're making the
scriptures equivalent to Christ. When the blessing comes in knowing
Christ. Not just the scriptures. A man
can know the scriptures and not know Christ. And he or she, and
they are still cursed. Is that true? See, our curse
is not removed by how much scripture we know. Our curse is removed
by us knowing Christ who bore the curse for us. Are you guys
following me? So, at this present time, I'm
exercising your senses around a proper perspective on the scriptures. And it's critical, isn't it?
Listen to what they say. These people, not knowing the
law, are cursed. Nicodemus said unto them, he
that came to Jesus by night being one of them, Doth our law judge
any man before it hear him, and know what he does? And they answered
and said unto him, Art thou also of Galilee? Search and look,
for out of Galilee arises, know what? Were they telling the truth? No. Now this is what we call
a radically flawed assumption on the part of the present authority
that was in Israel. They were talking like they knew
the scriptures. They were talking like they had
a proper understanding of the word of God. And they were so
confident that the Galileans, now you guys, we already learned
about the Galileans. They were the very ones that
God chose to break open the whole New Testament ministry in Acts
chapter two, right? But in the eyes of these Pharisees
who were stewards of the law, the Galileans were cursed people.
My, how radically different the perspective of the legalists
were from God. You see the difference? See,
Jesus stood between God and false religion to let false religion
know the only way to God was through him and not merely through
the book. This is the tension that's going
all the way through Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. You got
the scriptures, but that's not enough. You need to have the
author of the scriptures. Go back to our text. We got five
more minutes. So as Peter indicts them for
what was a litany of evidence against them over against the
clear testimony of Messiah, which we've been talking now for the
last 20, 30 minutes, they had rejected the truth.
They had embraced falsehood and that killed the Prince killing
the Prince. What Paul said in first Corinthians
chapter two, seven and eight, 1 Thessalonians 2, 14 and 16.
We've quoted these verses many times. For had they known, they
would not have killed the Prince of Glory. Had they known what? Had they known the mysteries
of God? Had they understood the Old Testament in a proper way?
Had God revealed to them in the Old Testament how Messiah would
function? How he would operate? What his
true methodology would be? By the way, as we get ready to
deal with this fourth point, I will say this. A proper perspective
on the ministry of Christ when he came here was this. There
were some people who saw him for who he was and the others
missed him. You guys hear what I'm saying?
There were, in other words, as we think about how Israel almost
wholesale rejected Christ because they were blinded to his glory,
We must not fail to realize that there were a handful of people
all through Christ's ministry who saw him for who he was. Mary,
his mother, Mary Magdalene, the other Mary, the disciples, the
women who followed him, and a handful of other people whom God opened
their eyes to see Jesus for who he was. By the way, going back
to his birth, Simeon, the high priest, Hannah the prophetess
and many others who were waiting for the consolation of Israel
saw Messiah for who he was. The people that did not see him
for who he was were blinded by the presuppositions and erroneous
teachings of the Pharisees and they were blinded by the consensus
of the culture and they were hindered from commitment to Christ
because they were afraid of the consequences. The miracles that
he did They all have the rule. Messiah will do these kind of
miracles. Remember the argument? Will there be another come along
who does the miracles that this man has done? Remember, that
was the controversy among the people. Who's going to do more
miracles than this? Is this not the Christ? What
I'm saying is this. As we go through the book of
Acts, the judgment is in. There were those who believed
on him. Only it wasn't the upper echelon. It was a handful of
the common folk whom he in his sovereign mercy gave a revelation
of the truth of Christ to them. By the way, that's how it is
for us today. Please listen carefully to this.
The only reason you see Jesus for who he is is because God
has revealed him to you. You don't see Jesus because you
are smarter or brighter than anyone else. You don't comprehend
him in his glory. You don't see him in the uniqueness
of his deity. You don't understand Him in the
fullness and efficacy of His work except the Spirit of God
has chosen to cause the light to shine out of darkness and
shine in your heart to give you the light of the knowledge of
the glory of God. in the face of Jesus Christ.
Stay with me on this point for a moment because I want to make
sure you get this because I think sometimes we fail to understand
this rich commodity even among us who are Christians who have
a real sound theological environment. You run across people who seem
to be deaf and dumb to the truth of the gospel. It's only one
thing that's different between them and you and that's grace. Do you understand that? It's
only one thing that's different between you and them. And that's
the grace of God. It's only grace that remove that
veil. So you saw Jesus Christ in his
beauty and his glory, only grace, only grace. And it wasn't accidental
grace. It was sovereign grace. He chose
you for that. which is designed to keep us
humble and thankful, but also confident and bold to let men
and women know that salvation is of the Lord. This is why we
are jealous of the gospel here. This is why we don't play with
false religion here. This is why we don't compromise
here, because we understand the privilege of God opening our
eyes to the truth. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? The privilege, listen, if you ever been anywhere around
the world, It is a small commodity of people who see Christ in the
truth. Most people are blinded by their
religious affiliations and do not see Him in the beauty and
fullness and efficacy of His Messiahship as the Scriptures
say. You can go anywhere and you will find only a small handful
of people, if that, who are interested in our Savior like you are. Are
you hearing me? This is so very important for
you to know. So very important for you to
know most people miss him just as Israel did. Let's go to our
last point. I want to close out here. Act
chapter three. There's two points here, but I want to close out.
I'm going to, I'm just going to run through these briefly because they're
very observable and they're glorious too, but they're very observable.
So when Peter gives the indictment against them, and he says in
verse 15, and you killed the prince of life whom God hath
raised from the dead, where of we are witnesses. See, what are
they witnesses to? The bodily resurrection of Christ,
right? See, they have to reinforce that
because that's the capstone and foundation for the New Testament
church. It's the resurrection, the bodily
resurrection of Christ. Paul made it very clear in his
lengthy syllogism in first Corinthians 15. If Christ did not rise from
the dead, our faith is in vain. By the way, do you believe that? You know what amazes me? And
I've been studying religion for a long time. The hypocrisy in
the evangelical church pretending to actually believe the Bible
and yet deny these cardinal truths. When you meet with the upper
echelon, I'm talking about these folks who are rushing to get
their PhDs in theology, their masters of divinity and other
accomplishments in religion. Watch this. The vast majority
of them do not believe these here assertions. They don't see
the radical implication of a denial of the actual bodily resurrection
of Jesus Christ to their own faith. They are willing to, in
a kind of blinded philosophy, to embrace the idea that we can
take up Christianity as kind of a religious sort of panacea
and we can use all of the biblical terminology and yet not actually
believe that Christ rose from the dead bodily. We don't believe
in that stuff. There's no empirical evidence
that that ever happened. See, these are the blinded people
that basically lead our churches today. I'm here to tell you. So now, when I hear one of these
theologians and scholars say, well, you know, it's debatable
that he actually rose again from the dead. I know that I'm dealing
with an ignorant person. Ignorant. And he's just, he's
not only ignorant of theology, which requires the power of the
spirit of God to bring you into the realm of those realities.
He's ignorant of basic logic. And he's telling me to be a fool.
just because he has a degree. It makes no sense for you to
occupy an office of theology and you don't believe the source
of our theology. It makes no sense other than
the fact that you want to continue to hoodwink people in the hypocrisy
of playing church when in fact you do not believe in the cardinal
doctrines that make up the church. And now you have created scandal
because you have now utterly disregarded all the people who
have suffered for the testimony of Christ throughout church history.
Up to this point, died for the gospel. Watch this, ladies and
gentlemen, and still dying for the gospel all around the world.
And you're going to sit up in your pompous, arrogant, Assumption
because you've been learned you study comparative religion and
you studied this and study that and you concluded that this can't
be true you fool You fool We must understand how critical
the bodily resurrection is to the whole testimony of scripture
for the moment you deny one part of it you must necessarily deny
the whole thing and You must deny the whole thing. This is
why liberal progressive theology ultimately leads to atheism. We know that. It's just a matter
of time before you abandon the exclusivity of the gospel, embrace
ecumenism. Now you've got all kind of wild
religions that you are in cahoots with because you don't believe
anything. Am I telling the truth? Because you don't believe anything. You've got to embrace everything
when you don't believe anything. It is very important for us to
understand the gospel and these critical claims. So here's the
promise that Peter makes. I'm going to run through these
quick and then we'll take it up next week. Here's the glorious
promises of the gospel. Here's what Peter says. You killed
him. God raised him from the dead. We're witnesses. We have
40 days with him. He ate with us. He drank with
us. 40 days incontrovertible evidence. We know we weren't
fools. And by the way, he did it with 500 brethren. That'll
work in any court. You guys got that? That'll work
in any courtroom in the world. Then he goes on to say, and this
man was healed through his name. And his name through faith in
his name hath made this man strong whom you see and know. Yea, the
faith which is by him, hath given him this perfect soundness in
the presence of you all. Break verse 16 down, is faith
in Christ's name, is faith by Christ because faith comes from
him, that God decided to use to bring this man to a completely
physically whole and sound state of being. Peter attributes that
to Christ. And now brethren, I know, that's
what the word what means, I know that through ignorance you did
it. Do you see that? As did also your rulers. But
those things which God had showed by the mouth of all of his prophets
that Christ should suffer, he has so fulfilled. 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. What
I'm going to do is stop right here. I'm already compelled to
do that. Cause what I want to come back and do next week is talk
about the blessed, blessed, blessed gift of ignorance. Okay. Now I knew, I know, I know
you thought ignorance was a curse, but I'm just going to say this
in clothes. There are certain kinds of ignorances. Are you
listening to me that are uniquely gifts of God to his elect. I want you to hear me now. There
are certain ignorances that God before the world began reserved
for his knucklehead sheep. Are you hearing me? By which
in their conscience, they can honestly say, are you ready?
I did not know. It is a blessed gift of stopping
us short of eternal damnation based upon certain knowledge
of which if we had it, when we acted in rebellion against God,
it would have forfeited our capacity to have received the blessed,
blessed, blessed gift of forgiveness. We'll develop that next week.
Let's close in prayer. Father, thank you for this time. Thank
you for the study. Thank you for the saints that came out
tonight. Give them traveling mercies as we go our way. Grant
us grace to rest and prepare to worship you on Sunday, we
pray. In Jesus' name, amen.