Acts chapter one, if you will,
we should be working from our last week's outline. It should
be part four, the obedience of a waiting church. I'm gonna try to close out Acts
chapter one tonight with the last four or five verses in front
of us. So we are at the point in our
outline where the apostle Peter, after some time has decided to
stand up and make an announcement. And if you have your outline
under the obedience of a waiting church, we dealt last week with
the unity of purpose, the unity of purpose. And that is to say
that in order for there to be unity in any situation with any
institution, with any group of people, you have to have a purpose. You cannot be unified without
a purpose. Purpose is always the premise
and the substratum for unity. And so the Lord calls us in first
Corinthians chapter one, He calls us in Philippians chapter two. He calls us in virtually every
epistle to walk in unity. In fact, if you will notice what
he says in first Corinthians chapter one, briefly before we
go back in first Corinthians chapter one, he tells us in verse
10. Now I beseech you brethren by
the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing
and that there'd be no divisions among you, but that you'd be
perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same
judgment. Then the apostle Paul says the
same thing over in Ephesians chapter four. You can look there
briefly. We'll sum it up here. In Ephesians
chapter four, he opens up the fourth chapter as he deals with
the unity of the body in its organic nature He says in verses
one through verse five, verse six actually, therefore the prisoner
of the Lord beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation
wherewith you are called with all lowliness and meekness with
long suffering for bearing one another in love, endeavoring
to keep the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace. Verse
three is inciting this statement that unity in the body is actually
a function of the spirit of God. So this concept, the unity of
the spirit, means that the spirit himself supervises the unity
and the peace and the oneness of the people of God. That human
effort to produce unity in the context of the kingdom of God
is actually impossible. Human effort to produce unity
in the context of the kingdom of God is actually impossible.
The one thing that you and I know is that in every sphere of life
where the flesh is dominant, unity does not occur. Disunity
is the natural consequence of flesh dominion. And even with
the remaining sin in the life of the believer, without the
spirit of God umpiring, negotiating, hedging us in, disciplining us,
instructing us in the necessity and virtue of unity, it won't
happen. So he says to endeavor to keep the unity, not produce
it, not make it, but to keep it. Unity in the church of Christ
is based upon Jesus Christ. And from Christ on down in his
mediatorial work to the church, do we come to understand and
walk in unity where we make Christ our highest priority. And of
course, if you're doing that, That means the spirit of God
is working in your life. And so he goes on to say, there's
one body, one spirit, even as you are called in one hope of
your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and father
of all who is above all through all and in all the verses four
through six is an argument for verse three verses four through
six is an argument for verse three, because the verses four
through six gives us the nature of the church's existence, the
purpose for its existence. Paul is giving us a view of the
ideal body of Christ. One body, one spirit, one Lord,
one faith, one calling, one baptism, one God and father of all who
is above all and through all and in you all. And if we were
dealing with this from a comprehensive ontological level, what you would
see is that the point of unity begins with God the father. And
then it flows from God, the father, through God, the son, by virtue
of the spirit into the body, which is the church. So the unity
of the people of God has its origin in him who is the first
cause of everything. That's the conceptual idea that
the apostle Paul is making here, that we only have our unity of
body by virtue of the work of the spirit of God, calling us
into the gospel, which is understood in verse five and six as one
Lord, one faith, one baptism. and that one Lord, one faith,
one baptism is God's instrumental means by which we come to know
Him as God the Father in verse six. So we have every reason
to pursue biblical unity in order that God might be glorified.
So go with me back to our text and let's see if we can do a
little bit of work in Acts chapter one and close out the verses
that are before us in verses 15 and following. What we learned
is that they tarried according to God's will and purpose. The
Lord Jesus told the disciples to wait in Jerusalem until the
Spirit would come. That's a positive command to
wait. It really is in the original
language, do not leave. That's a negative command, do
not leave. And the implications are that
if you do leave, you will fail to experience what God plans
on doing at Jerusalem for a very important purpose. And so they
remain at Jerusalem because Jerusalem will be the place where the Spirit
of God will fulfill all of the Old Testament ascotological prophecies
concerning Jesus Christ. So they wait, they tarry, verse
14. And then verse 15 tells us, and in those days Peter stood
up in the midst of the disciples and said, now we have what is
called a parenthetical. The number of the names together
were about 120. So in your outline, we have points
number one, unity of purpose, points number two, patience in
the process. You and I know that this was
a 10 day period, although the disciples didn't know how long
it was gonna be. They didn't know that from Passover to Pentecost,
the Lord would be working to fulfill all of those Old Testament
Levitical promises. So they're waiting. They're waiting
in the process of their waiting. You might want to mark this that
several things are true. And that is this 10 day period
wasn't like a shut in what people do long ago when they prayed
all night and prayed all day. This is the old school church.
The idea that the disciples were in one place for 10 days is would
not follow. They left, went home. went to
bed, did what they were supposed to do, and they came back every
day. In other words, it was a daily practice to convene at this one
place. And in fact, you might mark that
the number 120 means that they had a good crowd. That's even
more than the number we have here today. And so a small room
would not have capacitated them. They would have needed a larger
place. So it was much like a church assembly in which they were gathering.
And so they would gather in the morning, under Jewish law, they
had prayer in the morning at noon and then the evening prayer.
So they would have continued that pattern because there was
no reason to break it since they were in Jerusalem. And you see
this in further chapters in the book of Acts, where Peter went
to morning prayer and so did others. So their pattern was
not that they were just waiting, And they were waiting and waiting.
No, they were coming and going. It was their manner to do this.
They were fellowshipping. They were praying. They were
singing hymns and songs. They were worshipping. And in
the midst of this gathering together, Peter stands up. And this is
where we are in our outline. He stands up. Point number three
in your outline. Let me just mark this by the
way. A combined gender attendance is something new here. You notice
what it says in verse 11. These all continued with one
accord in prayer and in supplication with the women and Mary, the
mother of Jesus and with his brethren. Now, Luke under inspiration
of the spirit is calling our attention to this because in
Jewish culture, the men were separated from the women separated. But you'll notice what's happening
with the apostles and with the women. The apostles are now taking
up where our master left off at. Remember, this is simply
an extension of the work of Jesus Christ, Christ's ministry. was
constantly attended by women who not only supported him financially,
but in every other way as well. So what we are seeing in this
tearing for the 10 days that the disciples are engaged in
is a carrying over of the practice of Christ. And I've shared with
you before that even though Christ came to accomplish all of the
Old Testament regulations and standards and requirements, by
which he would become mediator of our salvation, he actually
operated frequently out of New Testament paradigms in that Old
Testament context. This is what causes disciples
to struggle over and over and over again. Why would a master
of Israel, why would a rabbi hang out with Gentiles? Why would
a rabbi allow women to be in his number? Why would a rabbi
go to areas and towns that were notorious in nature? And so the
disciples are constantly struggling with, what are you doing master?
And I've told you that one of the first parables that he gave
the disciples that he said, if you understand this parable,
then you'll understand what's going on. And he gave the parable
of the wine and the wine skins. You guys remember that is earlier
in the gospel of Mark. He says, if you understand this
parable, then you'll understand all things that are going on
with reference to the kingdom of God. And he says, you cannot
put new wine where in old wine skins. And the disciples would
have clearly understood that metaphor, the country of Palestine
being filled with grape vines, wine was a major commerce for
them. And they understood that you're
talking about a calamity, a tragedy of taking new wine, which needs
to expand in old wine skins that are through expanding, it would
burst those old wine skins. And so what he was saying to
the disciples is this, you guys are actually engaging in New
Testament ministry even though we are in an Old Testament construct.
The Old Testament construct was very confined because God had
a certain purpose with that very rigorous, strict system of Judaism,
which separated the men from the women, separated the priesthood
from the laity, separated the upper echelon from the lower
echelon. There were lots of separations in the Old Testament system.
And the rulers, particularly the Pharisees, would never be
found in the marketplace with the Gentiles rubbing shoulders.
That would have been for them an abominable thing to be in
the midst of Gentiles. They would have never gone to
Gentile homes. They would have certainly never
ate with Gentiles. And according to Luke 15, Jesus
did it all the time. Luke chapter 15 verse 1, he eats
and drinks with publicans and sinners. It's in what we call
the present indicative verb form. It was a continual process with
Christ, which means he broke all of the Jewish taboos and
protocols around separation because he was actually bringing in New
Testament ministry in an Old Testament context. Besides, he
had some disciples with whom he had to teach this pattern
so that when he left, they would take that pattern up naturally.
So our Lord's departure leaves the disciples with this practice
as well, the men, women, and the children. And what I have
is combined gender attendance, male and female. And the two
texts I want you to regard with this, you can start at Galatians
3.28, and then we'll back up to Peter's explanation in Acts
chapter two. But in Galatians 3.28, this is
what is said, And this here is a passage of scripture that defines
the equality of the believer in relationship to Jesus Christ. The equality of the believer
in relationship to Jesus Christ. So we start at verse 26, for
you are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. You
guys see that? The context would tell you then
that we are dealing with soteriology. The issue of salvation. We are
not dealing with ecclesiology. The issue of church, order, structure,
government. You are all the children of God
by faith in Jesus Christ. For as many of you as have been
baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew
nor Greek nor neither bond nor free. There is neither male nor
female for you are all what? One in Jesus Christ. All right. So then you understand that what
the passage is teaching here is equality of relations, not
an obliteration of distinctions. An equality of relations is being
established here. based upon our unity in Jesus
Christ, where we are all one in the sense that we are brothers
and sisters in Christ. It is not obliterating gender
distinctions, role distinctions, familial distinctions, sociological
distinctions. It's not obliterating that. Logic
would say, if there's neither male nor female, bond nor free,
Jew nor Greek, then what are we? You guys got that? What would we be? if we're none
of that anymore. And this is where logic must
play a major role in thinking things through. When people draw
conclusions out of texts of scripture, like, you know, it doesn't, we're
no longer under the old Testament. Therefore, we don't need to observe
the rules that make a radical distinction between male and
female. You violate that law, which is a law of nature. And
you're asking for the chaos that will destroy the whole world,
which is where we're headed. You guys know that, right? And
so this is not what the church is teaching. Although there is
what we call an eschatological promise in verse 28, that we'll
have full realization when we enter into glory for in glory,
we shall be like the angels, neither marrying nor given in
marriage, but we will be in a permanent state of celestial glory and
be brothers and sisters in Christ, but on a higher level than this,
uh, first nature situation in which you and I are living now.
I'm not even sure how we would categorize gender since gender
won't play a role in eternity in terms of propagation. You
guys got that? Gender plays a role in terms of propagation. Just
fascinating. I'm almost by virtue of the circumstances
that are prevailing in our culture being driven by a sort of centrifugal
force to want to go and start talking about the folly of thinking
you and I have the prerogative of changing our gender. And where
are we going to go next after that? When once we think we can
determine our gender by how we feel versus gender being in an
absolute principle, biological in nature, right? So it's really
a fascinating thing with that whole argument and that whole
conversation that's going on in the world where they are playing
with DNA, they're playing with the gene pool, they're playing
with gender. This here is called social Darwinism. This is all this is, social Darwinism. The people that are powerful
enough to actually transform culture are now transforming
culture because people are subjecting themselves to the proposition
by which they can be transformed. In other words, when you and
I are not rooted in biblical truth and we're not thinking
God's thoughts after him, another power greater than us will actually
define who we are and reshape culture and we won't have anything
to do about it. This is why an absence of biblical
truth in a culture leads that culture into hell. You guys know
that, right? The psalmist says, the nations that forget God will
be turned into hell. And that's where we're headed
today because we think we're smarter than God. But I'm simply
sharing this text, which was because in the book of Acts,
go back to Acts chapter two. Now, the apostle Peter is going
to be compelled to explain what's going on when we get to chapter
two, maybe next week or the week after, hopefully next week. He's compelled to explain what's
going on with regards to the 120 speaking in the languages
of 15 nations that have come to Jerusalem for Pentecost. And we read over in verse 16
and 17, but this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel
and it shall come to pass in the last day said God, I will
pour out my spirit upon all flesh and your sons and your daughters
shall what? And of course, that's what they
were all doing on that day when the Spirit of God was poured
out on them. And they spoke in the various language dialectos
of the different ethnic groups that were at Jerusalem. And they
all heard them each speak in their own languages, the wonderful
works of God, right? Really all they were doing in
the language of prophecy was preaching Christ. in every dialect
of those different nations that were there who had come to this
phenomena that was taking place, so which we won't develop. But
notice what the apostle Peter under inspiration of the spirit
is doing. He's saying, this is that time where in both men and
women will be prophesied. Young men and old men will be
dreaming dreams and seeing visions. And all my servants and all my
handmaids, I will pour out in those days of my spirit and they
shall what? prophesy. And so Peter is saying
this text is fulfilled in your eyes this day. And it would have
certainly been the case. Remarkable, isn't it? Peter,
the stumbling, bumbling fisherman, now is a theologian par excellence. He is able to rightly divide
the word, properly interpret it with a keen sense. That's
because the third person is present. Right. But now let's go back
because we've got some work to do. back in our account. So it's
remarkable that Luke would give us, in verse 15, the category
of people that were at Jerusalem. And the context would tell us
that either they were in the temple, in a special room of
the temple, or somewhere near the temple. And again, this will
be underscored in chapter 2, verse 1. Now let's go on to verse
16. Men and brethren This scripture
must needs have been fulfilled, which the Holy Ghost by the mouth
of David spoke before concerning Judas, which was guide to them
that took Jesus. This is interesting. I'm jumping
ahead because I've been really dealing with this work a lot.
I'll come back to point number four in a moment. It appears
that for Peter, a pressing issue has come upon them. He doesn't
know when this, uh, dynamic miracle will occur with a third person
will enter into their life, but he feels compelled. He feels
driven to want to address a problem that is presently among the leadership. And that is the absence of one
of the apostles. Now he feels compelled to have
to address it. And he uses scripture to appeal
as an argument. And I want you to see how you
can take a legitimate argument and yet use it as a premise for
a wrong method and then have a bad outcome. A legitimate argument,
a legitimate need done on a legitimate premise, but using a wrong method
will have a bad outcome. And this is what Peter is going
to discover and the rest of the apostles is going to discover,
but it's worth our examining. He says, over in verse 16, the
latter part, Judas, which was guide to them that took Jesus,
for he was numbered with us. See the emphasis? He was numbered
with us and had obtained part of this ministry. What's in the
mind of Peter? The apostleship. He's concerned
about the fact that there are 11 apostles, there should be
12. He's thinking that way because he understands the implications
of the new Jerusalem paradigm that they're getting ready to
operate in. He realizes that the principle of authority that
was established in the Old Testament would reflect the principle of
authority that's established in the New Testament, and there
must be a 12th person. He understood what Jesus did
when Jesus called the 12 up into a high mountain and ordained
them for ministry. He's driven in his mind to deal
with this for he was numbered with us and had obtained part
of this ministry. Now this man purchased a field
with the reward of iniquity and falling headlong, he burst asunder
in the mist and all his bowels gushed out. And it was known
unto all dwellers at Jerusalem in so much as that field is called
in their proper tongue, aseldama, that is to say the field of blood. For it is written in the book
of Psalms. Isn't this remarkable? He is
not only giving us a very accurate description of the authority
of the spirit of God as the primary author of scripture, as he says,
the Holy Ghost spoke to us through the mouth of David concerning
Judas. I mean, he's deriving his authority
for Judas's actions from the scriptures. And now he's going
to be very specific about the text from which he derived a
conclusion that this was a prophetic truth concerning this man a thousand
years before. So he says in verse 20, for it
is written in the book of Psalms, let his habitation be desolate
and let no man dwell therein and his bishopric let another
take. It's amazing. He saw all of that
referring to Judas Iscariot. I just want you to think about
that with me for a little bit. We're gonna unpack this. He was
right. He was right in what he saw.
There's no doubt about that. And I believe the spirit of God
was working with him to give him revelation. This is not surprising
with Peter because from time to time, Peter got it right,
didn't he? He didn't always get it right, but from time to time,
he got it right. And I'm actually very much enthused
by this insight into the text, because I think for us today,
if we were to take a passage of scripture and try to apply
it to a certain individual, we would be highly ridiculed. highly
ridiculed for ad hominem attacks, highly ridiculed for being politically
incorrect, and yet Peter is using a text of scripture suggesting
that this text is actually speaking to Judas Iscariot. Now, do you
know what text of scripture he's using? He's using Psalm 109 and
Psalm 68. And in fact, I've read over the
last couple of weeks, Psalm 109. We're not going to go to all
of Psalm 109, but if you were to read the whole of Psalm 109,
All of Psalm 109 is a curse. It's an absolute execration and
curse upon the person or people that betrayed the Lord Jesus
Christ. It is very messianic in nature. Go with me to Psalm
109. I want you to see this. In Psalm 109, very messianic
in nature. The Lord is speaking definitely
through this Psalm and we can see an illusion to Judas Iscariot,
although if we were honest, we can see this as an allusion to
the whole of national Israel, to the whole of the leadership,
to all of those who actually betrayed the Lord Jesus Christ,
not just Judas Iscariot. But Psalm 109 verse 8 is where
Peter uses the phraseology, let his days be few and let another
take his office. Do you guys see that? Let his
days be few." Well, that certainly did occur. Judas Iscariot was
a young man when he died. He died young. He had all of
the prospect for success. He had all of the potential to
live as old as John the Apostle did. He had everything going
for him with regards to the potential of having a legacy in the kingdom
of God and a ministry that would have been unrivaled in terms
of his apostolic calling. He had everything going for him. And yet this passage is true.
Let his days be few. What this causes you and I to
remember is what Solomon said in the Proverbs. He said it in
Ecclesiastes 11, I believe. He said, Don't be over-righteous,
lest you cut your life off too soon. Don't be over-wicked, lest
you destroy yourself as well. And so these extremes, over-righteous
is kind of a faint praise for zealousness, the kind of zealousness
that marked out Judas Iscariot because he was one of the zealots
that was seeking to overthrow Roman rule. And because Jesus
would not capitulate to his agenda, he found himself betraying our
Lord Jesus Christ. An over righteous person is just
as dangerous as an overtly wicked person. An over-righteous person
in some cases is even more dangerous than an overtly wicked person
because an over-righteous person is doing it under the auspices
of honoring God. This is what makes so dangerous
this new third world war that we are engaging in in the Middle
East that's designed and calculated to come here too. This is why
we can't extricate ourselves from being involved in it because
it's coming to America. It's already here in a lot of
forms and will break out at some point too. This new world war
which will justify a military state that will dominate Western
culture, if not the whole world. It's just a fascinating concept.
that they're trying to instigate this kind of conflict where people
are willing to destroy their lives, to destroy others in the
name of God. When you have as the highest
level of authority, God for the destruction of yourself and other
people, there is no remedy for that other than God himself.
You do understand that, right? Only God himself can change the
mind of a person who sits in a position where they feel as
if they have authority to destroy others in the name of God. Only
God can intervene in that kind of situation because that is
an ominous, ominous thing. Let his days be few and let another
take his office. This is where the apostle Peter
is drawing this from. Now back up to chapter 69, Psalm
69, and look at verses 22 through 26 with regards to to Judas Iscariot and the prophecy
that Peter is making here. We'll look at these verses and
then we will consider the application as we have them laid out in our
outline. Psalm 69, I'll read verses 22 through 26. And of
course, you know, this is messianic, both Psalms, right? Look at verse
21. They gave me also gall for my meat and in my thirst, they
gave me vinegar to drink, right? This is Christ speaking by the
spirit. of his crucifixion. Now he goes to verse 22. Here's
your curse. Let their table become a snare
before them. You notice he's speaking in the
plural form. Let their table become a snare.
That means it's not only Judas Iscariot, as we'll see here in
a moment, but everyone that is like Judas Iscariot. This is
a category of people, not just one individual. Let their table
become a snare before them and that which should have been for
their good, let it be a trap. Let their eye be darkened that
they see not, and make their loins continually to shake. Pour
out thine indignation upon them, and let thy wrathful anger take
hold of them. Here it is again. Let their habitation
be desolate, and let none dwell in their tents. Let their habitation
be desolate, and let none dwell in their tents. And here's the
reason why. For they persecute him whom thou hast smitten. Who is that? Christ. and they
talk to the grief of those whom thou hast wounded. Add iniquity
to their iniquity. Let them not come into thy righteousness.
Let them be blotted out of the book of the living and not be
written with the righteous." Horrible, horrible language.
That means that they will never be saved, that they are under
the permanent and eternal curse of God should God render this
prayer to be answered. And of course, it implies what
Jesus meant, go back to Acts chapter one, when he says, woe
unto the person by whom I am betrayed. It had been better
if he had not been born. And this is the ominous, ominous
fact concerning Judas Iscariot. And so we have to simply deal
with this. This is the the lessons of the apostate. We want to draw
these out now. First of all, the first thing
I would mark is that Judas lost his lot. You see that point a
Judas lost his lot and he lost his lot because of careless lust. He lost his lot because of careless
lust. I'm going to be able to make
the application here in a second. I'll demonstrate why. How does
one lose their lot. And I'm using this language carefully. Judas lost his lot. That means he had it. He had
his lot. And what was his lot? His apostleship. He actually had his apostleship. Now this apostleship here in
the New Testament, ladies and gentlemen, would correspond to
the division of land given to each tribe in the Old Testament.
Are you following me? The apostleship in the New Testament
given to the 12 apostles would correspond to the allotment of
land given to the 12 tribes in the Old Testament. This is why
you got to understand the old-new paradigm. This is a transition
from the old to the new. And in the Old Testament, Joshua
was commanded and he was told by God, in order for the children
of Israel to possess their inheritance, he had to cast lots. and they
were lots that were given. And the lot fell out to Judah
this way, and the lot fell out to Simeon this way, and the lot
fell out to Benjamin that way. You can read that very clearly
in the book of Joshua. So I'm actually using a double
entendre, which I'll get to in my last point, when I use the
term lot that had fallen out to him. I say that Judas Iscariot
lost his lot because of careless lust. And what do I mean by that?
I mean that like Esau, who sold his birthright for a bowl of
pottage because he was driven by his carnal greed. Judas Iscariot
wasn't driven by a carnal greed, he was driven by a national greed,
a desire to be prominent and to be part of a movement that
would destroy his foes, that is the Roman Empire, as they
perceived it, and somehow achieve for himself some great notoriety. Nothing is worse than being driven
by the grandiosity that you are someone so important that you're
willing to tear up the world in order for people to notice
you. There are megalomaniacs all over planet Earth like that.
These individuals themselves have what we have titled in psychology
a messianic complex. The idea that you are important
only if you do something big and significant. If one wanted
to back up and do much more of a analytical assessment of Judas
Iscariot. Sure, there were many in their
day that really wanted to be liberated from the bondage of
Roman rule, but their angst with the Roman government was really
an angst with God. Because as we have learned, there
is no authority that is not established by God. All authority comes from
God. And so the Christian has to hold
the tension between an ungodly system and a biblical agenda. an ungodly world system and a
biblical agenda. If we wanted to carry the parallels,
we could carry it with America. There's a lot of things wrong
with America. There's a lot of things wrong with our government.
There's a lot of things wrong with our policies. There are
tons of things that are wrong in our government that are unconstitutional
and unlawful and illegal. Anyone that would do just a small
amount of research would come to discover that we have a problem
in our country in terms of a usurpation and overthrow of our constitutional
principles. We are not operating on constitutional
principles in America. And one of the most clearly and
overt evidences of that is the fact that we will go to war with
countries unprovoked, having no direct interest with regards
to our own immediacy. That's unconstitutional. But we have a provision by which
the president can always exercise executive order when he feels
as if the interest of America succeeds or exceeds the constitutional
principles of what we call a just war theory and just violate that. And we've been doing that for
the last 40 or 50 years. And I've shared this with us
before. When you start to practice something, Over time, that practice
becomes what we call a precedent. And that precedent becomes itself
a law. And over time, we just accept
it as a law, even though it's not written in the books. And
even though that law may be diametrically opposed to the pre-established
laws that are set down in our constitution and our Federalist
Papers and all the other bylaws and rules by which our country
is supposed to be a lawfully abiding country. But because
we've been practicing this so long, we are essentially a lawless
nation as well. However, what is the Christian
going to do in that context? Get upset, take a position like
Judas Iscariot and start going to war against his government.
This is why God would give us a model like Judas Iscariot to
teach us that the kingdom of God that God's kingdom is not
of this world. And that the method by which
we overcome this world system is not taking up arms against
your government. Now, I'm being very simplistic
in general with that particular application, because there are
a number of distinct categories within the whole issue of just
wars, obeying God versus obeying man, the need to protect one's
family and protect one's rights. All of those things are to be
considered in this subject But what I am saying, it is a major,
major danger for an individual to take it upon himself to become
such a point of contention with his government, that in the name
of God, he is willing to oppose his government. I think that
the Islamic culture at this present time, personally, I think that
Islam is an experiment by the powers that be. for testing this
theory of how far can you drive a people group to be hostile
and destructive in the name of a religion before it can be stopped. I think that's a theory that
we are practicing over there before we bring it here, before
the powers that be intend to actually stop that practice,
put it into a kind of militant theism that would rise up as
it were and seek to oppose the government. That's my view. My
assumption is that that's the reason why this stuff continues
to prevail. It's all part of a larger experiment. In the Roman Empire, just as
a note, the Roman Empire was a very interesting system of
government. And I've told many of you before
that our government is really predicated upon the Roman Empire
Babylonian system. It has the same basic structure
of a Senate and a Congress and a Caesar that fights wars, that
expands the kingdom's glories around the world, brings the
wealth back, and perpetuates the infrastructure of its own
country. I believe that the Roman Empire was one of those empires
that had drawn from Alexander the Great who was a Greek ruler,
the idea of allowing multiple religions and multiple countries
to coexist under the supervision and authority of the Roman Empire
so that people had what was called relative religious freedoms and
relative freedoms in terms of their own regional laws and regional
governments so that you could have your own rulers, your own
judges, your own governors, your own kings like King Herod, the
great King Herod and Antipas and others. These were all what
would be called subservient leaders or rulers under the authority
of the Roman Empire. So the Roman Empire didn't just
come down on people with an iron fist, destroy their culture,
destroy their religion, destroy their worldview. They allowed
them to coexist with all these things. Only they maintained
enough power that when you violated Roman law, you had to answer
to that. And so Judas Iscariot didn't like that. That's the
system that you and I are under. That's the system that the gospel
is designed to operate in. So I'll say it like this before
we go on to unpack the examples and the lessons from Judas Iscariot
and this whole apostleship thing. God fully expects the Christian
to be able to work out his salvation and fear and trembling individually
and collectively as a church, the mission of the gospel to
seek and to save that which is lost in the context of secular
governments that diametrically oppose the gospel. God fully
expects the church to know how to negotiate the advancement
of the gospel in a world system whose governments diametrically
oppose biblical truth. Did you guys get that? So I'll
say it one more time for the record, that the gospel's objective
is to actually coexist with governmental systems that by their fundamental
premise and their whole theses being diametrically opposed to
biblical truth, that the gospel somehow is still to be able to
operate under those kinds of constraining and difficult situations. For us to assume that the gospel
can only prevail where the political system is in harmony with biblical
truth is for us to make the political system the foundation for our
success. And that would then make those
political systems the kingdom instead of the kingdom of God.
The kingdom of God being a whole set of constitutional principles
different than this earthly realm has the ability to actually allow
its citizens to operate in this other world dominion and realm
in a way in which we can be successful even though there is great antipathy
and antithesis of the secular system against the kingdom of
God. Am I making some sense? Now what I am saying bears itself
out in history. It bears itself out in scripture,
but it is not easy. So what I am saying, I am saying
under the auspices of being in a country that is relatively
harmless when it comes to the gospel at this present time.
If I were in parts of Europe, if I were in parts of Africa,
if I was in parts of China, if I were in parts of the Middle
East, obviously it would be very difficult for me to share this
kind of view in the context of opposition and persecution and
debt that's going on. I would have to be much more
sympathetic and thoughtful of how people are experiencing the
teeth and iron fist of a government that is opposing their existence
at that moment, like we are experiencing in the Middle East, of which
I would cover your prayers for them because they are indeed
being slaughtered by the multitudes and the media is saying nothing
about it. So in Judas Iscariot's mind, Judas would want to rise
up and oppose that before it came to that point. Y'all got
that? Judas Iscariot would want to marshal together an army of
fight and fight against a political kingdom to stop it from being
able to even have the potential for the kind of hazard that it
would wreak upon a people group if they didn't comply. You and
I don't want to follow that pattern for two reasons. Jesus says my
kingdom is not of this world. The second reason Because if
you live by the sword, you will die by the sword. That is an
axiom of truth that's inviolable. You cannot live by the sword
and not die by the sword. Kind begets kind all the time. And the nature of the gospel
in its quintessential sense is that God is able to overcome
evil with good. What that requires, however,
is a people of God so connected to God from a crystal centric
cross centered perspective that it would be willing under the
empowerment of the spirit of God to lay down its life for
change. Are you hearing me? That if the
people of God do not accept the basic presupposition that good
can overcome evil and that through laying down one's life Ultimately,
change will occur because God will work within the framework
of a sacrificial laying down of one's lives upon the conscience
of the people who at the moment being the oppressors. Eventually,
the oppressors will see the evil that's controlling them, driving
them to do what they did as the Roman Empire ultimately discovered
when the Christians simply submitted to the sword and to the flame
to fire and to all kinds of atrocities, eventually it wore them out. Their conscience was so pricked
with the heavy guilt of slaughtering innocent people that eventually
they turned away from the barbarism that occurred and embraced Christianity
as the alternative. And what I'm talking about, ladies
and gentlemen, is what is called the perilous pendulum of culture. Culture swings in certain directions. Like we're swinging towards hyper-paganism,
irrationalism, anti-intellectualism, which is a basic form of barbarism. We're opening the door for barbarism.
We're swinging that way. And we'll reach an apex. We'll
reach a threshold to which it will become evident to everybody,
and we'll be tired of it, and it'll start swinging back the
other way. But that won't happen real soon. It's going to take
some time for that to occur. As some of the other scholars
and philosophers have stated, we are going to have to go through
a severe, severe, severe crisis of judgment for a lengthy period
of time before our culture cries out for deliverance from the
whirlwind that it has reaped for its own sins. It's going
to take some time. Anyhow, let's work with this
a bit with regards to Judas Iscariot. He lost his lot because he was
careless in his lust. Secondly, he sold his inheritance. You guys see that? He sold his
inheritance as you and I know for what? 30 pieces of silver. He sold his inheritance. He went
and made a deal. In fact, the language in the
gospel of Matthew is that he made a covenant with the high
priest and the Sadducees to betray Jesus. He sold his inheritance. He gave it up very much like
Esau. He sold it. He sold it because
he did not comprehend the agenda of Jesus Christ as being the
king of the universe and dominating the world through a spiritual
dominion versus a carnal and physical dominion. He sold it.
He sold it because he was blinded. He sold it because he was deceived. Was Judas Iscariot deceived?
He sold it because he was deceived. So we're looking at these things
on a very psychological level because it's absolutely true.
Why would Judas Iscariot not hang in there and see the end
of this matter, like all the other disciples who saw the end
of the matter and were gloriously rewarded for their patience of
faith. Why would Judas Iscariot sell
out right at the apex of what Christ was doing? After all,
you and I know this, the Lord Jesus Christ had been telling
the disciples where they were going and what he would experience
and why he would experience it and what the consequence of his
death would result in, and that is the resurrection. He told
them over and over and over and over and over. In other words,
what I am saying is Judas Iscariot's resolve to sell out the gospel
for his own blind ambition was not in a vacuum of ignorance. It was in the face of enough
data to make him guilty of selling his inheritance, even though
he knew what it implied. It implied that if he had hung
in there and waited for that inheritance to actually come
to full value, he would be part of a whole new kingdom where
in his name would be written on the foundation of the new
Jerusalem for all eternity. He had an absolutely valuable
We would say invaluable inheritance of which he sold because he was
blind. And we would use that by way of analogy. People do
that today with the gospel. The gospel has within it, not
only the potential, but the promise of eternal life, absolute riches
and glory with Jesus Christ. And people sell that all the
time. People who grow up in church
receive the inheritance by virtue of family relations, get old
enough and through careless lust, and blind deception, abandon
the gospel. That's a dreadful thing. It's
a dreadful thing. Now notice what Peter says here. Let's work
a few things through here. He says in verse 17, for he was
numbered with us, obtained part of this ministry. Now this man
purchased a field with the reward of iniquity and falling head
down, head long, he burst asunder in the midst and all of his bowels
gushed out. Immediately you and I are drawn
upon what? A problem, right? because according
to Matthew's gospel, Judas did what? He hung himself, right? According to Matthew's gospel,
that he hung himself. So what do you do when one portion
of scripture tells us that Judas hung himself and then another
portion, this is Matthew 27 and 5, and then another portion of
scripture we have here in Acts chapter 1 says that he bought
a field and then He fell asunder in the midst thereof, and his
bowels gushed out. How do you actually reconcile
what appear to be two different accounts? How do you reconcile
them? Because the scriptures can't contradict themselves.
We can't have an event that appears to be in antithesis or opposite
of another event, and both of them coexist as truth, right?
Either he hung himself or somehow he had a tragic death in the
field that he purchased and his bowels burst open in that field
in some kind of mysterious way or what? He bought the field,
he hung himself in the field and in the field, the rope somehow
broke and he fell upon the rocks and his bowels gushed open. That's
how you reconcile that. There's just rational reason.
You guys understand that? Nothing illogical, nothing hard
about that. That's easy to take these two, what appear to be
distinctly different events and actually harmonize them by recognizing
he did buy the field. Secondly, if we were to kind
of continue to develop the exegetical, what I'll call problems of the
text, and say, well, he didn't buy the field because in Matthew
chapter 27, latter part, he came back and threw the money in the
changer. He said, hey, my conscience is vexing me. This is an innocent
man. I don't wanna have anything to
do with him. And he threw the money back down in front of the
rulers. But what did the rulers say?
We don't care about how you feel now after the fact. We made a
deal with you. This is blood money. This money
can't go back into the changer. as if somehow they were holy
now. So what do we surmise with, again, the implication that Judas
bought the field with the money when, in fact, the text says
he threw the money back to the rulers. The rulers bought the
field for him in his stead because it was his money and he bought
the field. Yeah, we can easily surmise that. We don't know how long a time
it was either before Judas Iscariot went out and killed himself.
Of course, the text said he went out and hung himself. But we
don't know how to put the chronological structure in place. But it's
not so contradictory that it can't be done. The rulers bought
the field. The field is where Judas kills
himself. Judas, at a certain point, was just given over to
hanging himself. His conscious had vexed him so
bad he had no capacity within himself to repent. This is an
awesome thought too. He had no capacity for repentance.
The idea of returning back to the disciples and figuring out
or discovering what the disciples would figure out was nowhere
in his being. He was so overwhelmed by grief
and this is where Paul would have spoken in 2 Corinthians
2. about, um, godly sorrow leads to repentance, but worldly sorrow
leads to death. The idea that he did not have
the grace to turn around and put it in reverse is worth marking
as well. One of the things that I discover
in ministry, uh, when people get in trouble spiritually and
they start retreating from a pattern of obedience that we know is
essential to a healthy walk with God and a productive life is
that they get stuck in that that backsliding pattern. I'm going
to talk about this a little on Sunday. And in that backsliding
pattern, they don't have a sense that putting it in reverse will
actually get them out of trouble. In a backsliding pattern, it
doesn't come to them to simply repent. to simply acknowledge
that they are wrong, to simply say, I'm going in the wrong direction. God, stop me, turn me around,
help me get back on the right course. In a backsliding state,
what you are doing in a backsliding state is you are living with
the guilt, daily making justification for not putting it in reverse.
You guys got that? And you can see this in the historic
books with the prophets as well. Jeremiah deals with the concept
of a backslider. So does the Proverbs. But Jeremiah
speaking to Israel said, you guys are in a backsliding state.
You are backing away from the covenant. You are leaving the
house. You are abandoning God like an adulterous woman in a
backslidden state. The idea is that if you stop,
you still have time for recovery. All backsliders do not recover.
All backsliders do not recover. Now a backslider will be one
or two kinds of people. They will be the individual who
is merely a professing Christian, like Judas Iscariot. Judas Iscariot
was not saved. He was not regenerate. He was
not born again. I am so thankful that I have
two explicit passages of scripture that underscore that for me in
the New Testament, because in our present day evangelical church,
they try to make everybody saved, even though God's wrath comes
on them. like Ananias, and Sapphirus, and Simon the sorcerer, and Saul,
King Saul of the Old Testament, and make everybody saved. Now,
if you make everybody saved, who are going to be the objects
and examples of God's wrath if everybody's saved? And if everybody's
saved and God's pouring out judgments on the saved in the same manner
he pours out judgments on the unsaved, where's the comfort
in that for the believer? Am I making some sense? It doesn't
make any sense for this particular generation that would assume
that just because people make a profession of faith in the
scriptures or identify themselves with the kingdom of God, that
they are legitimately people of God. They would say that Nadab
and Abihu, the two sons of, I'm sorry, yeah, the two sons of
Aaron that came into the presence of the Lord, that were consumed
by fire were true believers. What premise and what basis Would
you assert that? How would you establish that?
I could argue on much more explicit texts of scripture that these
boys were unregenerate, didn't fear God, didn't reverence God's
way, and they were presumptuous and God judged them for it. And
in doing so, God taught the whole nation of Israel what it means
to fear the Lord. They crossed the line. I would
say that too with Judas Iscariot. In John chapter six, he is called
a devil. In John chapter 17, he is called
the son of perdition. And when Jesus calls you a devil
and a son of perdition, there is no way that you are saved. You got that? There's no way
that you are saved. In fact, those are titles, which
means that you are owned by the devil and you are his prodigy.
You are his children. A son of perdition means that
you are an apostate. That's exactly what that means.
So he sold his inheritance and it was given to another. Notice
what Luke, Paul, Peter says, this is what I want us to see.
In verse 20, for it is written in the book of Psalms, let his
habitation be desolate and let no man dwell therein and his
bishopric another take. So you need to actually be able
to see again, a very important categorical distinction between
his habitation, his habitation. And you can actually develop
this out of Psalm 109 more fully and his bishopric. Notice what
it says concerning his habitation. Let it remain vacant. Let it
remain vacant. And that's what Psalm 109 is
saying. You know what Psalm 109 said? Let his children perish. Let him never have a seed ever
again. Let his name be blotted out of
the land of living. Let him and all of his posterity
never ever be remembered. That kind of prayer of cursing
means to destroy your line, to never give you an opportunity
for recovery even in the proxy of your children. I say curse,
an eternal and perpetual curse. Now that's quite interesting
because what Peter is saying is, what the text would teach
us is that we don't want within, and we're getting ready to deal
with this, we don't want within the apostolic 12, are you ready?
Another Judas. That's what it's saying. When
it says, listen to it again, for it is written in the Psalm,
let his habitation be what? What they're saying, what it
is implying is we don't want another person like Judas Iscariot
to occupy the office. We don't want an individual whose
goals and objectives are selfish and driven by his own agenda
so that he would disrupt the fellowship in such a way that
he would sell out the Messiah. What the prayer is assuring is
that the next person to fill the office will actually be a
believer. You guys got that? The distinction
then is between recovering the office but not replacing it with
an individual of the likes of Judas. Let his habitation be
desolate forever. Let no one feel that spot that
would be like Judas Iscariot. Let his habitation be desolate
and let no man dwell therein. Okay, let me talk about this
just a little bit more just in case it doesn't come home. Under
Jewish culture, when a man died and he had any inheritance, There
was always the possibility of the redemption of that inheritance
if he had wives and children, right? This is called the law
of redemption, right? What what what God is therefore saying
by way of analogy is there was no redemption to be had for Judas
Iscariot. A kinsman redeemer could not
come in and marry his wife and raise up his children. Let them
all perish. Let nothing occupy this seed
because this seed is so corrupt that you don't want it to duplicate.
You don't want it to replicate. want that seed to stop right
there and for that office to be filled with something of another
kind. So the principle of giving to
another, Luke chapter 8 verse 17 and 18 says this. Again what I am stressing is
the curse that is being poured out on Judas Iscariot in Psalm
1 verse If you read it on your own, you will see that that's
the case. We just don't have time to go
through all of those verses where they heap judgment upon judgment,
upon judgment, curse upon curse, calamity upon calamity, upon
the person in that Psalm indicating eternal destruction for them
and their posterity, which you've heard God use in the Old Testament
many times. Luke 18 verse 17 and 18 gives
us a principle. Here's what it says. For nothing
is secret that shall not be made manifest. Neither anything hid
that shall not be known and come abroad. You guys see that? So
all of the stuff that's done in the dark shall come to the
light at some point, right? As a consequence, take heed therefore
how you what? Do you know who Christ was speaking
to? Judas Iscariot. See, Judas was among the 12 that
Christ constantly warned to listen to me carefully. Listen carefully. Don't listen through a wrong
prism with a flawed set of presuppositions with an agenda that's alien to
my agenda because you won't hear me. This is what Christ is saying.
Listen carefully enough so that you can examine yourself to make
sure your motive is right when you hear my word. Because if
you don't examine yourself when you hear my word, you might very
well go contrary to my word the very same day that you heard
that word. Why? Because the heart is not in alignment with the
will of God. And this is what Christ is saying
to the disciples. Take heed how you hear for whosoever
what. Now we're talking about the give
the takeaway principle plus the addition principle again, right?
whosoever hath to him shall be given and whosoever hath not
from him shall be taken even that which he what seems to have
he was warning Judas Iscariot that while he appears to have
the bishopric he really doesn't his office as Apostle is about
to be taken from him because while it appears that he has
it ostensibly it was given to him he was called and numbered
among the twelve his heart was not for it And that principle
of the takeaway applies in every area where you and I are privileged
to hear the Word of God. When the Word of God comes to
us, and the Word of God warns us, and the Word of God instructs
us, and it exhorts us and calls us to himself, and we have ostensibly
the Word, it can be taken away when we neglect that Word. The
blessings of the Word can be taken away when we neglect that
Word. The blessings of the wisdom of the Word can take away when
we don't regard that Word. Do you guys know that experience
in your own life? Obviously, and it happens consistently.
To him that hath, more shall be given. What that tells me
and it has taught me for years is I must highly regard that
which God has entrusted to me. When I hear, I must regard what
I heard with the utmost sincerity so that it might multiply because
I know that God only gave it to me for his glory. I have no
right to presume upon the gift of hearing. I don't have any
right to presume upon the gift of preaching or teaching. I don't
have a right to presume upon any of the gifts that God gives
me. I must take the gifts of God seriously, for if they are
taken away, that's my fault. It's my fault, as the kingdom
was taken away from Israel because they wouldn't hear. The apostleship
was taken away from Judas because he would not hear. How do you
go through three and a half years with the master who in all perfection
of character and conduct was so gracious to all 12 of them
that he never one time even remotely intimated a distinction between
Judas and the rest. He kept them on such an even
par. He didn't give one hint that he was concerned with or
bothered by our trouble with the devil that was among them.
He gave Judas all of the respect any apostle could have. He gave
him the same gifts. He gave him the same opportunities,
the same revelation. Judas was privileged with the
same insights, the same intimacy, the same fellowship with the
master as all the other 11 were. And yet it was his own heart,
his own agenda that betrayed him. This is why the proverb
says, he that trusted in his own heart is a fool. And this
is what's happening with Judas Iscariot. Very powerful, very
powerful principle. Whosoever hath to him shall be
given and whosoever hath not from him shall be taken even
that which he seems to have. Often in this life too, ladies
and gentlemen, we're almost done. Often in this life too, you see
that happen with people. And this is why you judge nothing
before the time. And why you got to be very careful
about judging. You may look at an individual and you may think
that they possess the world. They are famous. They are popular.
They seem to be having everything. They seem to be successful. They
seem to be advancing. They seem to be acquiring. They
seem to be abounding. They seem to be in possession
of all these things. And then something strange occurs
toward the end of their ministry or at a very inopportune time,
they stumble and fall and lose it all. And we go, what we fail
to realize is that it seemed to be that they had these things. All along they were failing to
recognize and acknowledge the very principles that we were
talking about. And people can do that. You and I can do that. If I were to be more pastoral,
I can talk about our own life. God gives you health and strength
and you neglect that. You press the issue, you push
the envelope. You know you need to be taking
care of yourself, better diet, more rest, all this other stuff. You're pushing the envelope.
And then all of a sudden, boom, you reach the threshold, the
breaking point. Now you have a very fatal sickness in your
life. You're diabetic, you know, your kidney failure. All that
the quality of your life is exceedingly poor. Why? Because you had several
years of probation where you thought you were all right, but
you didn't take care of relationship husband and wife. You're going
along in a mediocre relationship. You know, you got issues, you
know it. and you keep pressing the envelope.
You know what the Bible says, love one another, forgive one
another, be patient, long suffering with one another. Love thinks
no evil. Love does not hold onto accounts. Love bears all things,
hopes all things, endures all. Lots of principles are given
to us in order to sustain, preserve and strengthen relationships,
right? Relationship breaks. Why did it break? I don't know.
You're lying, that's another sin. Right? Right? You're lying, that's
another sin. on top of all the lies you've
been lying to yourself that caused you to break the relationship
in the first place because you did not value what you appeared
to have. Same thing can happen in ministry.
The minister is preaching, teaching. He's coming off as if he's holy.
He's righteous. He's doing the right thing behind
closed doors. He's violating every rule in the book. He is
a pure unadulterated hypocrite. Eventually it comes out. That's
what the previous verse is all about. That which is done in
the dark will come to the light. You guys got that? The very,
very important principles. As far as I'm concerned, if you
just want to borrow an ethic from me, just in case this is
hard for you, let me help you understand something. Compared
to eternity, the time between now and when I die is nothing. Nothing. but for me to make my
calling and election sure. Compared to eternity without
God, the time between now and me dying is nothing. It's nothing
for me to sell out eternity on God. Nothing. I weigh that choice
all the time, don't you? I weigh that choice all the time.
I think it through when things get really difficult. And I say,
you know, Jess, I talk to myself. Just you know, uh it's tough
but boy, it sure would be even tougher to have to spend eternity
without Christ under his wrath and without your family and loved
ones that you care about. Uh keep your focus, my brother. Keep your focus and it causes
one to be able to put things in proper perspective and to help you, what I call, stay
on point. Because that's what I've been
doing for 19 years in this ministry, staying on point. Just stay on
point. Don't let the winds blow you
to the left and blow you to the right, because that's what they're
trying to do. Stay on point. You know, we can't hardly finish
one thing in our life period anyway, right? So stay on point. Stay on point. And the way Peter
would put it is, make your calling and election sure. You're going
to see people fall on your right hand and on your left hand. That's
not your job to fix. Stay on point. The falling off
of Judas Iscariot was absolutely critical for the disciples. Critical. It was designed to put the fear
of God in them in such a way that they would constantly examine
themselves to make sure that they didn't have the seeds of
betrayal in them as well. Go back to our text. So very,
very critical. Let me see if I can work through
this fairly quick. So we see that Judas lost his
lot because of careless lust. He sold his inheritance out of
blind deception. I think that Judas Iscariot and
the apostle Paul were in the same league. You remember the
apostle Paul, he was so zealous against the Christians when he
was Saul of Tarsus, he had the same sort of zealous persecutory,
even to the point of killing mentality because he was operating
out of a flawed paradigm of religion as well. His religion allowed
him to persecute and kill the Christians and Judas Iscariot
views were so political and in this orientation as well. that
it would allow him to want to betray the Lord Jesus Christ.
What an ignominious reputation for all eternity that you were
the one that sold out the Prince of Peace. It's a dreadful, dreadful
thing. So that's the point there. Let's see here. What's our next
point that we want to consider here? Apostolic affirmation of
spiritual government. I'll just touch on this. And
we'll come back and unpack this next time. What is the whole
drive and what is the whole impetus for which Judas Iscariot stands
up and makes his case over against, I'm sorry, Peter makes his case
over against Judas Iscariot. What's the impulse? The impulse
is to establish another person for the office of apostle. And
the impulse, saints, I believe is good, but misguided. Now notice
what Peter says. Wherefore, notice what he says
in verse 21 through 24. Are you ready? Wherefore, of
these two men, which have accompanied with us all the time that the
Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism
of John unto that same day that he was taken up from us, must
one be ordained to be a witness with us of his resurrection.
And they appointed to Joseph called Barsabas, was surname
justice and Matthias verse 24 and they prayed and said thou
Lord which knoweth the hearts of all men show whether of these
two you have chosen whoa whoa I'm glad to save this one for
next week I want you to see how easy it is to start off right
and not being careful in the process, drift from a biblical
foundation to a very carnal foundation quickly. And indiscernibly, you
drift from a biblical foundation to a carnal foundation. You are
now establishing a basis upon which you are getting God to
approve what you want to do. Are you guys seeing that? Listen
to what they, this sounds just like our American politics, doesn't
it? Behind the doors, they choose
the two people that they wanna bring out to you and then tell
you in our free democratic process of 350 million people in America,
here are the two choices. In a free democratic process,
right? Why does the Lord have to choose
either one of those cats? Why? Why? It's interesting. So Peter is driven to do this
for a number of reasons. But as you already have the outline
and you had it for several weeks, I'll just tease you with this
and I'm done. I really believe that Peter was not led by the
Lord. I believe here was a clear indication where he had operated
out of a carnal tendency and God did not bless it at all.
One may assume that the Lord made a choice, but the Lord didn't
make a choice. It's kind of like, if you want to, you can go to
Reno, you can go to Nevada and you can gamble and say, Lord,
help me make a million dollars. You may make a million dollars,
but I promise you that the Lord wasn't in it. Because the premise was flawed.
The basis for it was unauthorized. Next week, we'll see how he took
an old paradigm, brought it into a new system enforced the hand
of Providence, which kept silent and made its own choice according
to the consistency and calling of the apostles in its own time,
just to show the apostles that he didn't leave the kingdom to
them to do what they wanted to do. Let's pray. Father, thank you for this time.
Thank you for the brothers and sisters. Thank you for this study.
Help us to draw the lessons out that are important to us. More
particularly, the lesson of knowing that we need to take heed to
what we hear. to make our calling and election
sure. This is a short time on this life. We don't need to be
distracted by issues that would ultimately prove our devastation
and destruction. Judas Iscariot, Balaam, Esau,
Cain, all of those personages that have come near the kingdom
of God and ultimately perish serve for us as models by which
we can walk in the fear of the Lord and draw from you those
assuring graces by which we can know that we are yours infallibly. And that is through humble faith
in Jesus Christ and in Jesus Christ alone. As we go our way,
give us traveling mercies. We pray in Jesus name. Amen.