That's Acts 1. We'll finish out
this chapter tonight. The title of the message tonight is Judas Iscariot, Matthias,
and Paul. Judas Iscariot, Matthias, and
Paul. We'll begin here in verse 15. And in those days Peter stood
up in the midst of the disciples and said, the number of the names
together were about a hundred and twenty. Men and brethren,
this scripture must needs have been fulfilled which the Holy
Ghost by the mouth of David spake before concerning Judas, which
was guide to them that took Jesus. For He was numbered with us and
had obtained part of this ministry. I want to go through this tonight
sort of a little at a time. And so I want to ask a few questions
as we go. And look at this a little bit
as we go. And I ask you to pray for me tonight. I sincerely ask
you to pray for me. This is on my heart and I've
probably given this message more thought over the past three to
four weeks than I have of any message I've preached to you
without a doubt and prayed more over this message because it's
a serious thing and it's not something to be taken lightly. Peter said here, Judas was numbered
with us and he obtained part of this ministry. Who numbered
Judas Iscariot with the other apostles? The Lord Jesus Christ personally
called all 12 of these apostles. Luke 6.13 says, when it was day, he called unto him his disciples. And of them he chose twelve,
whom also he named apostles." He gave them the name apostles.
Simon, whom he also named Peter, And Andrew his brother, James
and John, Philip and Bartholomew, Matthew and Thomas, James the
son of Alphaeus, and Simon called Zelotes, and Judas the brother
of James, and Judas Iscariot, which also was the traitor. The
Lord Jesus Christ personally chose all 12 of these men. And they all had this in common.
Christ delegated them personally and named them His apostles.
He delegates and He sends, by His authority, these twelve.
There in Acts 1-2 it says, Until the day in which He was taken
up, after that He, through the Holy Ghost, had given commandments
unto the apostles whom He had chosen, They all filled the office
of apostle. All of them. But did the Lord
Jesus number? Did He count them all as His
true apostles? Now I know that they're called
the twelve. And I know that scripture tells
us He chose twelve. But did he count them all as
his apostles? Men looked at them and thought,
there's 12. But what did the Lord count?
How many did the Lord count? Christ called Judas to the office
of apostle, but Judas was not truly chosen before the foundation
of the world. He wasn't an elect child of God. He filled the office. And he
was chosen. In Scripture, a faithful messenger
is called an angel. Christ called Judas a devil. Lord Jesus Christ called him
a devil. John 6.70, Jesus answered them, Have not I chosen you twelve,
and one of you is a devil? He spake of Judas Iscariot, the
son of Simon, for he it was that should betray him, being one
of the twelve. In John 13, 18, he had just said,
the Lord's not greater than His Master. If they've persecuted
me, they're going to persecute you. Was He speaking to all of
them? They all heard Him speaking to
all twelve, but was He speaking spiritually in the heart to all
of them? He said in John 13, 18, I speak
not of you all. The next verse after that. He
said, I speak not of you all. I know whom I have chosen. But
that the scripture may be fulfilled, he that eateth bread with me
hath lifted up his heel against me. When John was shown heavenly
Jerusalem, over in Revelation 21. He wrote this. He said, He carried me away in
the Spirit to a great and high mountain and showed me that great
city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God. This
is Revelation 21, verse 10. In verse 11 he says, having the
glory of God, this heavenly Jerusalem, and her light was likened to
a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal,
and had a wall great and high, and had twelve gates, and at
the gates twelve angels, and the names written thereon which
are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel. We
know who they are, don't we? And on the east there was three
gates, on the north three gates, on the south three gates, on
the west three gates. That's four times three. That's
twelve. Twelve gates. Twelve tribes of
Israel. And the wall of the city had
twelve foundations. And in them the names of the
twelve apostles of the Lamb. Twelve apostles. Revelation 12.1 says, There appeared
a great wonder in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun and the
moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars. A picture of the church. And
there was on her head twelve stars. A picture of the apostles. In Matthew 19, 28, Jesus said
unto them, Verily I say unto you, that ye which have followed
me in the regeneration, when the Son of Man shall sit in the
throne of His glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones,
judging the twelve tribes of Israel. We know, at least I hope
we know, that Judas Iscariot is not numbered among those twelve.
He's not one of those twelve. So who are those twelve apostles
of the Lamb that make up the foundation? If we read the last
verse here, the first chapter of Acts, they gave forth their
lots and the lot fell upon Matthias and he was numbered with the
eleven apostles. So we would say, it's Matthias. It's Matthias. He's the 12th. But there is the way that man
sees things, and there's the way God sees things. Now let me go over what I just
covered with you. I just asked this question, who
numbered the apostles originally? The Lord Jesus Christ did. He
said, I know whom I've chosen. To man's eye, there appeared
to be twelve apostles. The Lord said, I know whom I've
chosen. I just showed you that the twelve
were called, but only eleven were truly His apostles. One of them was chosen that he
might betray Him and fulfill the Scriptures. But to the eyes
of the apostles, they thought all twelve were chosen. They
numbered all twelve as true apostles. How many did Christ number? As true apostles. As his true
chosen messengers. Eleven. So when it says in this
last verse, they were numbered with the 12. Who numbered them? Who counted Matthias as an apostle? That's my question for you tonight. And my answer for you, I believe
we have to be honest, is Peter and the 120 disciples that were
with him counted Matthias as an apostle. They gave forth their lots, verse
26 says, and the lot fell upon Matthias, and he was numbered
with the eleven apostles. We'll read as we go on in Acts.
It talks about over here just in a little while. In chapter
2 it says, Peter stood up and with the eleven. All the commentators,
brethren, listen to me. When I say I look into the eye,
I'm telling you, I listen to messages from about three different
denominations on everything I could find on this. I read everybody
I could read on it. Brethren, I grew up under men of old. And I just had to ask God, Lord,
you tell me. You have to give me this message
because they don't agree. They don't agree. There's the way man sees things,
and there's the way that God sees things. Now, if we don't
learn something from this, it's irrelevant. It's just a point
of argument. And that's not what I'm getting.
I don't want to set up a point of argument. I want us to learn
something from this. Okay? Here's my proposal to you. If Christ Jesus, our King, called
Judas Iscariot to be an apostle, though Judas only filled the
office and was not truly chosen. There are many called but few
chosen. He wasn't chosen. He wasn't a
faithful angel of the Lord. Could it be that our Lord and
our King allowed Peter to stand up and to say what he said and
these fellows being from a good motive, a true, faithful, heartfelt
motive, designed to honor and glorify God, choose Matthias
and him be called, as we go through Scripture, the twelve, numbered
with the twelve, yet be only numbered by men, but not truly
be the twelfth apostle that Christ had called, that he had chosen
to be his apostle. Let's consider Peter's sincere
desire to honor God. I believe Peter was sincere.
I really do. Let's look at this together. And I've asked you
to pray with me on this, and I've asked you to look at this
sincerely with me. Verse 16. First thing I want
you to see is Scripture is God's Word, and that's what we go by. God our Savior teaches and commands
His church through His Word. And that's where Peter starts.
Verse 16. He said, This Scripture must
needs have been fulfilled which the Holy Ghost by the mouth of
David spake before concerning Judas, which was God to them
that took Jesus. The Lord Jesus Christ, God our
Savior, being the sovereign God of glory declared by the mouth
of the prophets, gave them the words to write. And he told them
all that he would accomplish. And they wrote it down. Years
and years and years before he ever even came to this earth.
And they wrote it down. And he even chose who his betrayer
would be. He chose who his betrayer would
be. He chose Judas. He knew who he would be. When
he called him to be an apostle, he knew this is the one that's
going to betray me. And then our sovereign king came to this
earth and he fulfilled all that he determined before to be done.
Everything that was written of him in the prophets, the scriptures,
the psalms, he fulfilled them all. And Christ numbered Judas
Iscariot and treated him as though he were one of his true apostles
for one reason, that the scripture might be fulfilled. The word that Peter refers to
here is Psalm 41.9. Let me read it to you. You can
turn there if you can get to it quickly. I'm going to go here
kind of quickly. He says, Yea, mine own familiar
friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lifted
up his heel against me. That was written by David by
the inspiration of the Spirit of God. That's what Peter just
said. This Scripture was fulfilled which the Holy Ghost by the mouth
of David spake. Sometimes you'll hear me when
I'm reading Scripture and I don't say Paul said it. Sometimes I
say the Holy Spirit says here because it's the Spirit of God
that's teaching us here. He's doing it through men. When
the Lord was on this earth, He said, John 17, 12, while I was
with them in the world, I kept them in thy name. Those that
thou gavest me, I've kept. None of them is lost. But the
son of perdition, that the scripture might be fulfilled. Man would not even be able to
glory in the betrayal of Christ. Sinful man could not even glory
in the fact that we betrayed Christ. He chosen his betrayal
would be. And then next Peter declares
the solemn end of all who deny the Lord Jesus Christ. He gives
a description of his beloved friend Judas, whom he trusted,
and he says this, just as it was prophesied, just as the Lord
Jesus Christ said he would, Judas Iscariot betrayed the Lord of
glory and died and went to hell. Verse 18, Now this man purchased
a field with the reward of iniquity, Falling headlong he burst asunder
in the mist and all his bowels gushed out And it was known unto
all the dwellers at Jerusalem and so much as that field is
called in their proper tongue Al-saddamah that is to say the
field of blood Most writers say this was a parentheses put in
by Luke as he wrote this may be the case I don't know either
way. It's the Spirit of God speaking
Iniquity is denying, it's betraying the Lord Jesus Christ. And the
purchase that we purchase by doing that is a field of blood. It's separation from God. And
then next, Peter rightly divides the word of truth that another
must take Judas Iscariot's place. Verse 20. He says, For it is
written in the book of Psalms, Let his habitation be desolate
and let no man dwell therein." Just a word on this, I really
didn't put any notes down on this, but everybody I read referred
this to a house that Judas inhabited as his habitation. What's the
one thing men love more than anything? What is it that sinners
who deny Christ, what is it that they love more than anything
else that causes, the chief cause that causes men to deny Christ? It's his flesh. That's our habitation. What would be the greatest thing
God could deny a sinner who denied Christ and went to hell? What
would be the greatest thing He could deny him? The lust of his
flesh. His own flesh. Let his habitation
be desolate. Believer's body is going to be
raised again a glorified body. Their soul is going to inhabit
their body. He said, let his habitation be
desolate. And then he said, in his bishopric,
his charge, his office, let another take. Just as the sovereign Lord
of glory chose who would betray him, he also chose who would
fill this vacant office. God's not out of control here.
He's gone, but he ain't out of control here. He's ruling. He's
king. He chose him. He called him himself. He went to him personally and
called him to himself. And this one was the true twelfth
apostle all along. This one he's going to call.
Chosen of God before the foundation of the world. He's going to fill
this office. Now we come to two verses where
Peter doesn't give any scripture to support what his claim is.
And I'll tell you why. I'm gonna tell you why I'm so
hesitant and why I've been so careful about this message. I don't want to lay a charge
to one of God's elect. That's not true. I do not want
to say something about one of God's elect, especially one of
his preachers, one of his apostles, his pastors. That's not true. But up to this point, Peter's
used Scripture. And he's held to Scripture, and
everything he's said has been true. When the Lord walked this earth,
did Peter ever get ahead of himself? Did Peter ever do anything when
he walked this earth to where the Lord had to rebuke him? He
did, didn't he? Peter, right here now, comes
to a point where he don't use Scripture. Here's what he concludes
from what he's read in Scripture. Here's what he concludes. Wherefore,
of these men, right here with us, which have accompanied with
us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us,
beginning from the baptism of John until that same day that
he was taken up from us, must one be ordained to be a witness
with us of his resurrection. Now this I will give Peter. This
is one thing I teetered on. Peter didn't say, he did not
say, we must choose another apostle. That he didn't say. He said we
need to choose one to be a witness with us. But by all practical
purposes, what Peter said here is we need to fill this vacant
office. Everything he said up to that
point was true. But now when he gets to the point
where he says, so we must choose one from among these men that
have been with us this whole time, where did that come in? Where
did he find that in Scripture? Do you see what I'm saying? At
that point now, we've left Scripture. Now we got to choose somebody.
What did the Lord tell him? He said, you go to Jerusalem
and wait. Wait. We find it hard to wait,
don't we? We come together and the first
thing we want to do is let's up and be doing something. And
Peter, when they got to the tomb, Peter and John, when they got
to the tomb, and John stopped and he didn't even go in the
tomb. And Peter just ran right on inside the tomb. And here
again, Peter stands up. Now, let's don't be too hard
on him. This is me and you, brethren.
This is us right here. If we're not careful, we'll go
ahead further than we need to go. Remember when they crossed
the Jordan and the Lord said, you stay back. Don't move ahead. You stay back so you can see
that ark. Keep your eye on that ark. And don't move ahead. If
you see that ark move, you move. If you don't see the ark move,
you don't move. The Lord said, go there and wait. Peter went
there and they waited. And then Peter stood up, and
I do not doubt at all that his motives were not absolutely for
the glory of God. If we go to Jerusalem and there's
eleven of us, they're going to say, see there, who can trust
any of these eleven seeing that one of them was a liar anyway?
And I don't doubt that Peter, that's on his mind and he's thinking
we need to have somebody fill this office. But my question
is, did he move ahead? Did he move too fast? Did he
move ahead? I believe he did. I believe he
did. What was the one thing that Peter
seems to have forgotten? What did he and the other ten
all have in common? The apostles were called by Jesus
Christ the Lord personally. And they were given gifts that
other men weren't given. They were given gifts that other
men were not given. Scripture gives us no account
here of Christ calling Matthias personally. He doesn't do it. If one of these men were to be
chosen to fill the vacancy left by the betrayer, why didn't the
Lord choose him personally when he was with them 40 days after
his resurrection? Did you hear me? Why didn't He choose him? It
said these men had been with us until the same day that He
was taken up from us. There in Acts 1-2 it says, "...until
the day that the Lord was taken up, after that He, through the
Holy Ghost, had given commandments unto the apostles whom He had
chosen." Yet Christ never personally called another apostle. He didn't
call another one of them right there, of those men that were
with Him. Until... Until... He called Saul a Tarsus. And he called him personally.
Paul's the only other apostle in Scripture by whom we find
the Lord Jesus Christ personally calling him. And he's the only
other apostle that went by the name Apostle that we see who
had the gifts that the other apostles had. There's one place
in Acts, I read the commentators said this, they said Timothy,
Silvanus, and Barnabas were all considered apostles. Timothy
and Silvanus are not called apostles anywhere in the Scripture. I
looked it up, and I see what they're saying. They're looking
at a couple of Paul's letters where he said, I'm called to
be an apostle, and he said, and our brother Timothy, and they're
taking that as saying he was called Timothy an apostle too.
He wasn't called a Timothy an apostle. There's one place in
Acts where it says the apostles Barnabas and Paul. But I followed
it, I read it all the way through, and everywhere they went together,
whenever there was a miracle performed, where there was somebody
healed, or a devil was cast out, or any of the miracles that the
other apostles had, Paul did it. Artemis never did it. He never did it. Paul's the only
one. Look here in Acts 9-1. Acts 9-1.
Saul, Yet, breathing out threatenings
and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high
priest and desired of him letters to Damascus, to the synagogues,
that if he found any of this way, whether they were men or
women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem. And they gave
him these letters. And so as he journeyed, he came
near Damascus. And suddenly there shined round
about him a light from heaven. And he fell to the earth, and
he heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest
thou me? And he said, Who art thou, Lord?
And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest. It is
hard for thee to kick against the bricks. In 1 Corinthians
15.7, Paul said, After that he was seen of James,
the Lord Jesus, then of all the apostles. And last of all, Paul
says, he was seen of me also. Paul says, I saw him as one born
out of due time. And he said, I am the least of
the apostles. that I'm not meet to be called
an apostle because I persecuted the church of God. But by the
grace of God, I am what I am. By His grace, I am what I am.
And His grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain, but
I labored more abundantly than all the other apostles, yet not
I, but the grace of God which was with me." Fourteen letters
we got here written by Paul. Now I know there are some apostles
that we don't have anything written by them. But brethren, we don't
even have anything else in the Word of God ever said about Matthias. Nothing. I'm not saying he wasn't
faithful. I'm not saying he didn't follow
the Lord. I'm not saying he wasn't an elect, chosen, redeemed child
of God and followed God. What I'm saying is Paul is the
one whom Christ chose and Paul is the one whom Christ called
to be the 12th Apostle. There's 12, and Paul is the 12th
one. But why would the Lord Jesus
Christ allow Matthias to even be called if he were not the
chosen apostle of Jesus Christ the Lord? There's no point in
this even being an issue at all if we don't learn something from
it. So why would the Lord allow this? Here's the first thing I see
in this. God does not choose His people
based on anything in us, but according to His grace and His
mercy. Now let me give you an example.
He said this in Isaiah 55a. He said, My thoughts are not
your thoughts. Neither are your ways my ways,
saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher
than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my
thoughts than your thoughts." He doesn't do things the way
we would do things. Let me give you an example. Judas
Iscariot. This is important now. Listen
to what I'm saying here. This is the lesson I think we
learn from this. Judas Iscariot appeared before
the apostles and all other men to be faithful. There was nothing
outwardly about his conduct whatsoever. that it would cause you to question
Him as being a true apostle of Jesus Christ. In fact, that night
that they sat there and they were eating before the Passover
came, and John asked who it would be, and the Lord said, it's going
to be the one to whom I'm going to give a sop. And he leaned
over and he gave a sop to Judas, and he said, that which thou
doest, do quickly. And Judas left. And it says,
all of the apostles, they didn't even, at that point, they had
asked who it would be. And they didn't, he whispered
that to John, because there's two Judases. And if he would
have said it's Judas, it would have been just mayhem. He whispered it to John. Didn't
even tell the others. But he gave this up and he said
to Judas Iscariot, that which thou doest, do quickly. And he
got up and he went out. And it says the other apostles,
they considered him so faithful, and so honest, and so true, that
it says they thought that what the Lord meant was, he's the
treasurer. And they thought that he meant
go buy the things we're going to need toward observing the
Passover. They didn't even suspect him
at all. Not at all. That night, they sat there saying, is it
I? And Judas gets up and walks out and they don't even expect
it's him. But on the other hand, Saul of Tarsus appeared before
men to be just the opposite. Look at Acts 9.13. after the Lord has knocked Saul
off his horse and put him in the dust and revealed to him
the depravity that he is. He comes to Ananias and he tells
Ananias to go to this man, Saul of Tarsus. And listen to what
Ananias answers. Then Ananias answered, Acts 9,
13, Lord, I've heard by many of this man how much evil he
hath done to thy saints at Jerusalem. And here he hath authority from
the chief priest to bind all that call on thy name. You see
the difference? They looked at Judas Iscariot,
if it was up to me and you, we would have said, there's a faithful
man. And if we'd looked at Saul, we'd have said, That man needs
to go to hell. And God said, Judas Iscariot
is a devil. And what does He say of Saul?
Verse 15, But the Lord said unto him, to Ananias, Go thy way,
for this one you call a devil, He's a chosen vessel unto me,
to bear my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of
Israel, for I'll show him how great things he must suffer for
my namesake." Do you see what I'm saying? What
God does, He does because of sovereign, electing grace, Not
according to our works. He don't look on the outward
appearance of things. He does things based on his mercy
Romans 9 11 the children are being not yet born having neither
having done any good or evil That the purpose of God according
to election might stand not of works, but of him that calleth
It was said unto her, the elder shall serve the younger. Jacob
have I loved, Esau have I hated. What shall we say then? Is there
unrighteousness with God? What did He say to Moses? I'll
have mercy on whom I'll have mercy and I'll have compassion
on whom I'll have compassion. Do you see the lesson there?
Do you think there's ever been pastors that men have called
by their own power that God didn't sin? I believe there have been. I believe there's been many.
The Lord said, I'll give you pastors after my heart. When
He ascended, He said, I gave them apostles, and I gave them
prophets, and I gave them pastor-teachers and evangelists for the edifying
of my body. I give them, He said. And He
takes the base things of the world and things that are not,
that He might bring to nothing, things that are. He takes those
that the world looks on and says, he don't have a PhD. He's nobody. He's a fisherman. This man, we
saw him, all he could do for a living. Some of them weren't
even fishing. They were just mending nets.
At least Peter was one that went out and fished. Some of them just were net menders.
They just fixed the nets. They didn't even have the money
to afford to buy new nets. They had to fix their nets and
just repair the old nets, patch them up and go back out and fish
with those nets. And yet that's who God chose.
And as the scripture says, and the leaders and the princes and
the rulers and the wise men of this world said, these men have
turned the world upside down. That's who God uses. That's who
Christ uses. Those that men don't look upon
as anything. Why does He do that? Why did
God say He does that? 1 Corinthians 1, verse 30, Him
that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. Why does He do that? Of God are
you in Christ, who of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption, that as it is written, He that
glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. Who chose His people? Who chose the first man to go
preach the Gospel? God did. You know who that first
one was? The prophet Christ Jesus the
Lord. He chose Christ. That's His choice. You know, when He came to Jerusalem,
He came into Jerusalem riding on that donkey. And He come riding in on that
thing. There wasn't any form of comelyness
about Him that we desire Him. Nothing. Nothing at all. But
you know, I heard Brother Paul Mahan bring this out in a message
this week. I was listening. Bless my heart.
But not a soul that saw him riding in, they didn't look and go,
whoo, boy, look at that horse he's riding on. Look at that
mighty steed he's riding on. Because the steed he was riding
on was a donkey. It wasn't anything. But they
was crying, Hosanna to the highest. Save us, Lord Jesus. They were
looking at Him. And you know who that donkey's
a picture of? He was tied up. Tied up. And the Lord said, you
go to such and such a place and you'll find Him. Lucy. Never been ridden before. Lucy. He got on Him and broke Him.
Wrote him that's a picture of the believer. He said go to such-and-such
a place and find a certain man and Lucy and I'll bring him into
submission and Me and you people don't come to this place right
here looking at me and you I want them to come this place looking
at our Redeemer and saying look at him Not at us Well, let's get back to this.
Lesson number two. Why did they... I think those
whom God has put in the church, believers, brethren, all of us
together, right here, me, you, all of us, this shows us that
at our best state, we're fallible. We just mess up. We're prone
to error. We're prone to error. Peter left
the scripture and he said, wherefore of these men we got to choose
somebody from these men right here. And here's what he said,
verse 21. He said, Wherefore, of these
two men which have company with us all the time, beginning from
the baptism of John to that same day he was taken, must one be
ordained to be a witness with us of his resurrection? One of
these got to be ordained. And they picked two of them.
Joseph, called Barsabbas, who was surnamed Justice, and Matthias.
And they prayed and said, Thou, Lord, which knowest the hearts
of all, show whether of these two thou hast chosen. Let me tell you what This is not my mistake I had
two messages prepared tonight Two messages prepared tonight
And you want me to tell you what made this is the one I wanted
to preach This is the one I wanted to preach But I thought well,
I better preach that other one and how study on this one next
week and on my way over here. I I was praying, driving over
here to myself, and I found myself asking the Lord, Lord, which
of these two messages would you have me to preach? And I thought,
there's the error. It's not, I've picked out two,
now you tell me which one to preach. It's, Lord, I'm in your
hands. Whatever you'd have me do, that's
what I need to do. It's not, let me narrow this
thing down and then you tell me what to do. You see, everybody
that the Lord saves, everybody He's given a heart. We're going
to see this as we go through Acts. These men that were approved,
these men that were proven faithful, God did the work and He manifested. He had done the work and then Then it was made evident that
these are the men that God has sent. These are the men that
God has given. Matthias made no mention of wanting
to be an apostle. The other man made no mention
of wanting to be an apostle. Peter stood up and said, let's
pick two. And they picked two. This is
ten days time. Y'all took two years waiting
on the Lord to give you a pastor. Ten days! And in one meeting,
Peter stands up and says, now we've got to pick somebody. And
they picked two and they prayed and said, now which one of them?
And picked one of them in one meeting. Is that wise? I think that shows
us what we are by nature. We'll run ahead. We will rush
headlong into error. And then the third thing, and
I'm going to stop here. Christ our King overrules the errors
of His people for His glory and the good of His saints. Matthias
went to Jerusalem with them. He went there. And the gainsayers
couldn't say anything concerning the fact that there was not twelve.
There was twelve when they went. So the gainsayers couldn't say
a word. Whether this was God's will. God permitted this to happen.
This served His will, His purpose. Like Paul's his apostle. Matthias
goes up there with them though, and the gangsters can't say anything
about it. So even the error of it served His will. It served
His purpose. They couldn't say anything about
it. And it no way altered the Lord
Jesus Christ's purpose in providence, for he called out his chosen
vessel, Paul, at the time he appointed." Isn't that what Paul
said? In Galatians 1.15, he said, When it pleased God who separated
me from my mother's womb and called me by His grace to reveal
His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the heathen, immediately
I conferred not with flesh and blood, neither went I up to Jerusalem,
to them which were apostles before me. But I went into Arabia, returned
again to Damascus, and then after three years I went up to Jerusalem
to see Peter and stayed with him fifteen days." What other
man in Scripture, besides the Old Testament prophets, what
other man in the New Testament church, Did God ever call? What other men did Christ ever
call outside of the preaching of His Word and His Gospel? His apostles only. He called
them personally. And Paul was one of them. And
he did it at the appointed time. This didn't stop. This error
didn't stop it. It didn't interfere with his
purpose and his will whatsoever. He accomplished his will at the
appointed time. And I've got some other things here, but I'm
going to stop. I know it's late and it's 8.30. Look over with me at 1 Corinthians
15.3. I'll show you this one scripture. 1 Corinthians 15.3. Paul was questioned everywhere
he went of his being an apostle. And you'll see out of all his
letters, There's only two, maybe three that he didn't
start with. called to be an apostle by the
will of God and Jesus Christ, by God our Savior. And those
ones that he didn't start it with was the church at Thessalonica
and the church of Philippi where they knew he was an apostle and
they believed he was an apostle. But at the places where there
was disputing and carrying on, Colossae, Corinthians, that's
how he announced himself to Timothy. He gave him his authority, told
him he was an apostle. Right here, he's speaking to
the Corinthians. 1 Corinthians 15 verse 3. And he says, I delivered
unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ
died for our sins according to the Scriptures. That he was buried,
that he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.
That he was seen of Cephas, that's Peter, and then of the twelve.
Now, hear what Gil says on this. Though there were then but eleven
of them, Judas was gone. when he was seen of them, having
destroyed himself. At the first appearance of Christ
to them, there were but ten present. Thomas was absent. Yet because
their original number was first chosen and called twelve, they
still went by the same name. And he gives an example. John
20, 24 says, But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus,
was not with them when Jesus came. Judas was gone already. They just went by that name,
twelve. And then he says this, verse
6, After that he was seen of about five hundred brethren at
once, of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but
some are fallen asleep. After that he was seen of James,
and most of them say that's his half-brother, who didn't even
believe on him when he walked on this earth, until they saw
him. Then of all the apostles, And it says, at the Mount of
Olives, this is a note here, at the Mount of Olives, when
He led them out of Jerusalem as far as Bethany and blessed
them and was departed from them and ascended to heaven out of
their sight. He was talking about all the apostles that were there
present at that time. And then he says, and last of
all, there was 11 there when He departed out of their sight.
There was 11 apostles there. And then Paul says, and last
of all, He was seen of me also. As one born out of due time,
I am the least of the apostles." Who's the twelfth apostle? I
believe Paul's saying right there, he is. He's the one. So God said, wait. Peter stood
up. Christ called His apostles personally,
gifted them, used them for the glory of God and the good of
the church. And we ought to never take the preeminence to do anything
that Christ hadn't explicitly directed us to do in His Word. We got His Word. We wait on Him. We'll find other places where
it says the Spirit of God revealed it to them, showed it to them,
led them, directed them. They were prohibited to go this
place or that place. We have that. We have that. And we wait on him and trust
him. And we know what happened. Now the Catholics, we don't have
any idea what happened to Matthias. The Catholics have churches named
St. Matthias Church. And they got
books supposedly written by St. Matthias. And a lot of other
books supposedly written by other folks, too. Bunch of books. But this is the book right here.
This is the book. There's histories that says that
he went to Ethiopia and preached. I don't know. Maybe he did. I don't know. I think he accompanied
him that whole time. Like Peter said, Peter gave a
good account of him. I think he believed God. But
I don't think he was the apostle. Paul was the apostle. I think
Peter got ahead of himself. It's not a light thing to say
something about somebody. It's not clearly revealed in
Scripture right here in that text. But I think the Scriptures
I showed you, I looked them over and there's others I could give
you too. We'd be here all night long. But there's a bunch of
others too. And I just believe it's clearly revealed Paul's
the Apostle. Paul's the 12th Apostle. We don't look on the outward
appearance of things, do we? Wait on Christ. Trust Him. And He'll give us direction.
We don't get ahead of ourselves. He'll give us direction. So I
hope you're blessed by that and I hope you take it as humbly
as I preached it to you. I prayed over it and asked the
Lord to give me wisdom. I don't want to stand up here
and say something to you that is not true. Especially if it's
against one of our brethren, Apostle Peter. I believe this
is a case of Peter showing us right here that even after all
that the Lord had done, this is what we are by nature. We
just don't look to this flesh, brethren. I'm telling you. We
just don't look to this flesh. You don't get a dirty mop to
clean up a dirty floor. And if you look to this flesh
to try to clean up this flesh, that's like getting a dirty mop
to clean a dirty floor. Scripture says mortify it. That
means treat it like it's dead. It's dead. Don't give in to it. It's dead. Treat it like that. Don't give in to it. So, all
right, Brother Eric.