Turning to Acts chapter 1, and
I'm taking the title for the message from verse 8. Verse 8
of chapter 1, where it says, You shall be witnesses unto me. You see that in verse 8? But
you shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost has come
upon you, and you shall be witnesses unto me. Unto me. A preacher of the gospel is sent
forth to declare the Lord Jesus Christ his person and work, both
in Jerusalem, in Judea, in Samaria, and the uttermost parts of this
world. Thank God that includes us. The
Gospel came to Pike County, Kentucky one day by a faithful servant
of the Lord. His name was Henry Thomas Mahan. And we're thankful that the Lord
sent a Gospel preacher to this community. So you shall be witnesses
unto me. That's the title. Now being a
believer and the witness of the Lord Jehovah, God our Savior,
the old timers called the Lord Jesus Christ Jehovah Jesus, Jehovah
our Savior, God our Savior. Being a believer and a witness
of the Lord God our Savior is a great honor and a great privilege. Not only to believe the gospel,
but to tell others of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's a great honor
and it's a great privilege to be a believer and to be a witness
of the Lord, of which none of us are worthy of the least of
His mercies. That's what Jacob prayed, Lord,
I'm not worthy of the least of Thy mercies and of Thy truth.
The Lord Jesus Christ makes His people, by His grace, objects
of his mercy, objects of his love, trophies of his grace.
The Lord Jesus Christ makes his people by his grace to be a witness
of the true gospel of God. Every believer therefore is a
true, now listen, every believer therefore is a true Jehovah witness. I am a Jehovah Witness. Now, there are a lot of people
that run around the neighborhood and I call them door knockers. They knock on your door and they
announce themselves. They kind of come in in a stealth
way. They don't announce that they
are from the Kingdom Hall and they are a witness to someone
they want to promote. I usually try to be a witness
of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ when those folks come
around. It reminds me a story of a preacher friend of mine.
He was out in his yard working one day and some of those people
came from the kingdom hall and they wanted to tell him about
their witness of the one whom they represent. And they gave
their speech and then my preacher friend said, well, do you know
anything about Jehovah Jireh? They said, no, we've not heard
anything about Jehovah Jireh. And he said, well, do you know
anything about Jehovah? He said, can you? Jehovah Sid
Canoe, what is that? We've never heard anything about
Jehovah Sid Canoe. And he said, well, you heard
anything about Jehovah Shalom? I said, no, we don't know anything
about that. And he went through those seven
names of Jehovah that we've studied, and he said to them, you aren't
a Jehovah witness. He said, I am a Jehovah witness. And that's so, because we believe
Jehovah that's revealed in scripture, the eternal, sovereign, holy
God Almighty. Now, what is involved in being
a witness of the Lord Jesus Christ? Well, it's telling what we know
from the word of the Lord and declaring what we've been taught
by the revelation of God the Holy Spirit and what we have
experienced in our heart and in our soul. Now I found this
to be true. Have you ever tried to tell something
you didn't know? Try it sometime. You can't tell
something you don't know. You may attempt. But when you
know something to be true, you've heard it, you've seen it, you've
experienced it, you know it's true, you read it in the Word,
it's the experience of your heart, then you can be a witness to
the Lord. What great thing God has done
for you. And how great, we're going to
see that in a minute, in the close of the message. Now, what
we see happening in the book of Acts, is unfolding in time
of the eternal purpose of God in calling out his people and
establishing his church. The church's one foundation is
Jesus Christ the Lord. Establishing his church through
the blood and righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, and through
the work of God the Holy Spirit, quickening, calling, converting,
and revealing the Lord Jesus Christ unto us. Remember, our
Lord said to Peter, upon this foundation, this rock, Christ
the rock of ages, I will build my church, and the gates of hell
shall not prevail against it. Now, consider for a moment. These
apostles were given a monumental mission, were they not? I mean
a monumental mission to go represent the Lord God Almighty and to
go into all the known world and to preach the gospel. What a
monumental mission! Now, is the mission going to
be a failure? Or is it going to be a success?
Will the Lord be true and good to His word? When He told them,
you go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature,
and remember this, lo, I'm with you always. Well, how can He
be with them always when they stood there and watched Him go
to heaven in a cloud? And yet He says, I'm going to
be with you always by the indwelling of God the Holy Spirit. When
He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He'll show you all things. Will the Lord be good to His
Word? Absolutely so. Will the apostles be successful
in their ministry? Seeing we have this ministry,
we do not faint, we do not quit. If the Lord sends a man to preach
the gospel, do you know he's always successful? You never
preach the gospel in vain. You remember what the Apostle
said? He said, we always triumph in Christ Jesus. The Lord never
sends out his servant with his message in a failed attempt. God will always bless his word.
You remember he said, it will not return to me void. Will the
Apostles be successful in their ministry? Absolutely so. God has ordained the preaching
of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ to call out his people. It pleased him to do so by the
preaching of Christ and him crucified to call out his sheep, to call
them out of darkness into his marvelous light. And he says,
those sheep, they will hear my voice and they will follow me
and I'll give unto them eternal life. Now, we're going to see
when we study Acts chapter 13 in the first message that Paul
preached there in, I believe it was Antioch, and he preached
to that mixed multitude, most of them Jews, and when they heard
the word of the Lord, they rejected the word of the Lord, and then
the apostles said, lo, we turn to the Gentiles. And Paul preached
that same message to the Gentiles the next day. And the scripture
says, as many as were ordained to eternal life believed the
gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. So they were successful. Everywhere they went and preached
the gospel, God used that priest's message to call out his people.
He called them out of darkness into his marvelous light. Now let's back up to verse six.
I want to look at verse 6, 7, and 8. Three verses. Can you
stay with me for a few moments? Verse 6, 7, and 8. When they
therefore were come together, now that's a blessing, to come
together in the name of the Lord and to meet with the Lord, they
asked Him, saying, now these are the 11 apostles, this is
John, and Peter, and Andrew, James, they asked Him, saying,
Lord, wilt Thou at this time Restore again the kingdom to
Israel. They were still looking for that
kingdom like as in the days of David when they had a great king. Remember at this time these people
in Jerusalem and in all Judea were under the thumb rule dominion
of the Roman government and they were looking for liberation.
They wanted to be liberated from the pagan Romans. And the apostles
here still did not fully understand what had taken place when he
died at Calvary. Now, the apostles had a question
for the Lord. They still did not fully understand
the nature and scope of the kingdom of God. He said, it's not my
kingdom. He said, it's not of this world,
else my servants would fight. He said, my kingdom is a spiritual
kingdom. These men, though chosen of the
Lord, redeemed by his blood, regenerated by God the Holy Spirit
were still men at best and slow of understanding. Remember what
he said to those two men on the road to Emmaus? Don't turn because
you're familiar with it. But you remember they said, haven't
you heard? What happened? And the Lord said,
this is the risen Lord, O fool, slow of heart to believe all
that the prophets have spoken. Ought not Christ to have suffered
these things and to enter into His glory? We are slow of heart. to grasp the meaning of the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, notice the word here. I want a key on this word here,
verse 6. Lord, wilt thou at this time
restore. Restore. Now, think with me.
The Lord Jesus Christ had already restored the kingdom of God by
His bloody death. by his putting away of our sins. The Lord had already accomplished
our salvation, had already restored what Adam had lost. Remember
this scripture in Psalm 69, let me just read it to you, don't
turn. They that hate me without a cause are more than the hairs
of my head. They that would destroy me being
my enemies wrongfully are mighty, then I restored that which I
took not away. He is already restored. everything
that Adam lost in his dying for our sin. The Lord Jesus Christ
has already accomplished salvation, restored salvation. The Lord
Jesus Christ has already redeemed his people from their sin by
his own blood. For he said, that he obtained
eternal redemption for us as our great high priest, that we
are redeemed with the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ,
not with silver and gold, but with his precious blood. The
Lord has already reconciled us unto God through the death burial
and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. For God was in
Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself. Lord, will you
at this time restore the kingdom of Israel? He said, I've already
restored it. And you're so slow of heart,
you don't understand. We are redeemed by His blood. We are reconciled unto God through
the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. By His putting
away our sin, by the Lord Jesus Christ saving his people from
their sin. The Lord Jesus Christ has already
restored and much more than what Adam had lost in the garden when
he sinned against God. Where sin abounded, remember
Romans chapter 5, where sin abounded, grace does much more abound. The Lord Jesus Christ has already
restored much more than what Adam had lost in the garden when
he sinned against God." Adam lost the way, Adam lost the truth,
Adam lost life, didn't he? He lost truth, he lost the way,
and he lost life. The Lord Jesus Christ said in
John 14, 6, I am the way, I am the truth, I am life. No man come to the Father but
by and through me. Adam lost righteousness in the
garden. When he sinned against God, he
lost righteousness and went about to establish righteousness with
his own fig leaves, right? The Lord Jesus Christ brought
in everlasting righteousness for his covenant people. He is
Jehovah, Sid Canu, the Lord, our righteousness. Christ restored
that which Adam had lost. He brought in for us an everlasting
righteousness. Therefore, we no longer going
about to establish our own righteousness, but we rest in Christ for he's
the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believe it.
Blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputed righteousness without
works. So Adam lost righteousness and
went about to establish his own righteousness, which they believed
the Lord Jesus Christ brought in restored an everlasting righteousness. Adam lost the truth of God. He
believed Satan's lie. The Lord Jesus Christ established
truth, spoke to truth, and restored truth, for he is called the witness
of the truth. John 8, 32, the Lord said, you
shall know the truth, and the truth will set you free. Adam
believed Satan's lie, he didn't believe God's truth, and he sinned
against God. The Lord Jesus Christ spoke absolute
truth. Adam lost life, life. The Lord said to him, the day
you eat, you'll die. His sin brought death, not only
upon him, but upon all men. The Lord Jesus Christ had restored
life, right? He that hath the Son hath what?
Life, everlasting life. Through his death, we have life. He destroyed him who brought
in sin by the sacrifice of himself. You see what he's saying there?
Lord, they said, will you restore again the kingdom to Israel? He said, I've already done the
work. The work is done. It's finished. I have restored. I have reconciled. I have redeemed. I have accomplished salvation. Now, rest in Him. Rest in Him. Now, look at verse 7. Look at
verse 7. And He said unto them, You big
dummies. I mean, you're so stupid. You
big dummies. The Lord is so long-suffering
and gracious, is He not? He could have so severely rebuked
them after all we've been through. John and Peter, after all we've
been through, and you're still stumbling over how salvation
is accomplished? And he said to them, it's not
for you to know the times or seasons which the Father hath
put in his own power. The Lord is still so kind and
gentle to his disciples. to rebuke them and yet instruct
them at the same time. The Lord indeed is long-suffering
toward us. There are some things, he says
here, that you don't need to know. Now, that's true of me,
and that's true of you. There are many things that we
don't need to know. We are to search the Scriptures
that we might know the things the Lord has been pleased to
reveal unto us. But we read this in Deuteronomy
29, 29, the secret things belong to the Lord. But those things
that are revealed belong to us, to our children, that we may
do all the words of His law. We don't need to know when the
Lord is coming back. Now, you can turn to this one
if you want to with me. 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, when
we talk about the Lord coming back, and men, ungodly religious
men, are always trying to set a time and a date when the Lord
is coming back. And they've done that down through
the centuries, haven't they? How many of them have been right?
None of them have been right. They all proved to be liars. Notice in 1 Thessalonians 5,
the Lord will come back. We which are alive and remain
shall be caught up together in the clouds to meet the Lord in
the air. So we shall ever be with the Lord, wherefore comfort
one another with these words. Now chapter 5, but of the times
and seasons, brethren, you have no need that I write to you. For yourselves know perfectly
that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For
when they shall say, peace and safety, then sudden destruction
cometh upon them as travail upon a woman with child, and they
shall not escape. But you, brethren, are not in
darkness, that the day should overtake you as a thief. You
are children of the light and children of the day. We are not
of the night nor of darkness. Therefore, let us not sleep and
do others, but let us watch and be sober. The Lord indeed is
coming back. That's one thing we know for
sure. The Lord said in John 14, I go
away and prepare a place for you again. If I go away, I'll
come again and receive you to Myself that where I am, there
you may be also. Remember in our text, Acts chapter
1 verse 11, Those two witnesses, those two messengers from heaven
in white apparel said to those men of Galilee, verse 11, Why
stand ye gauging up into heaven? This same Jesus which is taken
up from you, into heaven shall so come in like manner as you've
seen Him go into heaven." Is the Lord coming back? Yes. Yes,
He is. Preacher, tell me when He's coming.
Well, I tell you this. I know this for sure. In Revelation
1 verse 7, you know what it says? Behold, He cometh. What does that mean? That means
He's on His way. Behold, he cometh. When is the
Lord coming back? He's on his way. We're to watch
for him. Now, we read this in Matthew
24. But of that day and hour no man knows, not the angels
of heaven, but my Father only. Again, he says in Matthew 24.
Therefore be also ready, for in such an hour as you think
not, The Son of Man cometh. The Lord is coming back. It's appointed unto men once
to die, and after that, judgment. There is a judgment we must face. There is a judge we must face. Because the Lord is coming back,
the Father judgeth no man, but committeth all judgment unto
the Son. Now, Acts chapter 1 verse 8,
But you shall, You shall receive, notice it doesn't say you've
earned this right, you shall receive power. How do we receive
this power? As the gift of God. You see,
everything we have from the throne of God is the gift of God, and
we freely receive it because He freely gives. You shall receive
this power, this privilege, after that the Holy Ghost. The Holy
Spirit has come upon you. And he's talking specifically
about what happens in Acts chapter 2 on the day of Pentecost when
they preach the gospel in such a powerful way and 3,000 souls
are converted. After that the Holy Ghost has
come upon you, you shall be a witness. A witness unto me. a witness about me, who I am,
what I've done, a witness unto me both in Jerusalem and in Judah
and in Samaria to the north and unto the uttermost parts of this
earth. That includes you. That includes
me. Now, what a privilege and blessing
it is to a believer and a lover of the Lord Jesus Christ, to
be a witness and a partaker of that salvation that we have in
Christ. And we have this as the gift
of His grace. We have these exceeding great
and precious promises given unto us. that are freely bestowed
upon us in and through the Lord Jesus Christ, to be a witness
unto the Lord. A witness is one who has seen,
heard, and experienced the truth of the word of the Lord, of the
gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and is privileged to go out and
to tell out that message. And it doesn't have to be in
a formal setting. It can be in a completely one-on-one,
spontaneous conversation with your neighbor, your co-worker,
or wherever it may be, wherever the Lord opens up that door.
Be ready to be a good witness. Be ready to give reason of the
hope of salvation that you have in you to be a witness. John said that which we've seen
and heard. We declare unto you, and that's
what we do. Now, the Lord Jesus Christ. I
want to take a little time and look at this. The Lord Jesus
Christ is the main witness of the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ Himself. Turn to John 18. John 18. Pilate said unto him, Art thou
a king then? John 18, 37. Thou sayest that I am a king,
to this end was I born. For this cause came I into the
world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Everyone that is of the truth
heareth my voice." So the Lord Jesus Christ is that true witness
and of God. Now find 1 Timothy chapter 6. 1 Timothy 6, fight the good fight
of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also
called and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses,
I give thee charge in the sight of God, who quickeneth all things
and before Christ Jesus, who before Pontius Pilate, witnessed
a good confession." Now, that's what the Lord did, and that's
what He sends us to do. Now, if you'll find the Revelation,
Revelation chapter 1, and we read here in verse 5, Revelation
1, 5, Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, And the first
begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth,
unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood,
hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father. To him
be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen. Behold, he cometh.
with clouds, and every eye shall see him. They also, which pierced
him in all the kins of the earth, shall wail because of him. Even
so, amen, he cometh. The Lord is the faithful witness
of the gospel, and he makes us that way. He makes us so by his
grace. Now, look back to the text again,
Acts chapter 1. Verse 8, you shall receive power. He's addressing this to those
eleven apostles who were chosen in sin of God. After the Holy
Ghost has come upon you, you shall be witnesses unto me in
Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and other most parts of the earth.
Now, this has special application to the apostles in their day
to execute their special office and the special gifts the Lord
gave them to carry out their ministry, to go and preach the
gospel to every creature, as the Lord commanded them to do
so. These men already had the Holy Spirit dwelling in them,
for they were regenerated by the power of the Holy Spirit.
But this refers to those distinctive apostolic gifts they were given
to carry out their mission, these special tools, if you will. God
gave them to carry out this mission, and it was mission impossible
in and of themselves, for who is able? But God, through the
power of God the Holy Spirit, gave these men credentials and
tools for the job, for the mission, to go preach the gospel of the
Lord Jesus Christ. They were sent of God, blessed
of God. They had special gifts that they
were given of God. Now don't turn, let me just read
this to you. In Hebrews chapter 2, it says
there in verse 3, How shall we escape if we neglect so great
salvation, which at first began to be spoken by the Lord, and
was confirmed unto us by them that heard Him, God also bearing
them witness both with signs, wonders, divers miracles, gifts
of the Holy Ghost according to His own will. It was the will of God, the sovereign
will of God, the purpose of God. Now, we're going to see that
demonstrated as we study through the book of Acts. They were faithful
witnesses of the Lord Jesus Christ who validated their office and
message by diverse miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit. They
were given special credentials to heal people, even to raise
the dead, to preach the gospel in languages that they had not
learned. They were faithful witnesses
to the Lord who validated their office and message by these miracles
and gifts. Now, listen to me carefully.
There are no apostles today and none that have those special gifts that
were given to these men for this special time. And those that
say we have these apostolic gifts As the apostles had, they're
liars. Plain and simple. Can I be any
more bold? They are liars. There are no
apostles today. There's not men running around
with the gifts that God gave these special men for this special
time as a springboard for the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.
These men were sent to Jerusalem Now think about this. You remember
the Lord stood over that city, and wept over that city, and
said to that city, Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often would I
gather you as a hen does her chicken, but you would not, you've
killed the prophets of God, you've stoned everyone I've sent to
you, and yet the Lord weeps for that city. And He sends them
to Jerusalem. You think he would have said,
out of spite and vengeance, turn your back and run away from Jerusalem
as far as you can. But he said, I have a people
in Jerusalem who need to hear this message. So he sent them
to Jerusalem who killed the prophets. He sent them to Judea, which
is a south country. He sent them to Samaria, to the
north country to preach the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. He
has a people, he has an elect out of every kindred, tribe,
nation, and tongue under heaven. Remember, the Lord himself even
one day said, I must need to go through Samaria. Now have
you ever wondered, it took me 35 years to figure out by reading
and studying the Word of the Lord why there was such enmity
between the Jews and the region of Samaria. You remember the
reason we found out when we studied through 2 Kings? Those ten northern
tribes were carried away into Syria and they never returned. But what the Syrians did, they
sent people from Syria back into that area of Samaria who intermingled
with those Jews who were not carried away and they had this
mixed race and they had this mixed religion and they were
taken up with idolatry and the Jews in the south despised those
people in Samaria. You know what the Lord says here?
You go preach to those people. They need to hear the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ. We're going to see in Acts chapter
8, when Philip was involved in a great revival, remember he
sent Philip down to Samaria to preach to one man from Ethiopia. That one man from Ethiopia heard
the gospel and went back to Africa, and the gospel spread all over
that country through that one man, Philip, preaching to that
one eunuch. You see how the Lord will bless
his message? Bless his message in Samaria,
in Judea, and even to the outermost parts of the earth. You know
what that includes? Pike County, Kentucky. Aren't
you glad the gospel came here? I'm glad the gospel came here.
Aren't you glad that in 1950, in April of 1950, God sent a
gospel preacher to Boyd County, Kentucky, Ashland, Kentucky,
where there's a young 24-year-old religious lost man preacher named
Mahan who must hear the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Brother
Rob Barnard and Henry Mahan hit Ashland, Kentucky in April 1950
on the same day. Well, that was an accident, wasn't
it? No, God doesn't do things accidentally. God purposed that the gospel
would be preached from that man to that man to us. to the uttermost
parts of the world. Now here's the central point
and the main point. What does all these places have
in common? They were full of sinners who
needed to hear the gospel, how God can be just and justify the
ungodly. This is a faithful saying and
worthy of all acceptation that the Lord Jesus Christ came to
save sinners. He came not to call the righteous,
but sinners to repent it. He came to seek and to save the
lost folks. You shall be witnesses unto me
in Jerusalem and to the uttermost parts of the earth. This also
has application for every believer. Now just give me a minute here,
I'm almost through. Every believer is a witness to
the gospel of God concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. Every
believer is in the gospel ministry being part of his body to serve
his purpose. Every believer is to declare
the gospel whatever wherever they go in a humble manner declaring
what God has done for us. Now, I'll give you a prime example
of what I'm talking about if you'll find Mark chapter 5, and
I'll quit with this. Mark chapter 5, I'll send you
home with this. Remember the Lord met a wild
man in the cemetery, the wild man of the Gadarenes, and no
one could bind him? No one could tame him, he was
naked and running wild and crazy, until he met the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Lord clothed him, put
him in his right mind, and he said this, he said this, verse
19, He said to this wild man who was healed, put in his right
mind, clothed with the righteousness of Christ, he said to him, go
home to thy friend. You see it? Mark 5.19. Go home
to thy friends, and tell how great things the Lord hath done
for thee, and had compassion upon thee." And he departed and
began to publish in Decapolis how great things Jesus had done
for him, an all-man marvel. So when we give witness to the
gospel of God, we don't go out and say, look what I've done
for Jesus. That's not what the Lord told that man to do. What
did He tell him to do? Go home and tell how great things
God has done for you. That's what being a witness of
the Lord is all about. A witness to the gospel.