Acts chapter 1, try to look today
at verse 2, down through verse 5. I'm taking the title for the
message from verse 4, and the title of the message is, Waiting
for the Promise. Waiting for the Promise. Look
at verse 4, being assembled together with them, commanded them that
they should not depart from Jerusalem. Now one would naturally think
he would tell them boys to get out of town as quick as possible.
These wicked men in this wicked city are going to crucify you,
they are going to persecute you. Get out of town as quick as possible. He said you stay right there
in the camp of the enemy. What do they need to hear? They
need to hear the gospel. You don't depart, you stay in
Jerusalem, you wait there for the promise of the Father which
you heard of Me." So, the title, Waiting for the Promise of the
Father. He's talking about God the Father. Now, be sure you get this, and
be sure you hear this, that His exceeding great and precious
promises of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ are worth waiting
for. Now remember what the psalmist
David said, wait upon the Lord, wait therefore, and again I say,
wait upon the Lord. When I think about all the promises
of God, several scriptures come to my mind. Two in the Old Testament
and two or three in the New. In Joshua 23, God spoke all those
promises to Joshua concerning the land of Canaan, and here's
what Joshua says upon his deathbed. Not one word has failed of all
the Lord has spoken, all are come to pass. You see what he's
saying there? Every promise God made to me,
to Moses, and all the people, not one word has failed. And
then again, many years later, when Solomon completed the temple,
Upon the dedication, he said this, 1 Kings 8, verse 56, Blessed
be the Lord that hath given rest unto his people Israel, according
to all that he has promised, there hath not failed one word
of all his good promise, which he promised by the hand of Moses
his servant. Not one promise of God will fail. Now, he's made a lot of them.
Hold your place there and find 2 Corinthians chapter 1. Peter
talked about the exceeding great and precious promises that we
have in the gospel. Now find 2 Corinthians chapter
1 verse 18. All the promises of God, but
as God is true, our word or our preaching towards you was not
yea and nay, not could be, might or shall, It was not yea and nay, but yes.
For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by
us, even by me and Silas and Timothy, was not yea and nay,
but in Him was yes. For all the promises of God in
Him are yes and in Him. Amen. And it all works unto the
glory of God by and through and for His covenant people. You remember from Romans chapter
4 where Paul writes about Abraham that he was strong in faith,
giving God the glory, being fully persuaded of all that God had
promised, he is able to perform. Salvation by his performance,
not ours. Now today I want to try to bring,
I'll try to do a little bit better than I did last week. I got through
one verse last week. But I want to try today to look
at verse 2, verse 3, verse 4, and verse 5. Now, let's look
at verse 2. The Lord Jesus began to teach
and do all things until the day in which He was taken up. Verse
2. Taken up, talking about his ascending
back to the right hand of the Father, having accomplished all
of salvation, after that he through the Holy Ghost, the Holy Spirit
had given commandment unto his apostles whom he had chosen. Remember our Lord said to those
men, you didn't choose me, I chose you. Peter and John were out
fishing. Matthew was at the table collecting taxes, and the Lord
chose them to be the apostles. And salvation, we know, is His
choice. The Lord Jesus Christ personally
instructed His apostles before His death. Many and most of his
last words of instruction are given there in John 13 through
John 16. We read a portion of that in
John 14. appeared to his disciples after
his resurrection, and taught them about the gospel of the
Lord Jesus Christ, and reminded them of what he already said,
how many times did he tell them? And he had to keep telling them
again. And he didn't say, you bunch of ignorant fishermen,
I've already told you, and you've forgotten already. But the Lord
in long-suffering grace and compassion, he tells them repeatedly how
we must die for our sin, that he must be betrayed, that he
must suffer, that he must be brought again from the dead.
You want to turn with me, you can. This is familiar to most
of you because we had it in Luke 24. Remember he said he opened
their understanding that they might understand the scripture.
Luke 24, verse 46, Thus it is written, and thus it behooved
Christ to suffer and to rise again from the dead, that repentance
and remission of sins should be preached in His name among
all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And you are witnesses of these
things, the things they heard, the things they saw. But He reminded
them again how that He must suffer for our sins. How often do we
need to be constantly reminded of the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ, lest we let it slip. Now, then after his ascension
to the right hand of the Father, having accomplished all salvation,
having been seated in the heavenlies in Christ the Lord through the
ministry of the Holy Spirit, he promised would come upon them
that he would take the things of Christ and show them unto
us. Now, you got your place here
in John 14, find John 16. This is the importance of the
ministry of the Holy Spirit when He has come. John 16 verse 8,
And when He has come, that is the Comforter, He will reprove
the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment, of sin because
they believe not on me, of righteousness because I go to my Father and
you see me no more, of judgment because the prince of this world
is judged. I have yet many things to say
unto you, but you cannot bear them. Now, how be it when he,
the Spirit of truth, is come? He will guide you into all truth,
for he shall not speak of himself, but whatsoever he shall hear,
that shall he speak, and he will show you things to come. He will
glorify me and receive of mine, and show it unto you. All things
that the Father hath are mine, therefore said I unto you, that
he shall take of mine, and show it unto you." Verse 16, a little
while, yet you shall not see me. And again, a little while,
you shall see me, because I go to my Father. The Holy Spirit's chief and paramount
office, what would you say it is? What's the Holy Spirit's
chief and paramount office? It was to glorify Christ, to
take the things of Christ, our Lord said, and to show them to
you. We're going to see in our study in the book of Acts, the
working and the ministry of God the Holy Spirit, how he magnifies
the Lord Jesus Christ in saving sinners by God's grace. Now watch this, until the day
in which he was taken up, After that, he, through the Holy Ghost,
had given commandments unto his apostles. The apostle, that word
means one sin of God, the one sin of God that he had chosen. Now, I want a key on this word
here, commandment. We read that over and over and
over again in our reading in John 14. The commandment, the
commandment. He hath my commandment, and keepeth
them. He gave commandments to his church. Now, the written word of God
and the preaching of the gospel concerning the Lord Jesus Christ
is not a suggestion. God doesn't suggest that we believe
the gospel. He commands us to believe the
gospel. The written word of God and the
preaching of the gospel concerning the Lord Jesus Christ is not
a suggestion, a proposal, or proposition. It's never right
for a preacher to say, I have a proposition for you. Will you
accept Jesus to be your personal Savior? That's Tommy Rot. The
gospel is not a proposition, it's command. to bow to Christ,
to love the Lord Jesus Christ. God does not suggest that we
preach the gospel. He commanded the apostle. He said, go into all the world
and preach the gospel to every creature. And then Paul, when
he writes back to young Timothy from death row in prison in Rome,
he didn't write back and tell young Timothy, well, Timothy,
I suggest that you go out and preach the gospel. He said, I
charge you before God and the Lord Jesus Christ to preach the
gospel. You see, it's a command that
God gives for us to preach the gospel. And then Paul writes
this in 1 Corinthians 9. He says, Woe is unto me If I
don't preach the gospel, because it's His command, therefore we
go and preach the gospel to everyone that will hear the word of the
Lord. The Lord not only commands us
to go and preach the gospel, the Lord commands all men everywhere
to repent and believe. It's His command. Repent and
believe what? The gospel. He that believeth
the gospel and is baptized shall be saved. He demands every sinner
and commands every sinner to bow to the claims of the Lord
Jesus Christ. He commands it. Turn to Acts
17. Acts 17. Remember we studied in Luke 13
about repentance. He says, except you repent, you
will perish. The Lord commands every man to
believe the gospel. Repentance toward God and faith
toward our Lord Jesus Christ. Acts 17, verse 30. The time did
this ignorance, God winked at, but now commandeth all men everywhere. He does what? He suggests No,
he commands all men everywhere to repent, because he is appointed
a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by
that man whereof he hath ordained, wherefore he hath given assurance
unto all men that he raised him from the dead. Now, thank God
he's been raised from the dead or we would have no reason to
repent or to believe the gospel. He commands us to repent. He commands us to believe the
gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Both faith and repentance, where
do they come from? Where does true faith and true
repentance, where does it come from? It comes as a gift of God. Turn to Acts chapter 5. Acts
chapter 5. Look at verse 29. whom God has given to them that
obey Him." So, we know that faith and repentance are both the sovereign
gifts of God. The sovereign gifts of God. It's
given of God that you would believe the Gospel. The Lord has commanded
us not only to believe, not only to repent, but He's also commanded
us to believe the Gospel. Now here's the scripture, 1 John
3, 23. Don't turn, let me just quote
it for you. This is His commandment that we should believe on the
name of the Lord Jesus Christ and love one another as He gave
us commandment. You see, the Lord doesn't speak
to us by suggestions. The King, who is the King of
Kings and Lord of Lords, He said, this is the way it is. This is
what you're commanded to do. Repent and believe the gospel.
Both faith and repentance are sovereign gifts of God. For by
grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it
is the gift of God. And where you find a true repentant
heart, you find a believer. When you find a true believer,
you find one who is constantly repenting, repenting and looking
and coming and believing unto the Lord Jesus Christ. Both faith
and repentance readily acknowledge and bow to the sovereign will
of God. The faith of God the elect acknowledges
the truth of the gospel. And when he grants true repentance,
that true repentance also acknowledges that God is true, and that the
Word is true, and that salvation is in the Lord Jesus Christ alone. Faith comes by hearing the gospel,
so too does repentance. So does too repentance. So how
can you change your mind? about your wrong thoughts of
God, unless you hear the truth of who God is. Remember what
Cornelius said to Peter, we're all here before God to hear all
things that are what the commanded thee of God. You see, it all
gets back to the gospel being the command of God. Now, He commanded
his apostles to go and preach the gospel. He commanded those
whom he had chosen to believe the gospel. And God has chosen
his people unto salvation. And when God does that work of
grace in our heart by the power of God the Holy Spirit, you know
what happens? We believe the gospel. We repent
constantly. Repentance and faith are not
an isolated act. It's a continuous life before
God. Now, verse 3. To whom the Lord
showed Himself alive. Oh, He died for our sins. But
thank God, He was raised again by the power of God. He said,
no man takes my life from me. I have power to lay it down.
I have power to take it up again. This commandment have I received
in my Father. There's that commandment again.
The commandment of God, the decree of God shall be done. To whom
he showed himself alive after his passion, after his suffering,
suffered unto death for our sin, being made sin for us by many
infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, Speaking
of things pertaining to the kingdom of God. Now this 40 days is that
time between His resurrection on the third morning, and then
40 days. 40 days. There's real significance in
Scripture about 40 days. And we could go through all that.
But He stayed among men for 40 days. At one time He was seen
of 500 brethren at once. to demonstrate clearly and powerfully
and plainly that his resurrection is no myth or phantom or fictitious,
it's real. He walked out of that tomb the
third morning as the glorified God-man mediator and then forty
days later He ascended to glory. We're going to see here in the
book of Acts, look at verse 9, chapter 1 verse 9. And when he
had spoken these things while he beheld, while they beheld,
he was taken up, and a cloud received him out of sight. Now,
explain that, preacher. I can't. I just declare it to
be so. I believe it to be so, because
that's what the Word of the Lord said. The Lord Jesus Christ plainly
showed Himself to be everything He said He was, and He's declared
to be the Son of God by the resurrection from the dead, delivered for
our offenses and raised again for our justification. Now, one
old preacher that I read after his name is J.C. Ryle, John Charles
Ryle, said there are 11 recorded appearances of the risen Lord
Jesus Christ. But here's the point I want to
make, the last part of verse 3, speaking of things pertaining
to the kingdom of God. What is this kingdom of God?
It's the gospel of God concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. He spoke
to them about the king who accomplished redemption by the shedding of
his blood. He spoke to them about things
concerning how the law of God had been fulfilled. in Christ. For He said, I came not to destroy
the law, I came to honor it. He spoke to them about the law
of God being completely honored in every precept and in every
penalty. The Lord Jesus Christ redeemed
us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us. He
spoke to them about things concerning His complete atonement for the
sin of His covenant people. For whom did the Lord Jesus Christ
die? Well, we know he died for his
church. We know he laid down his life
for his church. We know he put away the sin of
his covenant people. He spoke to them about things
concerning how he accomplished the putting away of sin. and
the salvation of the Lord by shedding His own blood, not the
blood of bulls and of goats, but by His own blood He obtained
eternal redemption for us. He spoke to them about how He
established righteousness for us, and then how He freely imputes
that unto us. He spoke to them about the things
that are mentioned, don't turn, let me just read it to you, that
are said of the messenger from heaven, Daniel 9, 24, where he
said, this messenger said, the Lord Jesus Christ was to finish
transgression, to make an end of sins, to make reconciliation
for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up division
and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy. These are the things
He spoke to them about concerning the salvation that is of the
Lord. Now, it is a delight for me to
repeat to you the same things over and over to you, to me. It's safe for you and it's not
grievous unto me to keep telling you how God saves sinners. The kingdom of God and the gospel
of God is all about the Lord Jesus Christ. The message on
the radio this morning about the gospel of God is a good message
that needs to be repeated and heard, and it'll probably be
used again on the radio in the years to come. His kingdom, the
kingdom of God, is a spiritual kingdom, an eternal kingdom,
of which we are born into by the new birth. Not of the will
of the flesh, not of the will of man, but we're born of God. If His own will beget he us with
the word of truth. We're born into this kingdom
by His sovereign will. We don't put ourselves in the
kingdom, but of Him are you in Christ, who of God is made unto
us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. We're in this
kingdom of God by the will of God, by the word of God, by the
gospel of God, and we're made heirs of God and joint heirs
with the Lord Jesus Christ. We're heirs to a kingdom. where
every believer has an inheritance that's incorruptible, undefiled,
that fades not away, that's reserved in heaven for every believer
who is kept by the power of God through faith in the Lord Jesus
Christ. You're looking at a sinner here
who is an heir to a throne. I've got a throne in glory waiting
for me in Christ. Matter of fact, I'm already there.
Preacher, you're not there. Yes, I am. In the person of my
substitute, we're seated together already in the heavenly in Christ.
Doesn't it say that in Ephesians 2? That's right. Now, Luke 1
verse 4, and being assembled together with them, He suggested
to them, Now what does it say there? He commanded them, there's
that word again, commanded them that they should not depart from
Jerusalem. Now as I said earlier, you would
think naturally that he would tell these men to get out of
town as soon as you can. Well as the old western used
to say, get out of Dodge. You better get out of Dodge.
Marshall's looking for you. Marshall Dillon's looking for
you. You better get out of Dodge. The Lord doesn't tell these men
to get out of Jerusalem. These are the men who hated the
Lord Jesus Christ, who put him to death. Remember what he said
to Apostle Paul about those in Corinth when he's getting ready
to leave town. He said, don't leave. I've got much people in
this city. The Lord had some sheep in this
city of Jerusalem who needed to hear the gospel of the Lord
Jesus Christ. He said, don't depart from Jerusalem,
but you wait. You wait for that promise of
the Father, we read about it earlier, the coming of God the
Holy Spirit, that would dwell in them, that would bless them,
that would give them this encouragement, this indwelling, this anointing
of God the Holy Spirit, to go and preach the gospel, which
you've heard of me. For John truly baptized with
water, but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many
days hence." Now, the Lord repeats His command called the Father's
promise to them, and this is concerning the ministry of the
Holy Spirit upon them to give them special gifts, power for
their mission to preach the gospel to every creature. Now these
men would face great hardship, great hatred, but yet they kept
on preaching Christ. You know why? He said, Lo, I'm
with you, I'll never leave you, I'll never forsake you. Lo, I'm
with you always. They were to wait upon the Lord,
to be still and know that I am God, and then run. Then go out
and preach. Don't run until you're sent.
Now, you remember that story in David's day, King David, when
Absalom threw David off the throne, and David was out in the wilderness,
and there was a battle led by Joab against the forces that
opposed King David. And you remember upon the death
of Absalom, those two men who ran, one was a very fast runner,
but he had no message. The other was a very slow runner,
but he had the true message of God. Cushi had the true message. But he was a slow runner. The
other man, he begged Joab to run Hamaz, who ran quickly. But when he came to David, David
said, what about the young man Absalom? Do you remember what
he said? I don't know anything about him. I just wanted to run.
And David said, you stand aside. And here come old Cushiah. He
was a slow man, but he had the message. David said to Cushiah,
he said, what about my son Absalom? He did. He did. Now, we run being commanded and
we wait until we have the message of the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now look at verse 5. For John truly baptized with
water, That's all John can do, and that's all any man can do.
That's all any man can do, is baptized with water, right? Now
I've baptized many of you here, but all I did is baptize you
in water. Confessing the Lord Jesus Christ
as His death, burial, and resurrection, as all of our hope of salvation.
But look what it says right here, but you shall be baptized with
the Holy Ghost. Now, something different here.
Something totally different here. There's a big difference between
baptizing with water and being baptized with the Holy Ghost.
John the Baptist came preaching the Gospel. You remember his
message was, Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away our
sin. He pointed sinners to the Lamb,
and that's what we do. John the Baptist preached Christ
must increase And he said, I must decrease. Turn to John chapter
3 just a minute. I'm almost through. Turn to John
chapter 3. John chapter 3. I want to show you something
here. John 3 verse 30. He must increase. The Lord Jesus must increase.
John said, I must decrease. Now, look at verse 34, 35, 36. For
whom God hath sent, speaketh the words of God. For God giveth
not the Spirit by measure unto him. Speaking of the Messiah,
the Lord Jesus Christ, the Father loveth the Son. This is what
John preached. Behold the Lamb of God, the Father
loveth the Son, hath given all things into his hand. He that
believeth on the Son hath everlasting life. Now John never preached
water baptism for salvation. And he that believeth not the
Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.
Now what did John preach? Behold the Lamb of God. What
did John say? He must increase, I must decrease.
What did John say? The Father loved the Son, had
given all things into His hand. What did John preach? He that
believeth on the Son hath everlasting life. Turn to John chapter 5. Our Lord said this, John 5.24,
Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and
believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life. He that heareth my word, that's
faith, comes by hearing, hearing the word of the Lord, and believing
on me, that's the work of God, the gift of God, everlasting
life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from
death unto life." Now, John never preached water baptism for salvation. The Lord Jesus Christ never preached
water baptism for Salvation. Here's what John says, "...I
indeed baptize you with water..." This is Matthew 3. "...I indeed
baptize you with water unto repentance. But he that cometh after me is
mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear. He shall
baptize you with the Holy Ghost, And with fire, whose fan is in
his hand, he will throughly purge his floor, gather his wheat into
the garner, but will burn the chaff with unquenchable fire. Now John called upon sinners
to repent and believe the gospel, but neither John, nor the apostles,
nor the Lord Jesus Christ preached water baptism, as the way of
salvation. Did they? Not at all. John truly baptized with water
and he did. But, you shall be baptized with
the Holy Ghost not many days hence. Now, water baptism is
not essential to salvation. It is essential to obedience.
Water baptism is not the way of salvation. It's not the way
of having our sin remitted. The Lord Jesus Christ plainly
said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. What every sinner
must be baptized with and immersed with is the power of God the
Holy Spirit. You have he quickened who were
dead in trespasses and in sin. Listen to this scripture, 1 Corinthians
12 verse 13. Paul said this, for by one spirit
are we all baptized into the one body, whether we be Jews
or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free, and have been made to
drink into one Spirit. So what needs to happen? We need the birth from above,
which is by the power of God the Holy Spirit. And when that
does take place, The way to confess that publicly is by water baptism. It never puts away sin. It doesn't
put us into the covenant. It doesn't give us the new birth.
It doesn't give us salvation. It demonstrates publicly that
Christ is all our salvation in Him. It takes the power of God,
the Holy Spirit, to raise up dead men and to cause them to
believe the gospel. Now here's where Here's where
we've gone wrong. Because we do not understand
what happened in the garden, deadness, sin, spiritual death. Because we don't realize the
teaching of the Word of God of what we call total depravity,
being dead in sin. Because we have no understanding
there, we have no understanding of what happened at the cross.
how the Lord Jesus accomplished salvation for us. Therefore,
we have no understanding of what regeneration really is. Regeneration
is not reformation. Regeneration is not you deciding
that you're gonna accept Jesus as your personal savior. That's
not regeneration. Regeneration is God doing a work
by the power of God, the Holy Spirit, raising dead men to life. And our Lord said, unless that
happens, you'll die in your sin. Except the man be born again,
born again, By the Spirit of God, you cannot enter into the
Kingdom of God. Our Lord said, no man can come
unto me except the Father which sent me draw him. We need the
baptism of God the Holy Spirit to make us new creatures in Christ.
Now, many of you read, I hope, that you read the weekly sermon
that we publish by Pastor Mahan each week. My dear wife does
the transcribing work on that. And then we have several that
proofread and edit that. And I trust that you read those
that I sent out each week. One of the statements Pastor
Mahan made in that message that I sent out yesterday, he said,
what we're facing in this day is apostasy in the pulpit. That's
the problem. The problem is not in the pew.
The problem is in the pulpit. Because preachers, false preachers,
not sin of God, run out with a message that they think is
right and it's all wrong, and they tell sinners to do certain
things, go certain places, and do this or do that or join this
or come here. And they think that's salvation.
The apostasy that we're facing today, and Brother Mahan preached
that in 1977. 1977, more than 40 years ago. Apostasy in the pulpit. The problem
in false religion today is not in the pew, but in the pulpit. We need men who are sent of God. Wait at Jerusalem until you be
endued with power from on high. And then when you're sent, you
have a message. I've got the message. I'm not
looking for the message. I've got the message. Salvation
is in Christ.