I want you to open the Bible
to Acts the 16th chapter. And quite often when I prepare
a message to preach to you or to anyone else, I try to put myself in the place
of the person being called or being dealt with by the Spirit
of God. For example, if I'm preaching
on blind Bartimaeus, and this may be of some minor help to
those in the congregation who do preach, I try to project myself
into that blind man, imagine that I am actually he. I try
to feel the darkness. I try to feel the poverty and
the the old robe wrapped around him, and the loneliness and the
emptiness. And I try to feel what it would
be like to be helpless and hopeless in this darkened condition. No
one can help in any way, but someone whispered in my ear,
years ago that there was a blind man whom Christ healed and made
to see. And I would sit there and I would
think about him all these years, that if he ever crosses my path,
if he ever does, if he ever does, you reckon he ever will. I'm
sure I've experienced times of depression and I think, well,
he never will. He never will. And then other
times, somebody would come by and say, Jesus of Nazareth was
just outside the city. My heart would beat faster, you
know. And then, sitting there that day, just an ordinary day,
and people passing by, and I heard an unusual crowd of people. And
I inquired, what's going on? And that magic word, Jesus of Nazareth passes
by. What did you say? I said, Jesus
of Nazareth passeth by. And I could just feel myself
coming out of those rags and reaching out with desperation. Lord Jesus, our Son of David,
have mercy on me. And then somebody trying to quiet
me down. And I just fight him off, you know. You'd think he's
blind. Fight him off. And cry out the louder. And then
that crowd hushes. And he said, bring him to me.
My, my, my. Well that, and I got to read
in this sixteenth chapter of Acts. You know, after all, God's
the same. Whether then or now, God's the
same. Men are the same. Barnabas is
a man just like me. The Philippian jailer here is
a man just like me. In fact, actually, he might have
been very much like me. Who knows? If I'd been born 1900 years ago,
well, I just might have been this man, you know? Could have
been. Paul, you could have been this man, right? You could have
been the Philippian jailer. He looked for a job and found
one. You looked for a job and found one. You could have been
the jailer. You could have had those keys up there on your belt. And I got to thinking the other
night as I read this, and let me read it to you, it says in
verse 25 of Acts 16, and suddenly there was a great earthquake.
So that the foundation, well let's look at verse 25, at midnight
Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises unto God and the prisoners
heard them. Now it doesn't say anything there
about the jailer hearing them, it said the prisoners heard them.
I hear people talk about that jailer sitting outside the door
listening to Paul you know, and heard him preach, and heard him
sing, and heard him pray. He was sitting out there, but
he was asleep. He was a callous, rough individual. Paul was no
more special prisoner to him than any other prisoner in there.
He gave him a licking, put him in jail, and put those, snapped
those fetters on his wrist, just like he did all the rest of them,
on his feet, too. He said, you give me any trouble,
I'll give you another licking. Well, they went to sleep. But
the prisoners, and suddenly there was an earthquake, just a shaking
of the earth, so that the foundations of the prison, that old stone
dungeon, was literally shaken. And immediately all the doors
were opened in that prison, all those old iron doors with their
bars just flung open. And all, everyone's bands were
loose, every prisoner. The fetters just fell right off,
the armbands and chains just fell off on the floor. And the
keeper of the prison, the jailer, awaking out of his sleep, he
might have been leaning against the wall in a chair, he might
have been down there in a bunk asleep, but he was sound asleep. And awaking out of his sleep,
because the prison was shaken, He saw the prison doors wide
open. Now, what's his reaction? Well, the prisoners are gone.
They're all gone. And I've been given charge. Now,
of course, nowadays, if that happened, you know, the jailer,
if everybody escaped, he might be reprimanded, but he wouldn't
lose his job probably. If he lost his job, he'd get
another one, but they'd kill this fellow. He knew that he
was given charge of those prisoners. They was gone. He was a dead
turkey, and he knew it. Dead man. They'd kill him without
trial. Just come in with prisoners gone,
just stab him and cart his body outside, scared to death. So
he took out his sword and was going to kill himself. He was
just going to plunge his sword into his midsection, supposing
that the prisoners had fled. But Paul cried out with a loud
voice and said, Do thou have no harm? Don't do that. We're all here. Nobody gone. And he called for a light. I
don't know who he called to supply the light. Might have had some
assistance. I don't know. But he called for a light. And
he sprang into that cell where he put this man Paul and this
man Silas. He sprang and he came trembling.
This whole thing shook him up. The earthquake and all of this
sort of thing. And he fell down before Paul
and Silas. He knew they were preachers.
He knew why they were put in there. He knew they'd brought
some strange doctor into town. He knew that they'd impressed
a lot of people. He knew the Pharisees and Sadducees
were afraid of them and upset by them and felt threatened by
them. He knew those things, I'm sure.
And he brought them out of the cell. And he said to them, sirs,
what must I do to be saved? Now, somebody asked me the other
day, said, do you think he meant by the word saved there what
we mean by the word saved? I just doubt very seriously that
he did. The word saved means delivered, recovered, spared. That's what the word saved means. You know, Paul said this, we
have been saved, we're being saved, you know. I shall be saved,
I have been delivered." I believe what he's saying here, if I can
get myself into his place, he is saying, save from this course
of life, save from this dilemma in which I'm in, save from this condemnation or sins or to know
your God, but just a lot of things included there. Whatever we know
about being saved, justified, redeemed, righteous before God,
but I don't think he knew about those things. I think he wanted
deliverance from where he was and what he was. Don't you imagine,
sir, where he was and what he was? He wanted deliverance. He wanted to know God, too, the
living God, the real God. He knew he'd seen the power of
God displayed right here. So Paul said to him, he said
to him, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.
Delivered from your present situation and circumstances and a dead-end
street and a hopeless life, and you'll have a knowledge of God.
You'll be redeemed. You'll be delivered. You'll be
saved if you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou hast. Now you suppose that that's all
the information. Here's this man, totally illiterate,
totally uninterested, totally untaught, and he says, what must
I do to be saved? Because I believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ, and I shall be saved in thy house. And that's
all there was to it? No, I don't think so. Let's read
on. And they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all
that were in his house. There's the key. This man took
them, he brought them out. And as they were coming out,
he said, Sirs, what must I do to be delivered, to be saved,
to be changed, to have whatever you fellows have, to know whoever
you fellows know? And they said, Believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ. And he took them down to his
house. He took them home with him, Paul and Silas. And it says
in verse 33, He took them the same hour of the night and washed
their stripes, bathed them, and put oil in their wounds. and
gave them fresh clothing, fed them. You know they had some
coffee on the stove or something, fed them. And then they sat down
and talked about Christ. They sat down and talked. That's
when Paul taught him the Word of God. And I believe this man,
here's what I'm saying, I believe this man asked some questions.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And I just, I believe he asked
some questions about Christ. I know If I had been the jailer,
then I would have had to ask some questions. You can't believe
on him of whom you haven't heard. You can't call on a name in which
you haven't believed. I got, who is he? Well, that's
the first question I think he has. I said, I think they sat
down and he looked at Paul. He said, now I'm in a mess and
I know it. I'm troubled, I'm confused, I'm
a wicked man. I'm in a wicked business. I deal
with wicked people. My life's a dead end straight.
If there's a hell, I'm going there. If there's a God, I don't
know it. I need help. What must I do? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
What's the first question? Well, who is he? You tell me
to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, who is he? All right.
Paul, where are you going to start? Who is he? So Paul was a student of the
Scriptures, and I believe Paul might have gone back here to
Genesis chapter 3. I believe he might have. I believe
he might have gone back to Genesis chapter 3. Now, he probably didn't
have a Bible in his hand like you and I do tonight, but I believe
he might have gone back to Genesis chapter 3. And he'd say to this
man, when God made this world, He created a man called Adam.
And all of us, Jew and Gentile, We all came, this was a Gentile
jailer, we all came from this man Adam. And when God created
Adam, the one man who created all men in him, in his loins,
and this man was the federal head, the representative of the
whole race. And this man Adam was given charge
by God, a covenant of works with God, to obey God and live, disobey
God and die. And this man Adam died. he disobeyed
God. And when he disobeyed God, he
died, and the whole human race died in him. And in that hour,
in that hour of darkness and death and sin, and in that hour
of the fall, Almighty God, the Creator of man and the Creator
of heaven and earth, God of justice and righteousness and holiness,
said to that man and to that woman and to that serpent, Satan,
who tempted I'm going to put enmity between the seed of sin,
seed of serpent of Satan, and the woman's seed. I'm going to
put enmity between thy seed and the woman's seed. And thou shalt
bruise his head, and he shall bruise thy heel." In other words,
young man, the first promise that man ever heard of a Redeemer,
of a Savior, is Jesus Christ. That's who Jesus Christ is. He
is that seed of woman. For He said, God said over in
Isaiah 7, 14, God said this, in Isaiah 7, 14, He said, He
said, Behold, therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign.
Behold, a virgin, a woman that's never known a man, shall conceive
and bear a son. and thou shalt call his name
Immanuel." And he'd say to the young man, from that promise
in Genesis 3, 15, God said, woman, have a seed. That woman is a
virgin and will bring forth a son, and that son will not only be
a seed of woman, but the Son of God. His name shall be called
Immanuel, God with us. And then in Isaiah 9, 6, God
promised, that under us a child is born, a son is given, and
his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor of the Mighty God,
the Prince of Peace, the Everlasting Father." In other words, he said,
I'm saying to you that this Jesus of Nazareth that I'm telling
you to believe in is the seed of woman, the virgin
son, and he is God in human flesh. And that's what the angel is
saying in Matthew 1 when he came down to Mary of of Bethlehem. In Matthew 1.21, Matthew 1.20,
he's talking to Joseph. He told Mary, or as she'd go,
of her son. Then he told Joseph, in Matthew
1.20, while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of
the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thy
son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife, for
that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. and she
shall bring forth a son, and call his name Jesus. For he shall
save his people from their sin. Now all this was done, that it
might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophets,
saying, Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring
forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus, or Emmanuel,
which is being interpreted, God with us." What he's saying to
this Philippian jailer is that this Jesus is God Almighty in human flesh
and the fulfillment of every prophecy and every promise of
the Messiah. And when the angels came and
announced His birth, they announced Him as being Immanuel. And now turn to Hebrews 1, verse
1 through 8. Hebrews 1. This is what we read
in the study tonight. Hebrews 1, 1 through 8. There's
no clearer definition of who Jesus Christ is than right here
in these verses. Hebrews 1. who at sundry times
and in diverse manners spake in times past unto the fathers
of the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his
Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom he made
the worlds, who, being in the brightness of his glory, expressed
the image of his person, and upholdeth all things by the word
of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat
down on the right hand of God." Who is Jesus Christ? He's a man. son of a woman, son of a virgin,
born of woman, made under the law, but He is God Almighty. He is God in human flesh, and
He is the fulfillment of every promise and every prophecy from
the first promise in Genesis 3.15. He is that prophet of whom
Moses spake. He is the seed of Abraham. He
is the seed of the virgin, and He is the priest forever after
the daughter of Melchizedek. That's who He is. That's why
I'm telling you to believe on it. Oh, I believe the second
question the man would ask is this. Who appointed him? When I ask,
who is this Jesus? Doesn't ask this. All right.
Who said that he's the only Savior? Who appointed him? Who appointed
him to this office and sent him to do this work? Oh, that turned
the Hebrews five. I believe Paul would have dealt
with that question much like He dealt with it here in Hebrews
chapter 5. What's this? He said, Every high
priest taken from among men is ordained for men in things pertaining
to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices, who can
have compassion on the ignorant, on them that are out of the way,
for that he himself is also accomplished with infirmity. And by reason
hereof he ought, as for the people, so also for himself to offer
for sins. But no man taketh this honor
unto himself, this office to himself. Man doesn't volunteer
to be the high priest, but he that's called of God. Now, as
Paul would say to the jailer, a man comes and says, I'm the
Savior. Well, he doesn't do this of himself.
Not a voluntary thing in the sense that it originates with
him. He volunteers, but it originates with God. Now watch this. So
also this Jesus Christ glorified not himself to be made a high
priest, but he that said unto him, Thou art my son, to thee
have I begotten thee. He appointed him. That's where
Christ got his authority. God sent him. Turn to Galatians
4. Galatians chapter 4, verse 4
and 5. Listen. It says here, but when the fullness
of time was come, God sent his son. For God so loved the world,
he gave his only begotten son. God sent his son into the world,
made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them under the
law, that they might receive the adoption of son. God chose
him. God appointed him. And he's the
only Savior. Oh, I believe the third question
he might ask is this. Now, this is a man totally ignorant
and illiterate of the gospel. He wasn't raised in the church.
He doesn't have any scriptural or Bible background. And these
are questions I believe he would ask because they're questions
I would ask. Who is he? Who appointed him? All right,
he's God. God made him. God sent him. Well, you say he
came to the earth. What did he do on the earth?
What did he do? He lived here this thirty-three,
thirty-four years. What did he do? Well, Paul would
say this, well, he was a man without without fault. Even Pilate,
when he was on trial, said, I find no fault in it. He was a man
who knew no sin. He was a man who went about doing
good. He was a man who had a compassionate, loving heart. He loved people.
And he healed the sick, and he gave sight to the blind. This
is what our Lord told John when he sent and said, Are you the
Christ? Or do we look for another? Christ said, you go tell John
that the blind see, the deaf hear, the lame walk, and the
gospel speaks to the poor. And he said, this man, he came
to earth and he lived a perfect life. No one could find, even
his enemies could find no fault with it. Paul said, he said to
the Pharisees, which of you convinces me of sin? And he had the power
of God. He said even Nicodemus, one of
the leading Pharisees, said no man could do what he does except
God be with him. And he said he even raised the
dead. He gave sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, strength
to the lame, and raised the dead. But, Paul would say, it's cheap
reason for coming to this earth. Now, son, listen to me. You're
not going to be saved by believing in Christ the healer. You're
not going to be saved by believing in Christ the amazing preacher. You're not going to be saved
by believing in Christ The man without sin. The chief reason
why Jesus Christ came into the world, he said himself, was to
seek and to save the lost. Folks that were lost in Adam.
Remember I told you about Adam's fall? But we're lost in Adam. And Paul said this, see, this
is a faithful saying, and it's worthy of acceptation by all
men, that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. That's
why he came into the world, to save sinners. And in saving sinners, his chief
work is to establish for them, and
give unto them, and impute unto them before his Father a perfect
righteousness. That's why he came. And to give
them a perfect standing before the justice of God. That's why
he came. What did he do on the earth? He did many things. by signs
and miracles and wonders, showed himself to be who he claimed
to be. But his chief reason to come, coming into this world,
was to save sinners. I think the next question then
the man would have, what would you ask next? Well, how did he
establish a righteousness? How did he redeem us from the
law? Turn to Romans 5. That's what
he came for in that. That's what he came for. He didn't come just to reform
the world. He came to save sinners, to give
us a righteousness before God and to give us redemption before
the law and before justice. Romans 5, 19. Well, what did
he do? Well, Paul would say, now, by
one man's disobedience, one man's sin, many were made sinners.
Now, you say, young fellow, the way we got in the shape we're
in was because of our identification with and association with Adam.
See, when Adam fell, he became a sinful man with a sinful nature. Sinful heart, spirit, soul died. And any son he begat would be
just like him. And the son he begat and the
son he begat. So not only by imputation as
a representative were we made sinners through Adam, But by
impartation from Adam, we received an evil nature. In sin, my mother
conceived me. I was brought forth speaking
lies. The wicked are strained from the womb. They go astray
as soon as they're born, speaking lies. He said, we're in the shape
we're in because Adam fell as our representative, and the death
and destruction came upon us. But also, by his disobedience,
we became sinners. We were made flesh without any
knowledge of life, or truth of God in us. And that's how we
fail. So now watch the next verse,
next part of it. So, by the obedience of one, shall many be made holy
and righteous. You see, son, really there are
two meanings. In Adam we die. In Christ we
are made alive. The first Adam is of the earth,
And he's the father of all races and all nations and all people.
He's the first man. And from his loins come all nations
and races, and they're just like him, partaking of his power,
partaking of his sin. And left in that state, we're
separated from God. We have no communion with God,
no fellowship with God, no knowledge of God, and the judgment of God
is upon us. But thank God there's another man. The first Adam is
of the earth, red earth. That's what his name means, taken
from the dirt. And he's of the earth, earthy.
But the second Adam, man, is the Lord from heaven. The first
man is the son of man. The second man is the son of
God and the son of man. And he came down here in that
same flesh, in that same... born of a woman, yet without
a human father. If he had a human father, he'd
been from Adam and not from God. If he'd have been begotten by
Joseph, he'd have been Joseph's son, who was somebody else's
son, who was Adam's son. The same blood would have run
through his veins, the same sinful nature would have been in his
heart just like us. But he was born of God, conceived
of the Holy Ghost. Perfect man. And whereas Adam
faced God's law and faced God's requirement, and Adam failed,
Jesus of Nazareth, the God-man... See, I told you he's God. And
God sent him. And God showed through his marvelous
works who he is. And he met that law, and he was
tempted and tested in every single point as we are, as Adam was. Every glitter and glamour and
glory of man, even stronger than Adam, for Satan himself came
and even offered him the kingdoms of the world. Same type of temptation. But he never fell. He never fell. And Adam stood for us. The whole
human race was in Adam. And when he fell, they all fell.
And guilt was imputed to them and imparted to them by their
association with him, by coming. Jesus Christ came representing
a people, a sheep, a kingdom, a family, a race of believers. And when he obeyed, we obeyed. When he stood, we stood. When
he fulfilled God's law, we fulfill. That's right. But then, the law
is honored, but justice is not satisfied. In the obedience of
Christ, the law is honored, but justice is not satisfied, because
we've sinned. We've got sin on our record,
sin against us. So he went to the cross of Calvary
and says, Cursed is everyone that dies on a tree. He had to
die under the curse. of the broken law. And he went
there and bore our sins in his body. And like one man said,
God can satisfy, but God can't suffer. But a man can suffer,
yet a man can't satisfy. So the God-man, as a man can
suffer under the judgment and penalty of sin, as a man, as
God, infinite God, because of who He is, He can satisfy. the justice of God. So on that
cause, he suffered for all the sins of all believers of all
ages, and being who he is, can fully satisfy an infinite God
and a holy God. That's what he did. That's how
he did it. That's how he did it. He died for our sins. He was wounded for our transgressions,
bruised for our iniquities. You see that? Well, I believe
the next question the man would have asked would be this. Why does God require this? Why can't God just make up his mind
he's going to forgive people and forgive them? Oh, that's a good question. That's
a good question. Job, he said, asked this same
question about how can man be just with God? How can God justify
the ungodly? See, turn to Romans chapter 3,
if you will. I believe Paul would have then
talked to him about who God is, the holiness of God, the immaculate,
eternal holiness of God. And here in Romans chapter 3,
verse 25, he would say this to him, talking about Christ. whom God hath set forth, foreordained,
appointed, anointed, sent this Redeemer, to be a mercy seed,
a propitiation, a sin offering, through faith in his blood, to
declare, to make clear, to set forth, to manifest God's righteousness,
God's righteousness. For the remission, for the forgiveness,
or the passing over of sins that have passed, Old Testament saints,
through the longsuffering of God. To declare, I say, at this
time, God's righteousness, that he might be just, and the justifier
of him which believeth in Jesus. You see, my friends, God Almighty
is immaculately, infinitely holy, indescribably, incomprehensibly
holy. And anything God does, whether
it be in justice or whether it be in love, whether it be in
grace or whether it be in judgment. He's got to do it in keeping
with his character, in keeping with his character. And that's
why Jesus Christ... In other words, there's no way
that God can be God, just and holy and righteous, and pass
over sin. God must punish sin. So God,
in His holiness and righteousness and justice and love, gave His
Son to do for us what we couldn't do. You say, well, who needs
Jesus Christ? Well, I need Him as my sin offering
and substitute and Savior and righteousness and redeeming.
But God needs Him. God needs Him because God Almighty
cannot act in love without acting in a just love and a righteous
love and a holy love. You see that? a holy love. He must punish sin. Turn to Psalm
85.10, the scripture that Brother Tom read. Now, this is something
that, what I'm on right now, is something that preachers never
touch. They never say anything about
it. Most people, Psalm 85.10, read over it, not pay attention
to it. Tom called our attention to it. Mercy and truth are met
together. What's that say? Righteousness
and peace have kissed each other. Now, here I am a sinner, guilty,
condemned, a rebel, a traitor against God Almighty, just filthy
and corrupt and vile, in the dunghill. And here's a holy,
immaculate, infinite God, who in His own purpose and will has
determined to have a relationship with that sinner. But God in
His righteousness cannot touch me. He cannot even come to me. He cannot even have anything
to do with me, because I'm the opposite. He's light and I'm
darkness, and what fellowship does light ever dark? And yet God is love, and He desires
to pardon and forgive, but His righteousness won't let Him. He said, I'll show love to that
sinner. His righteousness said, a holy God cannot act contrary
to His holiness. So here's what he's saying in
Psalm 85, 10, that mercy he desires to show, and that truth, that
truth about the center, met somewhere together. And I'll tell you where
it met. It met in Christ on Calvary.
And because Christ died for me, God can have something to do
with me, because in Christ I'm as holy as God. You see that? Righteousness and peace. Righteousness,
the righteousness of God in condemning me, yet the peace of God in pardoning
me, how can they meet? They meet in Christ, who fully
obeyed the law. And so here I stand, and I can
say before God in Christ, you can accept me, you can receive
me, you can have fellowship with me, because I've obeyed your
holy law. But check your law. There's no
charge against me in Christ. Who can lay me in charge of God's
election? And who can condemn me? Christ died. I died in Christ. So you see, that's what he would
say to this man. This is why this must be done. This is why
baptism can't cleanse the sinner. Baptism can't have anything to
do with the law or justice. It can't satisfy. That's why
we walk down an aisle and we get religion. Annie, you were
saying today, you go confession and you confess your sins to
the priest and you feel better. You go home and take a bath,
wash your hair and put on clean clothes and you're still so clean.
You're not good and holy. You did it when you were Catholic.
You told me that, you know, you got your sins out, confessed
them and washed them off. Wait a minute now. Here's law.
Here's perfect holy law. It says you're not clean. And
we can play church. We can play religion. We can
profess it, we can say everything's all right. It's not all right
until He says it's all right. And that's what Christ did. He
actually cleansed you. You can feel clean because He
washed you in His blood. He actually did put you on clean
clothes. He put His righteousness on you.
And He washed not just your hair, but your soul, and your heart,
and your mind, and your spirit. He made you perfect. And he did it that God might
embrace you in his arms. And do it without ceasing to
be God. And without compromising his
character. Without being any less than he
is. Turn to Isaiah 45. I think Paul would have mentioned
this. Isaiah 45. These false gods can't help you.
People are foolish who trust gods that cannot say and cannot
hear. But he said in verse 21, listen,
of Isaiah 45, Tell ye and bring them near, let them take counsel
together. Who hath declared this from ancient
times? Who hath told it from that time? Have not I the Lord?
And there is no God beside me, I am a just God. Boy, I don't
want anything to do with a just God, do you? Only if he says,
and a Savior, and a Savior. And in Christ, because of the
perfect fulfillment of that law, And in Christ, because of his
sacrificial death, God is a just God and a Savior. All right, here's the next question
we'd ask. Well, I would ask. He's cleared
this up pretty well. Who is he, and who sent him,
and what did he do, and why did he do it? Paul, how do I know that God
accepted him? Now, I'm with you on this representation. I see that from the Word. I see
that he did come down here and he obeyed the law, he fulfilled
it perfectly, and I know he died. But how do I know that God the
Father has accepted this man, what he did? Or Acts 23, Acts
13, I beg your pardon, Acts 13. Paul said, this is what they're,
here's what they're chasing me all over the country for preaching.
This is the very thing that they hate me for preaching. This is
the very thing I've been called in question for preaching. God
raised him from the dead. God raised him from the dead. If he hadn't been accepted of
God, he'd still be in that grave. His bones would still be rotting.
Acts chapter 13, verse 29. Listen to it. They had fulfilled
all that was written of Him. Who's that talking about? These
people that crucified Him. These people that betrayed Him
and denied Him and crucified Him, they fulfilled everything
God wrote about Him, unknown to them. They took Him down from
the tree. Even when they spit on Him, they
fulfilled what was written. When they gave him vinegar to
drink, they fulfilled that which was written. When they cast lots
for his garment, they fulfilled that which was written. When
they walked around the cross and laughed at him and said he
had thus saved the other, unless he can't save himself, they fulfilled
that which was written. When they nailed him between
two things, they fulfilled that which was written. Turn now,
ladies and gentlemen, a supplicant. But God raised him from the dead. God raised him from the dead.
And he was seen many days of them which came up with him from
Galilee to Jerusalem, who are his witnesses unto people. And
we declare unto you glad tidings, how that the promise which was
made unto the fathers God hath fulfilled the same unto us, their
children, in that he raised Jesus up again, as it is also written
in the second psalm, that my son this day have I begotten
thee. And it is concerning that he
raised him up from the dead, and now no more to return to
corruption. He said on this wise, I'll give
you, with your mercies, a day." Acts 17, 31. One more Scripture
lesson. Acts 17, 31. Verse 31 of Acts 17. Paul said,
because this is what he preached to Athens, and I'm sure he preached
to this man at Philippi. Because God hath appointed a
day in which he'll judge the world in righteousness by that
man whom he ordained, whereof he gave assurance unto all men,
in that he raised him from the dead." There it is. That's how you can know God accepted
him. And I tell you, Paul said later, if Christ be not risen,
you're yet in your sins. We're false witnesses of God
and of all men most miserable. I believe the next question from
the man would be this. would be for me. Where is he
now? God raised him from the dead.
Where is he? Back to Hebrews 1. Well, Paul would say, thank
God he has risen and he has ascended and he's at the right hand of
God. He's at the right hand. That's what he said here in verse
3, who being the brightness of his glory and the express image
of his and upholding all things by the word of his power, when
he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand
of God." In Romans 8.34, "...who can condemn
me? Christ died, yea, risen again,
who is also seated at the right hand of God." I believe the next
question would be this. He's at the right hand of God.
What does he do in there? What's he doing at the right
hand of God? Well, Paul said that, first of all, I'll tell
you this. At the right hand of God, he is accepted and loved,
and he has been given a name above every name. He's exalted.
That's the first thing. He's exalted. For all of this,
it's for his glory and his preeminence. He's exalted. God has given him
a name which is above every name. There's a name of Jesus. He said,
sit on my right hand till I make your enemies your footstool.
That's the first thing. He's exalted, magnified, the
name above everything. Whatever God does with the world,
Christ is at preeminence. But secondly, He's our forerunner. He has, as our forerunner and
representative, the man, He has entered within the veil to occupy
for all whom He represents. That's right, that's what it
says. Turn to, I want you to see this, Hebrews 6. Hebrews
6 verse 20. He is our forerunner. You know,
if we could even imagine behind the veil, that old tabernacle that stood
in the wilderness, the people are out yonder, outside the white
eight-foot high fence. They weren't allowed in the courtyard.
But in the courtyard, certain priests appointed, selected,
anointed were allowed to slay animals and to go about the business.
But in the tabernacle here, in the holy place, there was still
a smaller circle allowed to keep the showbread and the candlestick
and the incense. But within the veil, Nobody was
allowed. Nobody. Within the Holy of Holies,
the Shekinah glory of God dwelt over the mercy seat between the
chair beams. Right, Charlie? No one, except
one man, once a year. Now, once a year, that's ten
times in ten years. That's just a hundred times in a century. And not without
blood. And the censer of incense. And
he went in there in fear and trembling, praying that God wouldn't kill
him, but would accept the blood. But this man, Jesus Christ, had
gone behind the veil into the holy of holies, into the Shekinah
glory of God, and sat down. I'm here to stay. And you know
what? He took us with Him. With air,
that's right. Seated with Christ in the heaven. You know, you go into somebody's
office at home, and you're a stranger, and you kind of just stand around.
But you walk in and just sit down. I've come to occupy. Where's
my room? You think about that.