Dennis Tuuri

He says this himself in a different portion of the scriptures, but don’t misunderstand this. It was true ignorance, but it was also true sin. Their sin was malicious and wicked. The ignorance is no excuse. Their problem ultimately is not their knowledge of the facts. Their problem is their rejection of God’s word. It’s they should have known him. That’s the whole point of this. They had those scriptures read every Sabbath day.

And the scriptures all testified of the Lord Jesus Christ. For years, these leaders had been hearing that word and studying that word, but with blinders on, completely dead to it. And again, that’s a picture of all of us. Unless God’s spirit works on us, we can’t understand the scriptures. That’s why we have a prayer of illumination. It’s a book unlike any other book. You cannot understand it apart from the work of the Holy Spirit who works in your heart.

Well, their ignorance wasn’t, you know, God’s fault. It was their fault. It is true that men who are not elect cannot choose for the Lord Jesus Christ. They cannot bring themselves back to life. They are the walking dead. They’re flatliners. It’s true that they cannot respond correctly. But it is also true that they will not. They have no desire to follow the Lord Jesus Christ. It’s not as if they want to become Christians and God says no through not calling them.

No, they are culpable because their own volitional will and the providence of God would never and will never choose the right path apart from God’s quickening. Well, that’s what these people are, but even in this, even in their great wickedness, all they do is fulfill the word of prophecy. That’s what Paul says. They didn’t know these things though they heard them. They have fulfilled them—that is, the prophecies relative to Jesus in condemning him. Verse 27: although they didn’t understand these things, they fulfilled those very prophecies and what they did. And we could go through the thing, but you’ve heard it before. All the prophecies the Old Testament fulfilled in very detail, and all the details, the small details of Christ’s death and burial and resurrection.

So many things were fulfilled, and these men who were blind to it didn’t even know they were fulfilling God’s word. Again, God’s sovereignty and man’s reliance upon God is spoken of here. God moves through these men. Peter had said that Jesus was given up according to the predetermined foreknowledge of God. Ultimately, he was part of God’s decree that his own son die on the cross for our sins. And yet, these people are totally culpable for their actions.

Well, so Paul says that this message of salvation, deliverance from these oppressors, the way that is accomplished, what you have to respond to, the particular facts you must respond to are the facts that God became incarnate in the Lord Jesus Christ, that he died, that he was buried, and that he rose again, and that resurrection is testified to by eyewitnesses. For 40 days, he walked around after the resurrection. At least 10 different appearances to people, maybe many more. We don’t know. At least 500 witnesses to his resurrection. You see, nailed it down. Important covenants in the scriptures have witnesses. And as God makes covenant with his people through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, he provides a myriad number of witnesses—not two or three, hundreds of them, maybe thousands of them. We don’t know. For 40 days, he is witness to his resurrection. It’s important. Don’t ever think the Christian faith is the same whether or not Jesus rose from the dead. Paul says that if he didn’t rise from the dead, our faith is in vain.

We’re more to be pitied than any other man. No, assure yourselves that Jesus’s resurrection is a historical fact because of the eyewitnesses of the scriptures, and God’s word writes that upon our hearts. So Paul articulates this, and then he then in verses 32 through 37 he declares good tidings in the context of scripture. He’s enunciated or articulated the word of salvation—death, burial, resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ—in the context of rebellious man.

And then he goes on to declare good tidings in the context of scripture, verses 32 through 37. Verse 32: and again, this is the pattern. He talked about these historical acts of God. Then he says the word of salvation is brought to you. He talks about the sinful acts of man and yet fulfilling God’s word of promise. And then he drives it home to them in verse 32. We declare unto you glad tidings so that the promise which was made unto the fathers has been fulfilled.

Now, when we read that “we declare unto you glad tidings,” in the Greek the pronouns there are emphasized. Okay. So this thing that God promised to the fathers—we declare to you, or declare we to you. The emphasis is upon again these are not simply things that have to do with our history. This is now very much focused upon your response to it, the people that Paul is preaching to. The emphasis is upon now this message is taken from us, the apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ, to you, the hearers of this message.

And this is the promise. That is the glad tidings. The word “glad tidings”—we’re quite familiar with it. It’s the basis for our word “evangelism.” It’s a compound word. It takes the word for message and puts in front of it the word for good. Good message—glad tidings. All that he’s reciting here is not dry historical facts. It’s not just intellectual truth. It is truth that should cause our hearts to rejoice, to be glad.

It isn’t neutral news. It’s not bad news. It is good news to those who are called in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so he drives home. He declares these good tidings to these people. So God’s word becomes relevant to them. And it’s relevant to us as well. It is good news to us that God through this mechanism has pronounced to us salvation.

Verse 33: God has fulfilled the same unto us their children. This promise to the fathers is said to have been fulfilled by God—always faithful to us. He’s talking to Jews and Gentiles, their children, the father’s children. We, as we sit here today, as we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and are part of that elect community chosen out, we’re the children of the fathers. That’s what Paul is saying. So this good news, this evangelism, is taken to us who are the true children of the fathers as were in the Lord Jesus Christ in that he raised up Jesus again. That is also written: the second Psalm—”Thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee.”

Now Paul goes through three specific scripture citations here—two from the Psalms, one from the book of Isaiah—and all this has to do with the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. He says that ultimately death is important, but the resurrection of the savior is what really secures and brings into being the promises to the fathers being made whole to us. He begins by citing from Psalm 2: “Thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee.” That has to do not with his resurrection from the dead, ultimately, rather this has to do with his coming forth, becoming incarnate in the world. “Raising up” means to bring forth. There’s a bringing forth of God of the son at the incarnation, and with his whole life he’s brought forth as the savior for his people, and then he’s put to death and he raises up. He rises from the dead. And that is the second bringing forth of the Lord Jesus Christ—resurrection.

So as he goes to talk about the resurrection, it’s important first that he talk about the incarnation of the savior, that God sends forth his son who is God himself to become incarnate in the flesh and to become the savior for his people.

Well, Paul doesn’t go on to recite the rest of Psalm 2. We know what it’s about, don’t we? “Thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee. Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron. Thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.” The statement of Christ’s incarnation is a statement also of his coronation. And as he goes through his life becoming the savior of his people, he is coronated.

This is a coronation statement from the father to the son. He makes the Lord Jesus Christ the king over all the nations. He effects that in his incarnation, his life, his death, burial, and then his resurrection. And so again, Paul places this message of salvation in the context of wicked people in the nations round about us whom Jesus will break with a rod of iron and dash in pieces like a potter’s vessel.

Okay. He goes on then to talk further in verse 34, speaking of the resurrection. “As concerning that he raised him up from the dead now no more to return to corruption, he says in this wise: I will give you the sure mercies of David.” Now again, here, how do we ask ourselves how does this relate to resurrection? “I will give you the sure mercies of David.” What does that mean? Well, what he’s saying here—this is not given as a text to prove that his resurrection was prophetically a fulfillment of prophecy. This talks about why the resurrection is important for us in terms of this method, this message of salvation.

We are given the sure mercies of David, okay? On the basis of Christ’s resurrection, no longer—as the text tells us—to return to corruption. The fact that he’s resurrected, his resurrection is unlike Lazarus’s resurrection. Lazarus will die again. His body will see corruption even though he was resurrected from the dead. Not so the Lord Jesus Christ. His resurrection is an eternal one. And because it is eternal, we who are covenantally in him secure the eternal sure mercies of David.

You see, we’re in him. And as a result, those mercies, because they’re based upon the eternal resurrection of Christ, are eternal to us. Now, this is good news, right? These are glad tidings. Not only are we delivered and given all these blessings, but they are eternal. We need never worry that somehow these mercies, these good things that God promised to David and to our fathers, will depart from us. They are sure. They are covenantally sure in the Lord Jesus Christ and in the faithfulness of God to usher forth covenantal truths to his people, and those truths are mercies.

Let’s turn to Isaiah 55. We’re going to return. I’m going to read these verses at communion as well to begin our communion service. You’ve heard us read them before. But it’s important again when New Testament writers quote the Old Testament, they don’t—they’re not like us. No, Paul isn’t like us. He doesn’t use proof texts that have nothing to do with the context. He knows the context, and the readers are expected to know the context as well.

These were men who had the scriptures read to them every Sabbath day, and they searched their scriptures diligently. They were to know these things. So when he quotes a verse, he wants us to understand the context as well.

In Isaiah 55, you’ve heard us read this before: “Ho, everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money, come ye buy and eat. Yay, come ye buy wine and milk without money and without price. Wherefore do you spend money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which satisfy not. Hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness. Incline your ear, and come unto me. Hear, and your soul shall live, and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David. Behold, I have given him for a witness to the people, a leader and commander to the people.

“Behold, thou shalt call a nation that thou knowest not, and nations that know not thee shall run unto thee because of the Lord thy God, and for the Holy One of Israel, for he hath glorified thee.” Isaiah 55 is a message to the Gentiles that they will be brought in. They’ll be brought into the same covenant relationship that God had made with David and with the fathers, and fulfilled all of which fulfillment comes through the work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

You see, and so when Paul cites this, it’s very important to understand that these sure mercies he’s talking about, based on the resurrection, are extended to the Gentiles and they’re based upon covenant. “I’ll make you an everlasting covenant.” And when we go to our covenant renewal meal at communion, we’ll read this same text because that’s what we’re doing every Lord’s day—is reminding ourselves of these very truths.

So Paul cites from Isaiah 55, verse 3. And then he says that these sure mercies are covenantally ours because of the eternal resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. He also calls that—he says he’ll give you the holy things, the sure things of David. The word “holy” means consecrated or sanctified, and that’s based upon the coming of the Holy One, okay.

Verse 35: “Wherefore he saith also in another psalm, thou shalt not suffer thine holy one to see corruption.” Now he goes directly with his third citation from the Psalm to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ being a fulfillment of this prophetic announcement in the Psalms. So he directly now attends to this citation from Psalm 16:10 to talk about the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ being a fulfillment of prophecy. And then he goes through a particular proof—just as Peter had done—that while David wrote this, he must have been speaking about somebody else because David was tied in time to his generation.

You see, it says David, “after he had served his own generation.” A greater David will come, the Lord Jesus Christ, who serves every generation of men. Not so David. He was tied temporarily to a particular time slot by the will of God. He fell on sleep, was laid unto his fathers, saw corruption—that is, his flesh rotted. He saw the uncleanness of his rotting flesh. But he whom God raised again saw no corruption.

So he drives home the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ being a fulfillment of prophecy—prophecy that cannot refer to David, that must refer to the greater David. And that’s the basis for the sure mercies of David that are given to us. And that’s the basis for the deliverance that the citation from Psalm 2 speaks to the enthronement and coronation of the King of Kings and the resultant destruction of every enemy of his.

So he preaches this good tidings, and then he moves to the preaching of forgiveness of sins and justification in verse 38. And now he says, “Be it known unto you.” He says here this is important. Here it comes. This is the culmination of the message. We’re reaching the summary now. All this other is introductory. “Be it known unto you, therefore, men and brethren”—gives the formal invocation again of both sets of people to talk to, or rather the group to respond to him, to hear, to listen. “That through this man, that is the Lord Jesus Christ, is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins.”

Forgiveness means remission. It has to do with a covenant obligation that is no longer in place. It was used in the Greek to refer to divorce, for instance—remission of the marriage. It’s referred to a slave being remitted or cut off from the master relationship that he had. It refers to obligations and remission of them and the removal of penalty. And Paul says at the height of his message that all this other stuff really is preliminary to the main thrust of his message, and that is that through the Lord Jesus Christ is preached the remission of sins.

The price of our sin—death, destruction, damnation, tearing down—all those things are taken care of. Christ has dealt with death for us definitively, once for all. It’s why the resurrection is important. He has put an end to death for his people. And it is death that enslaves us. The book of Hebrews says that death causes us to continue to sin through fear. He takes care of the fear of death because he takes care of our sins, our violation, our shortcomings of God’s law.

Now, we continue to sin, but the point is he’s paid the price for that sin once and for all. And for those who are covenantally in him, we do not have to pay the price for that sin any longer. We are totally forgiven of the penalty of sin in our life.

And then secondly, he adds a second truth onto this, which is also very important. “And by him all that believe”—all that believe—”are justified from all things from which ye, you individually now, could not be justified by the law of Moses.” All that believe—you individually—he stresses both categories. We’re going to sing the Nicene Creed during our communion service. “We all believe in one true God.” And you can think of it as those notes go up and down the way Luther wrote them. Each of us individually believe in that one true God. And we all confess it corporately. And Paul is saying that corporately now, all that believe—belief coming from the Lord Jesus Christ himself, from the Spirit—are justified from all things by which you individually could not be justified by the law of Moses.

Justification is a fuller term than forgiveness or remission of sins. Justification means to be placed in a judicial position of righteousness or justice. Justification comes from the, or the English word “just.” Righteousness is the same word as justice in the scriptures. We are declared righteous in God’s sight through the work of Christ. Now, you know, I used to, when I first became a Christian, I heard people talk about a definition of justification: “Just as if I never sinned.”

Partly true. Not all the way true, though, because justification means that we have positive righteousness. And it doesn’t mean we’re a neutral cipher in the sight of God. If we’re justified in the sight of God, it means we have righteousness, or a just position with him. And that comes about through the imputation, the legal declaration by God that Christ’s work on the cross has paid for your sins, but that also his righteousness in obeying the law of God is declared to your account as well.

Justification is “just as if I never sinned” and I have the positive righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ imputed to my account. So God deals with you covenantally on the basis of Christ’s righteousness. And when you come here on the Sabbath day, you hear the forgiveness of sins, and you should recognize that you are justified in the sight of God in the person of Jesus Christ. The law of Moses cannot do that.

And you know, if the law of Moses can’t do it, what law could? He puts the death nail here to any scheme of works righteousness—that somehow our justification is other than a covenantal, legal, forensic justification. By that I mean that there are churches that teach that as you do works, those works accumulate and somehow those works are the basis in which you’re accepted by God. No, that is anathema. That is blasphemous.

That’s a denial of God’s work. It’s a denial of these truths that only the righteousness of Jesus Christ is what we stand in before the presence of God. When you get to the pearly gate, so to speak, the only reason for your acceptance into eternal blessings with God is not your works, but it’s the works of Jesus Christ, and your works are simply sin. Now, you can, you know, obviously we do good works. Nehemiah says, you know, it wants God to remember the good works that he’s done.

But Nehemiah recognized those works were works that God had accomplished in his life, that in and of himself he would have done none of it. So works are important. The scriptures tell us that we will be—there’s an evaluation of our works and we’ll certainly cry much, but Christ will wipe away every tear. But ultimately, our standing with God, our justification with him, is not based upon our works. The law of Moses is nowhere here removed as a standard for what we’re to do in the life of Jesus Christ.

It’s not removed as a standard of our sanctification. It’s simply removed as a source of justification or salvation with God. And as I said, if the law of Moses can’t justify us, well, what can?

We know that the Roman Catholic Church, for instance, has taught for hundreds of years that what I just explained to you—justification based upon the imputation by God, the legal declaration that we’re in the Lord Jesus Christ—they call that anathema. Justification of the Roman Catholic system has to do with our own being forgiven of our sins and then being able to secure works, albeit through the grace of God. They’ll say—they don’t say that we’re in works righteousness. It’s through the grace of God. But nonetheless, those works are what eventually fit us for heaven. No. No. The scriptures say that the law of Moses can’t justify us, and that means the law of the pope can’t justify us.

It means the law of any institutional church cannot justify us in the basis of in the sight of God. We operate here in the context. We rent these facilities for the Seventh-day Adventist church. They have taught for many years the concept of an investigative judgment in which people’s works are weighed to see if they can merit eternal life. And it comes very close to—and I’m sure in the minds of many, not in the minds of all—it comes very close to a works righteousness system.

Now I’m not saying that this particular church that worships here believes that. I don’t know what they believe. I’m telling you what the teachings of the church have been historically in the past. There are other branches of the Christian church as well that say, for instance, that through your works you can lose your salvation. Well, that means that it’s your works that continue to keep your salvation intact. Arminianism there is very closely linked to works righteousness. It’s ironic, you know, that we who have come out of Arminianism and dispensationalism and laws of man that somehow were replacing the law of God. You know, no drinking, for instance—where is that in the scriptures? It isn’t.

It’s ironic that those of us who have come out of that are now sometimes slandered as those who believe in works righteousness. I talked to a woman this last week who said, “Well, I’ve heard about your church that you kind of are into works.” You know, it’s ironic because really, if you look at what’s going on in many churches, you see works righteousness at work. Well, this Scripture tells us that whether it’s the law of the church, the law of the pope, or the law of Moses, none of those things can produce justification in the sight of God.

Only the work of Jesus Christ. And so he concludes his sermon. Not quite, though, because he goes on to say that there’s a warning attached to all of this. He then concludes with verse 40. He’s given him the good news, hasn’t he? He said three times now he brings the word of salvation. Glad tidings are brought to you. And now this message is preached to you by us. And those—remember the word was a word of salvation related to all the salvation in terms of the deliverances in the past.

The glad tidings was based upon that same thing, but began—but included the idea of repentance because it tied the work of Christ to the work of John the Baptist. And then he concludes that the summation of the sermon which is preaching to them that through Christ, forgiveness or remission of sins is made effectual, and justification. So he brings all those three-fold aspects to them, and then he warns them from the book of Habakkuk in verse 40 and 41 of chapter 13 of Acts.

“Beware therefore lest that come upon you which is spoken of in the prophets and specifically Habakkuk. Behold ye despisers, and wonder and perish, for I work a work in your day, is a work which you shall in no wise believe though a man declare it unto you.” Now the basic thrust of this, both in the book of Habakkuk and here, is a warning to those who are part of the visible church, that if they refuse the message that God brings to them, that they shall perish, that God will bring judgment upon their heads.

Habakkuk warned them of the coming judgment of the Chaldeans, of the Babylonian captivity, of God raising up people worse than you to chastise you. And he does that. And here I think there’s a specific reference we can make to Jerusalem in A.D. 70. Those people at Jerusalem that he had pinned the blame for Jesus’s death on—the people and the rulers, not the Romans, the Jews at Jerusalem—that he had pinned the accountability for the death of Christ on.

They are the subjects of this in the first instance. They reject this message. And God does a thing that they will no wise believe. They did not believe that Messiah had finally arrived and that it had to do with his death, burial, and resurrection. And because of that, because of the disbelief, they will perish. Some twenty or thirty years down the line from this prophecy, or from this restatement of prophecy, Jerusalem will fall and they will fall through the hands of the Romans and the Edomites.

Remember we talked about them in terms of King Herod. The worst ones of the lot, the power of the sons of Lot come upon them. Maybe that’s where the “worst of the lot” came from originally. I don’t know. But in any event, they will suffer horrible things in Jerusalem—starvation, people eating their own children, blood flowing through some of the streets of the city, and the temple courts at least ankle high, calf high, as the zealots slaughter people.

And then the Edomites come in and are led in to finish the work off. Horrible destruction. Perish. The word here means to be annihilated, essentially to be completely judged. It’s used in the Greek of a city that suffers a tremendous earthquake. The city perished. Only rubble is left.

And so that is the warning against God’s people who call themselves God’s people and yet reject this message. What’s the message? The message of salvation, the word of salvation, the glad tidings of the death, burial, resurrection of Christ. And then the ultimate source that all that affects is the forgiveness of sins and the justification of the believers based upon not our works but Jesus Christ alone.

In this message, Paul really summarizes or gives us what will become a summary of his epistle to the Galatians and his epistle to the Romans. To the Galatians, he told them about forgiveness of sins being based not upon their work. To the Romans, he spoke about justification by faith. This sermon is happening in southern Galatia. He will have to bring this message many times. This message is the gospel against self-righteousness. And he’ll have to repeat that message over and over to the Galatian church.

He’ll write them later saying, “What is wrong? You’re doing this again? Remember I told you about these things,” and it’s a message we need to hear repeatedly because our sinful, prideful hearts want to work up our own righteousness and somehow think that somehow we’re accepted in God’s sight on the basis of that. He summarizes these things and he does it in the context of warning.

I heard Al Martin last Sunday, and I got home from church in the evening, turned on KPDQ, and Al Albert Martin was preaching. I don’t know if he’s still alive or not. It was a tape. It was a tape, but he’s probably one of the best known Reformed Baptist preachers in the country—very good preacher. Preaching on this very same sermon. It’s kind of interesting. He talked about it as three signposts on the road to the celestial city, dealing with these three messages of salvation and then the glad tidings and the proclamation that sins are forgiven and justification is accomplished.

He said it ends with a warning. And you know, if you’ve ever heard Al Martin, you know he gets pretty dramatic. You know, he says warning people. Well, that’s true. See, that’s what Paul is saying here. And we read this stuff, and I kind of my approach is somewhat less emotional, but I want you to understand that this is a big warning to you that if you don’t think about these things, if you don’t follow up your verbal profession of belief in this with a life based upon a belief in the sovereignty of God, if you don’t act like a Calvinist all you’re speaking like a Calvinist will do you no good.

And if you don’t recognize that it’s God’s call, God’s election that produces salvation, then you’re thinking against these things, and the warning is you’ll perish. Now Paul adds a phrase here. He says “Behold ye despisers.” He quoting from the Septuagint with all these quotes. “Despisers” is not in that original phrase in Habakkuk. “Heathen” is, but Paul identifies those who are really heathen as despisers. The word “despise” means to think against something, think contrary to something. And when we think contrary to the gospel, we are warned by Paul that intellectual assent to all these things means nothing.

He drives it home to us as a congregation, to us individually, to live our lives based upon this.

Let me conclude by making a couple of very quick points, hopefully. First, Kistacher, a good commentator, Reformed, says this about this sermon: “Paul removes the possibility of seeing Jesus as a political deliverer.” I thought to myself, well, where? Now I know what he means. He’s saying Paul is speaking to a Jewish nation who believed in political deliverance and didn’t believe that deliverance came about as a result of forgiveness of sins, etc.

They didn’t tie political oppression to personal sin. So, I can, you know, he certainly is saying that Messiah came and died and was resurrected and was not coming as, you know, somebody to crush the heads of the Romans ultimately. So that’s all true. But you know, if you take this whole sermon as it’s given and you understand these scripture citations that we’ve taken you back to in the Old Testament, you’ll recognize this statement, at least to me, doesn’t seem very accurate.

Paul is talking about political deliverance. He’s talking about a message of salvation that has impact on the way we live and the culture in which we find ourselves. And what he is saying is that when you sin, and when you continue unrepentant in your sin, God brings chastisement and judgment to the end that you may perish. Habakkuk warned the people of Jerusalem that their sin, unrepented of, would bring about the Babylonian captivity.

Their sin brought about the various invasions of Canaanites and Philistines that they would need judgment to deliver them from. Their sin brought about the oppression under Saul. It has a political implication. Paul does talk about political deliverance because he talks about political oppression being rooted in our sin. He draws it all together.

And we live in the context of a nation that has become, as I said last week, our own worst enemy. It’s become the oppressors that our spiritual forefathers here fled from in Europe. We’ve become the same thing here. And if we are going to turn this around, we’ve got to understand that our problem is not ultimately Big Brother. Our problem is not ultimately the civil state. Our problem is not ultimately the tyrants or wicked rulers we end up with. Our problem is sin.

And if God brings a president, a governor, whatever, who is wickedly apostate and amoral and statist all the way and affirms that the state is God and can bring in health, education, welfare, and salvation to the people, it’s because the people want that in their hearts. They’ve rejected not godly rulers. They’ve rejected God as king, as he told Samuel. That’s what’s happened in this country.

And if we say that Paul gets rid of this idea of political deliverance, we’re also denying the fact that political oppression comes about as a result of sin. Paul says, “No, political oppression is linked to sin. And if you’re going to start, you better start with your sin.” We know in this congregation more than most the political oppression, the way this country denies God’s law in the civil realm.

We know how wicked that is. But we must know that our biggest problem in our life will never be the civil state. Our biggest problem in our life will be sin unrepented of, or sin that we don’t believe that Christ has paid the price for. And so we walk around guilty, knowing our own sin, and not believing that somehow that sin is taken care of in Christ, because we want to take care of it. That’s our biggest problem.

It is that sin. It is the recognition that God has forgiven that sin through the work of Christ. And you need to know that the death, burial, resurrection of Christ has been witnessed to and testified to by hundreds of people. And the word of God tells you this is true. And you need to know it. You need to know in your soul that you’ve been forgiven of your sins. And you need to consecrate yourself anew to walk in obedience to that, to walk in joyful submission, to receive that as glad tidings that frees you then from that sin and allows you to live a life of righteousness.

And that’s the way the political deliverance will be affected in this country, when men once more repent of their sins and call on God and forsake their wicked ways. That’s frequently left out of that quote, in terms of, you know, “If my people shall call, who are called by my name, shall pray to me, you know, I’ll give them deliverance.” Well, no. “If they turn from their wicked ways,” and we must turn from our wicked ways to experience the blessings of God.

One final point by way of application: this word “despise.” Paul warns us about despising this message. The scriptures give us several instances where the same word is used, and they’re warnings to us—ways that despising can creep into our lives. None of us here is going to despise the gospel message as I’ve just stated it, but we may despise the application of it in our lives. Let me quickly go through some scriptures here with you.

Matthew 6:24, our Savior tells us: “No man can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” We are prone to serve the god of mammon in this country, particularly the god of financial blessing and financial results and rewards. And God says that if you do that, you will despise the other master, God the Lord Jesus Christ.

You must be very careful to root out the sin of covetousness. I must be very careful—all in America must—to root out this sin of serving mammon, or covetousness, or money, because it will cause us to despise—to think against—our master. We will think against him. We will come up with new and creative ways to interpret his word to allow us to do that which serves our end, which is financial. So be warned today that if you go down that course, the end is destruction and perishing if you despise God for the sake of physical gain.

Matthew 18: “Take heed that you despise not one of these little ones.” Matthew 18. And along with that, 1 Corinthians 11:22: “What, have ye not houses to eat in, to drink in? Or despise ye the church of God?” The second thing we are prone to despise, or that will lead us to despising God, is when we despise his church. When we despise or think against the little ones—either biologically little, new to the faith—and somehow don’t have an active concern for them, and don’t have an active concern for those who are little in economic strength.

That’s what Corinthians is talking about in the context of our own church. We despise the message of salvation when we think against members of the church. And when we despise the communion of our Lord Jesus Christ—John Mark let a degree of despising come into him apparently that caused him to abandon his ministry and desert it just prior to the sermon being given. Many people think he took offense for his uncle Barnabas.

Don’t know. But we are prone to take offense. We are prone to get our noses bent out of shape. Every church I’ve ever been in has been filled with such broken relationships. And as we go to the communion table today, be warned not to despise the people of God and somehow think communion is just between you and the Lord. No, the Lord is evident in his church. And communion is evident in our relationships with those in the body of Christ.

So don’t despise this message and perish through a despising of the church of Jesus Christ.

In Romans chapter 2, Paul says, “Well, you’re going to judge people and say people are bad for doing these things. Are you doing the same thing?” He says, “Or despise you the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance.” What’s he talking about here?

A third way in which this despising that leads to perishing can creep into our hearts is through cheap grace. That we can somehow we can continue to do things. This message of forgiveness is great stuff. I can sin today and I’m forgiven tonight. That’s great. And Paul says, “No, if you do that, you’re despising the grace of God. The grace of God leads you to repentance because you love God and you want to serve him.

And if you don’t, and you enter into a concept of cheap grace, you despise this very message of true biblical grace based upon the work of Jesus Christ. And it leads to your destruction.”

1 Timothy 4:14: “Let no man despise thy youth,” the youth of a church officer. Now, he warns Timothy to be very diligent and try to be mature, but don’t let people despise—to think against you because of your youth in the Lord.

1 Timothy 6:2: “They that have believing masters, let them not despise them because they are brethren.” If you’ve got an employer who’s now a Christian brother—in this case it was a master who doesn’t let you free—don’t despise them or think against them because, oh, he’s a Christian. He should act nicer than that to me. He should give me a pay raise. Whatever it is, don’t do that.

In Second Peter 2:9: “The Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust on the day of judgment to be punished, but chiefly them that walk after the flesh and the lust of uncleanness and despise government.” A declaration of those who are outside really of Jesus Christ, where they may be in the visible community. Those who despise government—and that’s the fourth area here that I want to talk about.

You can despise God for the sake of mammon. You can despise God by despising his church. You can end up despising God by not accepting a biblical concept of grace, by sinning willfully instead of having God’s grace lead you to repentance. Those things can lead to perishing. And fourth: you can despise God by despising his authorities—in the church, in the workplace, or in this case, government at all, the civil sphere as well. If we despise authority, whether it’s in the family, the church, the workplace, or the civil government, that God has in his providence ordained for particular reasons—sometimes to chastise us through wicked means.

If we despise or think against that government, we’re despising or thinking against the greatest governor, the King of Kings, the Lord Jesus Christ. And we shall perish if we end up despising those things and don’t repent.

There’s one thing we should despise or think against or not concern ourselves with, and that is pointed out for us in Hebrews 12:2: “We’re to look unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross despising”—the only other place are the ones I’ve just read to you and the place in Acts here—”despising the shame.”

As we live our Christian lives, we’re going to do things that call forth shame to ourselves. The preaching of the gospel is foolishness. Jesus was hung on a tree, as we read earlier in Paul’s sermon. To the Jews, that meant he was a curse. To the Gentiles, that meant he was a criminal. And when we speak the name of Jesus Christ, it can bring shame to us. When we die to ourselves and live unto Christ and pick up our piece of wood daily, crucifying our flesh, so to speak, denying ourselves, living for God, it can result in shame.

But that’s the thing we are supposed to despise or think against. It shouldn’t concern us if we suffer shame or loss for the exceeding sake of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ has brought us by his grace to a position of great blessing. May we now consecrate ourselves anew through the offering to walk in obedience to him. Not despising the good things that he’s given to us by affirming money or wealth.

Not despising his church through an inappropriate approach to communion. Not despising the government that he has given us in his grace and mercy. And not despising these things that God gives us for our good, and not despising particularly the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ that should lead us to repent of our sins and to serve him more wholeheartedly.

Let’s pray to that end. Father, we thank you for this good news, this proclamation of salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray, Father, now that as we come forward, we would consecrate and offer ourselves to you, knowing that this is indeed our acceptable and reasonable service—to have our minds washed through, renewed through the washing of your word, and to consecrate ourselves into the service of the Lord Jesus Christ who gave himself and promises us deliverance from our sin and deliverance from those who would oppress us as well. In Christ’s name we pray and for the sake of his kingdom. Amen.

As I mentioned, the Sabbath sermon has many correlations of Paul’s to Peter’s Pentecostal sermon. We read in it of the taking of the gospel to the uttermost parts of the earth. The light begins to shine forth to the Gentiles. So I’ve chosen the final scripture reading from Isaiah 49, verses 1-13, that speak of that proclamation of the message of salvation to the nations and that they shall indeed come and worship the king.

Isaiah 49, verses 1 and following:

“Listen, O isles, unto me, and hearken ye people from far. The Lord has called me from the womb, from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name. And he hath made my mouth like a sharp sword. In the shadow of his hand hath he hid me, and made me a polished shaft in his quiver hath he hid me. And said unto me, Thou art my servant, O Israel, in whom I will be glorified.

“Then I said, I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for not, and in vain. Yet surely my judgment is with the Lord, and my work with my God. And now saith the Lord, that formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob again to him, though Israel be not gathered, yet shall I be glorious in the eyes of the Lord, and my God shall be my strength.

“And he said, It is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel. I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the ends of the earth. Thus saith the Lord, the restorer of Israel, and a holy one to him whom man despises, to him who the nations abhore, to a servant of rulers. Kings shall see and arise, princes also shall worship because of the Lord that is faithful and the Holy One of Israel, and he shall choose thee.

“Thus saith the Lord: In an acceptable time have I heard thee, and in a day of salvation have I helped thee, and I will preserve thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people to establish the earth, to cause to inherit the desolate heritages, that thou mayest say to the prisoners, ‘Go forth,’ to them that are in darkness, ‘Show yourselves.’ They shall feed in thy ways, and their pastures shall be in all high places. They shall not hunger nor thirst, neither shall the heat nor sun smite them. For he that hath mercy on them shall lead them, even by the springs of water shall he guide them.

“And I will make all my mountains away, and my highways shall be exalted. Behold, thee shall come from far, and lo, these from the north and from the west, and these from the land of Sinim. Sing, O heavens, and be joyful, O earth, and break forth into singing, O mountains, for the Lord hath comforted his people, and will have mercy upon his afflicted.”

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Are there any questions or comments?

[Someone asks about the word “perish.”]

Yes. Were you using that in a twofold sense—that as believers, if we have wrong conduct, that we’ll perish in areas of our lives, or are we using that constantly in the definitive sense, in the eternal sense? Are we, or was there a two-sided thing to that, or just…?

Well, in the text, “perish” means specifically perish. It means be destroyed physically. It means have great judgment come upon you. So in the text, you know, what Paul quotes from Habakkuk—you know, the perishing is specifically identified as the Babylonian captivity. They perish as a nation. And so, you know, it has a lot of implications. We’ve perished as a nation as a Christian nation, we could say, because of these sins. And so it has that sense too. So it’s just judgment upon either the individual or corporately. I think. And it in application to a believer, then it’s in terms of personal judgment on his life and a pruning, as it were.

You know, you never want to take off the—you don’t want to blunt the sharp edge of the scary passages of scripture. Hebrews, you know, those who trot underfoot the blood of Christ, who go on sinning willfully—you never want to blunt that. The scripture—