Zeal vs. Zeal (Part C)

But verse 29, the fear of man brings a snare, but whoever trusts in Yahweh shall be saved. This is Cross Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the Book of Acts. Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross Reference Radio.

Specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. And now here's Pastor Rick with the conclusion of his message called zeal versus zeal in Acts chapter 5. So, those who are looking to protest against decency in churches and today, you know, they got their word out to go, to say I'm being transformed into the image of someone less than God. That's not good enough.

No, I'm being transformed into the image of the Son of God who is God the Son. So, those who are looking to protest against decency in churches and today, you know, they got their word out to go disrupt and agitate. They're blind. They're blind. They don't see who Christ is and they don't see where they're going. That does not excuse them. This kind of blindness is not something that will pardon them.

They must come to Christ. Paul, when he gives a testimony about his conversion, he says, I saw the light. I saw it.

Another thing that the world likes to goof on, you know, they make comedy of it. Oh, I saw the light, brother. No, you did not.

And if you did and you're too dumb to go to the light, then you deserve to be that dumb. You say, that's harsh, but it's true. I mean, you know, sometimes it's the bad cop in us that has to make its point and I just use the bad cop in me. I like the bad cop in me.

I just got to watch him because he gets, you know, bad. Anyway, verse 25. So one came and told them, saying, look, the man whom you put in prison are standing in the temple and teaching the people. There they go again. What an exciting time to be a Christian in Jerusalem, right?

For now. Because trouble's on the horizon. Death is coming to believers.

Verse 26. Then the captain went with the officers who brought them without violence, for they feared the people, lest they should be stoned. Yeah, the people were being blessed and here comes the authority now and they want to put an end to this.

So they've got to watch their step. That was their motive for not abusing the apostles. Not, well, they arrested them peacefully because they were taken by the message, which happened with Christ. Christ preached. They went to arrest him and the officers come back and say, nobody has preached like this.

We just couldn't, what could we do? Anyway, the apostles go peacefully. Now we're going to be coming up close to civil disobedience here. Verse 27. And when they had brought them, they set them before the council and the high priest asked them saying, verse 28, did we not strictly command you not to teach in this name? And look, you have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine and intend to bring this man's blood on us.

They couldn't even say his name. There's something very special about the name of Jesus. In Jesus' name, amen. There is a shortened version of the name Yahweh saves. That's what the name means. The name of Jesus or Yahshua.

Moses is the one that took Joshua and gave him that name and shortened it. Anyway, verse 27, the stark contrast between the apostles and the members of this council. This council, they were refined, they were religious, well-educated and powerful. Nothing wrong with any of those except their ministry had no power because they were anti-Christ.

That's where it goes wrong. The apostles, they were common people, some of them not well-educated, but educated. They were not ignorant men. They were born again and with the power of God, they were changing lives, unlike anything anybody had ever saw. The council was trying desperately to retain their influence, the council's influence, and not let the apostles outdo them and the people start listening to them. So, with risk to their lives, the apostles state the truth of the living God from his word. Paul would write this to the church in Rome. He wanted to get to Rome. He said, I want to get there. I want to share some spiritual fruit with you. I want to make a righteous boast that, you know, I was there and I preached in Rome. And he said, so in writing this letter to them, he said, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation to everyone who believes. And that is a fact.

There's not a height requirement, a weight requirement. We're all glad about that. There's just, you come and Christ is hated for this. How dare he do that? Verse 28, they insisted that the apostles submit to their authority. Didn't we command you? Didn't we insist you use our pronouns?

Y'all got some nerve. Is that a pronoun? Isn't that?

Anyway. And look, you have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine. What an honor. The enemy is admitting that they were succeeding.

He didn't have to pay a marketing agency to go find out how you were doing. Teaching the person of Christ, his cross, his resurrection. The Old Testament law already covered morality and these were instilled as a Jewish centered environment. And there was no need yet to go into thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal. Paul's going to have to do a lot of that when he's dealing with Gentiles coming into the church because they're going to be bringing all sorts of lewdness with them.

Polygamy being just one of them. 1 Corinthians 2, in connection to you have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine because that's all they were preaching. For I determined, Paul wrote to the Corinthians, not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

He wasn't trying to be a shrewd businessman or anything like that. He was just preaching Christ. And here, as I mentioned, the enemies of Christ, they acknowledged that this witness of the disciples was working. Because they weren't being the lawyers for Christ. We don't defend Christ. We present the truth.

And that does its own work. They did not fill this city with anything but their doctrine. That's what is said here. You intend to bring this man's blood on us. Well, a dirty conscience remains dirty without repentance. These men said, his blood be upon us.

This is the same group of boys here. In Matthew 27 verses 22 to 25, it is cataloged forever. It is written down. Here's what these guys said. Because they're not going to tell you what they said, so we're going to tell you what they said. In fact, the Gospels were written decades after the events, and it was fresh still.

It's like, no, no, no, no. We didn't miss this. The oral witness of the disciples, the apostles, was thinning out, so they began to put it in writing. So Luke writes down forever how they tried to spin the blame on the apostles. From Satan's pen to Hitler's playbook. To the way of political liberalism in progressive style today. During World War II, one of the strategic offices of the United States put together an analysis of what Hitler was doing and saying.

And I'll just take four of them, because there are more. One of the way Hitler would do business in his big lie with Goebbels and those guys. Never admit a fault or wrong.

Have you seen any political party practice this? Never accept blame. That's what these guys are doing here. That's why I'm bringing this up.

It's relevant. Never concede that there may be some good in your enemy. Never leave room for alternatives. That's evolutionary science, is it not? The only alternative they have to evolution of the species is, well, Martians put us here.

I'm serious. It's Sagan, Carl Sagan the pagan. We abandoned evolution and he started saying, okay, well, we can't prove evolution. In fact, we know it's not possible.

So we'll just go to the stars. Anyway, enough are ignorant enough to swallow these things. These men were spinning around what they did and trying to blame the apostles of Christ? You're trying to bring this man's blood on us.

Yeah, because you did it. 1 John 5, 19, the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one. Peter won't have it. Peter's not going to stand for this. You know, Peter could not restrain himself sometimes when he needed to restrain himself. Well, this is one time when the Lord says, go get him, Peter. You don't have to restrain yourself. It's going to get them all almost killed if it weren't for God raising up the mouth of Gamaliel, who is the most influential Pharisee of the time. We'll get that next session, coming attraction. But verse 29, but Peter and the other apostles answered and said, we ought to obey God rather than men.

Unawed, unwavering. Peter is saying, I'm not impressed with you. I see your robes. I know you've got all these credentials. You've got a lot of power. You've got guys here with swords.

I'm not impressed. What can you do to somebody like that? You know, you persecute them. Proverbs 29, verse 25. The fear of man brings a snare, but whoever trusts in Yahweh shall be safe. Okay, so you come to church, and the Holy Spirit's packing this information into you, hopefully.

He's packing this charge into you. But when you get out in front of the unbeliever, you can't let it out the way you've received it all the time. Most of the time, you've got to take it and repackage it for them without diluting it. That's what works.

That's what I have found that works. Listening to the truth, being excited about it, and then getting in front of them, and sort of just being very gentle and letting the words crush them. Letting them know you're filthy before God. Regardless of what good deeds you think you've done, they're all like filthy rags dost sayeth the Lord. However, God's love, God's grace will take you in. But you've got to come on his terms and stop it with this nonsense about, I think God is.

Who cares what you think God is if it doesn't match what God says you are? That is preaching the gospel with love. Well, not like that tone.

I mean, you should see me at work around unbelief. I'm so nice. I'm like, hi.

Hi, my name is Rick. You're going to hell, but I can help you. I really don't like you, but I'm afraid of Christ, so I have to act like I love you. No. No, I can honestly say in dealing with sinners, you just get this love in your heart for them when you're sharing the gospel. And if it's not happening, do you ask God for it?

I have preached to enemies and just have this love for them. Anyway, Peter stands up to them. He's not debating them. He's not saying, okay, you go. What is your opposing view?

Give me a persuasive argument. No, he's not. He's declaring the gospel.

This is it. Take it or leave it. And you've got to love him for this. He's letting truth, not persuasive words, as Paul boasted about. Paul said, I'm glad I don't use persuasive words, but I give you the truth of the gospel.

Peter gave him a dose of this back in Acts chapter 4. And there he said to the people, your leaders, they really didn't, they did it in ignorance, but they're still accountable. So he's not submitting to the civil authorities, which gives us this discussion on what is called civil disobedience. I don't think that's the right name for the Christian.

The Christian says it's not civil disobedience, it's obedience to God. Man has to label things and we benefit from that. The Dewey Decimal System, wasn't that ingenious? Who came up with that? Somebody named Dewey.

Anyway, I wish my name was attached to something good forever, you know. Anyhow, the Jewish midwives in Exodus, they defied Pharaoh. We're not killing these kids. Aram and Jacob, the parents of Moses, we're not killing him. We're just going to put him on a little raft in crocodile-fested waters. Because God can shut the mouths of the crocodiles just like he shuts the mouths of lions, that is what happened.

Then there's Daniel. What'd you say, that's law, I can't pray? Watch this. Then the Hebrews, you know, when you hear the beat, you need to bow.

Nope, we're not doing it. Well, they threw them in the furnace for that one. Mordecai, that's one of my favorites. Mordecai knew Haman, hated the Jewish people. And Mordecai, of course, with his sleazy ways, he gets promoted. Not Mordecai, Haman, sorry. Haman is the villain. Mordecai is the good guy. Mordecai said, I'm not bowing to this guy. So here he comes, here comes Haman down the street, everybody's bowing down, and Mordecai is like, yeah, check this out, and I'm not bowing to you. However, we're talking about this so-called civil disobedience. It comes with a price.

Let's finish this. Peter has two jailbreaks, this one and another one in chapter 12. Paul, when he's let down over a wall in Damascus to escape the governor's warrant out for his execution. Then there are the defiant ones of Revelation chapter 20. See, we have this dual citizenship. We have one on earth and we have one in the kingdom of heaven, and that is the primary, that is our primary citizenship. We are subject first to the kingdom of heaven. And if some law puts us in a position where we have to disobey God, then we don't.

We don't follow that. Revelation 20, verse 4. Then I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands. They paid with their lives for their disobedience to men. So when Peter says we ought obey God rather than men, he knows what he's facing. They already killed his master on the cross. Defiance did not end the attacks in any of the ones I read to you, from the Jewish midwives to the defiant ones in Revelation to the Peter here. It escalated.

The problems escalated. They're going to kill James. They're going to kill Stephen. They're going to chase the Christians out of Jerusalem. So when we talk about we are going to defy the law, you better be understanding it comes with a price.

There's a consequence to this. Satan is zealous. It is zeal versus zeal who is going to out-passion the other. If we are preoccupied with ourselves all the time, then you're not going to be preoccupied with Christ enough. The Christ-centered life is hard.

It's easy to get hold of. It's hard to retain because we are built in such a way because of sin that there are going to be times we're going to feel God has let us down. There may be many times you feel God has let you down. But you know you're wrong and so you continue.

We even sing songs. He gives and he takes away, blessed be the name of the Lord. That is faith.

But it makes its mark and we have to be ready for this. Were I told that I could not speak the truth, the Bible truth against homosexuality or the murder of the unborn? I think I would, so help me God, I'd rather be persecuted than shut my mouth about those things. I don't preach them because I agree with them only. I preach them because I preach the Word of God.

That is my motive. If they're going to behead me, well, that would be the way it is. You would think, what the Bible is telling us about this Revelation 20 verse 4 verse, is you think that the ancient ways were archaic and gone?

Well they're not. Sin is not a respecter of generations or calendars or anything like that. These people will hate Christians so much that is the mode of execution they will choose.

Some of them might say, yeah, but it's, you know, it's a mercy killing. Anyway, he says ought not. Now we use the word ought as though it's, you know, a choice. It's not that intense.

I should not. But that's not what the Greek word means here and it's not what the English word originally means. Ought to be held or bound in duty or moral obligation. Your more liberal modern dictionaries won't word it that way. So I encourage you to, when you use a dictionary, don't be a prisoner of modern speech because it has been corrupted by people with an agenda. Anyway, verse 30, the God of our, well let me pause it, just look at the word gay for example. As far as I'm concerned, gay is when, happy and gay is when I find 20 bucks on the sidewalk. That's happy and gay without violating the moral code. But if you go by the dictionary you'd be in big trouble with that.

Just walk into the office and say I'm happy and gay and you have a bunch of buddies. Anyway, God of our fathers raised up Jesus whom you murdered by hanging on a tree. He is in their face. He's not putting up with their nonsense. The statement directly refuted what they just said and their defective ways.

Matthew 12, 24, Jesus answered and said to them, Are you not mistaken because you do not know the scriptures nor the power of God? Well, I'm just talking away. I got a clock here in front of me. I'm sorry. Well, I'm not sorry, but I need to button this up, so bear with me please.

Whom you murdered, that is straightforward. Again, the name Jesus, a contraction for Yahweh is salvation. And when Peter uses the name, the God of our fathers raised up Jesus, Yeshua to them.

Peter is wasting no words and no time. Again, he's not restraining himself when it comes to the righteous truth. This is how zealous and dedicated to the cause the Christians were, the first Christians. And as the trial progresses, the disciples become the judges and the council become the accused. Peter is prosecuting them.

Their response will be violence. By hanging on a tree, gruesome fact. Because it was a cross made of a tree.

Careful, we understand this. The word tree here in the Greek is zulon, which means timber, that which is made from a tree. It can refer to a tree, a live tree, but it's timber. And of course, the Jehovah's Witnesses can't figure that out because they don't have any Greek scholars.

They just change words arbitrarily. So by using the word tree as used and translated here, zulon, he ties the cross of Christ to the curse on those hung from a tree, any kind of tree. The Romans chose to execute on timber, but they got it where timber comes from.

A lumberjack's mouth from a tree. Galatians 3, Paul makes this clear. Because Deuteronomy 21, 23, cursed is the one that hangs on a tree. Well, Christ became a curse for us.

Galatians 3, 13. Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us. Or it is written, cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree. So it is significant that Peter says, you hung him on a tree.

You guys know what that means. Cursed is anyone that is hung on a tree. And he was cursed for us, and this was the gospel message that they were preaching on behalf of sinners. Simon the Cyrenian did not carry the tree of Christ. You see, he carried the cross. He carried wood, of course, from a tree. Now, they didn't, it wasn't sanded down and, you know, the edges were fine.

It was very ugly. Just enough wood to hang a human being on it. When the Romans executed the Jews at the rebellion of the Jews when they finally took Jerusalem, they ran out of wood to crucify the Jewish people. Anyway, verse 31. Him God has exalted to his right hand to be Prince, Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. To repent. The doctrine of forgiveness.

William Booth has said about the 20th century, the chief danger of the 20th century will be religion without the Holy Spirit. Christianity without Christ. Forgiveness without repentance. Salvation without regeneration. Politics without God.

And heaven without hell. How many churches are living that out? Well, anyway, let's close this verse 32. And we are his witnesses to these things and so is, so also is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him.

You think they would ask about that? He's called to witness and he does witness just that. He says it to those who obey, to those who obey him. The Spirit is given to those who obey him. This is the will of God. Not that we should render blind obedience but that we should render intelligent obedience based on the word. Otherwise, who needs doctrine? We need doctrine.

We need teaching and that's why there is this emphasis. You've been listening to Cross Reference Radio, the daily radio ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel in Mechanicsville, Virginia. As we mentioned at the beginning of today's broadcast, today's teaching is available free of charge at our website. Simply visit crossreferenceradio.com. That's crossreferenceradio.com. We'd also like to encourage you to subscribe to the Cross Reference Radio podcast. Subscribing ensures that you stay current with all the latest teachings from Pastor Rick. You can subscribe at crossreferenceradio.com or simply search for Cross Reference Radio in your favorite podcast app. Tune in next time as Pastor Rick continues teaching through the book of Acts right here on Cross Reference Radio.