Grace Chapel Bible Ministries

Worship call 1166 The Cornerstone - 2024/10/22

Israel was looking forward to their Kingdom. The fulfillment of Daniel’s 70th week. Which would restore the Kingdom to Israel. This kingdom shall rise up out the stem of Jesse. The people longed for the Kingdom. They wanted to be out of Roman oppression. They wanted their land back. the problem was when they rejected Jesus they also rejected their kingdom.

Duration:: 32m
Broadcast on:: 22 Oct 2024
Audio Format:: other

[MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] Welcome to worship call with Bible teacher Buzz Lawbet. Buzz is the pastor of Grace Chapel Bible Ministries located in Duncan, South Carolina. This ministry is dedicated to the verse by verse teaching of God's word and discipleship programs aimed at strengthening the faith of God's people. Now here's today's message. From A.T.O.B. Tozer, problems and pressures, Romans 835, who shall separate us from the love of Christ, shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or neckiness or peril or sword. A.W. Tozer writes, Jesus did not promise any of us that consistent Christian living war would be easy. He did not promise a release from daily problems and pressures. He did not promise to take us to our heavenly home on a fluffy pink cloud. We live our lives in the knowledge of the grace of God, but we dare not forget that our Lord came to die for us and to express the never change of moral and redemptive will of God for his people. But we condemn the Jews of the Bible, but we, before we condemn the Jews of Bible history for their failures, we must be sure that we are not overlooking spiritual moral shortcomings of our own. As Christian believers, you and I must be careful about the reasons we give for not heating God's Word and God's warning from heaven. Have we taken His grace seriously enough that we have sought forgiveness for spiritual carelessness, indifference and apathy? This is the third day of the week in God's created order, the 22nd day of the 10th month tooth. That was the 24th year of our Lord, and this is another fine day in the Lord. Father in heaven, we thank You. We praise You, Lord, that there's nothing that could separate us from Your love. Yes, and yes and no. Yes, we, yes, You are our God, and yes, we often think that it's an act like life should be so easy, but no, it's not. But You've given us heavenly Father, our, ours. You, with us, You have not deserted us or forsaken us, but You're with us through every trial, every battle. We thank You for that. Open up our hearts through the study of the Word this morning, and we pray these things in Christ's name. Amen. All right, coming back to, we are continuing on. Good morning to You. Glad you're here. We're starting this morning with Acts 4, 11. He is the stone which was rejected by You, by You, the builders, but which became a chief cornerstone. And this is a quote from Matthew, and also, Matthew, the Jesus, spoke of this, and then he quoted from Psalm 118, 22. Let's go, while we're here, it will go there. Let's start with verse 19, "Open to me the gates of righteousness. I shall enter through them. I shall give thanks to the Lord." This is the gate of the Lord, the righteous will enter through it. "And I shall give thanks to You, for You have answered Me, and You have become My salvation." The stone which the builders rejected has become a chief cornerstone. This is the Lord's doing. It is marvelous in our eyes. It is the day which the Lord has made, the last rejoice, and be glad in it, speaking of the coming of the Lord. The Israelites, more than anyone else, there are, as I've said and as I preach against, that there are the kingdom now doctrine, which is a false doctrine. We are not living in the kingdom now. There's no way that we are. It's totally against what the Bible is preaching. The kingdom will not be established until our Lord, Jesus Christ, as established. He came and he offered to kingdom. It was Jesus who said to the people, he said, and to the leaders, he said that if you accept it, John the Baptist would be the Elijah that is to come. That means the kingdom. The kingdom was offered. You remember at the beginning, John the Baptist and Jesus were preaching. Then he sent out the 70 with the message that the kingdom of heaven is at hand. It was for their acceptance. There was Nicodemus who came to Jesus at night with a priest's opposition that, okay, about the kingdom. Nicodemus shows up, he says, we know that you're from God because you're doing all these miracles. And he says, Jesus kind of says, stop the ministry. He says, unless you are born again, you will not even see the kingdom of heaven. So there is, Israel is looking for that kingdom. It is the fulfillment of Daniel 70th week. They're looking to dispense with their oppressors, to get out of Roman rule. That golden age of Israel can be re-established. They're looking forward to the stem of Jesse being raised up again and to take charge and to establish the only problem is the leadership rejected the stem of Jesse. They rejected Christ. The key to all of their wants would be the very one whom the leadership crucified. And you know it's not too difficult. Well, it's not too different from what the world is seeking. You know the world is seeking peace. They're seeking good environment. They're seeking prosperity. And all of this, I mean they are sincere for the most part. They want these things in order. They want a perfect world. They want no crime. They want these things. The only problem is that they want it without a Messiah. They want it on their own terms. And so the things in Isaiah 11, the liberals would love. Except for when Isaiah 11 just scratch out anything that has to do with the stem of Jesse and all that. But I mean the liberals would love to see the line laid down by the land. They would love to see him grazing as a straw. Everything that they could want except a worshipping of a Messiah. So the problem is that they reject Israel's Messiah. The very one who will bring all of this to the world. So on a personal basis, think of it on a personal basis as well. We want peace within our own soul. We want, as Paul says in 17, he's dealing with carnality, Roman seven. He's dealing with his own carnality. He keeps doing those things that he don't want to do. And those things he's supposed to do, he don't do. He recognizes himself as a wretched man. And I love that portion because it does demonstrate the struggle within a believer in a believer. And you may be there, that I could be there. And the fact that we're trying to deal with our personal sins. We go through the up only. We have a person, we have a, well, we'll deal with this first. We're struggling with our sins. We're struggling with trying to be the Christian that we want to be. But our flesh and our hearts are driven to the things of this world. And those sins that we are trying to conquer, they are always at our door. It's like Cain, when he tells Cain that sin is crouching at your door and it desires to have you, but you must master it. How do I master sin? You won't be able to do it. Like James says, you also want to master your tongue, but you can't do it. But once you get Christ right, once you begin to become Christ's focus and eyes upon Christ and make that your focal point rather than trying to, by your own self-determination, overcome your sin. So when it comes to Israel, it's getting Christ right. When it comes to a world, it's getting Christ right. When it comes to the individual believers, it's getting Christ right. The answer is when, but he is the cornerstone to all these structures. And once you get the cornerstone in place, everything else falls in place. That's the importance of this. For the believer whose grappling was sin in his life, whose self is his own enemy, trying to get one's life right, the first, the priority is to properly set the cornerstone. The corner in one's life, let's just say this, when your life as a Christian is turned upside down and it's not to be, have you even set the cornerstone? The cornerstone of Christ, is he in the proper location? Is he in the proper position by which the structure is built upon? And for Israel itself, they're looking for the king. They're looking for that peace. They're looking for the son of David. They're looking for the son of man to come in the clouds and to establish his kingdom. But he says you won't see me again until you say, "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord." So they have rejected the cornerstone. Now how about the world? Well, the cornerstone is set in Israel. The cornerstone, you might say cornerstone is Israel, but Israel's cornerstone is Christ. And the peace and the prosperity act is going to come to the world, the entire world. The world which is looking for that peace will not come until Israel has established their king. That thing that we call the kingdom, the world kingdom is not here yet because Israel has not set. Israel is that centerpiece, that centerpiece for all of history. And until they establish their king on the throne, until again, until they accept him, that cornerstone is not yet laid. And even then, see Israel will be the conduit as the promised Abraham in you all the nations of the earth will be blessed. And Israel is the conduit of that blessing. And once that happens and establishes, then Jesus will rule with the iron rock over the world. And there will be peace and there will be prosperity throughout the world. It is a thing. It will not be something that the world will want. I personally think I could be wrong on this, but I do believe that there is going to be a rebellion. I believe there will still be anti-Semitism. The hatred toward Jews and everything about the Jews. And the world is not going to care to bow in need to the Jewish Messiah, to the king. And I think eventually, eventually the world will rebel against that. But nonetheless, because the king rules, there will be peace and prosperity in the world. And people hate it because they cannot have it on their own terms. Acts 4, 12. And there is salvation, so much. This is probably the most important thing in this passage right here. And there is salvation in no one else. For there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men which we must be saved. Look at that word "must" right there, which we must. Dio and Lou and I, let's look at that "must" day. And to be that which must necessarily take place, often with implications of inevitability, to be necessary, must. This is the rub, it really is. This is the rub, that there is no other name. Let me ask you a question. You've heard it said, I've heard people say, I've heard either directly or indirectly, that somebody says to somebody else, well it won't make your way to heaven any different, any better than mine. You Christians are arrogant. Who was it from way long time ago? You had the talking head. Who was that? Who had that? But he was interviewing, he was very controversial, he was the first one and he had a TV show. But he asked William Buckley, he says, you Christians think that you have all the answers. And he was looking at getting corning in the corner. People often do, they say, you think you have all the answers. How come your way to heaven is any different than anybody else? Buckley just looked them straight because we do. We have the answers. And here's the question I present to you, why do you think that your way is so much different than anybody else's way? How come your way to heaven is different than my way to heaven? The answer is easy, because it's not my way. It's from the authority of the Word of God. And Peter, right now, remember that Peter is filled with the Holy Spirit. And though Peter is speaking, it is essentially the third member of the Godhead, who is God, who is the authority, who's speaking through Peter, who's addressing this counsel, who's got these Pharisees, these religious leaders in the corner. And so this is the problem, and this is the rub. Even Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life that no man comes to the Father, but through me, there is no salvation, no other way. Jesus was in the garden, and he said, Father, if it sure will, let this cup pass from me, but not my will, but your will be done. And what Jesus was asking is, if there was any other way, if there was any other way that this can be accomplished, let that be, let that be. But there was no other way to satisfy the righteousness of God, the righteous demands of God. Man sinned, man was guilty, man was under the death penalty, God would not be satisfied with the blood of bulls and goats. Man sinned, man had to also take the punishment for sin, and there was Jesus Christ. So, and there was salvation in no one else, there is no other way, no one else, no one can provide. All the people of the world had gotten together. If every person in this world got together and sacrificed themselves, it would be not enough to save one person. And so, salvation on the individual basis, salvation comes to the national basis, salvation to a global scale. Matthew, 121, she will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. Acts 10, 43. Of him, all the prophets bear witness that through his name, everyone who believes in him received forgiveness of sins. 1 Timothy 2, 5, for there is no one, or there is one God, and one mediator, also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. Now, this couldn't have set well with those whom Peter stood before. Remember that, and here's Jesus and John, or Peter and John, they're standing before the council, and these are the ones who killed Jesus. These are the ones who conspired. These are the ones who had thought that they had rid themselves of Jesus altogether. The only problem is, in their minds, they hadn't read the idea of Jesus, and they were still in their minds, they were still the fallacy that Jesus had resurrected, even though they had received the rumors that there was a conspiracy. Some of them, if not all of them were thinking, there was a conspiracy. The ones who implemented conspiracy was afraid that the conspiracy was upon them, that somehow I think they still believed that the body was stolen, and certainly they didn't believe in the resurrection. These, Peter and John was brought in because they were preaching the resurrection, and so they're trying to get rid of this, and here they are, they have to be confronted with this once again. And so how mistaken were they? Because while they killed the body, the grave could not contain, you see if Jesus, as Paul said in Corinthians 15, if Jesus has not been raised, neither has anyone else, he is the first fruit. So while they wanted to intimidate Peter and John, the one filled with the Holy Spirit allowed the Holy Spirit to do the talking. And that's us today, when we are in confrontation, whether it's one-on-one or whether someone is questioning, as Scripture tells us, if Peter tells us later on, Peter is doing what he tells us to do later on. Sanctify the Lord God in your heart and be ready to give an answer for the hope that's found in you, because you will be questioned. And you see, there's witnesses here. And while Peter is talking, while Peter is giving a good answer, or shall I say, the Holy Spirit through Peter, there are others around. Peter is not going to do nothing to convince the counsel, their hearts are hardened. And these are the ones who blasphemed the Holy Spirit, by the way, and Jesus said, "You can do anything against the Son of Man, but your sins against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven." So their hearts are probably shut at this point. So it may not be for their benefit that Peter gives a good answer, and maybe for those that are standing around. It may be for maybe some of the other members of the counsel who recognize, maybe they've got an open heart. Maybe there's other witnesses in the counsel that's seeing things that are going on. I'm not sure at this point, but did they allow other witnesses? Did they allow other people to come into the counsel? I think at one point, John, before was able to go into the counsel, he was able to come in and witness, so I think they might have a spectator's booth. That's able. Some of them are seeing a good answer that Peter has provided. Here's my point. Sometimes when you're confronted with the question, and people are looking to corner you, they're looking to put you in a corner and beat you up. See, the problem with Christians today, they're not prepared for the battle. The problem with Christians today, they are ignorant. And the world is very much prepared to put them in a corner and beat them like tied up goats. They're not in the Word. They're not being taught from the pulpit. They are willfully ignorant. And so when the unbelieving world comes to them and starts questioning them, they run like scared little goats. And they cave. See, when you're confronted with such a situation, you need to be going into it in prayer. You prepare for this, and as I'm going into such confrontation myself, I'm not in front of counsel, but by facing somebody's hostile to the Word of God, I may be praying right there. Lord, thank you for this moment. Thank you for this opportunity. And I might not be able to convince the guy who's directly confronting me. But he's got buddies around him. I think of the Jehovah's Witnesses. They always got that one. They always come in pairs. You might not be able to convince the main dude there because they always got somebody in training there. But you need to speak the Word of God for that one that's tagging along and bring the questions up to their minds. But anyway, so they want to intimidate Peter. The one filled with the Holy Spirit allowed the Holy Spirit to do the talking. I love salvation by no one else. That's the exclusivity of salvation. And you know, there's no trouble. These Pharisees believe God. They believed that there was a God, okay? That wasn't a problem, I don't think. The pagan would even up to this day. There's going to be a lot of godly people that will find themselves in hell. I'll say that again. There will be a lot of godly people that will reside in what that will go to hell. You'll hear it. You hear people talk. Oh, I believe in God. Oh, I love God. God is good. Oh, you know, I pray to God all time and God is so good and God listens and God answers prayers. Great. Okay, fantastic. You might find yourself in some great conversations about God and you haven't coined a knee on. You think that you're on the same page about this good and all powerful God and all that stuff. But what happens the moment that you bring up the name Jesus many times? It shuts the door on the conversation. The problem is that the cornerstone, the exclusive way to God and for eternal life has been shut out and rejected. I can't believe it. Sometimes I cannot believe it. And you feel that, and you actually hear it, you actually feel the door. It's like a spirit. It's like a coldness that comes on. To mention Jesus and all of a sudden the conversation ends. Well, the person has something else or he changes the subject. And again, many. I think churches are filled with God-conscious people. They believe in God. They say all the right words, all the right church words and all the right things. And they're such good people and they maybe even carry their Bobby around. But what do they know about Jesus? Are they really saved? And that's where we're going to have to close off the door. Let me just read the verse coming into the next verse here. Now, as they observe the confidence of Peter and John and understood that they were uneducated, untrained men. They were amazed and began to recognize them by having been with Jesus. You see the point, you cannot have God. You cannot have eternal life. You cannot have salvation without having laid the cornerstone. That cornerstone that the builders have rejected for the kingdom to be established, Jesus Christ is a cornerstone. For our personal lives, Jesus Christ is the cornerstone of our salvation. Our salvation, as far as our redemption of being children of God coming into eternal life, having eternal life, he is our cornerstone. It doesn't stop there. For our spiritual life, for our growth, for our sanctification, for the building of, remember this term, the edification complex of the soul, the foundation by which our spiritual life stands on begins with the cornerstone of the Lord Jesus Christ. And before peace and prosperity and those things come to this world, peace in the world, the cornerstone, which is the Lord Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace has to be laid. Father, in heaven, thank you for this opportunity, this morning, fellowshiping in your Word. We thank Heavenly Father for the truth of your Word, and I pray Heavenly Father that, if anybody in the sound of my voice, if they are still struggling, I pray Heavenly Father, open up the eyes of their hearts to seek out the cornerstone for their life and that cornerstone being the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray these things in Christ's name, amen. All right, we have our study tonight. We will stream tonight for our continued with the road to Revelation. We started Revelation Sunday, and continue on now. We're still going to the Bible Survey, and we'll continue, and we'll pick that up this evening, so I hope you with us until then. Lord, keep your armor on, keep fighting in good fight of faith. Lord, will the Spirit God wrap your pen. We'll be here in the evening. You can hear this message again, as well as previous lessons, and get note by visiting us online at www.gchapel.org. [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO]