Abounding Grace

Guest (Male): Pastor Ed says it's a big mistake to place limitations on God. "God, this is how I'd like it to go down. You can do it this way or this way. Here you go, Lord. Please, please, I pray that you would make a decision, and you are limited to these two choices."

And how often God wants to work outside of our expectations. There is a way of God that we know not many times. We come to him instead of being open-handed; we come close-fisted and say, "God, this is the only way you can work."

Glad you could join us for another Abounding Grace. Pastor Ed Taylor is about to open Acts chapter 1. At this particular point in time, Judas needs to be replaced, but the disciples were told to wait. Pastor Ed believes on this occasion Peter gets ahead of the Lord and places limitations upon the Lord that he should not have, something we're all prone to do at various times. But as we'll discover, sometimes God works outside of our expectations. Here's Pastor Ed.

Pastor Ed Taylor: Take your Bibles and open them to Acts chapter 1. We're going to pick up where we left off there in verse 15. Acts chapter 1, in a Bible study that I've entitled, "Don't Limit God." We know here in Acts chapter 1 that the disciples are in a place of waiting. Jesus has just ascended into heaven, and he's given the promise prior to that to wait in Jerusalem for the promise of the Father. They're in a place of waiting.

In our study last time, we learned some principles in their posture that will help us better wait on the Lord ourselves. But in the midst of waiting, we have this moment in verse 15 where it says, "In those days." Again, let's just pause there because I want to help you learn how to read the Bible. That phrase is very significant because we have to ask ourselves, what days? What days are we talking about?

The way that we answer that is through the context. What days are these? These are the days of waiting. This is what it's referring to. The days of waiting, the days after the death, after the resurrection, after the ascension of Jesus. It was in those days of waiting that Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples. Altogether, the number of the names was about 120 and said, "Men and brethren, this scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke before by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus."

Peter begins to take the lead among the disciples. He was one of those natural leaders. He always seemed to express these natural leadership qualities. Throughout the beginning of the chapters of Acts, you'll see Peter leading. You'll see him moving forward, taking the gospel to the Jews. He wasn't a perfect leader, but none of us really are.

Never once does the Bible ever sugarcoat the people that God uses. Why? So that you can understand that you too can be used of God in all your imperfections, in all of your inadequacies, and everything you might measure yourself up. No, God can use you. God will qualify the called. He doesn't always call the qualified, but he always qualifies those whom he calls.

You'll remember, you can jot it down in 1 Corinthians chapter 1, verse 27, Paul the apostle would say that God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise. God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty. He did all of this this way so that nobody can boast. Nobody can take the credit. It's only the credit that God deserves and will receive when he uses someone like you and me.

When you step up there and you go, "Man, how can God even use that guy?" Well, because he's chosen to. You're surprised God's using me? I'm more surprised. I know where I came from. I know what I was into. I know how challenging it was to the people around me as I lived apart from Christ. I'm sure many of you can relate to this testimony as well.

He doesn't want us leaning on our education, even though you may have it. He doesn't want us leaning on our understanding, even though you may be smarter than some of us. He doesn't want us leaning on our experience, even though you might have been walking with the Lord for 40 years. He wants us looking to him. You know, one of the banner scriptures for us as a church is Zechariah chapter 4, verse 6.

Zerubbabel was told by God, it's not going to be by might and by power. It's not going to be all your strength and your ability to do this, Zerubbabel. It's going to be by my Spirit, says the Lord. That's our desire, and what you see lived out throughout the book of Acts. It's always the glory of his grace and the wonderful power of his spirit in using ordinary people, not because of anything of our own self, not because of what we deserve, but because of God's grace. What a gift to receive.

We meet Peter in Matthew's Gospel, chapter 4. We first meet him as that rugged fisherman that he is. In Matthew 4, verse 18, it says, "And Jesus, walking by the Sea of Galilee, saw two brothers, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. Then he said to them, 'Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.'"

Then Matthew uses a word that he doesn't typically use. The rest of verse 20 says, "They immediately left their nets and followed him." Now, if you're reading the Gospel of Mark, he uses the word "immediately" all the time. Mark's Gospel is action, action, action. But Matthew wrote his Gospel from a different perspective. He wrote it to establish the Messiahship, the kingship of Jesus.

He's not so interested in all the activities of Jesus, but rather how Jesus fulfills the scriptures. For him to use "immediately" is very characteristic of Peter. Peter was a man of action. He liked to jump into things. Maybe that's you. You're a man or woman that just jumps into things. You're not the kind of person that goes to a swimming pool and feels the water, put your toe in, then you sit down, put your feet in, and slowly. You just see a pool, you run, jump, you're in.

That was Peter. He didn't care what the temperature was. He would often act before he thought. He would often speak before he thought. Do you often say things before you give a moment? That was Peter. Peter would often do things even before he thought about them, and then after the fact. This is the man that God chose to use.

This is a great personality to have tempered by the Holy Spirit. This personality allowed Peter to be involved in some really amazing things. The next time you're playing a Bible trivia game and the question comes up, "Who walked on water?" You must answer that question, "Jesus and Peter." Why? Because he answered the call. Jesus bids you to come. He's the one that jumps out.

No one else does. Sure, he might be reminded of sinking, but don't think of sinking before you consider the walking. You've not walked on water, I've not walked on water, but Jesus and Peter did. Peter did in response to that invitation. I think it was part of his personality. There are other times this is the same Peter that takes a sword out and cuts an ear off. Walking on water, swinging a sword; that's often what life is.

Peter did become this fisher of men because God can change any of us. Be careful when you look at Peter's life or anyone else for that matter. Be careful what you emphasize. Remembering people by their failures instead of remembering them by their successes, God's success in them. Of course, we can't look at Peter's life without remembering his mistakes, but please, church, remember his successes.

Remember your successes, what God has done in your life. Even today, sitting here and you say, "Man, Ed, you don't understand. This week was such a failure." Yeah, but the Lord is with you. Though a man falls seven times, he'll rise again. You'll get up, move forward, take the grace of God, hold on to it, and run with the vision that God has for you. Walk in humility, respond in repentance, and let the Lord use you.

So here he is in verse 15. He stands up in a time of waiting with his natural leadership. He's there and he begins to quote the scriptures. Notice in verse 17, it says, "For he was numbered with us," speaking of Judas, "and obtained a part in this ministry. Now this man purchased a field with the wages of iniquity, and falling headlong, he burst open in the middle and all his entrails gushed out. And it became known to all those dwelling in Jerusalem, so that the field is called in their own language, Akeldama, that is, the Field of Blood."

"For it is written in the Book of Psalms: 'Let his habitation be desolate, and let no one live in it'; and, 'Let another take his office.'" Jesus is leading. He has given the word to wait. He has left, and Peter stands and quotes these obscure passages: Psalm 69 and Psalm 109. You're like, "Where did you find those verses, Peter?"

Don't think of Peter like when you're reading the Bible we automatically associate it with what we're familiar with. So you think, well, Peter might be in a room with 120 people, he whips out a Bible, opens up to Psalm 69, and starts reading it to them, and then he turns over to Psalm 109. That's not what happened. This came all from memory. It was very expensive to own scrolls. Basically, the synagogues and extremely rich people had scrolls.

The rest of us would memorize. We would take the word of God and we would hide it in our hearts. The Pharisees were known to memorize the entire Old Testament. All of it, from beginning to end. That was their commitment to the word of God. How is it that Peter was able in this moment to draw upon these obscure Psalms? I believe because he put them in his heart.

This is the lost art among us as a church. You have to really look at it and you go, "When's the last time you memorized one little scripture? A new one." You're just taking the word of God and depositing it into your heart. It is such a necessary part of your spiritual life. It will help you immensely wherever you are to continue to collect God's word. Even some of you, you have a type of memory where you can memorize chapters if you wanted to.

I say, go for it. Take chapters and digest them, meditate on them, and think about them until they become yours. But until you can do chapters, do verses. Read them, memorize them, write them on a little three-by-five card. There are memory apps that you can download, apps that will remind you to memorize scripture right on your phone. It will remind you day by day.

Many times, I'll receive a question in an email or a phone call. Somebody might call the radio station and go, "Ed, I want to be used greatly of God. How can I be more usable? How can I be used greatly by God?" There are a lot of different ways to answer that question. But the very baseline answer to that question is, if you want to be used greatly of the Lord, you must be a man or woman of God's word. There's just no other way.

If you don't have the word, you don't know the word, you don't use the word, that will affect your usefulness. If you don't know the Bible, then when you give advice, you're just going to give your own opinion. If you don't know the Bible, you haven't deposited the word, you haven't put scriptures in your heart, then the Holy Spirit has nothing to draw out of you in the moment.

He has nothing to give you for the person in front of you or for the situation that you're in. You know what will happen? You'll do exactly what we were taught not to do: you will lean on your own understanding. You will not trust in the Lord. You might even throw up a little prayer, but you're not in the word.

This year, and probably next year, and probably until the Lord comes back, you're just going to hear me repeat over and over and over again: read your Bible and pray every day, church. Read your Bible and pray every day. Of all that you do, I mean, you give 40, 50, 60 hours a week to work, you give another 30 hours to TV. You're on social media. Check your use time. You find out just how much you're on social media, on your phone.

And in all of that, regardless of all that, you're going to live your life no matter what. You'll distribute your time. But don't neglect the word. Don't neglect the word. I've even felt like this so heavy, like you're just going to have to receive this. Be mad at me, email me. Actually, if you have a complaint, email Josiah since he was leading worship today. There is no excuse for you not to be a man or a woman of the word. There's no excuse. It doesn't matter what response you have.

"But Ed, I can't even read." No excuse because on your phone you can download a free app that will read the Bible to you. It will read the Bible to you. I don't mean a man or a woman of the word that digests sermons all the time, although sermons are great. God uses teachers to teach us for sure. I mean the word of God. How do you stand and go, "Man, I didn't even know that was in the Bible"? Well, how do you know something's in the Bible? You read it. You receive it. You digest it.

There's just no reason for us as a Bible-teaching church, a church that truly believes in the absolute authority of God's word, the full inspiration of God's word, that we walk out and we don't even read it, we don't even take it in, we don't even think about it during the week. You've got to be in the Bible. You want to be used? Get into the word.

So here's Peter quoting these two verses, and the Bible couldn't be clearer. Judas needs to be replaced. That's really what he's saying. Judas needs to be replaced. "His habitation's going to be desolate, let no one live in it," verse 20. "And then let another take his office."

This is where I want to draw an application from this text that is debatable. There are commentators and scholars and pastors that disagree over this text. Basically, the two main views are: this is all from the Lord, the Holy Spirit's leading Peter choosing another apostle, and then just move on into chapter 2.

The other view is the view I hold: that Peter's getting ahead of the Lord here and that this choice and this whole process was not led of the Lord at all. Yet God reserved it for us so that we could see it and examine it. Whatever side you fall in, it's within the pale of orthodoxy. It doesn't really matter. We don't need to argue about it.

But I want you to consider that Peter has the right interpretation of the text. He is 100% accurate in saying that Judas needs to be replaced. What I believe the mistake is made is that he has the wrong application. This happens to us all the time, where we understand what the text is, but then we misuse it in our lives.

Even though there is a lot of debate on this, I'm not interested in getting caught up in it. It's okay if you have an alternative view. I even, before I finished up everything, pulled out one of my favorite commentators, Warren Wiersbe. In his commentary on this text, he takes the complete opposite view of this. That's fine. I understand some of his points, but I don't necessarily agree with them as you'll see in a moment.

Here, I think Peter gets ahead of the Lord because this is where we are in the book of Acts. They have been given one command. They've been told to what? Church, this is a pop quiz. The command they were given was: wait. That's what they were told to do. They weren't told to choose another apostle. They weren't told to head off to Judea, Samaria, and come back some other day. They were told to wait in Jerusalem until the promise of the Father, which they weren't even quite sure what that was going to be, but remember, they would know it when it happened.

They were told to wait. That's all they needed to do, just wait. But instead, Peter gets up and he quotes some scripture, and he has the interpretation correctly. But now, instead of waiting, he's acting. There's this time period where God said wait. They come together, they're worshipping together, they're praying together, Peter begins to share the scriptures together, and then notice in verse 21, here's his conclusion.

When he shares the scriptures, he says, "Therefore, of these men who have accompanied us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us," so Peter views a group of people, this is more than just two. He sees of all these men. There's 120 people there, let's just say half of them are men, and then minus the other 10 that are apostles. So there's a group of men there, more than two.

He says that, "Beginning with the baptism of John to that day when he was taken up from us, one of these must become a witness with us of his resurrection." And they proposed two: Joseph called Barsabas, who was surnamed Justus, and Matthias. And they prayed and said, "You, O Lord, you know the hearts of all, show which of these two you have chosen to take part in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas by transgression fell, that he might go to his own place."

And then it says they cast lots. They cast lots. Casting lots is, I guess, the best way to describe it in our modern-day vernacular is they threw the dice. They said, "If we roll an even number, it's this guy. If we roll an odd number, it's this guy."

Now, it wasn't a gambling thing with dice. For the casting lots, this was an Old Covenant way of discerning the will of God. This was an Old Covenant way. The priest, the high priest, would have in his breastplate a little pocket behind it, and behind the pocket there is the Urim and the Thummim. You might read of that in the Old Testament.

There's a lot of debate of what that is, but many people conclude that the Urim and the Thummim were simply a black stone and a white stone. They would discern and seek the will of God by coming to the high priest and asking the question in a yes or no fashion. Then the high priest would pray, he would take out the stone, and he would say, "Okay, white, the answer's yes. Black, the answer's no." That's the will of God.

That's what they did here. They prayed and then they cast lots, and then the lot fell on Matthias, and he was numbered with the eleven apostles. This is what happened. This is what's recorded. This is how it went down, exactly how it went down.

This is where I believe we begin to see man's plan come together. They began in the word and they even went into prayer, but then they finished with a man's decision. You know, we're told in the scriptures to be very careful not to begin in the spirit and then be perfected by the flesh, where we start well but we don't end well.

Here we have a New Covenant decision. That's the first thing I want you to notice. They are no longer in the Old Covenant. This is the New Covenant time, the new relationship with God that now they have by his death, resurrection, his shed blood, his ascension into heaven. They're in the New Covenant now.

In the New Covenant, the Urim and the Thummim, or even the high priest, no longer applies. Why? Because we have a greater high priest, we learn in Hebrews. Jesus has come. Here they are moving forward using old ways. They don't go to the temple. They don't go to another high priest. They're here just 120 people and they're like, "Man, we've got to find a replacement for Judas. Let's do what we always do. Let's do what we've always done." Except that they now are doing it themselves.

Not only that, but I want you to notice their New Covenant using an Old Covenant methodology, but also of all the people, they propose just two. They give God two choices. "Here's your choices, God. These are the ones you need to choose from." I wonder how often you've done that. "God, this is how I'd like it to go down. You can do it this way or this way. Here you go, Lord. Please, please, I pray that you would make a decision and you are limited to these two choices."

And how often God wants to work outside of our expectations. There is a way of God that we know not many times. We come to him instead of being open-handed; we come close-fisted and say, "God, this is the only way you can work." And they limit him to two choices.

Guest (Male): This is Abounding Grace, and you're listening to a message from Pastor and Bible teacher Ed Taylor. Catch a replay when you visit aboundinggraceradio.com or listen wherever you get your podcasts.

Here in the month of May, we've picked out an excellent book written by Chuck Smith called "When the Storm Hits." If you're struggling with life's burdens, this is a must-read. From the ability to discern spiritual warfare and how it can affect our emotions, to the realization that God is intimately aware of everything we are going through, this book will restore hope and peace to the weariest of believers. God may not always deliver us from the storms of life, but he is faithful to be with us as we go through them.

We'll send you a copy with our thanks for a gift of 25 dollars or more to Abounding Grace. Please remember, it is through your financial support that we're able to come to you day by day on stations all across the nation. Your gift, whatever the size, would be greatly appreciated and put to good use. Request your book today by calling us toll-free at 877-30-GRACE. Again, 877-30-GRACE. You can also order the book online at calvaryco.store.

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