God's approved, anointed and appointed Man

… Three short scriptures together, all found in the same book, Book of the Acts, Chapter 2. We will read one of two verses, beginning at verse 14. But Peter, standing up with the other, lifted up his voice and said unto them, ye men of Judea, and all ye that dwell in Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken to my words. Verse 19, I will show you wonders in the heavens above, signs in the earth beneath, blood, fire, vapors of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, and the fall, that great and notable day, the Lord come. And it shall come to pass that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Ye men of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and signs, miracles and wonders and signs which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know. Verse 32, for brevity, This Jesus, as God raised up, whereof ye are witnesses, therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, having received the promise of the Father, of the Holy Ghost, he has sent forth this, which ye now see and hear. Verse 36, Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God has made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ. Now in chapter 10, chapter 10 of the same book. Reading from verse 34, Then Peter opened his mouth and said of the truth, I perceive that God is no respecter of persons, but in every nation he that feareth him and worketh righteousness is accepted with him. The word which God sent unto the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ, he is, he is his Lord of all. Verse 38, How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power, went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil, for God was with him. Verse 43, To him give all the prophets witness that through his name, whosoever believeth in him shall have the remission of sins. Lastly, chapter 17. In the times of this ignorance, God winked at it, overlooked it, but now commanded all men everywhere to repent, because he has appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness, by that man whom he hath ordained. Whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised them from the dead. When they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, others said, we will hear thee again of this matter. Howbeit, certain men therefore, claimed unto him, and believed. I am being guided by the Holy Spirit. I would like to speak tonight about God's most wonderful man, and his most precious name. We could well put a little title to those three scriptures we have read. First scripture, chapter 2, God's approved man, approved of God. Second scripture, God's anointed man. Thirdly, God's appointed man. God's most wonderful man, and his precious name. I would like to draw your attention firstly to that little statement in verse 22. Jesus of Nazareth, a man. Truly God, truly man. There we have on the one hand his divinity, Jehovah the Saviour, and on the other hand we have his manhood. Jesus of Nazareth, a man. God's most wonderful man. A man over power than the second man. First man brought him sin and death and judgment, but the second man has taken them away. Put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. Swallowed up death in victory. Now he's ascended to the Father's right hand on high. During the week, I got an impression by the spirit as we have been considering this wonderful man and his precious name. I got a fresh impression of this name, Jesus of Nazareth. I would like to say a little about this word Nazareth. You remember after he was born as a babe in Bethlehem, his parents had to flee into Egypt. After Herod died, they were divinely instructed to go back to this place, Nazareth. To a city called Nazareth. And there when they came there it says, he shall be called a Nazarene. And you know I was looking at this word Nazareth. And the meaning of the word means separate. Separate. And you know if we went to number 6 we would get the Nazareth vowel. And separate. And to be a Nazareth it was to be separated wholly unto God. And this was personified in this blessed man. God's man. He was wholly separated unto God. If you carefully read in number 6 you will notice that separate and separation in that chapter is mentioned 12 or 13 times. But it was personified in this blessed man. He was like Joseph he was separated from his brethren wasn't he? It touches on his moral glory. He was holy. He was harmless. He was undefiled. He was separated from sinners. He was wholly separated unto God. In John's gospel you remember in chapter 1 you remember when Philip when he found this man Jesus of Nazareth he ran and told Nathanael about him. He said we have found him. The man that the law of Moses had wrote and the prophets. We found him. And he mentions this title again. We found him Jesus of Nazareth. Now you know what Nathanael said. Can any good thing come out of Nazareth? Philip says come and see. Come and see. And when he came and saw him. God's most wonderful man. What did he say? What did he say? Thou art the son of God. Thou art the king of Israel. Oh we want you to see him in all his glory and beauty and majesty tonight. Jesus of Nazareth. The true Nazarene. The Nazarite personified in this glorious person. Another impression I got in connection with this man by the Holy Spirit this week. I looked through Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and I noticed when Jesus died on the cross they put his name over him. But in the synoptic gospels they did not put Jesus of Nazareth. It was only in John's gospel that that name was put over him. And he says Pilate wrote a title and he put it above him. I am quoting from John's gospel. And it says the title was Jesus of Nazareth the king of the Jews. And I just said to myself I wonder why it was omitted in the other gospels. Well I will give you my impression that the spirit of God got before my soul and it was this. In Matthew's gospel we get the sin offering. In Mark's gospel we get the meat offering. In Luke's gospel we get the peace offering. But in John's gospel we get the burnt offering. That which was holy for God. He was the true Nazarene the Nazarite holy for God and the burnt offering was for God. Another thing I want to say about it is this. That in John's gospel it is the only gospel we have the precious blood spoken of. The blood of Christ was shed. And I would say this we were speaking about this when we were speaking about forgiveness of sins. God's value upon the blood. When I see the blood he says I will pass over you. And don't let us preach the gospel without preaching the blood of Christ. No matter what is written. Let us be faithful to God. We preach Christ crucified, buried, risen and glorified. Let us not wall the standard because this world is looking for a modern cure for sin but they will never find it. This is God's cure. The blood of Christ, God's son cleansed us from all sin. Jesus of Nazareth. Now I want to say a little about the man. Jesus of Nazareth man approved of God. Just to illustrate my point there are many young ones here tonight. I want to reach them. My heart goes out to the young. I want to reach them. I want to point him out. This is the title of the little article some of you have read. I am sure of that. Well in this article we are told about a ferry boat man. A man who ferried passengers from one side of the river to the other. And as he was on his duty one day he fell overboard. The man on the bridge, the skipper or the captain, he saw it and he ran down. And he jumped over the side and he rescued this man. And he saved his life. When the ferry boat man got back to his job again, and as he was at his duty every day, this boat used to come in of course, this passenger boat came in. And no matter how many passengers were on the boat, this man pointed out, look, look, look at that man, that man saved my life. He loved to point him out. Oh my dear, the Father loved his son and he loved to point him out. The Spirit of God has been pointing him out all week. Directing our gaze on this blessed man. Oh he loved to point him out. You know I was thinking about Joseph pointing him out. Philip told Nathanael about Moses who wrote the prayer and the prophets. They delighted to point him out. We were reading about the prophet today Isaiah. Oh he delighted to point him out. I love to read Isaiah, what a wonderful prophet he was. He loved it, he loved to point him out. You know Isaiah spoke about Matthew, Mark and Luke and John spoke about the four gospels you know. He did you know. You might say how is this, well he spoke about the king didn't he, Matthew the king. He said we are going to see the king in his beauty. Oh what a wonderful day that will be when we see the king in his beauty. Wonderful day. Matthew the king, Mark he spoke about the servant didn't he. Behold my servant, he loved to point him out as a servant. In fact in Isaiah 53 he is pointed out as my righteous servant. Luke he is the man, I will make a man more precious than fine gold. Oh the preciousness of Christ. A man shall be a hiding place from the storm. Oh Jesus is a rock and I will be the land. A shelter in the time of storm. We were singing this in open air not long ago. This man about this man. And of course when we come to John's gospel, behold your God. So you see Isaiah pointed him out in the four gospels. Oh my dear young brother read the old testament. Read the old testament, swat up the scriptures. Because the spirit of God points him out, he points him out. Read them and he will point them out. The spirit of God takes up the things of Christ and shows them unto us. What a blessed man this is. The man Christ Jesus. Well you know when we come to the new testament. I think about that scene in the banks of the Jordan you know when John pointed him out. He says look behold he says behold the Lamb of God has taken away the servant of God. Oh John loved to point him out. You remember the woman at the well. After she got in contact with him. Oh what did she do? After she got a taste of the living water it says she ran into the city. What did she say? Oh she says come see a man. She loved to point him out. She pointed him out. Come see a man who told me all things that ever I did. Do you love to point him out brother? Sister? Do you love to point him out to others? Oh what a joy it is to point him out. Point him out to others who do not know him. Oh give us grace, spiritual power and energy to point him out. When we come to John's gospel they said well we are going to be arrested. And they sent officers away to arrest him. They found him out all the way and they came back with a report. What was it? Oh never man speak like this man. Wonderful man isn't he? This blessed man. Wonderful man. When we come to John 9. I want you to notice this. The blind man. You remember after he received his sight they questioned him about it. This is what he says. He says a man named Jesus. Now there we have the two names again haven't we? There we have the two expressions again. Jesus of Nazareth a man. Jesus a man. The blind man says a man named Jesus. Ah but he grew in grace very quickly didn't he? A prophet the next time he spoke of him. Ah but when he was cast out. When he was cast out Jesus found him. Dost thou believe in the son of God? Who is he Lord? Who is he? He fell down and in homage he worshipped him. Oh he worshipped him. What a glorious man this is. The man Christ Jesus. And now we come back to this scripture here. And we are going to say a little about this blessed man and what God has done for him. God delights to point him out. The father pointed him out. Father loves him. This is my beloved son. Heaven pointed him out. Father's voice pointed him out. And I want to show you from this scripture how he was pointed out in a very remarkable way. Well we thought about his manhood, his incarnation, his humility, humiliation, his crucifixion, how he was crucified and his exaltation. Now I want you to notice this in verse 32. This Jesus has God raised up. Resurrection. I want to say a little about this point. You know we were preaching on the open air one night last winter. And a brother was preaching on that verse in Corinthians. Christ died for our sins. But was buried and on the third day he rose again. And as he was stressing this point the young minister came along and belongs to the church there. And he stopped and he says Amen. This is a wonderful message isn't it. Christ has been raised from amongst the dead by the glory of the father. And you know when Peter preached the resurrection there were thousands got in. And we have got to preach Christ crucified, buried, risen and glorified. Here was the first point. God would point him out as the risen one. Secondly in verse 33 he is the exalted one. God has highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name not only in this world but in that which is to come. So he is not only risen he is ascended and he is exalted. I was thinking about that verse during the week you know. And the psalmist says let us exalt his name together. And you know this is what we have been doing this week. We have been exalting his name together. His exaltation. Now the last point in this scripture is verse 36. That God hath made that same Jesus whom you crucified both love and Christ. Love and Christ Prince and Saviour. Here we have his lordship. Here we have a touch of his headship. Lordship in the kingdom, headship in the assembly. Christ is head of the assembly. Lordship, his authority, administration, headship, nourishment, guidance, direction, control. Now when will we hear about that? Those lovely two, three days. His lordship and his headship. But God points it out here. He makes sure that we don't miss it. His headship, his lordship, his exaltation. Oh he is pointing him out. May he be exalted in our hearts tonight. Now before we leave this scripture I want you to turn to verse 20. A little word here. The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before. Before. I want you to notice that word before. Now this is the end of the tribulation. Now I want to see this one because I feel impressed on this. Because yesterday we didn't touch on verse 10 in Revelation 3. Of course as you know the scriptures and the questions and answers were very busy. We were in the queue sometimes to get in. Never mind. It was difficult. But I just don't want you to miss this verse. I'll quote part of it to you. Now I'll tell you the reason why the spirit of God is bringing this before my heart tonight. And it's this. There is a school of opinion today saying even amongst brethren that the church, the assembly will go through the tribulation. Well we know from scripture the church will not go through the tribulation. Because while the tribulation is going on the church is in glory. And we want to make this very clear. And I quote part of the verse from Revelation 3. I will keep thee from the hour of tribulation that shall come upon the habitable world. And mind you that will be a terrible day. I'm not going to depress you tonight. I just want to say he brings in here the end of the tribulation. And just before. It's just before. Now what happens after this? This is what happens. I want to read it from Mr. Davis' translation. It says before. I'll read the whole verse. The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood and so on. That's the end of the tribulation. Before that great. This is Mr. Davis' translation. Before that great and glorious appearing day. Oh the appearing. I want to differentiate just for a moment between the rapture and the appearing. We are all together to meet the Lord in the air. And you know that's what we are waiting on. We are waiting on the Lord's coming. You know we have a little service every morning in the house just now. And we sang this this morning. Jesus is coming again. That was our song this morning. Jesus is coming again. He might come tonight. And if he were to come tonight we go to the Father's house. From there to the judgment seat of Christ. From there to the marriage supper of the Lamb so to speak. And then the day of tribulation upon the earth. When the end of the tribulation comes. This great and glorious day shall appear. The day of his appearing. When we shall come out with him. We are coming out with him. When he shall be glorified in his saints. And you know Paul made much of the appearing day didn't he. At the close of his life you remember he said I have fought a good fight. I have kept the faith and so on. He said henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness. And not to me only. But to those who love his appearing. Oh do we love his appearing. When he shall shine in glory and majesty in that wonderful day. And we shall go with him. The assembly shall go with him. In that glorious day. And I know this. Mostly all those writers in the New Testament make much of the appearing. We had a verse from Jude today. The hole that cometh with 10,000 of his saints. That's the appearing. And then we have Titus looking forward to that blessed hole. That's their rapture. And the glorious appearing. That's the appearing. When we shall come out with him. And John speaks about the appearing. Paul, Titus, Jude. They speak about this great and glorious appearing day. Oh I love that quotation from Mr. Darby's translation. It really touched my heart with joy and triumph and delight. The great and glorious appearing day. When Christ shall reign from the rivers to the ends of the earth when he sets up his kingdom. This wonderful day. When Christ shall be everything. Oh that we may get a foretaste of this in our souls as the Spirit of God points him out. Now we must go to the next scripture. Chapter 10. And I thought today how many nationalities is here tonight. Quite a few. But you know when we give our heart to the Lord Jesus we lose our nationality. And we are all one in Christ. But remember this the scripture says it's from every kindred and people and tongue and nation. As God has surrounded him in the day to come. God. Our God. Thank God he is no respectable person. He has brought us all in. Then he says preaching peace. Ah he is the prince of peace. He is our peace. Oh we know something of this peace now don't we. He has made peace through the blood of his cross. He is our peace. Preaching peace. And it says here he is Lord of all. Oh I don't want you to miss this. God has made him both Lord and Christ. He is Lord of all. He is Lord of all. And if he is not Lord of all he is not Lord at all. He is Lord of all. Mr Darby says in his translation. He is Lord of everything. Of course he is. He is Lord of everything. It says in Romans the Christ who is over all. The Christ blessed forever more. Another scripture says he is higher than all. He is higher than all. But you know there is another scripture that goes a little further and it's John's gospel. It says he that cometh from above is. He is above all. He is Lord of all. Then it goes on to tell us how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus of Nazareth. How this name comes up isn't it. Jesus of Nazareth. God's most wonderful man and his precious name. Now I want to say something about this again. The Spirit is directing me to this. In the book of Acts we get this name Jesus of Nazareth 7 times. 7 times. 7 times and we don't get it mentioned again in the scriptures. God has made that same Jesus Lord. But you know it's interesting to notice where this comes in. Time doesn't permit me to give you all the scriptures. But I think you will find them in chapter 3. It's in connection with the lame man. Do you remember? Why is that in the name of Jesus of Nazareth? There was power there. There was power in the name. And I think we get the next one was in chapter 4. When it speaks about no other name. Jesus of Nazareth. No other name under heaven given amongst men provided it can be saved. In chapter 6 it's in relation to Stephen. Do you remember? Jesus of Nazareth. And it says his face shone. His face shone. His face shone. His face shone. Our brother Andrew when he was preaching here the last night his face shone. Engage with Christ in all his glory his face shone. And then we get the next one mentioned in this chapter, chapter 10. 7 times I said and the 6th time it's mentioned it's in relation to the apostles conversion in chapter 22. And he speaks about how Jesus of Nazareth was spoken to from the glory. Jesus of Nazareth. But the last time it's mentioned. The last time it's mentioned it's speaking into a higher court. It's into the palace so to speak. It's before a king. It's before king Agatha. But you know the thought I got in this was you can take his name anywhere. Anywhere at all. And everywhere you can use it. This name you can take it anywhere. A name of dignity. Of supremacy. Of sincerity. That name. And Paul took that name before king Agatha. He said he spoke about Jesus of Nazareth. Oh that we might exalt him in our hearts as we think of this precious Jesus. Well he was anointed you know at Nazareth. You remember he went into the synagogue in Nazareth where he was brought up a carpenter's son. And it was there he could open the book. The spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. Deliverance to the captives, sight to the blind and so on. He was anointed. But oh friend before I leave this scripture to go to my last scripture. I want you to tell her this. He is now anointed with the oil of gladness. Above his fellows in resurrection and glory. God has seen to it. God has seen to it. Weeping doth endure for the night. Joy has come in the morning. He is anointed with the oil of gladness. Above his fellows in resurrection and glory. Then we finish up of course here. To him give all the prophets witness that through his name, whosoever believeth in him shall receive the remission of sins. Now I will go to the last scripture. We have spoken of God's approved man, God's anointed man. We are going to finish up with God's appointed man. He is appointed a day. Mind you the translation says it is a set day. And this day, we had last night from my brother Frank I think it was, when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his son. You know God is never before his time and he is never after his time. He is always on time. And this day has been appointed. He has appointed a day in which he is going to judge this world in righteousness. In righteousness. By who? By that man. Do you know this man? This man. The man. That man. This same man. He is going to judge the world in righteousness. I think in the New Testament there are four judgments. I will just run them over. There was a judgment of sin at the cross. Christ died for the sins. That has been done righteously. Never again to be repeated. Once and for all. God has been glorified in it. And there has been a whole redeemed company being brought in by his precious blood. The second judgment is the judgment seat of Christ. The bimah. There are works that will be reviewed. That which is not of the Lord shall be burned up. The hay, the wood and the stubble. But the gold and the precious stone shall be there. We seek to be faithful to God to get that well done. Thou good and faithful servant. When we come to this judgment, I think this takes us to the judgment of the living nations. When his feet shall touch the mount of Olives. The judgment of the living nations. When he shall separate the sheep from the goats before the kingdom is set up. Shall not the judge of all the earth do right? I tell you this. It shall be done in righteousness by God. Once everything is cleared away. The kingdom will be set up. The brother raised a point about the world to come. The first person to speak about the world to come was the Lord Jesus himself. In the gospels. He spoke about the world to come. And Paul takes up the thought. The world to come whereof we speak. And after the living nations. After this judgment takes place. The kingdom is set up. And the prince of peace shall reign from the rivers to the ends of the earth. What a wonderful day it will be. But mind we don't come to the earth again. We reign over the earth. And this is where some get mixed up you know. We reign over the earth. Never come back to the earth. We reign over the earth. But when the kingdom is set up. Those in the earth as we had today. His name shall continue forever. And so on. And everything in that day. Everything that hath breath shall praise the Lord. And he alone shall be adored in that day. Satan is bound for a thousand years. And there is liberty and respect. There is liberty to praise and worship. What a wonderful day it will be for the Lord of glory. What a wonderful day it will be for his heart. Think of it. Just think of our little village like Timbuktu. Everybody praising the Lord. What a wonderful thing it would be. Well that's just a little picture. In that day everything that hath breath shall praise the Lord. As we do this day. Lord let us keep praising him. He's worth it isn't he. Well he's pointed a day. And this man is going to judge this world in righteousness. Well that's the world to come. To those who inquire the young brethren. That's the world to come. But it comes to an end you see. The world to come comes to an end. When he hands over the kingdom to the Father. And the last judgment is the great white throne. That's the final judgment. But it's not the world in view there. It's the dead. It's the dead. Small and great shall stand before him. And every unbeliever shall stand at the great white throne. Oh when we read those scriptures. It should put fire in our souls to preach the gospel more to the unsaved. Great white throne. An end. I don't want to leave this note tonight in judgment. I want to take you a step further. I want to take you into the new heaven. And the new earth. That's what I want to take you to. New heaven and the new earth. Where all pains of sin shall be removed. All evil shall be done away. And we shall dwell with God's beloved. Through God's eternal day. What a day lies before us. No more death. No more sin. No more tears. The form of angel has passed away. And over there when God himself shall tabernacle with men. In the gospels. The Lord used a little phrase. It is written. In the cross. From the cross. It is finished. When he arose. It is I. When we come to God's eternal day. It is done. It is done. Oh the supremacy of God. In that wonderful day. May God bless that word for his namesake tonight. …