Well, as I said tonight and as we went over, we're really considering the heart of what we believe when we say, I believe in God the Father, Almighty Creator of heaven and earth. And in light of the challenges today and the things that obviously you know are happening, I don't know, each day seems to bring unfolding of some new event and something that everyone's going to argue about and everyone's going to fight about. And I thought that the perspective, again, of Acts is so important that we don't forget it in light of Lord's Day 9, that tonight we're going to look at this brief section of how the believers, under great turmoil and pressure and stress in the first century, how they handled themselves, and how this great truth here in Acts chapter 4 and then in Lord's Day 9 is set right in front of you together so that we would calm down a little bit and trust the Lord. That's the purpose of this tonight. So Acts chapter four, beginning at verse 23. When they were released, they went to their friends and reported what the chief priests and the elders had said to them. And when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and said, Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them, who through the mouth of your father, David, your servant said by the Holy Spirit, why did the Gentiles rage and the people's plod in vain. The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against his anointed. For truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus whom you anointed both Herod and Pontius Pilate along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place and now lord look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness while you stretch out your hand to heal and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant jesus and when they had prayed the place in which they were gathered together was shaken and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and continue to speak the Word of God with boldness. And there we'll end the reading of God's Word tonight. So that's Acts chapter 4, 23 through 31. Well, obviously, one of the great challenges of ministry, and I think you know the challenge of the Christian life, and I could say this for myself as a pastor, is to actually live out and do what you preach. That's a tough thing to do, as you know. You say many things and you give many directions. And just like anyone else as a pastor, you tend to forget these beautiful truths of the Scripture as you're going through life. And all of a sudden, you realize you're trying to take all these burdens upon yourself, which is rather foolish, by the way. Don't ever try to do that. But every Sunday, you can walk away with great confidence as you hear the Word. I don't know if you, I trust you have that great experience that you walk away and you think, wow, what a word the Lord has given to us. What a help the Lord has spoken to us. What a blessing he's given to us to nourish us and fill us with his word. And it doesn't take very long. On Monday and you've turned on the news and you're all polluted again, right? I mean, that's just how it goes, especially today. And then you feel we have to tackle all these problems that are in front of us and let a little hardship come, let a little tribulation come, let things get turned upside down. and everything that you've heard and everything that you were so encouraged by can be lost that quickly. And that's why you need the repetition of Sunday. You need to come back every Sunday to hear the word and enjoy the word. I can't emphasize how important you know that is. But this is true for us, all for us right now. As in the world, society is in really grip by darkness. There's a lot of low hanging clouds, aren't there? And as I was reading and reflecting on Lord's Day 9, as we're working through what we believe when we say, I believe in God the Father, Almighty, the maker of heaven and earth, when we say these words, when we confess these words, I was really struck again, I had a moment realizing how easily I forget this particular truth. This wonderful truth that's given to us here. That the eternal Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who out of, listen to this language, Out of nothing created heaven and earth and everything in them. And it was this line that got me. Who still upholds and rules. That just froze me in my thinking. He's still upholding. He's still ruling. Do you believe that? Do we act like we believe that? And I think that's where this particular passage really challenges us tonight. By his eternal counsel and providence, he is my father because of Christ. And the question goes on to say, he's going to provide for you, he's going to care for you, and he's good, and he's a faithful father that ultimately you have nothing to fear or worry about in this life. But we forget it. And we often think of God as turning on us. We often think that God is forgetting us. We often think that God is refusing us. We often think that God has turned his tender mercies away from us, and then we turn back to our performance and no wonder we're a mess no wonder we have a little confidence at times as we go through these things and i want that great reminder to be set before you tonight that god the father loves you this is what jesus said in john 16 when he said listen the day is going to come when the spirit comes when the holy spirit comes one of the things the spirit is going to do for you is to help you understand that the father loves you i can't wait to get to John 16. That's some of the most beautiful statements in the Bible to encourage us in the love of God and his fatherly care and his fatherly providence and his protection and watching over us in all of the fears that disturb life. Fatherly preservation. And so I thought, I really don't know that anything helps us better to see this tonight than Acts chapter 4 because you can look at this in an individual level, which we often do, but I think it's also important in light of our current context and our challenges to think a little more covenantally and communally about these things and that's exactly what's happening in acts chapter 4 if you know the remember the the stories of acts and remember as we went through the book of acts there were all these wonderful things happening in the church the church was growing the church was booming you had great success the lord was adding to the number daily those who are being saved Peter would give a sermon at Pentecost and 3,000 people from all the nations of the earth were coming in and being saved. I mean, that's wonderful truth that was given in Acts. All of a sudden, everything changed. Very quickly. They were finding themselves in situations that they could not handle. Things got bad with the authorities. Things got, they were struggling and now something terrible has happened peter and john by the spirit had healed a man and they were preaching repentance and the kingdom and the people were believing in the name of jesus and the sadducees the rulers the elders the ananias and caiaphas they have seized peter and john they have laid hands on them and they have thrown them into prison this was a great discouragement for the church in all of its progress and all of its success and all of its great things that were happening among the people all of a sudden everything had turned and there was real panic we read something shocking in verse 17 that they had severely threatened them severely threatened them now that's where we come in verse 23 where they were released and they went to their friends and they reported all these things that had happened and i think it's important just for a second to put your yourself in their shoes as they're facing these things everything's been going well the people are hearing the gospel but now you can imagine the discouragement when these things happen many people would would scatter we know from the early church in the face of of these attacks so here come the apostles back to those new converts and they are telling them everything that had happened that didn't go well we were severely threatened i would imagine the discouragement in their faces as they heard these things. You think about what Peter had said and what he had had to deal with. Imagine when he said, the chief priests arrested us, they severely threatened us, and then they told us never to speak in Jesus' name again. Now, I think that needs to set in for a minute. The authorities of the day told them, It was both religious and political in this situation. I want you never to speak in the name of Jesus again. I think we all can have a lot of consolation that we have not been told that, right? Right now? For all the panic that we're under and all the concern about the future and all the things that are happening, we're not in that place. We're not in that place. What am I doing right now? I'm speaking in the name of Jesus. I'm preaching the gospel to you. So there's a lot of things we could worry about. And I can tell you, here we've come to the worst of situations. They were actually told, don't you dare do it anymore. You are not allowed to speak in the name of Jesus to which you know they defied. And they said, we're going to do what the Lord tells us to do. We're going to keep preaching. We're going to keep preaching. But this is a moment of real crisis that I think is helpful in light of our particular circumstances and to think about how we conduct ourselves and handle ourselves when things are difficult and to remember perspective-wise what these early brothers and sisters had to face because you would expect the Romans to stop something like this. But here, who is challenging them? It's the leaders of God's people. It's just remarkable, isn't it? I wonder how big of a crisis this would be in the church today if the authority said no more are you to teach and to preach in the name of jesus how many um how many would be done how many would give into that how many would not be willing to count the cost how many whose christianity is so shallow would would give into that and think that that's what the authority said and we can't do it i don't know but i know this this is an entirely different situation than ours and that's important to say but i don't want to miss the basic point here that they're scared to death they're scared to death you imagine that fear they've already hung jesus on a cross the same thing now is being threatened to them you're going to go through the same thing at this point the lord what he's doing for us the holy spirit's doing for us is helping us to show us how they made it through this and that's why i thought this is so important you're going to see how this beautifully connects to lord's day nine tonight he is giving us an answer and i mean a real answer in the moment of crisis in whatever shape or form it takes. When your faith is shaken, when we're confused, when we're perplexed, when fear has overtaken, he's given us a real answer. But what strikes me about the passage is it's not an answer that we appropriate and take to ourselves and perform and do as we should do. And that's where the challenge comes in tonight. What does the first thing emphasize that spontaneously happens. Well, they didn't have to plan it. They didn't need an organizational meeting. They didn't have to have a congregational meeting. It's a spontaneous gathering here, an automatic response to their crisis of their faith. And I want you to notice verse 24. And when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God. How much have we been lifting our voices together to God? We have great opportunity on Sundays to do it. But if things were really bad and things were really in a place where we were really scared and really fearful, wouldn't we gather together and do this? Lifting our voices together to God, shouldn't we? Peter becomes here the greatest sort of prayer, excuse me, becomes the greatest lifeline when your faith is rocked to the core and you have no answers and when you're tested and when you're faced with the dilemma of running from everything when there's no clear answers and going forward, this is the way the Bible shows us prayer in its most beautiful and accepted form. God loves this. God loves this kind of prayer. God loves us crying out in the trenches. God loves it when we are calling out to him in the situations spontaneously when the stress and the fear has overcome us. And you'll notice here that's exactly what happens when you can't handle it. When I can't handle this alone, when the biggest problem is we're trying to figure this out, everyone has their own opinions and their ideas. When you can't understand what's happening, Notice the beautiful thing that's said here. They lifted up their voices together in prayer. That's why I love this particular passage. I couldn't get away from it because the Lord is telling us here, you are not alone and on your own to figure out the things of life. That's how Americans think. This is part of our problem in this whole thing. We are so individualistic. And that's why everyone has an opinion on the sun under all of this stuff right now. We are so individual. You're not on your own to figure this out. It's why you have elders. It's why you have a church family. It's why you have one another. We need one another. Christians don't do well alone. And the Lord is helping us here to understand that, that together they called upon the Lord in these kinds of distresses, in the kind of distress that we have not faced yet, and the worst imaginable distress in the life of the church. So what happens? Well, this is where Lord's Day 9 is so helpful. It's directly applied. Look at verse 24. And when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and said, I think of this perspective as we hear this prayer, Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them. Well, that's pretty chilling if you think about it. Sovereign Lord, they're immediately filled with great praise, addressing the Lord as sovereign and forming and knowing and in his hands everything that he made in this world. Isn't that a beautiful thought? Everything that he's formed, everything that he has made, everything in them, the earth, the sea, all the creatures, Everything that's happening in this world, he formed them. He sovereignly oversees them. God knows them. Why does sovereignty, why does creation, why does power, why does it matter? That's the question. Well, think of it. Everything that has come upon them is screaming to them from everywhere else. God's against them. Not just that. That God is not in charge of much at all. that's what they're experiencing doesn't seem like god's much in charge of this at all and what do people do when they live like that they take matters into their own hands and then everything goes south just that's the history of israel that's the history of israel they were looking to all the the other nations to help them and they had all their ideas and they look to everyone else other than the lord in the midst of these things from an outward perspective right now it's all very discouraging it's all very confusing it's all very uprooting it's all very hurtful it seems to many saints who have lost their abilities of freedom to move people are suffering people are hurting people are confused and how do we not struggle with the question, God sure doesn't seem very involved with this at all. The whole thing for the early church has come undone. It's threatened to be undone. And what's coming out right now? Sovereign Lord. Sovereign Lord. I mean, that really, I should just have done the sermon there and stopped tonight. I could have done a whole sermon on Sovereign Lord. Sovereign Lord. Let that set into your skull. Sovereign Lord, right? What a great statement. You've come face to face with the truth of your confession and what you believe about God. Is he sovereign? Or are we all practical Arminians? In his absolute sovereignty, that this thing is in front of us, is it true that it is in the course of his eternal counsel, everything that's happening in front of us, the God who made everything, heaven and earth, all things in it, is in control of this too. He's sovereign over this too. That's, of course, is when, you know, they say the rubber meets the road. You've intellectually believed things about God and the Bible and our confessions, and then to put it to some kind of factual test and experience is important in life because now these things are taken to the heart and if he is the creator and he is sovereign and things are ordered by him and i just should say i've i've gone through this passage before but i have the strange suspicion that this is taking on a whole new meaning right now because a lot has happened since last year see how the word of god is always alive, and for us, it's very circumstantial when we hear, and that you may not have even remembered this sermon, may not have been a very good sermon at that time. But now, notice how it speaks to us. Notice how it strikes us. As God is in his providential ordering of things, turning things, and now we hear something like this. This perspective begins to fill the content of their prayer and look what comes into their mind for verse 27 for truly in this city there were gathered together against they were gathered together against your holy servant jesus whom you anointed both herod and pontius pilate along with the gentiles and the peoples of israel to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place whoa you mean the death of jesus the beatings the crown the strikes the insults was predestined to take place yeah all of it mind-blowing all of it they have threatened us with the same death as jesus got and they're saying that death was not a mistake though the greatest confusion of history the greatest tragedy of history putting the son of God on a cross was not a mistake that was not something that surprised you Lord you anointed him for that and when these men stood up to condemn him and crucified They did what your hand and what you had predestined to take place. I mean, it is mind-blowing thoughts right now as they're praying to the Lord. Psalm 2 becomes the heart of this prayer, which tells you to always use the Word of God and to see how the Word of God has always spoke to these things and always been a help to us to show that plan. And Psalm 2 says wonderful things. You told us this would happen. Why did the Gentiles rage and the people's plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against his anointed. And here's what I love about it. It's as if their minds are being helped in prayer as they think upon their heavenly father holding the reins to all of this. I think we forget this. I'm speaking to me now. This theology is embraced and learned through the struggle of life, through the avenue of prayer. and taking what they know to be true and now applying it to exactly what they're facing. This is the heart of their growth as they're coming together. They're thinking through the scriptures and they're praying the scriptures in light of what they're facing and everything's becoming clear for them in prayer. That's the beauty of this. It's actually an answer for them as they're gathering together in prayer. The Spirit, you'll notice the Holy Spirit is working here. the Holy Spirit is uniting them together through this prayer and helping them in their minds and calming their hearts, interceding for them with prayers when they don't even know what to say. You think about that individually, but we don't think about it enough communally. This is on-site training. You don't get this in the classroom. This is in the trenches when you're faced with something you can't handle. And I have to say, you know, this is a tough time for elders to lead right now. We're facing difficult decisions. We're facing hard decisions. And it's hard for us. But it's good for us. Because this is how we're tested and tried. This is what the Lord puts us through so that we would lean not on our own wisdom. Things have gone pretty smoothly in the Escondido URC for many years. Isn't it good to be stretched a little? I need to be stretched. I know that. It's good to get situations you can't handle. It's good to be in a pickle. Because then you're going to trust. Then you're going to say, Sovereign Lord, help us. And he promises he will. Then you're going to say, Father. That's what I'm going to get to here. Paul said, we are so utterly burdened beyond our strength. We despaired of life itself. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves, but on God. that's why he puts us through these things we belong to him he is lord whatever the church is facing whatever we are facing he still is on the throne that's the point of this sermon that's why i titled it the way that i did he's still on the throne he didn't get off he didn't take a vacation he's got this he's got this and that's the greatest comfort that's the greatest comfort and that's why the Bible says not only for that but we rejoice in our sufferings knowing that suffering produces endurance and that endurance produces character and that character produces hope and that hope does not put us to shame because God's love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who's been given to us this is just another great encouragement to come together to worship see how important worship is and see how important prayer is together now what has this done to their understanding that's the question what has this done to their understanding it's now directed uh what their request should be it's helped them now to frame their request properly as they have thought upon sovereign lord and upholding of everything and nothing's happening by chance and that all things are under his sovereign reign and that the predestined plan of god is working out what are they asking then well this is not just about preserving their lives notice what they say now lord look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness while you stretch out your hand to heal and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant jesus what did they ask for boldness and they asked that the word would continue you see the devil in many very crafty ways we're not ignorant of his devices paul said he can go after the word through a fight over masks did you know that we're not ignorant of his devices we're not ignorant that he can influence leaders Through foolish things and doing foolish things that really is an attack on the Word. And if we don't see that, then we need to be more clear about that. That's what the devil's trying to do through leaders. This is what Revelation's all about. So pray. That's the point. We need to call to the Lord. Give us boldness, Lord, through this. To be wise, of course. it's it's that one it's wonderful notice that the anxiety is is taken in the midst of this from them and and this request a confidence comes that they can trust the lord in his care for them that's what i'm seeing here that's what i'm seeing from lord stay nine i mean just listen to um to lord stay nine again i trust him so much that i do not doubt he will provide whatever we need for body and soul he's going to care for us he's going to care for you physically and he's going to care for you spiritually and will turn to my good whatever adversity he sends who sends he sends upon me in this veil of tears what a statement i suppose that's why paul said be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving make your request known to god and god will do something he's going to give your hearts peace couldn't we use the structure of this prayer sovereign lord you you made the heavens and the earth the sea and all that's in them and this thing that's happening is in your hand and and in your plan you've predestined to take place we remember the life of your son that they plotted the worst things against him and they did whatever your hand had planned and predestined we belong to him our lives are not really any different and now oh lord look upon all this confusion look oh lord upon all this confusion right now look on all this foolishness we can't see the demonic influences behind all of this look upon all of that that all wants to undermine your word you know the truth we don't know the truth in many of these situations you know the truth if the politicians are playing games look upon it and stop it You know, give strong faith to us through this, O Lord, and boldness, and don't let your word be shut down. That's the heart of our concern. That's a prayer, no matter the circumstance, we can pray. And here's the encouragement tonight. Here's the great encouragement tonight. God gave a response to that prayer to encourage you. Here's the answer. I want everyone to look at, if you want, at Lord's Day 9, at the very bottom, it says he's able to do this because he's almighty God. He desires to do this because he is a faithful father. In verse 31, and when they prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. And they spoke the word of God with boldness. He's able to do this because he's almighty God and he desires to do this because he's a faithful father and he's told us that the reason we're here is the advancement of the word. This doesn't make us idle in decisions. Sometimes we have to make difficult decisions. But I want you to notice here the complete resting on the Lord. We're chattering too much. We're all chattering too much. We're all talking too much. Not in prayer. And I'm speaking to me. That's the issue. He has a purpose in this. He's refining his church. He's testing his church. I don't think we have it that bad right now. It's pretty cool out right now. A couple weeks ago, it was a little bad. The worst thing ever would be for this world, not a virus. The worst thing for this world is not a virus. The worst thing would be the shutting down of the Word of God for this world. And the church is praying through all of this that the Word would flourish. And God is saying to us, I'm a faithful Father. That's the Word by which you're saved. It's the Word that governs all things. And it's the Word that needs to be heard to the ends of the earth. We should pray this. As a church, I think we can pray more together. I think it's the part of our growth that happens in the trenches when life is hard, when we're facing things that we can't handle. It's always easy to seclude ourselves. It's always easy to try to go on our own through this. I think many people are trying that right now and they're realizing how empty their lives are. We can't handle the things that come upon us. And the Lord is telling us now to encourage us to come to him as a father. A father who will provide for us, a father who will care for us, a father who will uphold us and keep us in his word. That's the beauty of this tonight. I think of this great prayer that they prayed, that God in his sovereignty and his power and his wisdom would help them. and tonight we're confessing the same thing that the eternal father of our Lord Jesus Christ who out of nothing created heaven and earth and everything in them and still upholds them and still rules them by his eternal counsel and providence is my God and father for the sake of Christ, his son. He is committed to you because of Jesus. Do you understand that? He's committed, he's committed and he's still on the throne. So let's trust him together and not panic and be united as a people. And as we go through the trenches and as we have these difficult moments and times, may we lift up our voices together and remember the prayer that is put down for us here in Acts chapter four. And what we say about God as a father who loves us because of Christ and desires to help us when we call out to him. This is our father, our father in heaven. Let's pray to him tonight. Heavenly Father, we give you great praise and great thanks. Our sovereign Lord, you made all things. You uphold all things. There is absolutely nothing that is happening by chance. And so when these difficult times come upon us, and we have to confess, Lord, if we look at the course of our lives, we've had it really good. We try to take everything into our hands to fix it right away. And we need patience from you. And we need to be able to trust you in your providence. That all things are working out according to your perfect will and appointed by your hand as they are performed in the earth. And when we are confused and when we see all the foolishness of things happening and we're perplexed and when deep confusion falls on the people, We come to you and ask, O Lord, not for long life for ourselves or for riches in this world, but that you would uphold your word as ultimately we know there is great conspiracy to throw it down. May your word flourish. May your word go forth. May your word go unhindered. We're not ignorant of Satan's devices. And may we realize this is not the end of the world. whatever's happening to us. The end comes when you decide. So give us strong confidence, O Lord, and may your peace, which surpasses all understanding, guard our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus. Pray for your elders that we would lead well and make good decisions in these times and that you would guide us. And we do pray, O Lord, for relief since you are sovereign and in control, that you would calm the madness that's in front of us and that you would bring a speedy end to these things and that there would have been a great lesson learned by us and by the world that we are not the Lord of our life and we're glad to say that. In Jesus' name, we pray these things. Amen.