Returning to 1 Peter this evening, commencing
our studies this evening in these great thrilling
inspired letters of Peter, 1 and 2 Peter.
And if the Lord will, we're going through
these two letters phrase by phrase, trying to
make the Bible talk the whole way through.
I had a long wait before the Lord,
before I came to the decision to take
up the epistles of Peter.
A very valued member of the class here
came to me and said, do you not
think of taking up that great subject that
you did many years ago, the doctrine of
the devil?
You remember we did this from end to
end once, and I'm sure that it would
need to be done again sometime.
And a very dear brother in the meeting
wrote me a letter about why not take
up the footsteps of Christ.
And about fifteen years ago we did this,
and took every step that Christ made on
earth from Bethlehem right through to Calvary.
Very interesting.
Very blessed indeed.
And I got so many letters about so
many things.
But I think the thing that God used
to bring me to the decision to go
into these epistles of Peter was this.
You remember when we were going through Genesis,
and we were looking at all the characters
in Genesis, Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and
Joseph.
Do you remember those wonderful days we had
with Joseph?
I think that Joseph was the most saintly
character in the Old Testament.
And remember this, that while he was the
most saintly, that there is nothing made from
his flowers and there is no murmur that
comes from his lips, he was so like
the Lord, despised and rejected of men and
so on.
Yet although he was the most saintly character,
he was the one who suffered the most.
I think it's a lesson to learn, you
know.
But although we gazed at Joseph and saw
such spiritual life and vigor, yet when we
came to look at Jacob, I think Jacob
was the one that touched us most.
Because Jacob's down-sitting and Jacob's up-rising
and Jacob's folly and failure and fiends were
so like our own.
He's the man that stepped up, a human,
a child.
Just like ourselves, a man of like passions.
And when you come to look at all
the characters in the New Testament, and you
take Paul, and you take John, and you
take James and Joseph and Mark and Matthew,
you know the one who steps out nearer
to you and matches up with you better
than any other is Peter.
Remember he's called a non-learned and ignorant
man.
Oh, he hadn't any great smothering of education
at all.
And they're making so much of the academic
standards, you know.
Ah, well, let me tell you here now.
I remember being one of the referees on
the mission board once, about twenty-two men
there, and a girl from the Shankill Road
was being examined, and she was answering back
in her own good old Shankill Road language.
And there's nothing wrong with it if you
belong up there.
And you know, the chairman looked at her,
he was from London, and he said when
she went out, he said, you know, we
can't stand this girl.
She's got no education whatsoever.
Oh, you see, I just got the Bible
and skidded it up the table to them.
I'm always looking for trouble.
Skidded it up the table.
I didn't find any academic standards.
And John, John the Baptist, I'll say a
few more things, say a few more things.
I don't have the steam out of him.
I don't listen to that ruckus.
That's from hell, that's what I think about
it.
That is not how God works.
God happens to kick up the things which
are not.
And the foolish, all those who will be
belittling your education, if God takes you, I'll
say amen.
But don't make it a standard.
If God elects to take a back seat
to me, you'll have to just pay attention,
that's all.
Peter was the common man.
A fisherman with rough hands, you know.
He rode the boat a time or two.
Maybe like me, he couldn't spell too well.
When I write these notes about the secretary,
she laughs at some of the things I
write.
Sure, I don't care.
I put me keeper for putting them right.
Yes, Peter was just a common man.
A northerner at five eights.
And as we look at this character tonight,
you'll find in many ways a weak man.
And yet you know when the Spirit of
God took hold of him, he became a
special apostle in a special sense.
The apostle to the circumcised.
He became a very special character.
And God can take anyone of us, you
know.
There might be things.
And it's only God that does things.
So you know, I came to the conclusion
after wishing before the Lord for some time
that we should take up these great letters
of Peter.
And while the man is unique in a
sense, I can tell you that the message
is unique.
What messages are here?
Just notice this as we start tonight.
It's Peter writing to the strangest castle.
And when you take the word strangers in,
you get the word scattered with it.
He's thinking about Jews.
It's always applied to Jews, this word scattered.
And these strangers scattered throughout Asia Minor.
You know, they're Jews that he's writing to.
But notice this in the second verse.
They're elect.
They're saved Jews.
They're elect according to the foreknowledge of God
the Father.
And let's get the word poor in here.
Poor.
Because this is election before history begins.
That's where he begins.
Away in eternity before the world began.
That's where he begins the letter.
Can't be a fellow that couldn't pass the
eleventh yet beginning then.
And I can tell you that he sweeps
through these two letters.
And when he comes to the end, you
know, he can see the elements melting with
seven heat and the earth and the things
that are therein being burnt up.
And he can see the new heavens and
the new earth from
eternity.
Just because it wasn't the academic standard that
was doing it.
It was the Spirit of God.
And you know, for those of you who
differ with me in dispensational things, he didn't
see Israel and the Church as one, you
know.
Because the election that he's talking about here
is the sovereign choice of God before the
world begins.
Poor knowledge.
And because of this election, before history began,
Israel was elected on earth.
God chooses this nation and brought it down.
And he doesn't see the people he's writing
to having an inheritance on earth.
Oh no, he's not thinking about it.
In with Philistine's image, defiling it and corrupting
it.
No, he said your inheritance is incorruptible and
undefiled.
And it's not the geographical location down here
at all.
It's reserved in heaven.
Oh, he knows what he's about, you know.
Yes, it's a unique man with a unique
message.
And we're going to take it word for
word.
It will be a long time getting through,
but if the Lord will, we'll get through
it.
We're just taking the first word tonight, the
word Peter.
Man, it thrills a boy like me to
see him writing Peter.
One or two Roman Catholics here tonight, bless
you.
You're most welcome.
In God's mind here, there'll be no mercy
on you while you're here.
You'll take the truth like the rest of
them.
And I can tell you this, that on
the page before you, it is not the
very reverend Dr. Holy Father Pontius Peter.
No!
It is just Peter, if you can read
it.
No increasing article to be known to the
public.
And the sooner we learn it, the better.
And it would be good for all the
rest of the ministers, too, who fancy themselves
with reverend in this and that and the
other.
Very good, you know.
Because the whole lot of it sounds like
potpourri to me.
When you pray for me, don't pray for
Pastor Mullen, because the Lord will not know
who you're talking about.
Just say Willie Mullen, and that's what they've
got up yonder on the book.
I'm really thrilled with the way he begins.
Just Peter.
As he was the first pope, he didn't
know a thing about it.
He's just Peter, that's all.
I've said a lot of things about him
in the notes tonight.
First of all, I say he was a
Jew.
You may wonder why I even took a
line to do that.
But I can tell you young people that
there's a great debate going on at the
present moment, and there are quite a lot
of moderates who are trying to prove that
Peter wasn't a Jew.
And they're doing it for a very subtle
reason, too.
I think he comes from Rome.
I make no apologies for any of these
things, you know.
I'll tell you why.
Have a look at Galatians, and we're at
Galatians chapter two.
Paul's letter to the Galatians, and at Galatians
chapter two.
Now Paul had gone up to Jerusalem here.
He'd gone up to see Peter and James.
And he says in verse six, the same
time, But of these who seem to be
somewhat, whatsoever they were, it maketh no matter
to me.
God accepteth no man's person.
For they who seem to be somewhat in
conference are did nothing to me.
But contrarywise, when they saw that the gospel
of the uncircumcision was committed unto me, as
the gospel of the circumcision was unto Peter.
Now I think you want to watch that
very carefully.
Because it just means this, that these dear
leaders in the church at Jerusalem, they recognised
immediately that the gospel of the uncircumcision, that's
the gospel to the Gentiles, or to the
heathen, the uncircumcised, was committed unto Paul.
And the gospel to the circumcised, or to
the Jew, was committed unto Peter.
So if this room hadn't been very open
at the beginning, they would never have chosen
Peter as the first speaker.
It was Paul who was the speaker.
And I think that somewhere along the line,
somebody must have challenged their authority on this
ground.
And now they're beginning to subtly say that
Peter was not a Jew.
And you young folks will get the argument
round about sometimes.
It's not so very many years ago, maybe
just a couple, that a young university student
said to me, Don't you really think that
Peter was a Jew?
I said, I don't think at all, I
know he was a Jew.
He said, you know, you would have bother
proving it.
Well I said, let's try anyway.
Now here's what I did, and you follow
it.
I went to John's Gospel, chapter 1.
And you know the Lord Jesus had had
some time with Andrew and John.
And when Andrew came away from the Lord
and went and saw Peter, verse 43 says,
The day following, Jesus would go forth into
Galilee and find a Philip, and saith unto
him, Follow me.
Now Philip was of Bethsaida, the city of
Andrew and Peter.
So I said to this young fellow, you
know, this is where he lived.
He lived in Bethsaida.
And this is his city.
It seems to indicate that where he was
born.
I said, I'm not accepting that.
They said, they called you Willie Long from
Georgia.
And you were not born there at all.
Well that's quite a good argument.
So I gave that bit up.
I said, alright, let's go over here now.
This is the Acts of the Apostles.
And it's chapter 3.
Pentecost has come.
And here you find, verse 1, Peter and
John going up together into the temple at
the hour of prayer.
I said, if you think he was a
Gentile, what do you think he was going
up to the temple to pray for?
He said, you know, I don't think this
is right either.
The church has just been found and there's
no meeting place.
And they suppose if you were saved and
you could get a place to pray, you
would pray anywhere.
And he went to the temple.
So I had to give that up too.
Then I went on to Acts 10, you
see.
And this is the place where Peter is
out on the roof praying.
And you remember the great sheep descended.
Verse 12, wherein, where all men are the
four-footed beasts of the earth, and wild
beasts, and creeping things, and fowls are there.
And there came a voice to him, rise
Peter, kill and eat.
But Peter said, not so Lord.
But I have never eaten anything that is
common or unclean.
I said, if you don't take where he
lives to indicate that he's a Jew, then
you don't take what he does.
Maybe you'll take what he doesn't do.
And he hasn't eaten anything at any time.
He said, you know, you could get pernickety
all Gentiles just like that.
And I suppose you could.
So I had to shift over again.
So I went back to Luke's Gospel.
This just suddenly dawned on me.
I went back to Luke's Gospel.
And I'm at Luke 22 now.
See, verse 7.
Then came the day of unleavened bread, when
the Passover must be killed.
And he, our Lord Jesus, sent Peter and
John saying, go and prepare us the Passover.
So I looked at the Gospel.
I said, you don't think the Lord was
sending a Gentile to prepare the Passover, do
you?
And this is where he collapsed.
He said to me, you know far too
many scriptures.
I said, you know far too many.
I think you could go on with it,
and you can get the answer quite easily.
There's no doubt whatsoever he was a Jew.
And I don't think we'll have any trouble
at all with the next one.
He was a fisherman.
Let's have a look at Matthew's Gospel, chapter
4.
Matthew 4, and I want you to remember
this.
Verse 18.
And Jesus, walking by the sea of Galilee,
thought to brethren, Simon called Peter and Andrew
his brother, casting a net into the sea,
for they were fishers.
These were fishermen down at Galilee.
Let's put another scripture beside that to tidy
it up.
Luke's Gospel, chapter 5.
I think this is a lovely one.
Luke's Gospel, chapter 5.
Verse 1.
Came to pass that as the people pressed
upon him, to hear the word of God,
they stood by the lake of Genesaret, which
is the famous Galilee, and saw two ships
standing by the lake, but the fishermen were
gone out of them, and were washing the
nets.
And they entered into one of the ships,
which was Simon's.
He was not only a fisherman, he owned
his own boat.
Now, I want you to get the picture
into your mind.
We're building it by a Bible kit this
evening.
And I want you to get me the
Jews.
And I want you to be absolutely sure
that he's a fisherman who owns a boat.
You know, when I was down at Galilee,
we went down every morning and into the
fishing boats.
And I didn't go to see the fish
on the boats either.
I went to watch these fellows.
My, you could see their suntanned faces, rough
like leather.
They'd been in many a storm.
And I took particular notice of their big
hands.
And I began to imagine Simon Peter.
He was a Jew, probably had a vision.
And he was a fisherman, he owned a
boat.
And he'd been out in many a storm.
And I want you to get this.
He was a married man.
I don't know how Rome gets round this
at all, talking about the first hook.
Well, he was married.
And surely that must show us, pardon me,
in the works of celibacy.
Yes, you remember this.
Have a look at this.
Matthew chapter 8.
Matthew's gospel, chapter 8, verse 14.
And when Jesus was come into Peter's house,
he saw his wife's mother dead and sick
of the fever.
And he touched her hand and the fever
left her.
You know, he was quite a character, wasn't
he?
Not only a Jew and a fisherman and
a married man, but his mother-in-law
lived.
Quite a character.
And then she wasn't too well, you know.
We have to laugh at this.
It wasn't like the fellow that I know
who formed a doctor one night and he
said, Doctor, my mother-in-law is at
death's door.
Well, we're getting this fixed.
We want to establish this before we get
too far, that he was not only a
Jew and a big, rough fisherman and a
married man, but he was an unlettered man.
We don't want to get that out of
balance at all, but let's have a look
at this.
This is the Acts of the Apostles, and
it's chapter 4.
And there's not a passage in the book
that's more important than this one.
Peter and John were arrested here by the
Sanhedrin for preaching.
And they were put in the prison until
the next day.
Verse 5 says, Acts 4, verse 5, Came
to pass on the moral that their rulers,
and elders, and scribes, and Annas the high
priest, and Caiaphas, and John, and Alexander...
That's a special figure of speech in the
Greek New Testament, all the Annas.
Came to pass on the moral that their
rulers, and elders, and scribes, and Annas the
high priest, and Caiaphas, who also said he
was the high priest, which is a bit
of confusion, two high priests in the one
year in the nation, and John, and Alexander,
and as many as were of the kindred
of the high priest.
What a course it was.
Those who know best tell me that the
Sanhedrin at Jerusalem, this most venerable talk of
the Jews, it stopped in a semicircle.
Seventy-one members.
Twenty-two old Jewish lawyers in that half
of it there.
Twenty-two old Jewish elders, keen, and wise,
and cruel.
And the last, the priests from the temple,
and in the center, the high priest.
I don't know how they figured out Annas
and Caiaphas, who were juggling each other.
That's their problem.
And in the center of the semicircle stands
Peter and John.
They're on trial.
And this talk can take their lives, and
this talk desires to take their lives.
It was a great moment, you know.
It says here, verse seven, And when they
had set them in the midst, they asked,
By what power or by what name have
you done this?
You see, a man was healed at the
beautiful gate of the temple.
And somebody stood up to ask this question,
and I know that it was one of
the lawyers from the Sanhedrin, all Jewish lawyers.
Because I spent a great many months studying
Jewish law.
And there's a long way back in Deuteronomy
which says, If a miracle is even performed
in any other name than the name of
Jehovah, they who do it shall be slain.
So it's a subtle, it's a loaded question,
we say.
He stood up, he looked at the Jew,
he said, By what power or by what
name have you done this?
But Peter knows exactly what is being done.
Thus, if you're ever in trouble, and if
you live for God you will, watch this
next little bit.
Then Peter, don't forget this phrase, filled with
the Holy Ghost.
Because this is the way you earnestly contend
for the faith.
It isn't with a gun in your hip
pockets, you know.
Nor a flag in your hand.
No.
Nor your father's blood.
No.
It's filled with the Holy Ghost.
And if you're filled with the Holy Ghost
you'll not do a thing wrong.
You'll be a bigger man than any other
way I know.
Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost.
Watch this.
Said unto them, Ye rulers of Israel and
elders of the people.
Ye rulers of the people and elders of
Israel.
Very careful how he addresses the court, you
know.
He's not rude or anything like that.
You wouldn't be rude if you're filled with
the Holy Ghost.
If we this day be examined of the
good deed done to the impotent man, by
what means he is made whole, is the
answer.
Be it known unto you all and to
all the people of Israel that by the
name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth That is
not putting your tongue in your teeth, is
it?
That's what you call being a man.
Because you can have your life taken away
for saying that.
These boys didn't like Jesus Christ of Nazareth.
Don't put them on a cross.
But Peter's putting his shoulders back here.
And he went a little bit further, you
know.
He says, be it known unto you all
and to all the people of Israel that
by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth
whom you crucified.
He's the bit they didn't like.
Whom God raised from the dead.
Even by him doth this man stand here
before you all.
And he went a bit further.
It's caught in scripture now.
This is the stone which was set at
not of you builders.
Which has become the head of the corner.
And then he looked and squared in the
face and he said this.
Neither is there salvation in any other.
For there is none higher name on the
heaven given among men whereby we must be
saved.
Come on, I'll shake his hand when I
go to heaven.
Thank you Lord Peter.
But a man can do that.
You ask the reason for the hope of
heaven.
Ask God to save you with the Holy
Ghost.
Yes.
You know it says here.
Verse 13.
Now when they saw the boldness of Peter
and John and perceived that they were unlearned
and ignorant men.
They marveled.
Oh when will the world marvel again.
When ordinary folks are filled with the Holy
Ghost and stand up for Christ.
That's when they'll marvel.
Unlearned and ignorant.
Friend.
The Lord can take you just as you
are you know.
The China Inland Mission threw out a lot
of field work.
It's just a wee woman.
Remember the night she was here.
She hurriedly flew over the platform.
Screwed her up.
They just punched her.
And she just went on with her thing
and did the job.
I was pushing in the middle.
For the next day you see when I'm
at the convention.
I said do you see the old doll
over there with the fog?
You come to take it out on me.
I'll take it out on you.
They threw her out.
Oh that dropless talk of academic standards.
If God takes a university student and makes
him a man of God.
I shall shut up.
Get into the place.
Unless you can talk with a certain accent.
You won't be allowed in.
Yes it was Sibla Baxter who said degrees?
Are you talking about degrees?
Why there ain't been no churches by degrees.
But we did know for a fact.
Yes we're getting the picture are we?
We could do.
He's a rough fisherman.
He's a married man.
He's a non-lettered man.
You know he's the saved man.
And I want you to notice the next
one because we've put them both together.
He was the called man.
You know sometimes some of the young ones
come to me and they say you know
there's something wrong here.
And they show me John's Gospel chapter 1.
I'll show you what they mean.
John's Gospel chapter 1 and it says verse
41 talking about Andrew.
Andrew who was Simon Peter's brother.
See verse 40.
One of the two which heard John speak
followed him and followed him was Andrew Simon
Peter's brother.
He first assigned his own brother Simon and
said unto him we have found a Messiah
which has been interpreted by Christ.
See it's a lovely phrase.
And he brought him to Jesus.
And when Jesus beheld him he said thou
art Simon the son of Jonah thou shalt
be called Cephas.
You know he's going to make something really
tough out of him.
You know this is the day he got
saved.
This is the day he was brought to
Christ.
Do you ever bring anybody to the Lord?
It's a great thing just to bring us
all to the Lord.
And I'll tell you if they're brought to
the Lord don't detest them, they're in Jesus.
Now some of the young folks say you
see here is where he met the Lord
and mark this this is in Bethabona beyond
Jordan see verse 28 these things were done
in Bethabona beyond Jordan where John was baptized.
And you can see in verse 43 we
read it before the day following this Jesus
would go forth into Galilee.
So this was the way down in Judea.
Now I want you to get that in
your mind.
Because we're going back to Matthew chapter 4
And this is what the young folks sometimes
turn up.
They say here is the Lord Jesus verse
18 walking by the sea of Galilee here
are these two fishermen and he says unto
them follow me and I will make you
fishers of men.
And they strictly left the next and followed
him.
You see this is quite simple.
It was down at Bethabona beyond Jordan where
Peter was brought to Christ and where his
faith was placed in him of the Messiah
and where he was changed.
But it was some time after that and
I don't know how long after that that
he was called into I can take you
to the spot where I was saying and
I can take you to the spot years
afterwards where the Lord called me into full
time service.
Those were two different days.
Don't mix them up.
He was a saved man and he was
a called man.
You know Peter had great gifts.
Of course we've already seen that he was
the great apostle to the second Christ.
Yes he was the apostle.
And I want to say this you know
sometimes I think that we miss this and
we miss it tremendously.
You see at Pentecost the Holy Ghost came
and all those who had been individual followers
of Christ up to that moment the Holy
Ghost came upon them all and he baptised
them into one body and the church was
formed of them.
And you know this is tremendous because the
church sealed out from Pentecost.
And I want to tell you that they
met you know on the first day of
the week to break bread and there was
ministry all right.
But I want to tell you that they
had no New Testament.
And I think this is the thing that's
missed.
We forget you know.
We forget that they met and they had
no Hebrew and they had no New Testament.
But you know they had great gifts among
them.
These apostles were there.
And they were not only apostles they were
prophets.
Now when we say apostles and prophets we
mean apostles who were gifts to the church
and prophets who were New Testament prophets who
were gifts to the church.
You know I think you need to get
that into your mind because the prophets did
a lot of ministry.
Have a look at the Acts of the
Apostles and you see chapter 6.
Now the church is formed and verse 1
says, And in those days, when the number
of the disciples was multiplied, there arose the
murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews.
These were Grecian believers murmuring against the Hebrew
believers because their widows were neglected.
Then the twelve, this is the twelve apostles,
called the multitude of the disciples unto them
and said, It is not reason that we
should leave the word of God and set
table.
Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven
men of honest report.
And mind you they're asking the church to
look out for the men.
They were apostles mind you but they're not
doing it.
He says, look ye out among yourselves.
All of the appointments here, the church doesn't
have the book in it.
You just stand back and let the church
do it.
Oh, I read them the qualifications all right.
But this is what they said, brethren, look
ye out among yourselves seven men of honest
report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom.
And we'll appoint them over this business.
But we will give ourselves continually to prayer
and to the ministry of the word.
I want you to get that quick now,
there's no New Testament.
Ah, yes, you see, there were not only
apostles there but there were prophets.
And you know when the church met on
the first day of the week, then the
whole, you see, sometimes the prophet would stand
up.
And this is the morning meeting, mind you.
And he's ministering the word.
And he's ministering the word without a New
Testament.
But because he's a prophet he's teaching the
church New Testament truth.
Now let me let you see him at
work.
Have a look at this, 1 Corinthians.
1 Corinthians chapter 14.
Now Paul's talking very carefully to the church
here.
He says, verse 1, follow after charity.
He's just asking them to love one another.
Just a little after forbidding to love in
this meeting.
Following after charity.
And desire spiritual gifts.
You're right to desire spiritual gifts.
But rather that ye may prosper.
And I want you to get properly into
your mind in the sense that you're an
Old Testament prophet.
That is not the sense at all.
It's the New Testament prophet is the sense,
the man who's going to minister to the
meeting.
Yes.
I want you to get this.
He talks about tongues here.
He says, well he that speaketh in a
tongue, because the word unknown there is in
italics.
He speaketh not for men, but for God
is the old Greek translation.
For no man understandeth him.
How be it in the spirit he speaketh
mysteries.
But, and he puts a big but in.
But he that prophesies speaketh unto men.
For what?
For three things.
Through edification and exaltation and comfort.
You know, if I've got it quite clear,
this is what the morning meeting was all
about.
When the church gathered and there was no
New Testament, you know sometimes the prophets stood
up.
And they ministered.
And they ministered comfort.
And they ministered edification.
And they ministered exaltation.
And in some of our churches now.
And for me that's better.
Because they're doing a raise ministry.
Why I think we got all four here
on Sunday morning.
To be ministered to.
In a way that's right.
It's because they have no message.
Now you old boys will growl and hear
children's stories.
I'll tell you what they did in the
New Testament.
They stood up to minister comfort.
I'll tell you the difference in the New
Testament.
The morning meeting is where you get comforted.
Where you should be edified, taught.
Where you should be exalted if you need
it.
That's what it's all about.
And you see Peter wasn't only, wasn't only
an apostle.
He was a prophet.
And many times he stood up, you know,
and told them exactly what they had to
do.
And I'll tell you this.
You'll have no bother with the next one,
will you?
He was not only an apostle and a
prophet.
He was an evangelist.
You know God gave this fisherman a lot
of gifts, didn't he?
It's all gifts you see.
Ah yes, God made him an apostle and
a special one.
And God gave him the gift of prophets.
And God gave him the gift of teacher.
And do you see 1 Corinthians chapter 12?
You're not far from it there.
When it talks about the gifts, see how
it puts them.
And God asks, verse 28.
And God has set some in the church
fast.
Apostles.
Oh, there are some folks who come to
this meeting, bless them, they try to tell
me that Israel and the church are just
the same.
And I've asked them a thousand times over,
if Israel is the church, would you tell
me how the apostles took the land early
after the meeting, because that's what came to
church first.
If you were right, it would be the
patriarchs of the first.
Ah, this is a new body that God
has made.
And the first gift he gave was the
apostle.
Then, second only, prophets.
Don't you forget that.
These are not all Testament prophets, these are
New Testament prophets.
You can minister to the church to edify
without the New Testament at all.
And when the New Testament came, we don't
need the apostles.
Ah, what do you need then is teacher,
because that's third.
Did you notice?
Thirdly, teachers.
Here you get the sweet bit, don't you?
After that.
And you've got this now.
After that.
Oh, this book, you'll be all right.
You know, Paul asks questions at the end
of that chapter, and they should correct a
lot of people.
Verse 29, he says, are all apostles?
Everybody in the assembly an apostle?
You would know the answer, wouldn't you?
Are all prophets?
You know the answer.
Are all teachers?
You know the answer.
Are all workers of miracles?
Have all the gifts of healing?
Do all speak with tongues?
That's what the teacher has done for us.
There's a whole lot for us to do.
Answer the questions there.
He's asking you the questions.
You see, God took this man who had
no man.
Oh, I'm sure he went to school like
I did, but he only saw the wallpaper
on the wall.
But God took him.
This should be a great comfort to all
of us, not for who we are.
God took this rough man.
This man had spent many days in a
boat.
God took him.
And God gave him the gift special of
apostle.
And God made him one of the gifted
prophets to order by the church.
Read two letters, eight chapters.
Just let us know how wonderful a teacher
he was.
Three thousand saved on the day of Pentecost.
Tells you that he was an evangelist of
no mean skill.
And mind you, I don't see him cast
into anything at all.
I hear him preaching out loud.
That's what I see.
Friend, he's a great character, isn't he?
You'll notice now he was a Jew, a
fisherman, a married man, a non-lettered man,
a saved man, a called man, an apostle,
a prophet, an evangelist.
Mind you, he was a pastor.
Just to save time, let me say this,
that one day the Lord came to Galilee.
They need a fire for them.
And they sat around the fire, and he
said to Peter, Peter loveth thy name.
And he said a wee word to them.
She's my life.
And he said to them again, loveth thy
name.
And then he said to them, she's my
life.
And you know, the works of the pastor,
I think a lot, the Pope's faith is
drinking tea.
Well, as far as I'm concerned, you can
think again.
Because I don't see anything in this book
about the pastor drinking tea.
The pastor's job is to feed the flock.
Not slaughter, not preach it, feed it.
Feed us, God bless you.
Here you are to my, the stomach of
God, Not for myself, the cook.
I only gather the food for you.
I'm like the cook in the kitchen.
I just set the table for you.
Ah, but that's the pastor's job, to feed
the flock.
And Peter was a good old feeder.
I want you to get this bit.
You know, he was an apostle, apostle, prophet,
evangelist, pastor, teacher.
You know, we want to see inside the
man a little bit.
You know, in himself he was the witch
man.
You know, when the Lord was arrested in
Gethsemane, he was ready for battle, you know,
at the stage he drew the sword.
But you know, when they took the Lord
away and his hands were tied behind him,
you'll find that he's following afar off.
Now, that delay away at the back of
the clod just tells me about a weakness
of Peter.
It's beginning to sum things up.
No wonder we were taking it easy.
And he's following afar off.
And I'll tell you this, that not only
is the delay pointing to his weakness, but
do you remember that departure he had from
the truth on one occasion?
It's a terrible thing to say, mind you.
Go to Galatians.
Galatians chapter 2.
Now Paul says, now Paul's writing this letter.
And if you like to take the date
of the letter to the Galatians, and you
like to try to take it back to
the date of Pentecost, you'll find it sixteen
years after Pentecost.
Of course, it was quite a few years
after Pentecost before Paul was saved, and then
it was quite a few before he went
out into work, and then it was quite
a few before he started to write letters.
So you'll find that the date's all right
at sixteen years after Pentecost.
Galatians, Paul's writing, he says, verse 11, But
when Peter was come to Antioch, and we
want to get Antioch settled in our minds,
you know the map, don't you?
The river Jordan runs down the center, and
there's Galilee, and there's Samaria, and there's Judea.
And if you go on up past Galilee,
you'll come to Samaria.
Samaria's still there tonight.
Well, Antioch, there's Antioch in Pythia, which is
over in Asia Minor.
As you know, Peter came down from Jerusalem
just a wee visitation from this great apostle.
And he came down to Antioch.
Paul says, I was stood unto the face
because he was to be blamed.
For before that, Satan came from Jinn.
That is, before Satan, Jews came from Jinn.
He, Peter, did eat with the Gentiles.
But when they were come, he withdrew himself
and separated himself, fearing them which were of
the circumcision.
He's afraid of the Jews.
Isn't it a horrible thing when the servant
of God is afraid of men?
It's a shock of business, you know.
I know men who would like to come
near to preach but they're afraid of the
brethren.
It looks good on the Lord at all,
you know.
The servant's song reads, Thank you, now that
we see.
That's what the servant, the friend of that
one did.
Do you think that I would be asking
any of the baptists in the north of
Ireland where I would go to preach?
Not on your life.
Oh no, I'm not that afraid of men.
You know, some people talk about Peter getting
filled with the Holy Ghost of Pentecost.
And he's got such a blessing that he
was never the same again.
How it frightens me.
Holy fright.
That's what it is.
When I saw a little book made once,
a little booklet, one side of the page
was printed like, Peter before Pentecost.
Afraid.
Afraid of the little maid he was a
servant.
Peter after Pentecost.
Never afraid again, shall I say.
This is him sixteen years after Pentecost.
I'll tell you he's afraid.
That's just how much trouble goes into tracks
at times.
And some people swallow him now.
Oh no, he's to be blamed here.
He's afraid here.
See what verse thirteen says.
And the other Jews dissembled likewise with him,
in so much that Barnabas also was carried
away with their dissimulation.
See the big word dissimulation.
Well it's the word hypocrisy.
If you look up the dictionary, he was
playing the hypocrite now.
Here's the worst indictment.
See verse fourteen.
When I saw that they walked not uprightly
according to the truth of the gospel, I
said unto Peter before the morn, man, Paul
took them to task.
I'll tell you, dear Roman Catholic friends, if
he was the first pope, Paul didn't know
a thing about it either.
Because he just took them to task and
pulled them off.
And he deserves to be pulled off.
You know it's a terrible thing when it
can say of a minister of the gospel,
he's not walking uprightly according to the gospel.
He needs his knuckles struck, doesn't he?
Ah, it's the weakness that's coming now.
You know the delay proves the weakness.
The departure from the truth proves the weakness.
The denial of Christ proves the weakness.
You remember when he was up at Galilee,
he says, I'll go fishing.
I'll go back to the fishing.
I was weakness in that decision.
Took seven others with him too.
Paul, he was a weak man.
Nothing inside him to boast about at all.
And that's why he's so like us.
For we've all lagged behind.
Yes.
And we've all been afraid of men.
And we've all played the hypocrite at times
rather than taking our stand.
And we've all made decisions we should never
have made.
But I'll tell you this, when he was
filled with the Spirit, when he was constantly
being filled, Paul, he was a strong man.
Now I see him before the Sanhedrin, seventy
-one of them, looking him in the face,
mild or a hair point on him.
He lets them know.
And when they challenge him and say, you're
not a priest anymore, he says, we're sorry.
Paul, he just let them know.
Friend, we're only getting the character that wrote
the book, that's all.
I'm making this Bible picture of people for
you.
If you're not so, you'll do it better.
Here's something that I want you to notice
at the end.
He was a humble man.
Let me do this quickly.
Look at the Acts of the Apostles, chapter
ten.
You know, Cornelius is sending for him, Cornelius
was a Gentile.
And Cornelius is sending for him to come
down to his house, because Peter didn't want
to go, and then the Lord instructed him.
You can see in Galatians how he forgot
his instructions at times.
But here he's going down to the house
of Cornelius.
Verse twenty-four.
Acts ten, twenty-four.
And the morrow after they entered into Caesarea,
and Cornelius waited for them, and had called
together his kinsmen and near friends.
And as Peter was coming in, Cornelius met
him, and fell down at his feet and
worshipped him.
You know, quick as a flash.
But Peter took him up, saying, Stand up.
I myself also am a man.
It's a good idea of the book, learn
that lesson.
Everybody down and stiff, and I don't know
what it's all about at all.
If he was a true Peter, he wouldn't
put up with that.
This man was a humble man.
He said, Let me get up.
I'm just a man like this.
You know, in my ministry, all the young
men, the most of them here, come and
tell me their problems.
And they know that the old man, as
they call me sometimes around here, I don't
mind.
You never tell.
And you never will.
They can tell me anything, but I won't
tell.
And you know, I've found out that one
of the ways that happens to me is
that when they come and they tremble at
the thought that I can tell them that
I committed a sentence, in reality.
And when they begin to see that I'm
just the same sort of Friday as they
are, that's how they're encouraged.
He's a great character, isn't he?
He's a unique man.
And I assure you, as we get into
the Scriptures, it will be a unique message.
634.
Savior, thy dying love, thou gavest me.
Or should I also withhold, my Lord, from
thee?
634, please.
Just before we sing the last verse, I
want you to do something for the Lord
at the weekend.
Try and bring him on to say a
question on Sunday night.
You know, if you try and fail, the
Lord will know all about it.
He'll bless you for trying.
I believe that the Lord will be honored
in this evening.
You've worked hard, and the year of doubt
has never brought a pose of a place
in your life.
Savior, think about the work of the Lord
for the master's use this weekend.
God bless you.
Last verse.
634.
Savior, thy dying love, thou gavest me.
You, Lord, we thank thee for thy presence.
And we ask thee that thou would encourage
us that thy word is common, and we
haven't very much to talk about.
Help us to know that this is the
day and hour when thou art taking the
things which are not to bring to naught
the things that are.
Lord, we specially think about Bob and Bessie
and Elizabeth and Andrew as they leave us
tonight.
We know that thou would make them to
trust in thee with all their heart, and
to lean not unto their own understanding.
Help them in all their ways to acknowledge
thee, and we know that thou wilt direct
their paths.
My Lord, we commit us to thee.
Part us in thy fear, and with thy
blessing, for thy name's sake.
Amen.