Amen. Let us turn now to Acts chapter 13 and we'll see the Apostle in the course of his sermon, at least the summary of it that Luke gives to us, quote from the Psalms, first from the second Psalm. The only time it's mentioned specifically which number of something is being quoted is because for the other books of the Bible, chapter numbers haven't been given yet. But for the psalm, since those were individual, those had been counted. And so in this case, the apostle mentioned the second psalm. There are a few times when Jesus introduces a quote and he says, it's near this passage or it's near this section, which is kind of how they used to break things up. And so the second psalm and then Also, the 16th Psalm will be quoted, but we'll begin our reading in Acts 13 verse 13. And then we'll be reading through 41 and focusing on 32 to 41. But to help us know where we are, we'll begin reading at verse 13. Now Paul and his companions set sail from Paphos and came to Perga and Pamphylia. And John left them and returned to Jerusalem. But they went on from Perga and came to Antioch in Pisidia. And on the Sabbath day, they went into the synagogue and sat down. After the reading from the law and the prophets, the rulers of the synagogue sent a message to them, saying, brothers, if you have any word of encouragement for the people, say it. So Paul stood up and, motioning with his hands, said, men of Israel and you who fear God, The God of this people, Israel, chose our fathers and made the people great during their stay in the land of Egypt. And with uplifted arm, he led them out of it. And for about 40 years, he put up with them in the wilderness. And after destroying seven nations in the land of Canaan, he gave them their land as an inheritance. All this took about 450 years. And after that he gave them judges until Samuel the prophet. Then they asked for a king, and God gave them Saul the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for forty years. And when he had removed him, he raised up David to be their king, of whom he testified and said, I have found in David the son of Jesse, a man after my own heart, who will do all my will. Of this man's offspring God has brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus, as he promised. Before his coming, John had proclaimed a baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel. And as John was finishing his course, he said, what do you suppose that I am? I am not he. No, but behold, after me one is coming, the sandals of whose feet I am not worthy to untie. Brothers, sons of the family of Abraham and those among you who fear God, to us has been sent the message of this salvation. For those who live in Jerusalem and their rulers because they did not recognize him nor understand the utterances of the prophets, which are read every Sabbath, fulfilled them by condemning him. And though they found in him no guilt worthy of death, they asked Pilate to have him executed. And when they had carried out all that was written of him, they took him down from the tree and laid him in a tomb. But God raised him from the dead. And for many days he appeared to those who had come up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are now his witnesses to the people. and we bring you the good news that God promised to the fathers. This he has fulfilled to us, their children, by raising Jesus, as also it is written in the second psalm, you are my son, today I have begotten you. And as for the fact that he raised him from the dead, no more to return to corruption, he has spoken in this way, I will give you the holy and sure blessings of David. Therefore, he says also in another psalm, you will not let your holy one see corruption. For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep and was laid with his fathers and saw corruption. But he whom God raised up did not see corruption. Let it be known to you, therefore, brothers, that through this man forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. And by him, everyone who believes is freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses. Beware, therefore, lest what is said in the prophets should come about. Look, you scoffers, be astounded and perish, for I am doing a work in your days, a work that you will not believe even if one tells it to you. So far the reading of the Holy Word of God. Let us turn also to our confessional reading. Lord's Day 14 on page 215. Lord's Day 14. Question and answer is 35. And 36, I will read the questions together. Let's say the answers. Beginning with 35. What does it mean that he was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary? That the eternal Son of God, who is and remains true and eternal God, took to himself through the working of the Holy Spirit from the flesh and blood of the Virgin Mary, a true human nature, so that he might also become David's true descendant, like his brothers in all things except for sin. 36, how does the holy conception and birth of Christ benefit you? He is our mediator and in God's sight, He covers with his innocence and perfect holiness my sin in which I was conceived. That is the confession we hold in common. Dear congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, earthly things do not last. Cars and other machines eventually break down. Light bulbs burn out and need to be replaced. Chairs lose their stability and can become trash. Here in Waupon, a bulk pickup is a visual reminder of this. All along the street are types of furniture and other things. Some of it is still in good condition or okay condition. It was just not wanted anymore in that place. Hopefully those will be picked up by someone who could use them, but many of these things are beyond repair or at least in need of significant remodel before they could be used again. Now, what was There was once new and nice. It was once a nice chair. It was once a new bed. It was once a comfortable couch, but now it's trash, trash, trash. And it's not only things that are deteriorating. We are deteriorating. We are corruptible. We grow old and we If the Lord should tarry, we'll all die. So people of God, who is the only man who ever had power over death? Surely it is Jesus Christ. And he was the promised one. Even his resurrection is specifically promised, the apostle tells us in the Old Testament. And so this is our theme tonight, acknowledge the one promised Savior, the promised Messiah has come, the promised resurrection has come. Believe in that one Jesus. Those are our three points. First, the promised Messiah has come. Paul is preaching here in the synagogue of Antioch in Pisidia. After reading the law and the prophets, it was customary for either a man of the local synagogue or for a traveling rabbi to speak with his high rabbinical training. It's no surprise that the Apostle Paul was invited to speak in synagogue after synagogue. But the new covenant has come, for the blood of Jesus is the blood of the new covenant. And all must know that the Messiah is no longer a promise of the future but is now a reality of the present. And so Paul will always preach Jesus Christ. He will not just speak of the Old Testament scriptures, which he knows so well. He will speak of the one whom those scriptures anticipate. He will speak of Jesus Christ. And so Paul begins with an overview of the faithfulness of God, just as many psalmists and many prophets did before him, but he will not stay there. He will not stay with the Old Testament names and scriptures themselves. He will speak of the son of David. He will speak in verse 23 of this man, David's offspring, whom God has brought to Israel, a savior, Jesus, as he promised. And then he will go on and he will detail from the Old Testament Scriptures, who that Jesus is. And that's what we're working through in our points. And first, he goes to this second psalm. And he's doing all this to answer the question of what is the good news? And so in verse 32, he uses the word good news. We are bringing good news to you. What God promised to the fathers he has fulfilled. And so now he goes to the promises and speaks of how they are fulfilled. So the first promise is from the second psalm. And if you would turn there with me, let's turn to psalm two that we sang from the second psalm. And we're gonna turn back to it. In verse 33, of Acts, the Apostle Paul speaks of how God raised Jesus. Now, in a couple verses after that, the same word raised is going to be used to speak of resurrection, but in verse 33, tied to the quotation from Psalm 2, tied to Psalm 2, it's being used in a more general way. We might think of raised in the sense of raised up in the sense of appointed. And so the important context of Psalm 2 is verses 2 and 3. Psalm 2 verses 2 and 3. The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed, saying, Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us. Now that's not the verse that the Apostle quotes in Acts. He's going to quote from verse seven. You are my son, today I have begotten you. But what is important in verse two is that this is very plainly what is sometimes called a messianic psalm. It is explicitly so, because the word there at the end of verse 2, anointed, is the Hebrew word, Messiah. This is a psalm speaking about the Messiah, his person, his work, who he is, and that he's appointed to certain tasks. He's set apart in a special way. And so turning back to Acts chapter 13, In verse 33, when it says that he fulfilled this to us by raising Jesus, it could be translated by raising up Jesus. And we could think of it there in terms of appointing Jesus. Jesus is the appointed one, the anointed one. You are my son, today I have begotten you. If we were to overview, of the three places in Luke where we see God saying, you are my son, today I have begotten you. It's a reminder that we're speaking to all of Jesus, all of who he is and all of what he will do. Because we see that phrase used three times in the Gospel of Luke. The first time, God says it through the angel in announcing the birth of Jesus, you are my son. I have begotten you. God is saying this is a child to be born of a Virgin Mary, but this is my legitimate. We might say raised up son. This is my son. I have begotten him. He is stepping into this world as true man but also true God to do all that I have called him to do. The second time we see it in the Gospel of Luke would be in Luke chapter 3 verse 22 and it's at Jesus' baptism. This is my beloved son. And there are even some texts which Finish the quote, this is my beloved son. And quote more from Psalm 2, right there. In other words, this is not only my son at his birth for his whole life, this is my son who is raised up, appointed in a special way to carry out his ministry. Because what is the baptism of Jesus? It's the beginning of his earthly ministry. And then one more time, another confirmation of who Jesus is in all his divine power. The last time we see Jesus proclaimed to be this is my beloved son is in Luke 9 at the Transfiguration. And so we take that knowledge of when Jesus proclaims, you are my son, and even today I have begotten you. And we see that it speaks to Jesus in his whole person, in his whole ministry. He is the raised up Messiah. This is the promised one, the Apostle Paul is saying. All of his life, all of his ministry, It is all of what the Old Testament promised. This is important, of course, because so many of the Jews misunderstood what the work of the Messiah was to be. The Apostle Paul is saying, all that the Messiah was to be, Jesus has fulfilled. Let all doubt in your mind be removed. The scriptures have been fulfilled in this one Jesus. But then this is the broad sweeping truth, the Messiah in every way we might say. But now the apostle is going to move from the general to the specific and that takes us to our second point. that Jesus also fulfilled the scriptures in one specific event in his resurrection from the grave. The promised resurrection has come. Sometimes we say that a person needs to step up to get something done, to fill in a needed service, to finish the job. This can apply in big things and small things and everything in between. Dinner is done, someone needs to step up and do the dishes and in the home Maybe you have some kind of schedule that appoints who does that, or maybe not. And by the way, that could be anyone in the home who's capable of doing it, stepping up and doing the dishes. Or we might think of complicated tasks, dirty tasks, tasks for which one person is more suited than another. What is important is that someone needs to be willing to do it. If no one is willing to do the task of doing the dishes, then it's not going to be done. If no one's willing to do fill-in-the-blank task, it's not going to be done. Someone needs to be willing to do something for it to be accomplished. Someone also needs to be able to do something. The very youngest child in a home with small children might be willing to do the dishes, but might not be able to do them all by himself or herself. And then when we get more and more complicated tasks, you might need more specific training, more specific knowledge to get all kinds of things done. And so the point is, in order to do all kinds of things that we might do from one day to another, you need to be both willing and able. Well now, let's take that picture of how, in order for a task to be completed. You need someone who's willing to and able. And let's think about this in terms of the task of conquering the grave. Who is going to conquer the grave? Who is going to defeat death and not see corruption? Who is going to be a holy one? It's going to be someone who's both willing and able. Well, there's only one person who's willing to do this task. There's certainly only one person who's able to do this task. There is only one Savior, Jesus Christ, There is only one true descendant of David who is truly man. He is of David. He is truly God. He is the only begotten son of God. And so now let's look at the passages. The first in verse 34 from Isaiah 55. And there's much we could talk about here. We're really just gonna focus in on holy, because that's the connecting word that's in both Isaiah 55 and then from the quote in the next verse from Psalm 16. There are holy. and sure blessings of David. Well, in Isaiah 55, what's the context in which that's being spoken of? It's the prophet Isaiah prophesying that the line of David will fail, that the Babylonians are gonna come and the nation of Israel is gonna be judged. And so, how in that context, Can Isaiah also speak of the fact that the promises will yet be fulfilled? Well, in order for the holy and sure blessings of David to be fulfilled, there must be a holy one. And so the word holy comes in the next quotation, which is in verse 35 from another psalm from Psalm 16, where the psalmist says, you will not let your holy one see corruption. And the apostle Paul knows that there's two things there that can only speak about Jesus Christ. Because who is the holy one? There is only one who is like his brothers in all things except for sin, as question and answer 35 says it. There's only one Jesus Christ. There's only one who is able to be holy. And the only one who is able to say, I am the holy one, is the only one who will not see corruption. David saw corruption. David's tomb in Acts chapter 2, the Apostle Peter makes a very similar appeal to Psalm 16 as the Apostle Paul makes here and he points out in Jerusalem they knew where the tomb of David was at that time and he says you know where it is and it's not empty. David's corrupted, decayed body is there. There's only one who is holy. There's only one who does not see corruption. There's only one Jesus Christ. And so this specific promise, the holy and sure blessings of David, including the fact that there will be a holy one who conquers the grave, It's been fulfilled. Jesus has done this. He is the Messiah in every way, including this specific powerful way. He was raised up from the grave. It's no accident that holiness and the defeat of death and decay are mentioned in the same breath. Before the fall into sin, Adam and Eve had life. If there was no fall, Adam and Eve would not have died. But because of the fall, we are now in a state of sin, which includes death. and decay, and so it's only the holy one, it's only the one who can step in and be holy, who can be without sin, who can stop the process of death and decay, which comes with sin. David was dead and buried, but the tomb of Jesus is empty. David could only serve his own generation, verse 36, before he grew old and died, and after death decayed. But Jesus was raised up from the dead never to see corruption. Therefore, He is able to be the one anointed one for every generation. Acknowledge then Him. That's our third point. David is a king in only one generation. After David dies, no one can say, David is my king, he's in the tomb. But after Jesus dies, since he has risen from the grave, we are all called to give our allegiance to him, to believe in him. And so the apostle brings his sermon to a conclusion with first a call to believe, And then a promise for those who do believe and a warning for those who do not believe. The call is in verse 39. It's for everyone who believes. Now in this context, if we were to continue reading, we would see that many Jews in this city will reject the Savior. While many of the Gentiles of Antioch in Pisidia will rejoice in the good news and believe in Jesus Christ. And forgiveness of sins is for everyone who believes, but only for those who believe. The death of Jesus Christ covers the sins of believers only. We sometimes call this limited atonement. It is limited in the sense that It is particular. The forgiveness will only actually be given to those who are chosen. And that forgiveness, however, the proclamation of it is not limited. The proclamation of it is for everyone. I proclaim to you, everyone hear this, if you believe there is forgiveness of sins. So verse 38 is an example of what's sometimes called the free offer of the gospel. There ought to be an unlimited proclamation of the forgiveness of sins for all who believe, even as the actual atonement for sins will only be limited to those who believe. So in verse 39, it's a powerful salvation. It's a powerful forgiveness because here's the promise. If you do believe, then you are freed. You are freed from everything. which you could not be free by the law of Moses. Sometimes we speak of limited atonement. We could call it particular atonement. As for a few persons, we can also call it powerful atonement. Because for those who do believe, here's the promise. You are forgiven. Your sins are wiped away, atoned for. Now this is something which only Jesus could do. The law itself could never do it. Perhaps we remember it's been quite some time now, but Galatians 3.10, for all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse. What curse is that? It's the curse of death. The law itself cannot set free. The law itself cannot justify. And actually in verse 39, when it says freed, it could be translated justified. It's the same word in the Greek that's often translated justified. And so the Apostle Paul develops this further. If you would turn with me to Romans chapter three. There's no justification in the law. Where is justification? Romans chapter 3 verses 20 to 22. There are also various passages in Galatians we could turn to but we'll read the summary from Romans chapter 3 verses 20 to 22. For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight since through the law comes knowledge of sin. But the righteousness of God has been manifest manifested apart from the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction. Justification cannot be through the law itself. The law itself only brings the curse, only brings death. But Jesus Christ and faith in him, this is where we have a life. And so since Jesus is the only one who has no sin, Jesus is the only one who by his innocence and perfect holiness can cover my sin in which I was conceived." Answer for 36. So there's a call to believe which goes out to all. There's a promise for all who do believe. There's also a warning for all who do not believe. And the warning brings one more quote from the Old Testament scriptures in verse 41. And here the Apostle Paul is saying that what the prophet Habakkuk said in Habakkuk 1 5 will be true of you if you do not acknowledge the Lord Jesus Christ. The context in Habakkuk 1 is that the people have rebelled. There is the wicked who surround the righteous. There is just wickedness through the Israelites. And so God is going to send the Chaldeans, the Babylonians, and they're going to be judged. They're going to be wiped out. That's what Habakkuk is all about. And the point of Habakkuk 1.5 being quoted here is If you fail to recognize that this is the hand of God against your sin, and if you fail to repent, there will be no life for you. Now, if you have faith, the just will live by faith, Habakkuk chapter 2. But if you do not recognize the work of God which is being done, then you will be judged. How could we not recognize it? It's a mighty army marching into Jerusalem. Well, because unbelief is blind. That is why. What is the work which many would not recognize? It's the fact that Jesus is the risen Messiah. That is now what we must recognize. It is plainly revealed to us in scripture. You see this was a fitting text for the Apostle Paul to quote from because he was speaking about those in the days of Habakkuk who had all the knowledge and yet failed to believe in God, failed to have faith, failed to understand that they must repent of their wickedness and trust in God for their salvation. And so Paul is confronting those in the synagogue who have knowledge. And so the only question is, will you take the knowledge that you have and acknowledge with trusting, saving faith that Jesus Christ is yours, your risen Savior? You have the knowledge. And so it was fitting in the days of Habakkuk. It was fitting for the apostle to use it when speaking to those in the synagogue who knew the Old Testament scriptures well. People have got it. It's a fitting warning for those in the church. It's the fitting warning for those in the church. If you have grown up in the church, then the truth of what Jesus Christ has done has hopefully been very plainly laid out before you. as obvious as an army marching on the doors of Jerusalem. You know it. I hope the preaching here is as plain as an army marching on the doorstep. You know it. So then the only question is do we Believe it. We grab hold of the Savior and say, yes, He is my risen Savior and Lord. You know it. Let us all then acknowledge it with trusting faith and proclaim it loudly. We know this truth. And we serve and acknowledge the one Savior who was willing and able Jesus Christ who could not be bound by death and Jesus who is therefore the one mediator who unlike David was bound to his own generation. Jesus, who is the one mediator who can stand for us for all time, because He is not dead. He is sitting at the right hand of God, the Father. And He is our sinless prophet, priest, and king, the one Savior that we need. Amen. Let us pray. Lord God Almighty, We thank you that you were both willing and able to fulfill all that which was promised, including the defeat of the grave after first suffering for our sins.