I am weary of my crying, my throat is dried, my eyes fail while I wait for my God. They that hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of mine head. They that would destroy me, being mine enemies wrongfully, are mighty. Then I restore that which I took not away. O God, thou knowest my foolishness, and my sins are not hid from thee. Let not them that wait on thee, O Lord, thy hosts, be ashamed for my sake. Let not those that seek thee be confounded for my sake, O God of Israel, because for thy sake I have borne reproach. Shame hath covered my face. I have become a stranger unto my brethren, and an alien unto my mother's children. For the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up. and the reproaches of them that reproach thee are fallen upon me. When I wept and chastened my soul with fasting, that was to my reproach. I made sackcloth also my garment, and I became a proverb to them. They that sit in the gates speak against me, and I was the song of the drunkards. But as for me, my prayer is unto thee, O Lord, in an acceptable time. O God, in the multitude of thy mercy, hear me, in the truth of thy salvation. Deliver me out of the mire, and let me not sink. Let me be delivered from them that hate me, and out of the deep waters. Let not the water flood overflow me, neither let the deep swallow me up, and let not the pit shut her mouth upon me. Hear me, O Lord, for Thy lovingkindness is good. Turn unto me according to the multitude of Thy tender mercies, and hide not Thy face from Thy servant. For I am in trouble. Hear me speedily. Turn Thou unto my soul and redeem it. Deliver me because of mine enemies. Thou hast known my reproach, and my shame, and my dishonor. Mine adversaries are all before Thee. reproach hath broken my heart, and I am full of heaviness. I looked for some to take pity, but there was none, and for comforters, but I found none. They gave me also gall for my meat, and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink. Let their table become a snare before them, and that which should have been for their welfare let it become a trap. Let their eyes be darkened, that they see not, and make their loins continually to shake. Pour out thine indignation upon them, and let thy wrathful anger take hold of them. Let their habitation be desolate, and let none dwell in their tents. For they persecuted him whom thou hast smitten, and they talked to the grief of those whom thou hast wounded. Add iniquity unto the iniquity, and let them not come unto thy righteousness. Let them be brought out of the book of the living, and not be written with the righteous. But I am poor and sorrowful. Let thy salvation, O God, set me up on high. I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify him with thanksgiving. This also shall please the Lord better than an ox or bullock that hath horns and hoofs. The humble shall see this and be glad, and your heart shall live that seek God. For the Lord heareth the poor, and despiseth not the prisoners. And the heaven and earth praise him, the seas, and everything that moveth therein. For God will save Zion, and will build the cities of Judah, that they may dwell there, and have it in possession. The seed also of his servants shall inherit it, and they that love his name shall dwell therein. Let's bow our heads in prayer. Again, Father, as we come to your Word, we ask for help by the Holy Spirit to inspire the Word, to understand the Word, and to apply it to our hearts, and to our lives, and to our situation here in Gordon Road in Hilsham. We pray that you bless us and encourage us, for Jesus' sake. Amen. Now, if you would like to turn to Acts chapter 1, We've moved along a bit slowly. And last week we looked at Judas and what we're told about Judas in Acts. We have a full picture of Judas. I've said that we have to compare it with the Gospels as well. And really take up from, well, verse 15. And in those days, Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples and said, the number of names together were about 120. Men and brethren, the scripture must needs have been fulfilled, which the Holy Ghost, by the mouth of David, spake before concerning Judas, which was a guide to them that took Jesus. For he was numbered with us, and had obtained part of this ministry. And this man purchased a field with the reward of iniquity, and falling headlong, he burst asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed out. He was known unto all the dwellers of Jerusalem, insomuch as the field is called in their proper tongue aseldama, that is to say the field of blood. For it is written in the book of Psalms, Let his habitation be desolate, and let no man dwell therein, and his bishopric at another take. Wherefore, of these men which have come, with us all the time the Lord Jesus went in and out among us beginning from the baptism of John and to the same day he was taken up from us must be one ordained to be a witness with us of his resurrection. And they appointed two, Joseph called Barsabbas who was surnamed Justice and Matthias. And they prayed and said, thou, Lord, which knowest the hearts of all men, show whether of these two thou hast chosen, that he may take part of this ministry and apostleship from which Judas, by transgression, fell, that he might go to his own place. And they gave forth their lots, and the lot fell upon Matthias, and he was numbered with the 11 apostles. Now several things I want to say and a couple of principles I want to try and get from this. Firstly, and it's a fairly obvious thing, this is Luke's historical account of what took place. You say, well Colin that's sublime, I know, but this is a historical record that Luke wrote down. I say that because Luke is not making a commentary on what was done, he is saying what was done. I say that deliberately. When Paul writes his letters, he's writing obviously in historical context and the situations, but he's writing under the inspiration of the spirit and the things he writes will have application for all time in the church, in all circumstances and in completely different cultures, the basic principles of Scripture will apply. I'm saying that because when you read this, I wouldn't, I'm sure you wouldn't, you wouldn't, want to take this as a principle for choosing, what they did, as a principle for choosing a leader, whether that's a minister, a pastor, an elder, a deacon or whatever. You wouldn't do that, although it's in Scripture. This is a record of what they did at that time. So that's the first thing we need to bear that in mind. The second thing we need to bear in mind is that this is pre-Pentecost. Now I'm telling you things, that's obvious to you, I know that, but we need to bear this in mind as we go through. It's pre-Pentecost. The Holy Spirit had not come in power as he does in Acts 2, the day of Pentecost. And the other thing we need to remember is that the full canon of scripture, what we call the full now 66 books of the Bible, had not been written, fulfilled in the Old Testaments there, but certainly not the New Testament. So bear these things in mind as we go through this passage. I mean, I've read this, I'm sure you've done, and I've just read it, oh yes I have, and not thought much more about it. And then you read some comments and commentaries, and you begin to realize there's much more to this than I thought about. And there are all these problems. And you think, I didn't have any problems when I read it first. It was there, and I said, well, fine, I moved on. And now I've got all these problems, difficulties. And I mention them only because you may come across them, or people may say things to you and say, well, you know, this is that, and how is that, and so on. Why? And should we do it today, what they did? Well, again the context. We've already gone through Judas and what happened to him. I don't want to do it again. The psalmist speaks about a person who would betray, who would be a traitor and so on. and there may have been an application for David at that time, but certainly there's the wider, bigger application to the Lord Jesus Christ being portrayed. And Peter quotes the Psalms. In verse 16 he says, that which was spoken by the Holy Ghost. So he recognized the divine inspiration of the Old Testament. And we think, I say we think because you've got to be careful here, we think the verse is quoting is probably psalm 41 this is where it says in my little margin here right psalm 41 and i'm going to just read that make sure i get the right one So if you want to turn to it, you can, but don't add, because I'll read it anyway. So I've got here Psalm 41 verse 9. So let's look at Psalm 41. Here we are. And this is what Psalm 41 9 says. Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lifted up his heel against me. So there we are. Peter's taken that and saying, that refers to Judas, who was a friend of the Lord, and so on. So he quotes that. And it's interesting to see that Peter wants to start with the Old Testament Scriptures, bearing in mind that he's speaking to his fellow Jewish apostles and the others, the 120 are there. So it's the context, a Jewish context, and also I'm led to believe that he was concerned for Jewish evangelism to establish the church amongst the Jewish people that 12 was significant. I didn't think about this, you know, there's 11 of them. Well, that's enough, isn't it? Yeah, they're going to do this work, the Spirit is going to come, Jesus has promised them power, they'll be witnesses, Jerusalem, Judea and all, and there's 11. 11 is enough. You don't need 12 to do a work. You can't say we can't go and do this work that Jesus has given us because there's 11 of us now. We really need 12 to do the work. I don't think that's the situation. This is not like a team here where you can't, because you can't field a full team, therefore you can't go and play a match. No, no. They could have played with, I say played, they could have managed with 11. But it's important to Peter because of the Jewish context, because 12 was significant to the Jewish people because of, obviously, the 12 tribes of Israel. That's significant. Some think that Peter has in mind the Lord's prophecy about the 12 apostles will judge the 12 tribes of Israel. He may have. We're not sure. I was thinking about this and apostles and numbers and twelve and I thought to myself, dare I ask them. I won't provoke you but if I said to you, how many tribes of Israel were there? Twelve. Okay. How many sons of Jacob were there? Twelve. Were they the same? What do you mean? Well, 12 sons, 12 tribes, of course they're not. Now you know this, don't you? You know that Joseph didn't have a plot of land. He's one of the favourite sons, if not the favourite, but Jacob doesn't give him. He gives it to his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim. So now there are 13 tribes. But there are only 12 plots. Well, why is that? Because Levi doesn't get a plot. He is, because of the priesthood, coming from the tribe of Levi, then the other 12 have to look after him. So there are 12, but they're not the same. And if you know your Bibles, and you go into Revelation, and there's a list there of the 12 tribes, one is missing. That's a bit of a home equivalent. I mean that's easy, we just look at it and compare it with the list in the Old Testament. The harder question is, why is it missing? I'll leave that for another time. So what I'm saying is, we've got to be careful here. Because some would say, what they did, and we'll come to that in a minute, what they did here in choosing another apostle, they shouldn't have done. because Paul is coming along and he'll be Apostle. If they've got 12 Apostles here now after this event with Paul, there's 13 and you can't possibly have 13 Apostles because that'll mess up our thinking. There must only be 12. We've got to be careful, haven't we? So were they one? Or was Paul separate to the 12? He's the Apostle of the Gentiles after all. And then you've got this little verse in Acts where it talks about Barnabas being an apostle. Now, that's a problem. Well, it's not a problem because the word apostle literally is one who is sent. It's a messenger. And so anyone who is sent is an apostle, but with a small a. That's probably the easiest way to do it. The Apostles, capital A. Those that are 11, and the one we'll look at in a moment, and Paul, capital A. And Peter says, we need to have another one. We need to have another one to be representative as 12 as we go out. So this little infant church is not something totally removed from Israel and from Jewish people. It's 12, and obviously all 12 Jewish men. Now, so what do they do? Well, we're told firstly that the one that would replace Judas, he had to have this qualification. Beginning from the baptism of John until that same day he was taken up from us must be one ordained to be witness with us of his resurrection. In other words, he was somebody who had to be with them, had been with them probably for the three years of the Lord's ministry, certainly a major part of it. Sometimes we forget that it wasn't just the 12 disciples that were with the Lord. There were lots of other folk who believed along the way. In the room in which this is taking place, there are 120. There are men and women, those who are disciples of the Lord. So there were folk, at least 120, probably more, who had actually been with the Lord, and some of them and actually witnessed the resurrection, the physical resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Talking about this trial business, now be careful, you've got to be. Sometimes we don't realise what we say or what we read. I'll give you an instance of it. Paul is writing to the Corinthians, 1 Corinthians 15, you know the passage well. And he's talking about the Lord being died for our sins, buried, rose again. And he was seen of Cephas, that is Peter, then of the twelve. But hang about, there wasn't twelve, there were eleven, because Judas didn't see him. So why has Paul wrote 12? Well, it's because 12 was the group known as the 12. Back to my analogy, it's the team. The full 15 may not be there. You understand why it's 15? The full 15 may not be there, but it's the team. It's the 12. But actually, there were 11. And they were seen as 500 brethren at once. Now, I thought, who are these 500? I can't remember reading 500 in the Gospels, but obviously there were those who had followed, believed, and they hadn't witnessed the crucifixion, hadn't been there on the resurrection morning. During the 40 days when the Lord was on the earth, post-resurrection, before he ascended, they had seen him personally, 500 of them. forget that? Why forget it? So one of these, right, these two men both qualified on this basis. Firstly they'd been with the Lord and secondly they had witnessed the resurrection. Now if we take that as a qualification, the qualification for apostleship, then we see that after the Book of Acts And after those men had died, there would be no more Apostles with a big capital A. Because there are no more who have been there with Jesus, no more physically at his resurrection. Some will say, ah, but Paul. Paul, I mean, he doesn't qualify. Well, he doesn't qualify under the being with Jesus, but he does qualify by seeing the resurrected Christ. Because when he saw, the person he saw on the road to Mass was the Lord Jesus. It wasn't just a vision. It was him personally. He saw the Lord. Ah, I said, somebody, I know my Bible. Maybe he'll talk about, I had this vision. Well, yes, but he actually saw the real, living Christ. That's what he says in 1 Corinthians 15. So, you've got these two men, and they pray, and said, Lord, thou knowest the hearts of these men's, show whither of these two thou hast chosen, that he might partake in the ministry and apostleship from which Judas by transgression fell. So they're praying. Now these are obviously spiritual men, and women, presumably, and they're praying that God would guide them. It's what happens next is difficult for some. Because they don't pray and pray and then say, well, you know, what do we think? We've prayed about it. Shall we have a vote on it, as we went through? No, they draw lots. How exactly they did it, we're not sure. Whether they put the names in a hat and pulled out one, all right? And we were a little really suspicious of this, you know, lot, lottery. But it was by lot. They said, well, you know, we don't know, so we'll put the names or whatever they had, and we'll just trust the Lord. That sounds a bit, hmm, I don't know. But strangely enough, it was often the practice in those days for doing that. And there's a little, little verse which helps to show that this possibly wasn't as unbiblical, unscriptural as we might think it would be. I'm trying to find it. You know it anyway, because you've heard this stuff before. It's in Proverbs. And in Proverbs, it talks about The we cast the lot, but the disposing thereof is of the Lord. In other words, we put these names in a hat, if you like, and pull out one, but that which comes out is of the Lord. So these folk weren't looking for potluck. They were looking to the Lord in his providence to bring one name out, and that would be the one that would replace. And that's what they did. Now, Luke records that for us. That's what they did. Matthias is never mentioned again in Acts. Ah, so that proves he wasn't the right man. It doesn't prove anything. Andrew's not mentioned again. Several of the apostles, the disciples that we know, are never mentioned again in what they did, apart from the Acts to the Pentecost. So the fact he's not mentioned isn't a proof that he wasn't So here's the application. Should we apply that? Now, I don't know of anybody, any evangelical congregation of folk would say, yes, we must do that. When we have a decision that we make about a leader, about something important, we put the options in a hat, and we'll pray, have a prayer meeting, and then dip in. Nobody would do that. So what else did they do in Acts? I mentioned this. post-Pentecost. They're concerned about ministry and who should go out. And so they pray and fast. But they don't take lots this time. What we're told is, and the Holy Spirit said, separate unto me Paul and Barnabas. So the Holy Spirit made a decision that of all the men there, it was Paul and Barnabas that should go out and do what they were going to do. How did the Holy Spirit do that? Well, to me it's obvious. He did it supernaturally. Probably a word of prophecy. Oh, I can't say that. We're very keen on that. I'm very keen on it. This is the Acts of the Apostles. This was before the canon of Scripture was completed. This is what happened in those days. There was supernatural activity by the Holy Spirit. I remember being at a very high-powered conference. A very godly man, a very good, reformed man. He dealt with that passage and he said, here they are, this prayer meeting and they've got this. And they're obviously having a Bible study and it comes out of the Bible study. I just looked at him. I said, you can't be serious. That's not in the scriptures you've put that in. My Bible says the Holy Spirit said, and he muttered and mumbled. And some of the other men said, well, yeah, you can't do that. You're not being honest with scripture. And I knew why he was doing it, because he was afraid if he said what the scripture said, then people would say, oh, he said this. There's a word of prophecy. And I would say, that's the way for you to go. He wouldn't say that. I'm not saying that. I'm just saying what the Bible says. And I'm told the next time he gave that lecture, he didn't say that. Well, thank God for that. Now, this is why I said it in the beginning. Luke recorded in historical. What they did is pre-Pentecost. What happens afterwards is post-Pentecost. But it's not before. It's before the kind of scripture comes. How should we do things? Well, there are great principles in scripture that apply to Old Testament and New Testament. There are a million books on guidance. And let's be honest, we need guidance and we need help and sometimes there are choices and we don't really know what to do. If there is a choice between good and bad, and good and evil, then there's no choice, you do what is right. You don't need some special revelation, you don't need to take lots and to know if a path is right for you, if it is sinful. You don't really need to have some special angel come and tell you that you've entered into a sinful relationship which is contrary to the word of God. It's sinful because the Bible says so. You know a lot of things. It's not too hard. But what I'm saying is when it comes to a choice between two good things, or two good courses of direction, how would you choose? I go carefully here. How do you choose a partner? Some, they've only got one choice, but others, we have lots of choices. How do you choose that which is right, when they're all good? Are there scriptural principles that would help us? Are there providences that would help us? Are there advice from elder or older Christians? That would be helpful. And the other thing is, what is the motive? What is the motive of choosing this or this? Is it that I might be glorified? Is it that I might be the top man? Is it that it will advance me? Or will it bring glory to God? Will it advance the kingdom? Would it be pleasing to God if I took this direction rather than that direction? It's an easy one. I don't think it affects anyone else here, but university. What university do you go to, if you have a choice, this one or that one? How do you decide? Both good universities, both are the subjects you want. You make inquiries, and there may be a particular church in that place that will be helpful to you, and so on. That may be an influence. There may be family folk who have been there, and that might be an influence. And you do these things. And at the end, if you can, you say, Lord, please open the door. Lord, please close the door. And trust him. Trust him. And I'm convinced God will lead you aright. The classic verses, all right, we were told, we learned these off by heart when we became Christians early back in the day. And you'll know it well as I begin, well, some of the older folk will know it well as I start off. Proverbs 3 verse 5. How simple that is! But how basic it is! And how glorious it is! God has promised to his people, if we acknowledge him, if we trust him, he will lead, he will guide, he will bless for his own honour, his own glory and his own praise. Now God of course can't overrule bad choices and that's his sovereign prerogative and that in his great providence he often does. But don't presume upon God's goodness. They'll say, well, it doesn't matter. If I'm wrong, God will put me right. God may say, well, you carry on with it. And you may be a long way down the road before God says, right, have you had enough now? It's time you came back. And it may be you have to come all the way back up and start again. Those of you who know Pilgrim's Progress will know Bypath Meadow. Well, there's two roads here. I'm on this road, but it's tough, and it's hard, and it's uphill, and it's rocky, but that little down by the meadow there looks flat and looks pleasant, and it's going, obviously, going the same way, so I went, well, just got a little detour, little detour. GPS not working, little detour, down we go, and you know the problems he has, and ends up in Doubting Castle and so on. I just came all the way back and start again. These apostles, I think, did that which was right at that time. And the manner which they did was right at that time. But we wouldn't want to do that again. I think what the Spirit did there upon Barnabas was for the time. We wouldn't normally expect him to do that today. God has given us principles. God has given us biblical principles which will lead us and guide us and keep us going the way He wants us to go. And it can be tough and it can be hard. And it can be a struggle. But God's way is best. And this is hard for youngsters to take. It's hard for adults to take sometimes. God's way is best. I don't want to go that way. It's interesting looking at toddlers. I was in the surgery today and a couple of little toddlers there and one climbed up on the bin and fell off it and started crying. I thought, well, if he will climb up on the bin, what do you expect? I didn't say that, of course. And that little toddler, you know, you know, the mother said, come and sit by you. No, what's the matter? I want to sit with you. Come and sit. No, off you went, climbed up you. And then two minutes, slumped, came back. I thought, typical, that's what kiddies do, right? Little toddlers, that's what they do. Sadly, there are Christians who may be 50, 60, 70, or 80, who are still toddlers. And they toddle off and do what they want. and they've got no regard to what God's Word says and how God's Word directs them. Well, I think that's enough. But the principle is, we trust in the Lord with all our hearts. We lean not on our own understanding. In all our ways, acknowledge Him. And He can direct our paths. Amen. Right, we're going to sing another hymn in the same section as I've mentioned, which is Church of Christ, its Officers and Ministries, and this is 436. And I mentioned when we sang the first one that we need to be praying, well we normally do this on Thursdays,