OUR BRETHREN THE PHARISEES?

Acts 5:40: And to him they agreed: and when they had called the apostles, and beaten them, they commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go.

Would you think it absurd for someone to say that the Pharisees and Sadducees were really Peter and John's brethren? Do you think it more loving to say that their only problem was that they had not arrived at the intellectual understanding of doctrine which Peter and John had? After all, they verbally called out the name Jehovah, even as Peter and John. The high priest and the scribes were sincere in their teachings as were Peter and John. They each had the same scriptures even as most who call themselves Christians in our day. It would be too dogmatic NOT to embrace the Pharisees and the Sadducees as brethren, wouldn't it? Most would admit that it would be an absurdity to say that the Pharisees and Sadducees were our brethren. By their own admission they denied Christ when the Lord told them he came to lay down his life for those chosen of God and given him from eternity.

Yet, in our day many think the absurdity is in NOT embracing everyone who calls themselves a Christian. If a person proudly claims that it was their act of believing which made Christ's accomplishment of redemption a finished work then it is as opposite of truth as Annas' hope was to that of the apostle Peter? For a person to say that the Lord's hand is too short to bring his elect out from under the preaching of a powerless jesus to the truth of his glorious Son is as much a mockery of the Holy Spirit as those mockers on the day of Pentecost who excused their rebellion by accusing our brethren of being drunk. Have you not heard? Wherefore, when I came, was there no man? when I called, was there none to answer? Is my hand shortened at all, that it cannot redeem? or have I no power to deliver? behold, at my rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a wilderness: their fish stinketh, because there is no water, and dieth for thirst. I clothe the heavens with blackness, and I make sackcloth their covering (Isaiah 50:2-3.)

"But what is the least a believer can know about Christ and yet be saved!" The next time you are in need of major surgery be sure you seek out a doctor who asks, "What is the least I can know about surgery and still be your surgeon?" Those truly born of the Holy Spirit give themselves delightfully to know everything God will teach them about his Son because the power of God will not suffer them to neglect the King of glory.

We either have to deny the power of God or confess that those who remain with the Pharisees and Sadducees are yet in need of Christ. We either have to pamper our own sinful flesh or suffer the opposition we will face from preaching the offense of the cross. We either love ourselves more than those we pretend to love or we show the greatest of all love by denying ourselves and being as clear about the power of God to save sinners as we can. We either side with the vain traditions and old wives fables of false religion thinking the truth of God can be brought down to the level of the worthless vain profession in which we trust or we denounce our former lusts and submit to Christ the Lord. We either compromise as did the Pharisees and Sadducees or as the apostles we cease not to teach and to preach Jesus Christ!

When dealing with the sovereign God, MIGHTY TO SAVE, there is no middle ground!

http://www.sovereign-grace.us/

SOVEREIGN GRACE BAPTIST CHURCH Of Princeton, New Jersey

LOCATION & TELEPHONE
Rocky Hill Firehouse, 2nd floor
150 Washington Street, Rocky Hill, NJ, 08553
Pastor's Telephone: 615-513-4464

SCHEDULE OF SERVICES
Sunday 10 AM Bible Class
11 AM Morning Worship
Thursday 7:00 PM Mid-week Service
(The first Sunday of each month, morning worship begins at 10am followed by observing the Lord's Table. Afterwards we have lunch together.)