And verse seventeen, And now, brethren, I walk that through ignorance ye did it, as it also are rulers. But those things which God before had showed were the mouths of all his prophets, that Christ should suffer he hath so filled. repent ye therefore and be converted that your sins will be blotted out when the time of times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord turn over to the thirteenth verse of the next chapter now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men they marveled and they took knowledge of them that they had been with Jesus. Over to chapter seventy and twenty-three. For as I passed by and beheld your devotions, I found them altered with this inscription to the unknown God, whom therefore ye ignorantly worshiped him declared I unto you. Verse three. And the times of this ignorance God winked at or tolerated, but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent. You'll notice in all four verses the word ignorance. This morning we were speaking on the subject of ignorance and what ignorance really is. When I led to go down to Florida a couple weeks ago, I made up my mind I wasn't going to study. I was going to try and rest. But my mind began thinking and thinking, and I thought of these verses, a connection with ignorance. And so the more I thought upon them, the more it seemed as though they opened up. And I'm going to give you a little secret as to how to prepare a sermon. I mean the men. I don't know about you ladies or your son or not. Outlines. But it's something I've used practically all my life. And I didn't get these out of the book. That's what came to me in the last couple of weeks. In other words, did you give a text? In other words, get maybe several texts. In this case, fourteen texts. And every one of those texts or passages... has the word ignorance in them. Everyone has the word ignorance in it. Then try and find one word that would summarize that text or that passage. And if you could find one word and that word and all the other thirteen would begin with a certain letter like X, then you have a summarize. For instance, this morning we were speaking on this passage in chapter three and seventeen and the subject is the scriptures well there's your end now the next verse I want to draw your attention to I'll refer to a little later on is Romans ten and three and you have they being ignorant of God's righteousness they're going about to establish their own righteousness or salvation and have not submitted unto the righteousness of God. So in that verse, as you examine it, you find salvation. So you have Scripture and then salvation. And then you have, in the next case, God selecting, or the Lord Jesus, selecting his twelve apostles, his twelve disciples, and those to whom he's going to entrust the Word and the writing of much of the New Testament. In other words, in this thought, you have God selecting, in this text, God selecting these men from out among all these other men, and at that time there were plenty of fishermen, but he selected the ones that you know are fishermen or where fishermen, and you have God selecting grace in the calling out of his servant, selected servant. So there you have it. the word S again. Then when you come to that verse, I just went over in the Seventh-Teach chapter. When Paul came to Athens, he saw this inscription to an unknown God. And what did he say? Him whom ye ignorantly worship, declare I unto you. So there you have the subject worship and spiritual worship. That is, that's what God wants us to see, spiritual worship. Not the kind of worship that both demons were engaged in, but John four says, unless you worship God in spirit and in truth. Why, you can't worship God unless you do worship in spirit and in truth. So there you've got the fourth S, spiritual worship. And then you have also the state of the sleeping saints. Over in First Thessalonians chapter five or chapter four, he said, I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are the sleep. And here you have the condition of the sleeping saints. So you've got your fifth head. And when you come to the next one, it's concerning worship or concerning gifts. He says in chapter twelve of Corinthians one, now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you to be ignorant. So there you have spiritual gifts. You have your six heads, and so on. Suffering safe, as he tells us over in Corinthians, second chapter of Corinthians, verse one and verse eight. He's taught chapter one and verse eight. He's speaking about the suffering of the saints. So there again you have one word that summarizes the context, summarizes what's in that context, and also in reference to the sins of the saints. You read about them over in First Corinthians chapter ten, he said, I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning what happened to Israel. And what happened to them happened, for example. that we might profit thereby. And so he brings before us the failure of God's people in the past, and that should be an object lesson to us in the present day. The sins or the stumbling of the saint. And you could add the word set aside as somewhere. Like Paul prayed that he might not be set aside. Disapproved. then you have Satan's interference with the plans of the Lord's people. Paul said, I would have come to you once and again, but Satan hindered. I would not have you to be ignorant of him. I would come to you. I would have come, but Satan hindered. Now, it's not difficult to get your word to the S there. And also he said, I would not have you to be ignorant, of Satan's devices or schemes in second Corinthians two and eleven and then as we mentioned this morning in Romans chapter eleven you have him referring to Israel's future and here you have Zion's future the glorious future of Zion and very remarkably that word Zion instead of being G-I-O-N. It's S-I-O-N. So it fits right in line. Zion's glorious future. And then the next place where you find this word concerning ignorance, it's in connection with the scoffers over in Second Peter chapter three. So you don't have any difficulty there. The scoffers condemnation. Then you also have the season of ignorance. closing, we read that in chapter seventeen, the time of this ignorance, God with that. He's tolerating it. So there you have the season of ignorance aimed. And finally, the second coming. We'll be speaking on that too, concerning the second coming, well, and to that word of ignorance. People are ignorant today of many of these things. I believe you could take just about any professing Christian today, and I wouldn't be surprised that one out of a hundred, if one out of a hundred, could explain to you all these texts that I've mentioned, these subjects, the subjects of the Scripture, the salvation, or selected grace, selecting grace in Christ's choosing as followers, on all these other subjects, spiritual worship and so on. people today are so ignorant of the Scripture. And as we will be speaking this morning, none of this to the Scriptures, how the Lord Jesus was rebuking those scribes and Pharisees. They were claiming to know so much of the Bible, and yet they were rejecting him. Time and time again, he's trying to enforce upon their minds the need for searching the scriptures, as in John five, search the scriptures, for they are they which testify of me. Search the scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life, and they are they that speak of me. In other words, he says, you strive, you practice, you, you doctors of the law, you've been brought up under the Old Testament of scriptures, you've been framed in the scriptures. All you're in, you chant. at school, and also in the synagogue. And yet all these scriptures refer to me. And you have this much knowledge, that these scriptures refer to your coming to the Messiah. Search the scriptures, you say, for in vain you think you have eternal life. And yet that eternal life has come to you now. Those scriptures have been fulfilled in me. And I am the embodiment I'm the source of divine life. I'm your Messiah and the rejecter. After all the searching of the scriptures, when the fulfillment of those scriptures stood before them, they reject. In other words, you better do a little more searching. And today, when you start to think that how much there is, done and said, relevant to the word of God, they supposed to teach it in Sunday school. The preacher is supposed to preach from the platform. The scriptures! They go to college to learn the scriptures, but they come out, knowing very little about the scriptures. We said this morning, I know a whole lot how to explain away the truth of the scripture. I remember one seminary that I read about, and the subject came up for discussion. Of course, the professor was a moderator, and the subject came up about miracles, the superhuman things that happened in the life of Christ. And one of the students said, what about Christ walking on the walk? Well, the professor, you know, he said, if you were to go through where that happened, He said, you'd find there's a very heavy moss right near the shore. It's very thick. And he said, the Lord stepped out of the boat. And he said, he'd walk on that moss. He said, it wasn't a walk. Now, that's the way they pressed the word of God. And they explained the way in the word of God. They dodged the word of God. Instead of expounding the word of God. They're doing it today. And no longer, you neither wonder why those scribes and Pharisees, those doctors of the law, who were saturated in the Old Testament property, yet they couldn't see Christ as their Messiah. And I'm amazed today at people who are supposed to know so much about their Bible, and you can stump them. I believe when you ask the average church member, can you quote me three texts out of the Bible by memory? I'd like to get, I'd like to try that sometimes, just to see what kind of answer I get. I'd like to be like a Syrian that I knew down in Newport News many years ago. I stayed in his home. And it was very nice some of these Syrians had gotten saved. In fact, one lady, Mrs. Cannon, she lived in Bethlehem and didn't hear the gospel until she came to the United States. and heard the gospel being preached on the street floor of Newport News by old Mr. Miller, who long since done old men. Here she lived in the very town where Christ was born, and she didn't know a thing about God so late. We were having this little get-together this night, and here was Big Joe, Big Siri. And so Mr. Miller suggested that each one of us quote the scripture. And he said, I started off, and I should go around, each one of you, go to Scripture. And as he got close to the Dove, he was getting pretty rested. And so when it came in, it started. He jumped up, he said, Jesus cried. He said, Jesus cried. He had heard in the Bible about Jesus, where? He said, Jesus cried. In other words, that's the smallest verse in the Bible, he couldn't go to Christ. Oh, the ignorance of men and women today, not only as to the quoting of the Word of God, but as to the contents of the Word of God. And here today, men get up, supposed to be trained and schooled in the Word of God, and there are over three hundred references to the second coming of Christ in the New Testament, and they don't believe it. I'll tell you, they're expert, they're masters at dodging the issue. If they learned anything at school, they learned trickery. And handing the word of God the secret, that's what the Bible says. So we have ignorance, so much of it around us today. Now we're going to get into our next point, and that is of salvation. We'll not say more about the sin of ignorance. We spoke on that this morning, or ignorance is bliss. or ignorance is innocently prepared up, and so we'll not go into that. Now the next one is salvation. And this is the text, and although it's not in Acts, it's referring to these same people, these Jews, it's in Romans chapter ten, verses three and four. Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved. For I bear them record, that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes. who he says, you're ignorant of righteousness. You being ignorant of God's righteousness. You scribe, you Pharisee, you're ignorant of God's righteousness. You're going about to establish your own righteousness. You think by keeping the Ten Commandments, why you'll get to heaven? Why, Christ is the fulfillment of the Ten Commandments. Christ is the end of the law. righteousness to everyone that believes and this wonderful righteousness there's no by nature there's none righteous no not one and that's one point that a lot of people are ignorant on there is none righteous no not one they think they have some righteousness they think there is something right about it the Bible says there isn't There is none righteous, no not one. And also man's desperate need is righteousness. That's man's desperate need. For the more righteousness, the Bible righteousness, is in a person, the Lord, our righteousness. Divine righteousness is not trying the best you can and doing right. This righteousness the Bible speaks of is a program. Christ is our righteousness. Jesus Christ, the righteous. Christ is made unto us wisdom, righteousness. Do you see this or are you still ignorant on this point? The divine righteousness that which fits us from heaven is not in the Ten Commandments, it's in a person. It's a life. It's the character of God, and we receive that when we're born again. It's God's very nature. It's God's very character. When we're born of God, the time we experience the new birth, we receive of the very nature of God. That is divine and eternal righteousness. Powers that obtain by faith and by faith only. fully apart from law, to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly. His faith is counted for righteousness, and Christ is the end of the law for righteousness. The very thing we are trying to obtain by keeping the Ten Commandments, that is to be righteous, and do right, is found in the person, not the Ten Commandments. Not in the law. but in Christ Jesus. The gift of grace, you read that in the Bible, that this righteousness is the gift of grace. And grace is diametrically opposed to the law. It's offered to all. It's reckoned to all. It's imputed to all that believe. And it's imputed to you without work. You don't have to work to obtain this righteousness. It's a free gift and you receive. Hello. Faith is simple. When God spoke to Abraham, he said, Abraham, I want you to look at the stars. And he looked up and saw the star of heaven. He said, Abraham, so shall I see thee. But God's not to ratify that tongue. How did he ratify? You know the scene of those burning lamp that passed between the part of those birds and animals, when a deep sea, a deep sleep, a horror of great darkness came upon Abraham, and in that scene we have a scene of death, of suffering, of shed blood. Yes, Abraham, it's very simple for you to exercise faith by looking up at the snarling head. But the ground foundation of that faith must rest upon you to obtain righteousness is costly. It must seem a debt that held you to. Friend, you can have all the faith that you could muster. And if that faith doesn't rest in Jesus Christ and what he did for you upon the cross, you'll never enter. The death of Christ is the basis, the sole foundation for faith in order for you to obtain this wonderful righteousness. There's a poem I took out years ago, and I love it on this subject of righteousness. The perfect righteousness of God is witnessed in the Savior's blood. It is in the cross of Christ we trace His righteousness. Yes, one is great. God could not pass the sinners by. His sin demands that he must die. But in the cross of Christ we see how God can save and righteous be. The sin alights on Jesus' head. His end great blood sins debt is paid. Stern justice can demand no more. And mercy can disperse for sores. The sinner who believes is free can say the Savior died for me, can point to the atoning blood and say, This made my peace through God. So there is God's salvation in form as we try to give it to you and pose as well. And so that's how righteousness is obtained. The things we've heard over here. Are you ignorant of these things? You shouldn't be. The Scripture teaches all these things that I've been mentioning. And as we said this morning, the Hebrew doesn't mean you're stupid. It just means you're unenlightened. You haven't been informed. Well, the Scripture is to that intent that you might be informed. That you might be enlightened to be. and all that I said about righteousness. The scriptures tell you very clearly, you read over in the third and fourth chapter of Romans, many other scriptures, showing that righteousness is attained in and through Jesus Christ alone. And that's not your joining the church. It's not your living of good life. It's not your trying to do the best you can. It's not in an ordinance of baptism of the Lord's Supper. It's in Christ. That's God's righteous. And that's what it takes for you to get that heaven. Now I want to speak on the third part. You have to haste. I got fourteen of these. We're not going to get through tonight. Selecting grace of God as to the instrument, the servant that he's going to use. In that verse thirteen of Acts four, now when they saw... the boldness of Peter and John, and perceive that they were unlearned and ignorant men. They marveled, and they took knowledge of them. They had been with Jesus. Unlearned and ignorant men. Which responsible company or business would select a group of men like this to be excelled or represented. Representative. You don't stop thinking that. The greatest business in the world. The greatest business in time. If the Lord's business, this is the business of saving souls and places building his church, And here he's starting out, and he selects twelve men to be his cabinet, the twelve stones on which is going to be the foundation of the church. And who does he select? Does he go to the seat of learning? Does he go to the doctors of the law? Does he go to the scribes of the Pharisees? Does he go to the leading students of that day? the intellectual giants? No, he was down by the seashore. He picked out a few fishers. You ordered me to say, these are the men you're selecting to be your representatives, and to advertise your business, to promote your business. Yes. They're the ones. And I hadn't even thought of it before until it was before I came to the meeting tonight. Going over the various ones the Lord selected, and he used to give us the Bible. Why did he select Matthew? And I was struck with this, that all these men are different in their characteristics and temperament. Matthew, why did he choose Matthew? Well, Matthew was good with figures. You know how he collected taxes and representing the Roman government, and he had to be very accurate and very careful in collecting taxes. You have to know something about figures. But isn't it strange the Lord should use Matthew, who was a Jew, to give us the genealogy, the ancestor of the Lord Jesus Christ all the way back to Abraham, then on to do. and on to thank you. Yes, you need something about detail work. And so Matthew had the natural characteristic that God could do to give us the gospel of Matthew that presents Christ as the king. Then you find Mark. You know, if you read Mark, only sixteen chapters, and he doesn't talk... about the works of the Lord, or the words of the Lord, he emphasizes his work. He says very little about what the Lord said, but he says a whole lot about what the Lord did. And the Lord went here, he went there, he was going here and young, straightway he did this, and straightway did that. Mark was a very practical man, and he was to the point. He believed in doing more than saying. He had that characteristic. Then when you come to Luke, a position under this strain of Luke, strain that Luke should bring the day detail about the birth of Christ. He gives us more information about the birth of Christ than anyone else in the Bible. Wouldn't you expect that with a certain position? And he gives us more detail after the healing of certain folks in the Gospel of Luke. He gives us more detail about these miracles that Christ performed than any of the other writers of the New Testament. Well, you'd expect that of a doctor, wouldn't you? And then when you come to John's Gospel, here's the Lord and He selects John. Well, you know John was a lovable character. And he speaks so much of love in John's gospel. He calls love more than anything else in John's gospel. And in his epistles he's emphasizing love. Yes, John was a lovable young man, likely the youngest of the twelve. And he emphasizes love, a lovable character. He steps right into the grave. Then you come to... Peter, impetuous Peter. And, you know, he writes his epistle. There was something about Peter. He was impetuous. He couldn't wait. Of course, he says, Lord, we'll be right to the sword. And before the Lord must say, no, he has the man's ear on. One of those impetuous characters. And what about Paul? Oh, here's the student. Here's the scholar. Here's the lawyer. How this comes out in his life. What about you? Brother, half-brother of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jude only writes one little book. But I tell you, he was a sincere Jew. And he says a whole lot in that one little book. And his main theme is loyalty to the Word of God, defend the gospel, defend the Bible, once for all the liberty of the saints, but in a day of apostasy. On the message that Jude is clinging to the Word of God, faithfulness and loyalty to the Word of God in a day of apostasy. Does everything be more appropriate for today than that? And Jude was a very sincere man. The old question about that, when you see almost his eye flashing, as he crackles out those denunciations upon the fallen angels in Sodom and Gomorrah, and also the ones that connected with the flood, the Andes of Luke. Then you come to James, the book of James. James was a legalist. He was a rough old character. You take the skin off you if you read his book. They said that he had palaces on his knees praying for him. Oh, James. I think he used the sandpaper. John used his album. He really didn't. And if you don't believe it, you read the book of James. You'll see how he'll tear the flesh. I mean that fallen nature. And here is James. He's a legal man. He demands an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. That's James. No patient. And that was it. James by nature. And now it's coming out. So you have these various disciples, the Lord selected. And those two of them are like. I don't know what happened with... Andrew and Philip and Thomas and Bartholomew, the Lord didn't use any of it. Of course I can understand why he didn't use Paul. Paul, you know what he did? He was God and Paul. Oh Lord, I'll tell you. If I were a young Christian and had serious faith in the time of the Lord, I think I looked up Paul. You knew what the Lord said. I knew what it was, except when it was. And those out-comers did a lot in his day to help young and out with this. Each one of these men with their own personalities, their characteristic, their temperament, and these men, their very personality, their traits, their characteristic, their temperament, colored their might, meeting, their writings, and their message. And that's true today. When God picks up a man today, the personality of that man and some of that man's characteristics will come out in his preaching. That's why most of the preachers are exactly like God is a God of a riot. And here he's selecting his men. And you never would think, would you, when the Lord went along that day and he called people, James, John, the Lord knew who he was calling. These were not unlearned and ignorant men that the world was speaking. The Lord could see some natural characteristics there that he wanted to use, and he, by his Spirit, would sanctify their account with his growth. And so you find in this text, what Iggy, under an ignorant friend according to men's standards, but not according to God's standards. You know, when you start to think of these men that we've read about, I want you to really think of this. For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many nobles are called. It was Queen Victoria who said she thanked God for that little word many. Because Queen Victoria was a wonderful Christian. She said, I thank God for that little word many, for it doesn't say not any noble are called. It is not many. For I want to thank God among the nobility that our sons who know the Lord Jesus Christ. But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to compound the wise, and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to compound the things which are mighty, and these things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, ye and things which are not. God hath chosen to bring to naught things that are that no flesh is nor is. So the Lord didn't go to the universities of that age, select the swallows. He selected the two of his tribes and his founders. Supposedly in the eyes of the world, Tabor, on age history. Very humiliating, isn't it, to the professor? Well, I'll tell you one thing about these men. They didn't have the wisdom of the world. This is the one the world, this foolishness with God, the Bible says. And these disciples learned more in three and a half years than a man today would learn for in thirty years when the universities were men. They learned more in three and a half years. You say, how do they know? They wrote books. But men with the most penetrating powers of perception haven't exhausted yet. and brilliant minds down the centuries have written on these New Testament books, written by fishermen, tax collectors. And these books are so profound and so deep that men who beat the highest geek in education can have no idea. So they must have had a pretty good school these fishermen than they did at Jesus' feet. a lifetime, I'll tell you, you stop to think of these three and a half years. What a professor they had, what a teacher they had. You know the Lord Jesus Christ, he used perfect language. You couldn't think of him making a grammatical mistake. You couldn't think of Christ being off on his competition. The Lord Jesus Christ was a professor. and never said a word he had to change or recall for a better word he knew what language wanted and he spoke excellent language and today you can't get a better footless knee for language sake than the Bible if you want a good education you need the Bible and you get Christ used this wonderful language. Think of the parable. He was a master using parables, a master using illustrations, performing miracles, to illustrate his point. Ah, he's a master teacher, the Lord be. Now, take it one thing. No teacher ever let such a lasting impression upon his students. as the Lord Jesus Christ, they are most of the students, the eleven or the twelve. Judas being replaced by Matthias in actuality, most of them died to them. They died to the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the kind of professor you meet today. You think of a professor that made a lasting impression upon you, and you love his teaching so much, You'd be willing to die for them. In this day of revolt and rebellion, why they just about killed a professor that they could do it. A lot of these radicals and left-wingers said to the one thing, here is our teacher. And it goes for today, he will leave a lasting impression on you if you sit and speak. He has a way of imparting himself in his speech. the more you get to know about the Lord Jesus or the more you get to read and understand his word, the more you delight in him. Isn't this the best professor to have? And he doesn't teach on air pollution and water pollution and ecology. He thinks like this. He's teaching. He thinks or takes the kingdom of God. And there's no need of you being ignorant in these matters with a teacher like that. There's got his lessons all here in print. All you have to do is read them. And he'll give you the Holy Spirit to help you to understand the wonderful, wonderful things. Millions have died for this teacher. Put in him, grow up, all the fullness of the glory. This is not a subject you could bring up. But he couldn't give you an answer. He's in a storm. He's a sign. He's a doctor. The grace of this is. And it's not a subject you can bring up in the classroom that this professor, this teacher, doesn't have the answer. And there's an answer to your problem. There's an answer to your crisis. And if you're unsafe tonight, you're saying, well, teacher, what must I do to save? this professor, the Lord Jesus Christ, said, Believe on me, and thou shalt be so. No other teacher or professor has that power, but the Lord Jesus Christ did. How wonderful it must have been you have sat at his feet. Paul tells us what his education, his seeing, meant to him, and his traditions, tells you that over in Philippians chapter three Paul sums up his tradition his education and his zeal before he was saved before he met this master on the master's role he sums up all that he had learned and he was a brilliant young Jew with a real warrior mind yes so what is here about all without Christ has done. Yes. And he said, all that I knew before I was saved, and even what I knew about Christ before I was saved, he said, it's all gone. If I've known Christ after the flesh, henceforth, know I him no more. I am a living man of God forever. And he's my teacher. He's the one I learn on. He's the one. So I trust that you will understand this wonderful book, the Lord Jesus Christ, electing a scholar, and how when they saw the wholeness of Peter and John and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marveled and they might well marvel. And they took knowledge of them that they had dreamed that Jesus, that the secret of the Holy Spirit. I marveled sometimes at young men on their knowledge of the Spirit and the power that was in their people. I know where they got. They didn't get it in the center. They didn't get it in the college. is now at the feet of our Lord Jesus, sitting at the feet of this master of all masters, this profession of all professors, the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Do I trust these things that have you? Are you ignorant of the Scripture? Are you ignorant on the subject of salvation? Are you ignorant on the subject of God's selecting grace and choosing one, not another? You know, no doubt some of the other fishermen might have looked at James and John's people. Why didn't he call me? Why didn't he choose me? I think I'm just as good as people. I think I've got a better disposition than he's got. I think I've got a good look. Why didn't he see me? The Lord knows the heart of all men. Men look at only outward appearance. God looks upon them. That's what God is looking for is men and women. That's what he can do. He can teach. And it won't go to their head. Lessons he teaches us. doesn't tend to talk of us. It's not knowledge to talk of us that we attain of his speech. For when we glory grace and attain a knowledge of his word, and we're used to him, he always gives the grace.