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Book: Acts
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Acts 11:17 Withstanding God
January 1996
I. By direct commandment from Jesus, Peter had violated the traditions of
the Jews by going into the house of a Gentile and eating with him.
A. At the commandment of Jesus, he had gone to the house of
Cornelius a Roman Centurion in Caesarea.
1. While Peter was sharing the gospel with the Gentiles
who had gathered in the house of Cornelius, suddenly
they were baptized with the Holy Spirit, and they
began to speak in tongues and glorify God.
2. It was then decided by Peter that it would be proper to
baptize them in water seeing that the Lord had already
baptized them with the Holy Spirit.
3. Peter because of his vision probably figured that the
Lord was going to do something among the Gentiles so he
took 6 Jews with him as witnesses.
B. Now Peter has returned to Jerusalem and those who Luke refers
to as of the circumcision began to contend with him.
1. This refers to those who believed that only a Jew could
be saved.
a. They taught that as a Gentile, your only hope
for salvation was to become a Jew, and that was
accomplished by the rite of circumcision, and
baptism, and obedience to the Mosaic law.
b. In the early church there were those radicals
who insisted that the Gentiles had to be
circumcised. They caused real confusion and
division among the new believers.
c. Jesus did not look kindly upon those who would
offend the faith of a babe that had come to
trust in Him. He said it would be better for
that man, that a mill stone be tied around his
neck and he by cast into the sea.
d. Paul was so upset with those who offended the
new believers with the issue of circumcision,
he said, "I wish they were castrated who
trouble you."
2. They called Peter on the carpet. Their accusation? "You
went in to men that were uncircumcised and ate with
them."
a. In response Peter rehearsed his vision and the
commandment of the Spirit. "The Spirit bade me
go."
b. Peter assured them that it was God who gave
them the gift of the Holy Spirit.
II. "Who was I, that I could withstand God?"
A. In Job 9 Job asked, "Who can hinder Him, or say to Him, What
are you doing?"
B. Elihu asked Job, "Why do you strive with Him?"
1. That is a reasonable question, "Why do you strive with
God?"
2. What can you possible hope to gain by striving with
God?
3. Isaiah said, "Woe unto him who strives with his Maker."
4. Can you not see what folly it is to strive with God?
5. If God were cruel and seeking to destroy you then I
could see a reason to try to strive with Him. But He is
loving and has your best interests in His heart.
6. In Jeremiah 29 the Lord said, "I know the thoughts that
I have concerning you, thoughts of peace not of evil,
to bring you to a glorious future."
C. We read in the scriptures where there were those who tried to
withstand God.
1. The Pharaoh of Egypt. When Moses went into the Pharaoh
and declared, "Thus saith Jehovah God of Israel, let My
people go that they may hold a feast unto Me in the
wilderness." The Pharaoh answered, "Who is Jehovah that
I should obey His voice to let the people go? I do not
know Jehovah, neither will I let Israel go."
2. Pharaoh tried to withstand God and in the process
learned just who He was.
a. God first turned the waters of the Nile into
blood.
b. God covered the land with frogs.
c. God covered the people and animals with lice.
d. God filled the land with flies.
e. God devastated the livestock.
f. God covered the people and the remaining
animals with boils.
g. The it rained great hail stones upon the land
that killed the livestock that were out in the
open fields, as well as destroying the crops.
h. God brought great hoards of locusts that
devoured what remained of the crops.
i. God covered the land with darkness.
j. God killed the firstborn throughout the land.
k. God destroyed the army with their chariots in
the Red Sea.
l. Is it possible that some of the miseries and
hardships that you are presently going through
are the result of your seeking to withstand the
work that God desires to do?
3. Abijah was the great grand son of King David, when he
came to the throne at the death of his father Rehoboan
he came to the King of Northern tribes of Israel
Jeroboam, who had led the rebellion against allegiance
to the Davidic throne. He rebuked Jeroboam for seeking
to withstand the kingdom of the Lord and setting up the
golden calves as the symbols of their god. He said that
they allowed anyone to purchase the position of priest
over the people. He declared,
2CH 13:12 And, behold, God himself [is] with us for [our] captain, and his
priests with sounding trumpets to cry alarm against you. O
children of Israel, fight ye not against the LORD God of your
fathers; for ye shall not prosper. Jereboam did not harken to
him because his troops outnumbered the men of Ahijah by a margin
of two to one. He sent a part of his troops to encircle the army
of Ahijah and then began the attack from the front and the rear.
We read,
2CH 13:15 Then the men of Judah gave a shout: and as the men of Judah
shouted, it came to pass, that God smote Jeroboam and all Israel
before Abijah and Judah.
2CH 13:14 And the children of Israel fled before Judah: and God delivered
them into their hand.
2CH 13:15 And Abijah and his people slew them with a great slaughter: so
there fell down slain of Israel five hundred thousand chosen
men.
2CH 13:18 Thus the children of Israel were brought under at that time, and
the children of Judah prevailed, because they relied upon the
LORD God of their fathers.
4. The Kings of Moab, Mt. Seir and Ammon had gathered
their armies to come against Jehoshaphat the king of
Judah.
2CH 20:3 And Jehoshaphat feared, and set himself to seek the LORD, and
proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah.
2CH 20:4 And Judah gathered themselves together, to ask [help] of the
LORD: even out of all the cities of Judah they came to seek the
LORD.
2CH 20:5 And Jehoshaphat stood in the congregation of Judah and
Jerusalem, in the house of the LORD, before the new court,
2CH 20:6 And said, O LORD God of our fathers, [art] not thou God in
heaven? and rulest [not] thou over all the kingdoms of the
heathen? and in thine hand [is there not] power and might, so
that none is able to withstand thee?
2CH 20:7 [Art] not thou our God, [who] didst drive out the inhabitants of
this land before thy people Israel, and gave it to the seed of
Abraham thy friend for ever?
a. Then the Spirit of the Lord came on the prophet
Jahaziel
2CH 20:15 And he said, Hearken ye, all Judah, and ye inhabitants of
Jerusalem, and thou king Jehoshaphat, Thus saith the LORD unto
you, Be not afraid nor dismayed by reason of this great
multitude; for the battle [is] not yours, but God's.
2CH 20:16 Tomorrow go ye down against them: behold, they come up by
the cliff of Ziz; and ye shall find them at the end of the
brook, before the wilderness of Jeruel.
2CH 20:17 Ye shall not [need] to fight in this [battle]: set yourselves,
stand ye [still], and see the salvation of the LORD with you, O
Judah and Jerusalem: fear not, nor be dismayed; to morrow go out
against them: for the LORD [will be] with you.
2CH 20:18 And Jehoshaphat bowed his head with [his] face to the ground:
and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem fell before the
LORD, worshipping the LORD.
b. The next morning they went out to watch the
battle of the kings against God.
2CH 20:20 And they rose early in the morning, and went forth into the
wilderness of Tekoa: and as they went forth, Jehoshaphat stood
and said, Hear me, O Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem;
Believe in the LORD your God, so shall ye be established;
believe his prophets, so shall ye prosper.
2CH 20:21 And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed singers
unto the LORD, and that should praise the beauty of holiness, as
they went out before the army, and to say, Praise the LORD; for
his mercy [endureth] for ever.
2CH 20:22 And when they began to sing and to praise, the LORD set
ambushments against the children of Ammon, Moab, and mount Seir,
which were come against Judah; and they were smitten.
III. It should be noted that those who have sought to withstand the Lord,
have always suffered for it.
A. God wants to do a work in our lives, you can withstand that
work.
1. God allows you to say no to Him, but to do so is to
court disaster.
2. It is interesting in the story of Peter and his vision
and call to the Gentiles, when the Lord first let down
the sheet with the many different animals and commanded
Peter to kill and eat, he said, "No so, Lord." He was
trying to withstand God. God was insistant and the
vision was repeated three times, and Peter yielded.
B. What a total blessing it is to yield fully to God, to let Him
work freely in and through your life, and thus discover what
His glorious plans are for you.
1. As the Master Potter He has plan as He begins to mould
and shape your life. That plan can only be discovered
by yielding to His touch, the minute you seek to
withstand Him the vessel He is seeking to make is
marred in the hands of the Potter.
2. He is patient, and will start over until He has
accomplished His purposes.
3. David said, "And I shall be satisfied when I awake in
His likeness."
4. That is just what God seeks to do, mould you into the
image of His Son. "And we all with unveiled faces,
beholding the glory of the Lord, and being changed from
glory to glory into the same image."
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