Circles of Life

The war between Jesus and the book of Acts is, in large part, a testimony of the truth of why and the truth going forth into the world and why trying to stop it. And you see the Lord helping the church. You see angelic beings helping the church to promote truth.

And you see the devil doing all he can do to stop it. So as we go down through the book of Acts here, we'll see this war that's occurring between truth and lie. And we look last time at Acts chapter 5, and just by way of review, the disciples are out trying to communicate and teach the truth, starting in Jerusalem, and they fill Jerusalem with the doctrine of Christ.

And then they are told that they cannot do this anymore. They cannot speak anymore in the name of the Lord Jesus. And, of course, Peter stands up and says to them, we ought to obey God rather than men.

And in verse 32 of chapter 5, and we are his witnesses of these things, and so also is the Holy Ghost whom God hath given to them that obey him. And so here in this statement that Peter makes, he brings some truth, some conviction. Again, in verse 30, he accuses them of slaying the Lord Jesus and hanging him on a tree, and saying that God gives the Holy Spirit to them that obey him.

And these words, in verse 33, it says, when they heard that, they were cut to the heart and they took counsel to slay them. And something very important to be reminded of as we go through this book is that when people hear the word of God, especially when it brings conviction to their heart, it says they were cut to the heart. That means they had strong conviction come upon them.

And you see this throughout the book of Acts, when Peter was preaching on the day of Pentecost, and he told them that they had crucified the Lord and Savior. It says, when they heard this, they were pricked in their hearts. And then if we go on, and we won't look at it, but in Acts chapter 9, when Stephen is preaching, he calls them a stiff-necked and uncircumcised.

You've been murderers and betrayers of the Lord Jesus Christ. And it says, when they heard this, they were cut to the heart. They were cut to the heart.

And may the Lord's word cut us to the heart. The Bible says his word is a sword. It's a two-edged sword.

It is quick and it is powerful. And it cuts people to the heart. And you'll find, as you find here in Acts chapter 2 and Acts chapter 5 and Acts chapter 9, that when the word of God cuts people to the heart, there's two responses.

And we hope for the first one. And that is they get under conviction and they're humbled. The word of God humbles the heart.

And in Acts chapter 2, after Peter preaches, 3,000 people are humbled by the word of God. And they're pricked in their hearts and they get converted. Unfortunately, the other thing that happens when people are reproved by the word of God is what happens here in verse number 33.

It says, when they heard that, they were cut to the heart and they took counsel to slay them. And that's exactly what happens in Acts chapter 9 and Stephens, when he's preaching to the Sanhedrin there, they are cut to the heart, or excuse me, Acts chapter 7, and they went and slayed him. And so, friends, as you go out and preach and we're talking about teaching the word of God and going forth and speaking up against the sins of our world, you're going to find that there'll be two responses to you.

Number one is a response of, oh God, have mercy upon me. What do I do? What must I do? Well, you need to repent. I'll repent.

And we look forward to those kind of responses. But there's another kind of response, and don't be discouraged, as I shared last time about this kind of response, and that is they want to kill you. It says here they rose up to slay him.

And that's not an unusual thing. Jesus said, if they hated me, they will hate you. And don't think it's strange that people rise up and want to do damage to you and to slander you and to lie about you and to throw something at you and to spit upon you and to throw you into jail or to kill you.

That is a response that the Christians in the early church received when they were faithful in teaching the word of God. And here is the thing that most Christians do not want to take part in. They simply do not want to face this animosity.

They do not want to face being slain. You know, Stephen, why did you say that, Stephen? You know, I hear this a lot on a college campus. If you would preach just love and you would tell people that God loves them, you wouldn't face this animosity.

And I agree with them. But that's not what I'm called to do. I'm called to teach them all things whatsoever the Lord has commanded.

And you are called to the same thing also. So we don't need to preach unto them as Isaiah said, smooth things so that they'll like us. We need to be faithful and teach the truth in love.

And I don't have any doubt about it that these disciples love these people in Jerusalem. And they love the religious leaders. And they're warning them because they want them to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.

And so brothers and sisters, as you go forth into this world, and as you're faithful in teaching the truth and preaching against sin and lifting up the gospel, realize that there will be some who will be pricked in their heart and say, what must I do to be saved? And there will be others who say, we're going to kill you. They don't like it. You're cutting us to the heart with your words.

And that's a good thing. You know, I've heard the old story when you throw a stone into a pack of dogs, it's the one that gets hit that does all the yelping. And you'll find that people get angry because they're being convicted of their sin.

And take that as an encouragement. That's a good thing. Don't think, well, what did I do? Did I say something wrong? Is my spirit not right? And you just accept the fact that this is the way people respond.

So we left off in verse number 33 last time. So I want to jump in here and starting in verse number 34, we're going to talk about this man Gamaliel. And I'm going to finish the chapter here in chapter 5. And there's this story here of a man.

And I think God put this in there. We can learn some wisdom from Gamaliel. And so I'm going to read down through verse 34 all the way to the end of the chapter and talk about these circles of life.

Then stood there up one in the council, a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a doctor of the law, had in reputation among all the people and commanded to put the apostles forth a little space and said unto them, you men of Israel, take heed to yourselves what you intend to do as touching these men. Now, here is a man who is an aged man. He is an older man.

He is a doctor of the law. In other words, he is one who understands not only the law of God, but he understands all the oral traditions, the standards, the rules. He can give you a good judgment on, you know, did you carry the bed on the Sabbath or did you not? And all of these things.

He's a doctor of the law. It says here he is. He is a man who has had in reputation.

He is esteemed amongst the Jewish people. As a matter of fact, if you go around Jerusalem and mention the name Gamaliel, everybody knows him. And if you remember in Acts chapter 22, when Paul was talking, giving his testimony, he tells how that he sat under the feet, at the feet of Gamaliel.

And evidently Gamaliel was a well-known, esteemed, older man, a teacher of the word of God. He's a Pharisee. A Pharisee is one who is a separatist.

The word Pharisee means separated. He has pulled himself aside with the Pharisees. And even back in those days, there was denominations, different groups.

There was Sadducees, the Essenes and different groups that had established back then. But he was a part of the Pharisees, the pharisaical system. And of course, he was an older man.

And we'll see that here as we go down through this. So he has counsel for some of the younger people in this counsel. Verse 35, he said to them, he meant of Israel, take heed to yourselves what you intend to do as touching these men.

He sees there's a rage, there's a passion. We want to kill these apostles. We want to silence them.

We want to put them in prison or even slay them. And Gamaliel says, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a minute. I want to give you some counsel here.

I don't know how old he is. He's maybe 80. Who knows? But he's been around.

We're going to see he's been around for a while. Verse 36, here's what he says. For before these days rose up Theodos, boasting himself to be somebody to whom a number of men, about 400, joined themselves, who was slain, and all as many as obeyed him were scattered and brought to naught.

After this ban rose up Judas of Galilee in the days of the taxing, and drew away much people after him. He also perished, and all, even as many as obeyed him, were dispersed. And now I say unto you, here's my counsel, refrain from these men and let them alone.

For if this counsel or this work be of men, it will come to naught. I just gave you two good examples of it. But if it be of God, you cannot overthrow it.

Lest happily you be found even to fight against God. And to him they agreed. They listened to his counsel.

He was an esteemed individual. 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. Well, there's a lot of things I'd like to share this morning.

We don't have time to go into a lot of it in depth. But let's pray. And let's just ask the Lord to help us this morning.

Lord, thank you for your wisdom and all the things that you give us. In the word of God, I pray for the young people here today, that they could receive counsel and receive wisdom. And to understand your purposes in the earth and what you have for the sons of men.

Lord, bless our time here as we consider these things. Open up our hearts. We pray in Jesus' name.

Amen. Well, as I went down through this and thought about this man Gamaliel, there's a lot of things that came to mind. He's probably 20 years my senior, this man.

But as I show here on the chart in the children's lesson, I'm getting down the road here. As a matter of fact, I'm actually starting in my fourth circle. My fourth circuit.

And hopefully I've learned my lessons. You know, sometimes we learn our lessons very early in life. And if we don't learn them, and most people don't learn them all, we learn them the second time around in the second circuit.

And I have these in age groups, zero to 20 and 20 to 40 years old and 40 to 60. And then an aged man from 60 on up. But I've noticed life is a bunch of circuits.

Circles. And we go through things. And God is trying to teach us.

Just like I shared. Can you imagine life being a straight line where every day is a new thing? You have nothing inexperienced to draw from. It's just, I've got to figure this out and just make a guess.

How do I do this? And every day is another new thing. But God has designed life in circles. In circuits.

Ecclesiastes 1. There's nothing new under the sun. God is teaching us. And if we don't learn the first circuit, we'll learn it the second one.

If we don't learn it the second one, we'll just learn it the third one. And sometimes people get clear down to the end here and they're still fools. Foolish.

And they've not learned in the circuits of life. Well, Gamaliel here is a good example of a man who's learned some things. And he has some experience.

And in this situation, he draws upon it. And in his counsel to these younger individuals, he brings up two situations in his past life that he remembers. A man by the name of Theodos and another man by the name of Judas.

And I did a little studying in history. This Theodos was a man that was dated probably around 4 BC. But he was a self-proclaimed Messiah.

And he rose up and he gathered people to follow him. And they pursued their agendas for two or three or four or five years. But they were scattered and brought to nothing.

And then another man he mentions, Judas, who rose up during the time of taxing. And I believe that's when the birth of Christ was during the time of taxing, when the taxation went throughout the whole earth. Here this Judas rises up.

And he also, he draws people to follow him. And Gamaliel says four, five, six, seven, eight years they're following him. But they also come to naught.

And they're crushed by the Romans. And it goes nowhere. And so he draws upon these two examples in his experience in the past to try to give some wisdom.

Now there's a possibility, and I don't know this to be the case. But there's a possibility that Gamaliel even followed one or two of these individuals. Because he's a Pharisee.

He's zealous. He's a separatist. And you know, this is this new thing.

And maybe I was a part of this and I learned my lesson through experience. I just didn't watch it. I learned it by experience.

But I know this. Gamaliel is saying, listen, fellas. I've been down this road before.

I was 20 years old when the first guy came through. And I watched it. And I've learned.

I was 35 years old the next time this Judas went through. And I've watched it. And I even participated in it.

I got involved in the bandwagon. And I've learned some things. Because God has been taking me through this circuit.

And he's trying to teach me. And now I'm going to give you some counsel from what I've learned. By the way, let me just stop here.

And I've shared this before in the past. Some of you have heard me say it. But it's important to repeat this.

And we're living in a time where the Lord Jesus is about to come a second time. But if you go back when the Lord came the first time, there were false Christs and messiahs that were rising up. And these two men are two of them.

They rose up, claimed to be messiahs at the birth of Christ. 4 BC, and during the time of taxing. And when Jesus first appeared, there were many false Christs that appeared to lead people astray.

400, it says, Theodos and many others. Judas followed Judas. But they all came to naught.

Jesus said, when I come the second time, many false Christs are going to arise and deceive many. So be assured of this. That when the time of Christ's second coming is near, there's going to be many rise up.

And they're going to say and claim that they are the messiah. They are the Christ. And they're also going to lead many people astray.

So just to give you a heads up, and I've told you this and taught you this over the years. Some of you are new who maybe haven't heard this. But one of the marks or the most important mark about a false messiah and a false Christ or a spirit of antichrist is this.

And tuck this away in the back of your mind. And don't ever let it slip, because you're going to have to know this as we approach the end and the return of the Lord Jesus. First John chapter 4, in the context of antichrist, he says this.

They are of the world. Therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them. We're of God.

He that knoweth not God, heareth us. Or he that knoweth God, heareth us. And he that is not of God, heareth not us.

Hereby know we the spirit of truth and the spirit of air. There are two spirits that are being sent out, and those spirits have a voice. And the spirit of antichrist is always speaking about this present world.

He is always trying to bring up issues regarding this present world. For example, the idea of global warming. The idea of vaccinations.

The idea of economics. The idea of politics. All about this present world.

Thaddeus and Judas were about this present world. Probably one of them was about revolting against the taxes of the Romans. And they all have a present world message.

And their message is about the environment. Their message is about politics. Their message is about social issues.

Their message is about global warming. And they lead people astray. It may be a good thing, but it's about this temporal world.

It says here, they are of the world, therefore speak they of the world. There's coming false Christs, and they're going to have their issues. And they're going to talk about, you know, we can make the world a better place.

We can save the indebtedness of America and the nations. And we can do this. And we have these great programs and all of this to try to deliver in this present evil world.

But I love what Peter said when Jesus asked him, who do you think I am? Peter says, you're the Christ, and you have the words of eternal life. You're the true Christ, and your words have to deal with eternal life. You know, Jesus, who is the true Christ, when he came, he didn't talk about politics.

He didn't talk about economics. He didn't talk about the environment. He didn't talk about all these social issues that people get all upset about.

He talked about the words that pertain to eternal life, how the human soul can be saved and prepared for eternity. And that is the message that the true spirit of God is still communicating to this very day. And I'll tell you what, churches who don't stay on that message are going to get subverted.

And many churches are going into environmental issues, social issues, political issues, economic issues. But our issue is eternal life. Our issue is the salvation of souls.

So in this coming Antichrist, there's going to be a lot of movements and a lot of good movements. We can save the planet. You're a Christian.

Don't you want to save the planet? We can save the economic system. Let's start this new system, one world system. We can do it and many things will be good.

And they'll have messiahs, but they're not the true messiah. Our message is not about resisting the government. Our message is about resisting the devil.

You know, all these people resisting the government and the government this and the government that and all this control. Listen, don't get your mind distracted. Our message is about resisting the devil.

Well, these two men here are issue oriented and they lead people away. And many people follow them. You know, Judas here in verse 37 of Acts chapter 5, he may have been, you know, his issue may have been taxes.

Verse 37, after this man rose up, Judas of Galilee in the days of the taxing and drew away a bunch of people after him. He had, we true Jews, we shouldn't be under bondage to the Romans. We shouldn't pay the taxes.

So I'm the messiah, follow me. And many people follow. So John in first John says, the spirit of Antichrist, he speaks about this world.

His issues may be good, but they're temporal. They're about this present life. And while these people are running after these present life issues, you and I still need to stand and preach the everlasting gospel.

Amen. And preach the salvation of the soul. That's where the Lord's heart is.

So don't get sidetracked. There's a lot of good issues out there. A lot of things you could spend your life, follow people.

I can just see many people in the church just departing, following issues. And what happened? Both of these guys, the government crushed them. And they came to nothing.

Well, I want to look here at this counsel that Gamaliel gives. And I was thinking about Gamaliel and how he has experience, and he's experienced these things, and he draws upon his experience to give counsel. Young people, when you're over here and you're just starting your first circle, you know, you're 16, 17, 19, 20.

You don't have much experience. You're facing new things in life, but you have no experience to draw on. Well, Gamaliel, he's got a lot of experience.

And when he's got these young, passionate... I can just see him, these Pharisees, and they're in the council, and they're passionate about the Jewish system and God, and, you know, and we want it to be the way we want it to be. And let's kill these people. And Gamaliel is saying, wait a minute, guys.

Let's hold on a little bit. You got a lot of passion, but you don't have a lot of wisdom. A lot of young people have a lot of passion nowadays, but they don't have a lot of wisdom.

And wisdom comes from experience. Well, one of the reasons why older people are to be sought out for counsel and for help is because of one word, and that is the word experience. Experience.

I think many in the council here were young, probably middle-aged. They had a lot of passion. They wanted to kill the apostles.

They thought they were false teachers, false prophets, but they lack some experience. They lack some understanding. So that's why 1 Peter 5 says, likewise ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder.

Why submit yourselves to the elder? Because the elder is down here in the third and fourth circle, and he has learned some things. I trust he has. He has learned some things by experience.

And Gamaliel shows us that. I thought of many verses, just give you a few of them. Paul teaches on this in Romans chapter 5. He says, and not only so, but we glory in tribulations also, knowing that tribulation works patience.

Oh, my friends, what a wonderful word, that word patience. Tribulation works patience. And patience, what? Experience.

Think about that. Patience is a time word. Patience requires time.

You don't have patience in a second. You don't have patience in 30 seconds. Patience requires time.

In other words, what he's saying is this. Tribulation. Some of you have been going through some tribulation recently.

Tribulation, the fire, difficulty, heartache. Tribulation works patience. That means this.

God is looking for us to go through difficult times, like Sister Kay had to go through, as a hostage, and to be patient in that affliction. Not get all stirred up, out of sorts, lose your cool, but to be patient. Lord, I'm going to lay low and endure.

I like that. Lay low and just endure hardship. Unfortunately, today, most people run from hardship.

And it's a tragedy for them, because God is trying to teach them a lesson in these circles he's taken them through. And in many of these circles, there's hardship. And hardship oftentimes causes people to check out, and then they go another 10 years, and they run into it again.

Patience, or tribulation works patience, and patience, experience. You know what experience is? Boy, did I learn something back there when I was 25. And you know what? Now that I'm 35, and God's taking me through something very similar, different circumstances.

I'm older now, but I'm going through this whole thing again. I've learned 10 years ago, 15 years ago, here's how I deal with this situation. Boy, I tell you what.

There's a reason why God wants elders to lead churches, because I was a young man. They ordained me at 35 years old. At that time, I thought, I'm way too young for this job.

And I was. I mean, I was too young, and my wife and I were very young, and we did some things that we shouldn't have done, and we said some things we shouldn't have said, and we responded in ways we shouldn't have. But I look back on it now, and I realize I didn't have any experience, and I didn't respond properly.

And what I needed to do was to go through some things and learn. So tribulation works patience, and patience, experience, and experience hope. Hope is, you know, I've been here before, and it's going to work out just fine.

I know how this thing works. Trust me. It'll be all right.

And you have a hope in your heart. Some of you have been older. You're older Christians now.

You've been through things, and you have this assured hope that you begin to get settled in your heart. You know, I saw it back here at 25. I saw it at 40.

I saw it at 55. I know what's going on here. I can understand what God is doing, and we're good.

And I'm confident of what's happening. So patience is important. Patience in the fire.

Patience in difficulty. And you know, here's the tragedy today, because people don't have any patience. They get in a marriage.

They get in a marriage, and there's some fire, and there's some heat, such as trouble in the flesh. And they don't want to endure. They don't want to abide under that tribulation and be patient in their affliction, and they check out.

Get a divorce. And they jump into another one. God says, well, just watch.

We'll go 10 years. We'll see you're in the same fire again. And they get in the same fire again.

But what God is trying to do is trying to teach you how to be patient in your tribulation so that he can produce some experience in your life. And that experience will lead you to a deep and settled hope and confidence that you can turn around then and help some of these zero to 20s to give them some wisdom. Amen? But it's not going to happen unless you stop jumping out of the fire when God brings the fire to you.

And all the tribulation he's bringing you, you check out. So patience. I mean, I go to the Bible, and I thought about patience, this incredibility of patience that God has asked man to be a part of.

Here, man falls in Genesis chapter 3, and God comes to him like a day after and says, I'm going to send you a Messiah. Oh, that's great. God's going to send a Messiah.

4,000 years they waited for the Messiah. 4,000 years. And the nation was longing for this Messiah.

And God says, you be patient. Then the Messiah comes. He was born a baby.

Why didn't he come in with a horse and just come? And no, you're going to have 30 years. You have to wait for him to grow. And then he comes.

He's 30. He starts teaching. And now he tells us he's not going to be our deliverer.

He's going to suffer and die. More patience. And now we've been 2,000 years waiting for his return.

The Bible says that we're to be patiently waiting for the return of our Lord Jesus Christ. Patience. You know, if any of you have grown spiritually in any degree, you've learned how to be patient in affliction, patient in tribulation.

I like James chapter 1. It says this in verse 2. My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into diverse temptations, knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. You know what patience is? Lord, I just don't understand all these. It's just not the perfect situation, Lord.

But you know what? I'm just going to abide under it and let it do the work. I'm just going to abide. My relationships are not the best.

My marriage is not the best. The situation with the children is not the best. My church situation is not the best.

God, I want to just learn to abide. Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience, but let patience have her perfect work, that you may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. God wants to bring you out of here where you're perfect and entire, lacking nothing.

But it requires a lot of learning patience all the way down. Too many people today are reactors. Affliction comes, difficulty comes, and they react to it instead of enduring with patience.

And I think in this story here, these younger, middle-aged people in the council, kill them. Let's kill these apostles and shut their mouths. Gamaliel says, you need patience.

Hold on. You guys haven't learned your lesson. And they would have killed them, apart from Gamaliel stopping them and saying, let me give you some counsel.

I've been down this road. I've learned some patience. And I believe, according to the book of James, that if you never learn to be patient in your affliction, you'll never grow.

Because patience is required for you to be perfect, lacking nothing. Gamaliel has learned to be a patient man and to give things time. And I want to just mention that word, time.

Time. Time is an important thing to the Lord, to give things time. Look at verse 38 of this chapter 5 here.

And now I say unto you, refrain from these men and let them alone. For if this counsel or this work be of men, it will come to naught. It'll take time.

You'll find it out here. But if it be of God, you cannot overthrow it, lest happily you be found even to fight against God. In other words, fellows, here's my counsel to you.

Give this thing some time. Amen? And we'll find out what's right and wrong. I don't want to wait the time.

We want to do it now. No, let me give you some counsel. Give it some time.

A lot of life's issues are resolved just by giving it time. Amen. I've learned that over my life, although I hope I'm going to learn a lot more and live a long, long life.

But just give it some time. Time. I thought of many cliches regarding time.

I wrote some of them down. But these are cliches that people have picked up on because there's wisdom in them. Let me give you a few of them.

You ever heard this one? Time will tell. What's that mean? Just like Amelia said, time will tell. You just give it some time and you'll find the truth.

Time will tell. You ever heard someone say this? I've been down this road before. You know, what they mean is this.

I've been on this circle before. That did not age well. I like that one.

A lot of people are using that now. Someone said something 10 years ago and they say that didn't age well. Time.

Oh, I was out in Pennsylvania. I was blessed. I was out in Pennsylvania.

I was sitting with a brother and he just made a comment to me. And I thought, wow, that's a good thing to remember. He said, I've learned something in life that time is a friend to the truth and an enemy to the lie.

And I said, you know, that's a good statement there. The truth. People who lie, they tell you something and they want you to believe it right away and pass it on.

But the truth says, no, no, no, just let it rest and we'll see if it's true over time. Time is a friend to the truth. You know, that's why you ought not to react to the lies because time will tell.

Time is a friend to the truth. You ever heard this statement? It will all pan out in the end. That means time.

It will pan out. You know what it comes from? It's gold panning, sifting through, takes time to get. I did a little gold panning.

We stopped at a gold mine out in Colorado, sifting through this sludge and this sand and you keep sifting and sifting. And finally, in time, the gold comes to the surface and it all pans out. Life has got a bunch of sludge.

It's got a bunch of sand. There's a little bit of gold there. But time, if you'll endure patiently, it'll all pan out.

The gold will come to the surface in time. How about this one? Time is a great teacher. Agree with me on that? Time is a great teacher.

My parents taught me a lesson when I was a kid. Probably a good lesson for all of us to participate in. I remember my brother.

He wanted a mini bike. We weren't real motorcycle type family and my parents really had a problem with that. One thing they taught us was this.

If you want something, wait 30 days. And if you still want it, we'll consider it. And you know how children are? By 30 days, they forgot about what they were asking.

They have no idea. What was it? I don't remember what it was I was even asking you for. 30 days and they realized they weren't serious about it.

Time, time, patience takes time. Well, I read this from the children's lesson. And I'm going to read it again because we have time on our hands here today.

And maybe someone is listening on the CD and doesn't know what the children's lesson was here this morning. But I want to read to you some wisdom that was given by Solomon here in Ecclesiastes. He says this.

One generation passes away and another generation comes, but the earth abides forever. The sun also arises and the sun goes down and hastes to his place where he arose. The wind goeth toward the south and turneth about under the north.

It whirleth about continually and the wind returneth again according to its circuit. Everything comes back to the same thing, to the same point. All the rivers run into the sea, yet the sea is not full.

Unto the place from once the rivers came that they return again. All things are full of labor. Man cannot utter it.

The eye is not satisfied with seeing or the ear filled with hearing. The thing that has been, it is that which shall be. And that which is done is that which shall be done.

And there is no new thing under the sun. Is there anything whereof it may be said, see, this is new? It has been already of old time which was before us? No, there is no new thing underneath the sun. So life, life runs in circles.

And life begins over here and God sends us in a circle. And everything is new. We're learning.

It's all new here. And that's why young people, if you want to be wise in your first 20 or 30 years, you need to come over here and talk to people who have run this circuit already. Because they've learned things.

And you can save yourself a lot of trouble if you go to the agent and say, listen, all this stuff is new. I don't know how to handle finances. I don't know how to handle relationships between men and women.

I don't know how to handle this whole thing about life. What do I do? Well, come down here and talk to some of these. Because they went through that too and they've learned some things from experience.

Don't be proud in that stage of life and say, listen, I can handle this. I know what I'm doing. Wisdom.

Wisdom looks to counsel. That's wisdom. And seeks out godly counsel.

Well, you come down here and you're 20 to 40. And I just throw these ages in here. And you've learned a few things here.

But God is taking you back through the circle. And circumstances change. You know, you're married now.

You have children. But you notice that God is still trying to teach you in the same things. It's the same circle, just different circumstances.

And hopefully, you pick up a few more things that you're learning when you go through this cycle a second time. You're more humbled, hopefully, in the second cycle. I've found that to be the case.

You get a little humble in this first one with all the mistakes if you don't seek counsel. Oh, Lord, help me. The second time you go through it, you're a little more humble.

You pick up some more wisdom. You know, it's interesting in the Jewish culture, you couldn't teach until you were age 30. You're at least in your second cycle and you've learned some things.

Well, you keep going here. You get to the third cycle, say from 40, 45 to 60, and you're gaining experience. You're looking at this thing and you're saying, wow, I'm learning some experience.

And that's what Gamaliel was doing. He had learned some things. You've already gone through two previous circuits.

And now you're learning from experience, circular. By the way, repetition. God knows this is the key to learning.

Let's repeat. Don't we teach our children that way? Repeat cycles. Repetition.

When your little child comes over here and touches the wood stove, ow, that hurts. He didn't know it hurt until he touched it. It was his first experience.

He's learning. Yeah. Later on, when the Lord brings back another temptation, he might say, I remember that hurt, but maybe it doesn't hurt all the time.

So he risked it and says, I'll try it again. Oh, he gets burned a second time. Now he's starting to learn some experience.

Now he gets down to this stage and he says, I'm not touching it again. And as a matter of fact, at this stage, I'm going to tell other people not to touch it. He starts to teach them out of his own experience.

Not to touch wood stoves. So Gamalia here, he's been through about three of these cycles. He saw Theodos in one of the cycles and he said, well, that didn't work out.

They came to know. Ten years later, he sees Judas gather a bunch of people and they go through, they get smashed by the Romans. That didn't work out.

So he's sitting over here and some of these men are still back here. And he's saying, fellas, listen, I've learned some things. Let's let him alone.

And there's a good chance that they're not of God. It's not going to work. God's not in it.

And it's going to come to naught. You're going to save yourself a lot of trouble. But if God is in it, you don't want to fight against him and war against the Lord.

So you come up here, then you get the ancients. The real old, great, great grandpas. And they've learned a lot.

Boy, it's a wonderful thing to sit down with a great grandpa and let him tell you his stories, life lessons, especially if he's a godly man. Amen. And all the things he's learned.

So Gamaliel here is saying, I've seen these cycles before. And I've learned some things by experience. And young people, there are men and women here who are down here and here who've learned some things by experience.

And if you would be wise, you would do like Jesus. You would say, Dad, Mom, I want to sit and listen to what you have to say. I don't want to make a lot of mistakes.

Preacher, I want to listen to what you have to say. You've been down the road a ways. You've gone through the circles.

I want to hear your counsel. Let me give you some verses from the Bible with that in mind. Job chapter 12, verse 12 says this.

With the ancient is wisdom, and in the length of days is understanding. Notice that time there. In length of days is understanding.

Daniel 7. I like this. God is called the Ancient of Days. You know, who's the one that has all wisdom? The Lord does.

And his name is the Ancient of Days. In other words, I'm the oldest one here. And I'm the wisest.

Because I'm eternal. I have time on my hand. Young people, here's some verses for you.

In the multitude of counselors, there is safety. Young people, you don't have to fall. Come over here and find counselors.

Where no counsel is, the people fall. These are from the book of Proverbs. Every purpose is established by counsel.

Hear counsel and receive instruction. He that hearkeneth unto counsel is wise. Most of these are from the book of Proverbs.

By the way, the book of Proverbs starts out in Proverbs chapter 1, verse 4. It says this. A wise man will hear and will increase in learning. And in verse 4, it talks about young men.

By the way, this book of Proverbs was written to young men. Young men who are down here in this cycle. Young men, listen to what I'm telling you.

I have been through many cycles and I have some wisdom for you. You know, I met some women, young men, in my life. I call them forward women.

And I'll tell you about them. And they'll destroy you. And they're flirts.

They push themselves on you. And be careful with them. I'll tell you about some financial things, too, if you want to listen.

And he goes through the whole book of Proverbs. And there's experience. And there's wisdom.

So how to get through these first two cycles? Find some wisdom from older men. Let's go back here to Acts 5. Gamaliel gives here his counsel. And I'm running out of time.

In verse number 40, it says this. 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.

Now, I picture this this way. You got some younger guys there, some middle-aged guys. And they have all this passion.

Here's Gamaliel. He's probably an 80-year-old man. Telling them, here's my experience.

Here's some wisdom. And I think these young people say, OK, we can agree with that. We won't kill them.

But bless God, we're going to give them a beating before they leave here in their passion. We've got to get something out of these guys. And so they give them a beating.

And they let them go. By the way, this here is the first time they face a physical abuse. They've been threatened.

They've been put in hold. Now they're getting a beating. Paul said, I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus Christ.

That's physical beating. Notice what happens here. And here's a challenge for all of us.

And they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name. Joy in being worthy. That's a new concept for people.

And be worthy to suffer like Jesus, the Son of God. Turn me upside down. I am unworthy of being up there with him.

You know, sometimes we don't think of it that way. In my suffering, God is allowing me an opportunity to stand with the most worthy one. Suffer with him.

And we often think, Lord, thank you that I am worthy to suffer shame for his name. Well, Peter felt that. And he certainly wasn't worthy from history.

He wanted to be crucified upside down. But it's a high place to be like the Son of God. So they didn't feel worthy to suffer shame.

Or they rejoiced, excuse me, that they were willing to suffer shame. They were able to suffer shame for his name. Then the last verse, I just want to comment on that very briefly.

Verse 42, it says, and daily in the temple and in every house, they cease not to teach and to preach Jesus Christ. In the temple, that's the public arena. And every house, that's a private place going house to house.

They cease not to teach and to preach Jesus Christ. Now, I'm going to make this very simple and ought to be convicting to every one of us. But this is very simple.

Jesus Christ was in the temple daily. He said when they came to get him, he said, you come out with staves and sticks to get me. But I sat daily with you in the temple teaching.

Jesus Christ was one who sat daily or taught daily in the temple. And he himself taught house to house. And he preached the gospel.

And that's a testimony of his life. Now, he is living in where? You. Living in you.

That same Jesus Christ. You know, the church is supposed to be the manifestation of Jesus Christ. His spirit is in us.

And when his spirit is in a man or a group of men and they are yielded and full of him, they will represent his life to the world. Would you agree with me on that? And those people saw Jesus daily in the temple and house to house. And now Christ is living out his life in them.

And they are daily in the temple and house to house. It's simply the manifestation of who Jesus is. And that's a challenge for me.

Does my life manifest who Jesus is? Do I manifest his daily life? Do I show people Christ? You say, well, I show people Christ in my humility or in my dress. And yes, but do I show Christ in every area of life? And so the early church was giving a clear manifestation of the person of Christ and his work. And if he is in each one of us, should we not be moving more and more into daily in the temple and in every house, ceasing not to preach and to teach Jesus Christ? Well, I don't want to spend a lot of time on that, but I do want to encourage some of you young people who are in this cycle here.

And even some of you are in this cycle to be humble enough to find godly men and women who you can seek counsel from, direction. And there's no reason for a 20-year-old young man to go through this. All this is new and make his mistakes when there are people who've gone down this circle already and can give you some advice and some wisdom in how to live.

And some of us who are older, some advice for each one of us is, God is trying to teach you patience as you go through these cycles. And he's bringing to you affliction, different places. Listen, the worst thing you can do when affliction comes to your life, not affliction that Peter says because I stole something or I got thrown in jail because I committed a crime, but affliction that comes to you, just life gives you affliction.

The worst thing to do is to check out. Say, this is too hot for me, I'm checking out. Or this situation is too difficult or this relationship is too difficult, I'm just checking out.

I can guarantee you this, if you check out here, you're going to run into it right here. And if you check out here, you're going to run into it right there. You're going to run into it again because life is circular.

There are cycles. God has you in this situation now because he wants to teach you a lesson. He wants you to refine you, learn the lesson so that when you get to this next one, you don't have to be taught again.

So life goes in circles. I've seen this, I think it's every 10 or 15 years. Here we go again.

And Lord, have I learned? Can I do this right now this time? Churches, I'll say this because I've been here for 30 years. They also go in cycles, just like the seasons. There are seasons where there is revival and people are born again and it's a spring commerce life.

There are seasons of fruit in the summer. Then there are seasons in the fall and the wintertime. There are difficult seasons and churches and individuals and families go through those cycles.

But those cycles are given to us. Here is the body of truth that God wants you to learn, but you won't learn it. Usually in the first 20 years, you go over it again and you pick up more and you go over it again.

And hopefully by the time you reach 60, 65, 70, you're getting most of it down. So humble yourself. If you're young and be willing to be taught, and if you're older and you're going over this thing again, humble yourself and learn your lesson.

Say, I'm going to just check out from this one. Are you going to see it again in 10 years, 15 years? There is nothing new under the sun. God will bring it back to you.

And so our lesson here this morning is this man Gamaliel. He's an aged man. He has a reputation.

He's learned some things. And he gives some counsel. And it saves this group of counsel, these people, a lot of trouble because they listen to his counsel.

He has some experience. May God give us some wisdom. Young people, like Jesus, find some older men to sit down and talk to, get some counsel.

Bring some of your problems. You know, most of us older people, we go through the same thing. Same thing.

We've learned a few things. We can give you some wisdom. Open your heart.

Save yourself a lot of trouble. Let's close with prayer, and then we'll open it up for anyone who'd like to share. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the wisdom that you give us in your word and how you teach us throughout life, Lord.

And thank you that life is not a straight line. That every day we face new things that we've never seen before. But Lord, thank you that we can be in a circle and learn and relearn and try again that you can grow us in repetition to be made into the image of Christ.

Lord, I pray for the youth here that you'll give them a heart to seek after wisdom, to seek for counsel, godly counsel. And those of us who are older, Lord, may we be wise. Teach us patience in our affliction, in our home, our relationships, Lord, our church, our brotherhood relationships, Lord.

May we learn to be patient, forbearing one another in love. Lord, bless the teaching of your word this morning. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.