Luke chapter 6 verse 12 this morning Luke 6.12 It came to pass in those days
that he went and into a mountain to pray, went out into a mountain
to pray and continued all night in prayer to God. Now I couldn't
look at this verse without saying this again. Some of you have
heard me say this. It says that he prayed all night.
Can you imagine what it would be like to hear Him pray. What did our Lord pray? Well, we don't know all about
that, but look at what happened here. In the context, I believe
the context is is especially important. In this, while our
Lord's enemies look at verse 11. They were filled with madness. Communed one with another what
they might do to Jesus while they're communing with one another,
how they might put Christ out of business, the Lord Jesus Christ
was communing also. He was communing with his Father. And what was he communing about?
He was praying about putting his apostles in business. The very truth that these enemies
hated so bad that they wanted to shut him up He's fixing to
appoint his apostles to declare that very truth throughout all
that region Our Lord knows the terrible hatred
and the evil that's being plotted against him And he's about and
of course he knows he said to his disciples. They hate me.
They're gonna hate you too. They hated me first They're gonna
hate you and they're gonna try to kill you. I They're gonna
think they're doing God a favor when they kill you. I send you
out as sheep among wolves. And he's about to send these
12 chosen. You remember what he said when
he sent them? Matthew tells us, I just quoted
part of it. Matthew 10, 16, behold, I send
you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves. Be ye therefore wise
as serpents and harmless as doves. Before
he chooses them out and sends those twelve knowing that in
those days remember it says in those day it came to pass in
those days the same days that his enemies were just Beginning
to really talk about what are we going to do about this? They're
plotting to shut him up to shut up his gospel. It says that he
prayed all night that night And when he had prayed all night
the next thing that he did according to our text is is he chose Simon
Peter to be one of his 12 choice apostles. So what did he pray
about? Luke 22, 31, listen to it. The
Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you
that he may sift you as wheat But I have prayed for you. And what did he pray? How is
Satan? What did he pray? Satan? You're not going to be able to
tell. You're not going to. Did he pray to the Father, destroy
Satan? Limit Satan? He didn't pray anything about
Satan. He didn't say he did. He said, I've prayed for you
that your faith fail not. Satan wants you, but faith, faith,
how important is faith? God-given, God-sustained, the Lord Jesus Christ sustained
faith. If the Lord prays that our faith
fail not, what's going to happen if He doesn't pray for us? And when thou art converted,
strengthen thy brethren. Think about this. Is the Lord
Jesus Christ praying right now? Paul said in Romans 8.34, Who
is He that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather
that is risen again who is even at the right hand of God who
also maketh intercession for us. The crucified risen Redeemer
is praying for his people. Robert Murray McShane, a preacher
and missionary in Scotland, Born in 1813 and died in 1843. He
was only 29 years old when he died. He said this, and the first
time I read, I haven't forgotten this since I read it probably,
I don't know, seven or eight years ago. He said, if I could
hear Christ praying for me in the next room, I would not fear
a million enemies. Isn't that the truth? If you
could hear him praying for us, What would you be afraid of?
And he didn't stop there. He said, yet distance makes no
difference. He is praying for me. He is praying for me. How much of a night would we be willing
to spend in prayer? And this is not what you think
it is. This is not me saying you need to pray more. We know
we need to pray more. Here's what I'm saying. He's
praying for us. Whether we pray it or not, he's
praying for us. When the disciples couldn't watch
for him even for an hour, he said, you watch and pray, lest
you enter into temptation. And that's true, that's good,
that's right, we should. We should be watching and praying
all the time. But when they couldn't, he said, it's alright, go ahead
and sleep. Why? Because he's praying for us.
We're going to be alright. I want to honor Him. I want to
pray. I want to know how to pray. And
I want to pray more. But bless God, it's not about
me. It's not about what I'm able
to do. He said, I've prayed for you. That's your defense against
every enemy. He's praying for you. You know what, I thought about
this and I guess I better say it. Prayer is an elusive thing because
here's the thing. The Lord says greater love hath
no man than this and then a man lay down his life for his friend.
I don't know until the time comes whether
I would die for anybody here. There are some people in this
room I'm pretty sure I would die for. I feel pretty sure about
that. And there's a lot, there's nobody
in this room that I wouldn't do quite a bit for. And yet we
won't pray for one another. What's wrong with that? There's
something wrong with that, isn't it? We just don't do it, do we?
We don't much do it. The greatest thing we can do
for one another, that doesn't cost a thing, is have time. And what better way to spend
our time? What better way to redeem the time? And yet we neglect
it so greatly. But bless God, he's praying for
us. He prayed and then he chose. If you look at the text, he began
to pick out his apostles right after the verse that we read.
When his day he called unto him his disciples and of them he
chose twelve whom he also named apostles. Simon, Simon's the
first one mentioned. And so we know something he was
praying about when he prayed all night that night. He was
praying for the Apostle Peter. And of course he was praying
for all of them. Praying for all of his sheep. He's interceding
for us. The eternal Son of God. The Lamb
of God. The crucified. Successful Redeemer. He's interceding for us. On the
throne of God. So he prayed and he chose, and
that word chose means to pick out. So I call the message this
morning, praying and picking out. That's what our Lord's doing,
praying and picking out. The word apostle means a delegate. When you delegate authority to
someone, they are a delegate, a messenger, one sent forth with
orders. It's interesting that this title
doesn't say anything about the person that sent. It means sent
one in simple form. That's the short definition.
Somebody that sent. It doesn't say anything about
them. It says somebody did something with them. All of the titles
that men give say something about the person. If you call somebody
reverend, boy, you're exalting them, aren't you? Don't ever
call me that. You know better than that, don't
you? I'm not to be reverenced in any way, form, or fashion.
If you call somebody doctor so and so, you're acknowledging
that they have a doctorate in some discipline or another. It's
an exaltation of that person. Apostle doesn't say anything
about you. Other than the fact that you're doing something for
somebody, for somebody. You're acting on behalf of somebody
that sent you, that delegated authority to you to speak or
work on their behalf. And our Lord delegated this authority
to a very unlikely bunch. We really only know what five
of the 12 did before they were apostles. And of those five,
four of them were fishermen and one of them was a tax collector,
a publican, the most despised person on the planet in that
day. All of them uneducated, unrespected,
unqualified by the world's standards. But the scriptures are very clear
about why the Lord does that. It's so that the glory might
all be his. There were several things that
were unique to the apostles of Christ. the reason they're apostles
and that there aren't any now, they were eyewitnesses of Christ
and his ministry, his miracles. John said in 1 John 1 that which
was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have
seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands
have handled of the word of life. For the life was manifested and
we have seen it And bear witness and show unto you that eternal
life which was with the father and was manifested unto us That
which we have seen and heard declare we unto you That you
also may have fellowship with us that you may be in the same
boat we're in because we're in the boat with God almighty I
said it that way so you'd understand what he's saying We want you
to have we want you to be in on this with us. What are you
in on peter? our fellowship is with the father
that's why we want you to have fellowship with us not just so
we'll have a little club going but because we're fellowshipping
with the father and we want you in on that and with his son Jesus
Christ and these things right we unto you that your joy may
be full you see that what we've seen and heard They were all
commissioned and taught the gospel by Christ himself. Even the apostle
Paul, who was made an apostle after the Lord Jesus had died,
said he had seen the Lord as one born out of due time. Christ
appeared unto him and personally commissioned him. He said, I'm
going to make you an apostle to the Gentiles. And he did. Paul was able to say in first
Corinthians 11 23 I have received of the Lord that which also I
delivered unto you. That the Lord Jesus the same
night in which he was betrayed took breath. So the apostles
now what we what we say we receive from the Lord by faith from his
word but they were directly commissioned and gifted That's the next thing. They were given gifts of the
Spirit by Christ. They were able to heal the sick,
they could cast out demons, and they could speak the gospel in
languages that they didn't know. There's some speculation about
this, whether they actually spoke the language itself that they
didn't know, or whether they spoke in the language they knew
and people heard it, because it does say in Acts that they
heard, every man heard it in his own language, and so there
may be an implication there that It wasn't necessarily spoken
in their language. That would sure enough blow this idea of
what they call tongues now out of the water, wouldn't it? It's
blown out of the water anyway, one way or the other. There's
no speaking in tongues now, and here's why. Simple. Now the apostles
were able to lay their hands on others and give them the gifts
of the spirit. That's seen in the scriptures,
but only the apostles were able to do that. There's a man called
Simon in Acts chapter 8 that heard about that and offered
them money. They said, your money perish with you. He wanted that power, you know.
It was an investment to him. He was willing to pay for it
because he was going to make a bunch of money off of it. That's why
our Lord, when he gave his disciples gifts, he said, you've received
this freely, now you freely give. You freely give. You don't go
around charging people. So if if only the Apostles had
the power to transfer those gifts then the Apostles themselves
die and everybody they transferred the gifts to die No more gifts
pretty pretty clear and simple and that's plainly taught in
The Word of God. So if you speaking in tongues
today, you're an imposter It's either you making it up
or the devil It's not of the Lord. It's just plain. I When
the Apostles and the Spirit of God By the Spirit of God, they were
enabled, and those gifts were given to them in the beginning
of the gospel age, in the beginning of the Acts of the Apostles,
and there's clear purpose in that. Listen to Mark 16, 20. They went forth and preached
everywhere, the Lord working with them. Even when he wasn't
with them, he was working with them, and confirming the word
with signs following. Confirming the word. Now that's
key. What does that mean confirming
the word? Well, who's going to listen to a bunch of fishermen
and a publican talk about God? What does a publican know about
God? He's a wretched cheat. And that's all we know about
him. Unless that publican Like Peter and John were able to do
in Acts chapter 3. Peter said, silver and gold have
I none, but such as I have, I'll give you. In the name of Jesus
Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk. Boom, now who's gonna listen
to him? A big old crowd of people, that's
it. Everybody that hears about it. That'll get some attention,
won't it? And also it didn't just get attention, but it gave
authority to those speaking. God must have something to do
with this. And so when the gospel was preached, it was heard. And
that wasn't done, though, to impress people. They weren't
putting on a magic show. In the rest of chapter three,
if you look at it sometime in Acts chapter three, after the
Lord gave them that power to raise that lame man, it says
the apostle preached Christ to them. And there's a lengthy passage
where he preached Christ to them. And 5,000 men believed the gospel
that day. That's why he gave the signs
and miracles. That was the purpose and the
result of the gift of the Spirit. But only the apostles had that
and those to whom it was transferred. Now, why do you listen to me? What does an uneducated Texas
redneck know about God? Well, the reason you listen to
me now is because you have the whole word of God in front of
you. And when I speak, It's according
to his word. It's thus saith the Lord and
you can see that you can verify that. You can confirm that. I'm saying what God said, that's
why. The Apostle Peter again in 2nd Peter 119 said that this
book is more sure, more authoritative, more powerful, more impressive
than the most spectacular of signs and wonders that were ever
seen. Now you read that passage and you tell me if that's not
what he said. He said, we've heard the very
voice of God Almighty, the father from heaven saying, this is my
son and whom I'm well pleased. That's a pretty good sign, isn't
it? That's a pretty, pretty powerful wonder. But then he said this,
we have something way more reliable than that. The scriptures of
God, the prophecy of the scriptures, And he said this, you better
hear what they say. You do well to take heed unto
them as a light shining in a dark place. And he said this in that
same passage, read it sometime, 2 Peter 1, 19 and below that. He said this, just keep on hearing
it until the day star himself shines in your heart. It's a
beautiful passage of scripture. But he's saying this, we've seen
great signs and wonders, but we have something more sure than
even all that. the very Word of God Almighty.
And so that's why we listen now to those who preach the Word.
The apostles had one message. They were unimpressive in themselves.
What was Simon Peter known for? What do you think of when you
think of the Apostle Peter? Well, he denied his Lord. First thing
we think of. That may be wrong to think that
way, Maybe we ought to be thinking about when he said, thou art
the Christ, the son of the living God. But our mind immediately
goes to Peter, impetuous. And we think about him drawing his
sword, you know, and cutting off the server of the high priest's
ear. And our Lord said, put your sword up here. Put up your sword. The cup that my father has given
me, shall I not drink it? We think about Simon at the Mount
of Transfiguration. When again, they saw a wonder
from God that our Lord spoke there and they saw the very glory
of the Lord Jesus Christ shining forth. And Peter answered and
said to Jesus, Master, it is good for us to be here and to
make, let us make three tabernacles, one for thee, one for Moses and
one for Elias. And it says in the next verse,
he said that because he had no idea what to say. Needless to say, that didn't
happen. What did happen is when the Lord opened their eyes back
up after being blinded by his glory in that great cloud covered,
they just saw one person. It was Jesus only. It was Simon
Peter who said, listen to this, from that time forth, Jesus began
to show unto his disciples how that he must go to Jerusalem.
and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and
scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day. Now
this is what all of the Old Testament scriptures, Isaiah 53, he's got
to carry our sorrows. The Lord's got to crush him,
bruised for our iniquities. But Peter began to rebuke him,
saying, Be it far from thee, Lord, this shall not be unto
thee. And the Lord turned unto Peter
and said, Get thee behind me, Satan, for thou art an offense
unto me. Thou savourest not the things
that be of God, but those that be of men. The Lord's chosen were nothing
like the religious reverends that volunteer as preachers of
the word. that don't even know the God
of whom they speak. His apostles didn't wear flowing
robes and walk around, you know, with manicured hands and speak
in religious tones. They didn't have degrees in theology. The one apostle who we know was
very well educated was the Apostle Paul. And he said, I'm not worthy
to be called an apostle. I'm less than the least of all
the saints. We don't know much about many
of the apostles. But when you think of Peter,
you think of those things. What do you think of when you
think of Thomas? Doubting Thomas. No faith. No faith. When you think of Philip, what
do you think of? I thought about this. Philip, in John 14, 8,
said unto the Lord, Show us the Father, and it will suffice us. That'll be all. Just show us
the Father. Let us see the Father. And Jesus
saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, Philip, and
yet you don't know me? He that hath seen me hath seen
the Father. Do you remember how even at the
Last Supper, the disciples, and we talk about examples of this
all morning, but even when they were enjoying that precious final
hour, With our Lord at the Last Supper, it says in Luke 22, 24,
that they began to argue about which one of them would be the
greatest. What are we saying? These chosen
ones were not chosen because of their abilities or their qualifications
or their character. They were chosen so that Christ
would get all of the glory, all of it. Paul said, we have this
treasure in earthen vessels. that the excellency of the power
may be of God and not of us. But look at the context of that
verse. I want you to look at it with me. Second Corinthians
four. I just read Second Corinthians four seven. Look at Second Corinthians
chapter four. Verse six. I'm doing this this is this is
Perhaps one of the most important lessons regarding our text this
morning. We have this treasure we see in his choosing of the
Apostles We have this treasure in earthen vessels and lowly
Imperfect is an understatement flawed Vessels, but look what God's
doing verse 6 for God Who commanded the light To shine out of darkness
What do we say that Peter said there when he was talking about
a more sure word of prophecy He said you best take heed unto
it as a light that shines in a dark place That's the gospel
God who commanded the light to shine out of our to shine out
of darkness has shined in our hearts What does he talk about
shining in our heart? Well verse 7 You see We're going
to finish reading verse 6, but think about this. How does He
shine in our hearts? This more sure word of prophecy,
the gospel. The light of His gospel shines
into our dark hearts and reveals the light of His glory in the
face of His Son. God, who in creative power said,
let there be light, and there was light, is doing that for
sinners this morning. He made the old creation by speaking
his word. And how does he make a new creature
in Christ Jesus? By the power of his word. He
says, let there be light. And light shines in the dark
heart of a wretched sinner. And that terrible wretched sinner
is able to see the glory of God by that light. And God's glory
is a person. The express image of his glory
Paul said in Hebrews 1. But how does he do that? He puts
that treasure in an earthen vessel and he delivers it. By that means, why? So that everybody
who hears it will say, what a God. Not what a preacher. What a God. What grace. What glory in his
face. What love. in the crucified Redeemer. What a wonder. That's the wonder
of wonder. That's the sign of all signs.
That's the miracle of all miracles right there. When God reveals
His Son in us, to us. And so by these means, God makes
His glory known. We see the glory of God in the
face of His Son. And here's how, Romans 10, 13.
Think about that. You're welcome, of course, to
turn to Romans 10, 13. This would be good, probably, to look at.
Romans 10, 13. Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved. When are you going to call on
the Lord? Well, when the light comes on. But how's that gonna
happen? How then shall they call on Him
in whom they've not believed? If you're gonna call on the Lord
Jesus Christ to save you, you've got to believe His precious blood
is powerful enough to save. You've got to believe that by
that, by the Son of God making His soul an offering for sin,
by that offering, God can be satisfied with regard to my sin. The only way sins are remitted
is by blood. We find that out from the Old
Testament. But what blood is going to remit
my sins? The precious blood of God's Lamb.
How am I going to call on Him as my Lamb, as my Redeemer, as
my Savior, unless I believe that He is that One? That He is God
in flesh, that He is the Christ of God. And how am I going to
believe in Him unless I hear about Him? There's the word again. That's why he sent forth his
apostles. To preach the word. How are they going to preach?
Except he sends them. That's what's happening in our
text. And you see what God is accomplishing here. The salvation
of his people. They that call on his name will
be saved. That's what this is all about.
God is making a marriage for his son. He's choosing a bride
for Isaac. He's calling her out. And that
happens by believing, by hearing, by preaching, and all that happens
when God sends somebody to preach. That's what's happening in our
text. And how beautiful are the feet of them that preach the
gospel of peace. The preach that Christ has made
peace with God by the blood of his cross The gospel of peace
that bring and bring glad tidings of good things Good things that's
what our text this morning said out of the heart comes good things
if God puts them in there They're gonna come out if he
gives that heart and puts his goodness there Now there are
no apostles there here now today. There are no apostles. There
were 12 and only 12. But there are things that are
common to everyone that God sends that are common to his apostles
and us. And so that's what we learn from
this also this morning. We're sent. We are sent. He commissioned
his disciples, all of them, as witnesses of himself. ambassadors
of Christ as though God did beseech you by us. Be ye reconciled to
God. So there are things we can also
learn from the Lord's calling of these 12. We see in our text
that the Lord picked them out. That's the first thing we need
to learn. He picked us out. And there's a lot that applies
to that. There's a lot to think about that in that he picked
us out. Paul said, no man that woreth entangleth himself in
the affairs of this life, that he may please him who has chosen
him. So we need to always remember
he has chosen us. He picked us out. This is true
of every believer, every witness of the Lord, all who know him
and are commissioned to be his light in this world. He said
to all of his disciples, you are the light of this world.
He said to his disciples in John 15, 16, you have not chosen me,
but I have chosen you and ordained you that you should go and bring
forth fruit and that your fruit should remain. And it is that's
now that's his apostles, that's his preachers. But also it is
said of all of the Lord's sheep in Second Thessalonians 2, 13,
we are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved
of the Lord, because God has from the beginning Chosen you
so we have that in common with the Apostles don't we? We didn't
choose him he chose us From the beginning to salvation Through sanctification of the
spirit and belief of the truth Blessed be the God and father
of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with with all
spiritual blessings in heavenly places, according as he has chosen
us, picked us out in Christ before the foundation of the world,
that we should be holy and without blame before him in love. That's
the same word right there, picked out. Why did God pick these 12? Why
did he pick you? Why did he pick me? Listen to
the next two verses in Ephesians. Well, I've just read in Ephesians
1 3 that we should be holy and without blame before him and
love having predestinated us Unto the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ to himself According to the good pleasure of his will
that's why Because he wanted to it pleased him Our Lord prayed
father. I thank thee I that thou hast
hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed
them unto babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed
good in thy sight. Is that reason enough? It pleased
him according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of
the glory of his grace. That's also why. So all the glory
would be his. wherein he hath made us accepted
in the beloved. People didn't volunteer to be
apostles. In fact, somebody tried to volunteer
that we know, I bet you there was more than one, but we know
of one that tried to volunteer in Matthew chapter eight. Listen
to this. In Matthew eight, 19, it says a certain scribe came
and said unto him, master, I will follow you whithersoever thou
goest. And Jesus said unto him, wow,
great, come on now. He said, the foxes have holes
and the birds of the air have nests, but the son of man hath
not where to lay his head. You know what he's saying to
that fellow? He said, I'll follow you, will you? He said, no, you
won't. That's exactly what he said. No, you won't. Well, I
want to follow you. No, you don't. You have no idea
what you're talking about. This is not what you think it
is. Next verse, another of his disciples said unto him, Lord,
suffer me first to go bury my father. He's basically saying,
I won't follow you. He said, yes, you will. But Jesus said unto him follow
me and let the dead bury their dead So you have one making excuses
and the Lord said Come on the other one volunteering
and the Lord said he shut him down and he shut him down Now the Lord's people are willing
in the day of his power. Psalm 110 3. He makes us willing
in the day of his power. He changes our won't to that.
But we are willing to choose him because he first willed to
choose us. He said, I'll have mercy on whom
I will have mercy. Paul said in Romans 1 one Paul,
a servant of Jesus Christ, Called to be an apostle. This is the
next thing. He chose them and he called them.
Called to be an apostle, separated into the gospel of God. We know
that's true of every believer. We know that all things work
together for good to them that love God, to those who are called
according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he
also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that
he might be the firstborn among many brethren. And moreover,
whom he did predestinate, them he also called. And whom he called,
them he also justified, and whom he justified, them he also glorified.
He chose, he called. We said a while ago that the
apostles were given special power. Listen to it in Matthew 10, his
version of it. And when he had called unto him
his 12 disciples, he gave them power against unclean spirits
to cast them out and to heal all manner of sickness and all
manner of disease. Has he given us power? When he gave the great commission,
which is our commission, He said in Matthew 28, 18, And Jesus
came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in
heaven and earth. Go ye, therefore, and teach all
nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the
Son and of the Holy Ghost. Does God cast out demons today
by the power of his gospel? Does He overcome the evil of
the human heart? Does the stronger come yet and
cast out the strong man and bind him and live within sinners? We have authority from Him. His
authority. And His gospel is preached in
power. Paul said, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. For
it's the power of God unto salvation. What greater miracle is there
than that? Would you rather have the power to heal sick people?
Or would you rather have the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ
that's able to save the soul? Do we realize what we have? The power of God unto salvation. to everyone that believeth. Listen
to Mark 3.14, he ordained twelve, this is another thing, and I'll
have to be brief, but listen. What do we have in common with
the apostles? Mark 3.14, and he ordained twelve, that they
should be with him, and that he might send them forth
to preach. Now I like the way this is worded. He ordained twelve that they
should be with Him. Are we with Him? And think about the sense in
which He's saying this. With Him in the ministry. With Him in the preaching of
the gospel. With Him in this business of
the saving of his people. Do we have any idea what it is
to be in on that with him? I just read to you a moment ago,
Matthew 28, 18. He said, All power is given unto
me in heaven and earth. Go ye therefore and teach all
nations baptizing. Let me read the next verse now.
teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded
you." So he sent us, what for? To teach. To teach what? What he taught us. What we've
seen and heard. We're a lot like apostles, aren't
we? Only I'd much rather have this power than the powers they had. Of
course they had that too, right? That's just a picture. Casting
out demons is just a picture of what God does when he saves
a sinner. What a great blessing it is to
be with him in this. Now listen to what he said. Teaching them to observe all
things whatsoever I have commanded you and lo, I am with you. Always. Even until the end of the world. Now we're with Him in the sense
that we're in on the ministry. We're with Him in this thing.
And bless God He's with us in the sense that I don't want to
go anywhere or do anything or say anything. I don't even want
to think a thought without Him with me. Do you? Bless God, He's with us. We're sent, we're sent with orders.
What are our orders? Go ye and teach. Teach what?
All things, all things whatsoever I have commanded you. Paul said,
I've not shunned to declare unto you the whole counsel of God.
Even the parts people don't like, especially those parts. That
God is sovereign. That Christ is sovereign. He
saves whom he will. That his precious sin-atoning
blood is effectual. That just means he gets the job
done. That means if he died for you, then you can say with Paul,
I'm uncondemnable. I'm holy. I'm guiltless before
God. Because it is Christ that died. Not because Christ died
and I did something. Not because Christ died and left
it up to me and I was up to the, you know, I measured up. Because
Christ died, I'm without sin. All things, the whole counsel
of God. Well, Paul, you say you preach
the whole counsel of God. Saul of Tarsus, now Paul, I'll
call you Paul. That's what you go by now, Paul.
You say you preach everything that God ever said. How would
you characterize that? What do you pray? Christ and
Him crucified. The whole counsel of God. I've not shunned to declare unto
you the whole counsel of God. Take heed therefore unto yourselves
and to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you
overseers. to feed the church of God. I fed you with everything. You
can't live by bread. Now you can only live, truly
live, by every word that proceeds out of God's mouth. And Paul
said, that's what I've given you. Now you take heed that you
feed his sheep the same way. Feed the church of God, which
he hath purchased with his own blood. For I know this, that
after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not
sparing the flock, also of your own self shall men arise, speaking
perverse things to draw away disciples after them. Therefore
watch and remember that by the space of three years, I ceased
not to warn everyone, night and day with tears. And now brethren,
I commend you to God and to the word of his word. the word of his grace which is
able to build you up and to give you an inheritance among all
them which are sanctified. The word of his grace is the
word that concerns his son Jesus Christ and his perfect, successful,
victorious redemption. for sinners. Our message is for
those who are purchased with the very blood of God. That's
who we're preaching to. What is our message? That he's
purchased you with his blood. If you're his, you're his because
you're bought. You're redeemed. And as Paul said there in verse
32, the word of his grace. Our message is that God saves
sinners by grace. freely, just because he wants
to, like we read a while ago. Through faith in the Lord Jesus
Christ and his precious sin-cleansing blood. He didn't pave a way for his
people with his blood. He purchased them with it. That's
what Paul said. He purchased them with it. Redemption
is the purchasing of freedom for a slave, freedom for a captive. Hebrews 9, 12, neither by the
blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in
once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for
us. It's finished. Let's pray.