Our text will be Acts 13, verses
4-13. The work which God has given into
my hands as your pastor is God's work. This work He's given into your
hands as His witnesses. is God's work. God will soon
discover to us that He's given us a work to do and a responsibility
but that He alone is the one who will accomplish this work.
And He'll make that known to us through enemies which He has
foreordained that we face. And we'll face some who appear
so full of light that if it were possible they would deceive even
the very elect of God. Yet God will expose them to be
enemies of the righteousness of God, and He'll conquer them
before us. There'll be times when some within
this group right here, will depart from us and break
our hearts. But God will use those things
to reveal to me, as your pastor, and to you, His witnesses, that
this is His work. He'll do it to teach us not to
fear man, nor depend upon man, but that He alone is worthy to
be depended upon. Our strength is the grace of
our God alone. Secondly, by God's grace and
power, we have here one responsibility. One. Hear me now. One responsibility. And it is this. From this church,
in this place, And us individually, everywhere that we go into this
world on a day-to-day basis, our one responsibility is to
be witnesses of our God and who He is. He's holy. He is good. He is righteous. He is just. He is merciful. He's long-suffering. and we're
to be witnesses of the fact that all flesh is grass, that we cannot
of ourselves do one thing to please Him. And we do that by
simply bearing witness to what our God graciously and mercifully
did for us in Christ Jesus. We just sing that song. I love
to tell the story. Do we? Do we? All that we're
sent to do in this world is to tell the story. And the only
story I can tell is what He did for me. The only story you can
tell is what He did for you. That's the story we're sent to
tell. That's our responsibility. Not to bear witness of man. Not
to bear witness of what man ought to be doing or ought not to be
doing. That genders to pride in men. Makes them feel like
they've either done it or hadn't done it. We're to tell men that
they can't do anything to please God, and God alone saves. That's our message. And then,
through the simple declaration of this truth, we will behold
God's grace as He exposes and conquers our enemies, which are
far too cunning and far too powerful for you and me to overcome. And
with the same gospel, As He does that to His enemies and to our
enemies, He will amaze us as He conquers the hearts of His
elect, those He's everlastingly loved, and draws them to Himself
in loving kindness and mercy and reveals Christ in them. Through
the same Word, He'll do that. The title of the message tonight
is Astonishing Doctrine. Astonishing Doctrine. The title's
taken from our text in Acts 13, verse 12. It says, Then the deputy,
when he saw what was done, believed, being astonished at the doctrine
of the Lord. Doctrine is teaching. That's
what the word means, is teaching. All teaching is taught by the
Lord, by God Himself, in the heart He has created. Everything
else is just men throwing up at the mouth. That's all it is. What God's taught and what God
reveals in the heart and what comes forth by God's grace, He
teaches in the heart. No man's saved unless God teaches
us in the heart. This is what the Lord Jesus Christ
said. No man can come to Me Except
the father which had sent me draw him and I will raise him
up at the last day It is written in the prophets. He quoted scripture
the scripture he gave the Prophets he raised up and gave this work. He quoted them and this is what
he said. They shall be all taught of God all his people shall be
taught of God and And every man therefore that hath heard, being
taught by God in the heart, and hath learned of the Father, being
taught of the Father, and learned of the Father, that's what he
teaches about himself, cometh unto me. It's not guesswork. They do. They do. Our God teaches all His people
in this world through His Son, through His Word, through His
mighty dealings with His people. And He teaches us that we're
ungodly, vile sinners. He teaches us He's holy and that
He saves in a holy manner. He teaches us that He's so powerful
that He can use a believer. and send forth this Word, and
yet because the power is all His, nothing can be attributed
to the person who goes and preaches His Word. It has to be attributed
to Him. And one of the most amazing things, astonishing things about
this doctrine is when He reveals it in our heart, we behold, it
was right here all the time in His Word, and we never saw it. But then he shows it to us and
it's so clear and so plain. We're going to see in this text
an enemy of God that's blinded. We're going to see a vessel of
God's mercy that's saved. We're going to see a minister
of God who's going to disappoint Paul and Barnabas. But the ones who are being taught
in this text we're going to look at tonight is Paul and Barnabas. This was the first missionary
journey they went on. And the first thing they have
to be taught is the first thing you and me have to be taught
as we set out on this work God's given us. There are three things. Here they are. This is our divisions
for tonight. This is God's work. This is God's
work. We're not sufficient to accomplish
it and he'll receive all the glory for accomplishing it. This
is God's work. Secondly, our one response responsibility
is simply to declare to proclaim to be witnesses of the absolute
sovereignty of God in saving totally helpless sinners through
Jesus Christ his son That's our one message our one responsibility
in this world. It's not to reform people It's
not to make people more moral. It's not to it's not to be the Red Cross of this world.
That's not what our job is. Our job is to preach this message.
Preach this message. And through this message, thirdly,
God will conquer His enemies and ours, and He'll save His
people from their sins through this one way, through this preaching
of His Word. Now, let's see it. The Lord's
teaching is astonishing to the heart of a saint because He reveals
that this work is all His work. Now, let me remind you something
before we look at this text. It's important to remember, as
we study the book of Acts, that Luke, who's penning these words
through the Holy Spirit, by the Holy Spirit, is writing these
words in the past tense. This is the astonishing doctrine
that the Lord revealed in the heart of the Apostle Paul. This
is the astonishing grace, amazing grace which the Lord revealed
in the heart of Barnabas. This is the amazing, astonishing
doctrine that the Lord taught in the heart of Luke who penned
these words. And though men are sent forth
to preach, the work is all to the praise of the glory of the
triune God. And we find it right here beginning
in our text, Acts 13, verse 4. So they being sent forth by the
Holy Ghost, departed unto Seleucia, and from thence they sailed to
Cyprus." Here's what Paul and Barnabas learned, what Luke knew
and what we need to understand. God accomplishes His work in
this world by the Holy Ghost. This word, forth, is important. It's important. It means everywhere
they went, they went by the Holy Ghost. They headed out 15 to
25 miles west of where they were in the church at Antioch to the
seaport of Seleucia by the Holy Ghost. From thence they sailed
to Cyprus by the Holy Ghost. You'll pick up a commentary,
you'll pick up a historian's work, and you'll read, well,
Barnabas was from Cyprus originally, and so, more than likely, that
had some influence on their decision on where they would go and how
they would get to Cyprus, and so they decided through all that
that that's where they'd go first, is to Cyprus. Let me tell you
something. This Word is God's Word. If God
had wanted you to know all that, He'd have put it here. What God
does is He cuts to the heart of the matter in His Word and
tells us what is the most important thing to know. They went there
by the Holy Ghost. That's why they went there. Acts
13.5 says, When they were at Salamis, they preached the word
of God in the synagogues of the Jews, and they had also John
to their minister. They were sent forth to Salamis
by the Holy Ghost. They were sent forth and given
power to preach the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews
by the Holy Ghost. And they had also John Mark to
minister. I want to save a comment on this until the end. This one
phrase, this one fact that they had John Mark with them, pretty
much sums up the whole message of what's recorded here, of what
they learned. And I'll show you when we get to the end. Acts
13, 6. And when they had gone through
the isle unto Paphos, they found a certain sorcerer, a false prophet,
a Jew, whose name was Bar-Jesus. Barnabas and Paul went through
the whole island of Cyprus, 170 miles from Salamis all the way
to Paphos, and there they found a certain sorcerer by the Holy
Ghost. By the Holy Ghost. Get this first
point. The work which you and I are
given is God's work. It is entrusted to His Son to
whom all power is given. who works this in his people
by the Holy Ghost. We can no more glory in this
work than we can glory in our election and our justification,
our sanctification, our resurrection, or our final entrance into glory. We can't glory in this work any
more than those things. This is his work. The responsibility given to us
as believers is to simply preach, witness, declare, proclaim the
Word of God. Acts 13, 5. When they were at
Salamis, they preached the Word of God in the synagogues of the
Jews. This word preached is important.
Paul and Barnabas did not present a doctrine as if it were a concept. They didn't present a doctrine
as if it was a system to be accepted or rejected by the opinions of
men. That's not what they did. They
declared. They proclaimed. They preached. They did not debate. They did
not throw out ideas for folks to bounce back and forth and
come to some compromising agreement upon. And neither do I. Neither
do I. God's messengers do not depend
upon the people to whom they preach to convince them or to
give credibility to what they preach. They simply declare,
proclaim, set forth what they know by the revelation of God
himself and they do so convinced by God and taught by God. The spirit of Christ is in his
preachers and this is what they said of Christ. The Spirit of
Christ is in His preachers. And this is what they said of
Christ. Then came the officers to the chief priests and Pharisees.
They went out with weapons and permission from the chief priests
and the Pharisees to arrest Him and to bring Him back. And they
got there to where He was and they heard Him speak. And their
weapons just didn't seem to be of any value to them. And their commission sent from
the Pharisees and the scribes didn't seem to be of any help
to them whatsoever. And they came back and the Pharisees
and the scribes said, why have you not brought him? And they
said, never man speak like this man. He don't speak like you scribes
and Pharisees do. You speak to try to please men.
You speak so as not to offend anybody. You speak as to put
salvation in the hands of men. This man speaks as God. He speaks a word the Word as
if He's God, because He is. And that's how His messengers
preach. They went forth declaring His Word. The first Word that
this one preached was that God saves by sovereign election.
He said He passed by many widows and He passed by many lepers
to come to a certain widow and a certain leper. That's what
we preach. I have endeavored from the first
day I met you to tell you God saves sovereignly, powerfully,
by electing certain particular sinners that He's chosen by His
choice alone, because He has the right to do it, and put them
in Christ. I've tried to declare to you
that no man can come to Him, which is what He said, except
God Almighty, Christ the Lord, through the Holy Spirit, draw
him. As He told Nicodemus, a man must be born of the Spirit of
God. And when he's born of the Spirit
of God, God puts a willingness in him and a will to come to
God, and he can't do anything else. He's got to cast himself
on Christ's mercy. And unless God gives us that
heart, we won't do it. I've declared to you what He
declared to you. He came to do His Father's will. He never spoke of His own will.
He never said He came to do His own will. He said, I came to
do My Father's will. So why do puny, helpless, self-serving
men want to boast about their own will, when the very God of
God, the Son of God, Christ Jesus the Lord, never once boasted
of His own will? And he fulfilled God's will.
He fulfilled God's will. And a man must obey His will
in thought, word, and deed. And he did it. He said, Whosoever
looks on a woman to lust after hath committed adultery with
her already in his heart. It's the heart. And this man,
the God-man, Christ the Lord, was holy in the heart from conception
to the cross. And by dying, he spoke as never
a man spoke because he died the just in the place of the unjust.
And that he might declare God just and justifier of all who
believe in this man Jesus Christ. That means God's just and God's
the justifier. That can't mean your faith justified
you. That means God gave you faith
to behold that Christ justified you. That God justified you in
Christ Jesus. And that is how you're justified
through faith, is by beholding the justified. Paul and Barnabas
spoke by the Spirit of Christ even as they were sent forth
by the Holy Spirit and they left no man room to glory save in
the cross of Christ Jesus the Lord. That's preaching the gospel.
We have to preach that message. And then thirdly, Paul and Barnabas
were made to see, and by God's grace, his saints are made to
see that God conquers his enemies and ours, as well as saves his
people from their sins through this simple declaration of his
son. And if he saves us this way, he justifies us this way,
He sanctifies us this way. He mortifies us this way. He
keeps us this way. He preserves us this way. And
He brings us to glory this way. It's by beholding Him whom Paul
said to the Corinthians, shall confirm you unto the end. God is faithful by whom you were
called unto the faith of Jesus Christ. He does it. And that's
what we behold. He conquers our enemies and He
calls out His sheep by this word. Let's see this. Acts 13, verse
6. When they had gone through the
Isle of Paphos, they found a certain sorcerer, a false prophet, a
Jew whose name was Bar-Jesus. I'm going to make a statement
to you that some of you might find to be strange. I've told you before that when
we look in Scripture and we come to places where the Lord enacts
here, where the Lord says He came to a certain man and He
saved him. That was a certain man that God ordained to save
before the foundation of the world. This sorcerer right here
is a certain sorcerer. He's a man fitted to destruction
by God Almighty, put right where He's put for one purpose, and
that's to reveal in His vessels of mercy His long-suffering to
save them for putting up with such a maggot as this man. It's
made to show His power in putting down all His enemies. And it's
made to show His power in His distinguishing grace in saving
them and passing by men that they're just like. Let me show
you that. Romans 9. Romans 9. Verse 17. For the Scripture saith unto
Pharaoh, God says to Pharaoh, even for this same purpose have
I raised thee up. This is why. That I might show
my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout
all the earth. Therefore, he hath mercy on whom
he will have mercy, and whom he will, he hardeneth. Thou wilt
say then unto me, is this what you're thinking? Well, if God
does that, Why does he find fault then? If God has mercy on whom
he will and salvation is based on mercy and he leaves whom he
will to themselves and hardens them in their sin, how can he
find fault with anybody? Here's the answer. Nay, but O
man, who are you to reply against God? Only a sinner that's been brought
into subjection by his power can say, I'm nobody to reply
against him. Now listen, shall the thing formed,
the thing that's formed by God, you and me, shall we say to him
that formed us, why hast thou made me thus? Has not the potter
power over the clay of the same lump to make one vessel into
honor and another into dishonor? If you're making clay pot, is
it not in your hands to make one vessel like you want to make
it and to make another vessel like you want to make it? Well,
can not God of all the earth who created heaven and earth
do the same thing? What if God, willing to show His wrath? Here's
why He raised up Pharaoh. Willing to show His wrath. And
to make His power known. Endured with much longsuffering,
the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction are made up to be
destroyed. Who made them? He did. Who raised
up Pharaoh? He said, I did. Even for this
same reason have I raised him up. That I might make my power
known. How are you going to know His power unless He raises up
somebody and passes by them and reveals to you, you're just like
them? But I've saved you because my grace is free and I do with
my own what I will. That makes us behold and realize
He's God. We are nothing and we have to
cast our mercy, our care upon Him, on His mercy. And he said,
and I do that, and I do it for this reason, verse 23, that he
might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy
which he had aforeprepared unto glory. Those that he prepared
before unto glory. He did this to Pharaoh so that
he might make his grace magnified. become precious and rich and
glorious in the face of those that he was gracious to and that
he saved. Somebody says, why was he gracious
to me? And he passed by somebody else. Because he can. Because He will. Because His grace is free. Because
there's nothing in you and nothing in them to make Him choose one
and pass by another. He chooses whom He will and has
mercy on whom He will and He hardens whom He will. That's
God. That's who He is. Now, let's
go back to our text. They went through this isle.
They came to this certain sorcerer. He was put there for this purpose.
Very purpose. He's teaching Paul and Barnabas
something. First thing they came to. It doesn't say they found
Sergius Paulus, who's a vessel of mercy. It doesn't say they
found him. It says they found this sorcerer. He's the first
one they came to. God's teaching them something.
Teaching them this is His Word. Teaching them all they're going
to do is preach the Word and that He's going to separate the
wheat from the chaff. He'll do it. The enemy of the believer is
far too subtle and powerful for us, but not for our God. This
man was a sorcerer. The word is he was a M-A-G-U-S,
a Magus. It's the title that was given
to this man. That's what sorcerer means. Now, what do you think
of when you think of sorcerer? You think of Hocus Pocus, don't
you? You think of Houdini and some
fortune teller and some magician, don't you? This was a title given
to those considered by the people as not just a magician, but as
being a wise man. A wise man. The three wise men
who went and saw the star in the sky and went, this title
was what they went by. It was given to teachers. It
was given to priests. It was given to astrologers.
It was given to physicians. And this man, according to the
historians, was a physician. This man was considered as somebody
you could go to, and whether he had a medicine or whatever
it was he did, people said, this man can heal you. He works miracles
in medicine. And he was called a sorcerer.
Truth was, he was a false prophet. But that tells us people considered
him wise in matters pertaining to God's Word and eternal salvation.
He presented himself as a spokesman for God. He was a Jew, a natural
descendant of Abraham, of Judea. This man was known in the synagogue
as a native Jew. And his name even sounded reverent.
His name was Bar-Jesus, which means Son of the Savior. That
was his name. Verse 8 tells us that his name,
by interpretation, was Elamos, which means wise man. And this man was with, verse
7, he was with the deputy of the country, Sergius Paulus,
who was a prudent man, who called for Barnabas and Saul and desired
to hear the word of God. He was with the deputy of the
country. To Paul and Barnabas, Eleamus and Sergius Paulus were
both alike by all natural appearances. They were just alike. No difference
in these men whatsoever. Sergius Paulus was a Gentile.
He was a Roman governor over the country of Cyprus. That's
what this word deputy means. He was a man of authority with
great power and influence. Sergius Paulus was a prudent
man. That means he was a very intelligent man. He was a wise
man. He was a learned man. And Eliamus
was with the governor because the governor was just the kind
of fella that false prophets love to join themselves with.
Sergius Paulus gave Eliamus credibility before the people because he's
the governor. If the governor trusts this man,
well, we can trust this man. He gave Elamis credibility, not
to mention money, money. And when it says that Sergius
Paulus called for Barnabas and Saul and desired to hear the
Word of God, this word means two things. It means two things.
One, he had a liberal, curious mind. He was intrigued and challenged
by new doctrine. We find this in Acts 17. Look
there. Acts 17, verse 19. This is what
it means on one hand. Paul and brought him unto Areopagus,
saying, May we know what this new doctrine whereof thou speakest
is? For thou bringest certain strange
things to our ears. We would know therefore what
these things mean. For all the Athenians and strangers
which were there spent their time in nothing else but either
to tell or to hear some new thing." So on one hand, he was just curious
to hear something that challenged him. He was a prudent man, an
intellectual man. Secondly by God's grace in his
heart of hearts in his heart of hearts by the grace of God
He was still not satisfied with the truth. He had discovered.
He was still trying to find out the truth He still wasn't convinced
even though he was a prudent man even though he was a studied
man even though he was a studious man intellectual man though he
he he made it his business to find out the when somebody was
preaching something he had never heard before. He wanted to find
out about it, do everything he could to study about it. But
in his heart of hearts he knew he wasn't satisfied with what
he had learned yet. He was not satisfied. It hadn't
brought him peace, it hadn't brought him comfort, it hadn't
brought him assurance. He just wasn't satisfied with
what he heard. And so he sent for Paul and Barnabas. The Lord said, Who is wise, and
he shall understand these things, prudent, and he shall know them.
For the ways of the Lord are right, and the just shall walk
in them, but the transgressors shall fall therein. He, on one
hand, just was curious, intellectual, liberal. On the other hand, he
was seeking the truth. The man wanted to know something.
He wasn't satisfied with what he knew. But here's the point. Here's the point. From the description
of Sergius being a wise and learned man, we can safely conclude that
this Eleamus was no dummy. He wasn't a dummy. He was not
a man regarded as some fanatic, some obvious huckster with a
pitchfork and a forked tail. He was one who appeared to be
speaking for God, using God's word, the law and the prophets,
a man whose works appeared impressive to the carnal eye of religion,
a man considered by all the people, even the governor, as a wise
and godly man. And both men, even Sergius Paulus,
with all his prudence and with all his wisdom, could not figure
out God. These men were with each other.
They were walking together in agreement with one another. They
were alike, lost before God, though they both thought themselves
wise. and though everybody around them
thought the same thing about him. And nor by carnal wisdom, nor
by just fleshly wisdom, nor by just the carnal eye, the fleshly
eye, could Paul and Barnabas discern which of these men, if
either of these men, knew the Lord. The Lord said this, Beware
of false prophets. which come to you in sheep's
clothing." Look just like a sheep, look like one of the Lord's people.
But inwardly are ravening wolves. Paul, in the beginning of his
ministry here, he's in the beginning of his ministry here. But when
he wrote to the Corinthian church, he had encountered Elamus and
others just like him. And this is how he described
them and their methods. Look over to 2 Corinthians 11.
This is how he described Elamus and others just like him. 2 Corinthians 11, verse 13. For such are false apostles,
deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles
of Christ. And no marvel, for Satan himself
is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it's no great
thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers
of righteousness, whose end shall be according to their works.
The Lord Jesus Christ said, there shall arise false Christ and
false prophets and shall show great signs and wonders, insomuch
that if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.
But through the simple declaration of the gospel of Christ, God
exposes the enemies of righteousness and he teaches his elect how
amazing his grace is. Now listen. So they're sent forth
by the Holy Ghost. And they did what they were sent
forth to do. They declared the Word of God before these men,
before both these men. They preached the Gospel to both
these men. They were together, these men
were. And it says, verse 8, But Elamus the sorcerer, for so his
name is by interpretation, withstood them, seeking to turn away the
deputy from the faith. You see, I'll tell you what's
going to make Scripture says, there must needs be heresies
that they which are approved may be made manifest. And I'll
tell you what makes these heresies come about. Preaching Christ
and Him crucified. That's it. That's it. When Eliamus
beheld that his sugar daddy was paying attention to this man,
Eliamus thought, my credibility is at stake. If he bows to Christ
the Lord, I'm going to lose everything that I've accomplished. I'm going
to lose my power. I'm going to lose my influence.
I'm going to lose the way people look at me as being wise. I'm
going to lose my money. I'm going to lose my life of
ease. and endeavoring to save his life
in this world, he would do whatever it took to keep Sergius Paulus
from believing Christ Jesus the Lord. The word there that says,
turn away, means he sought a way to go against the saving purpose
and power of God. That's what he sought to do.
Sergius Paulus had two things against him. He had two things
against him. He had a mind tossed to and fro
by every wind of doctrine. He was an intellectual. This
thing was a doctrine to him. The Word of God was a letter
to him. It was a system, a theology to
him. It was five points of Calvinism
to him. It was not Christ Jesus the Lord
to him. It was not. And the second thing
he had against him was he had a false prophet using him and
teaching him and turning him and doing everything he could
to prevent him from bowing to God Almighty. And you know what
you and I have against us by nature? The very same thing. We in ourselves are that false
prophet who says, you don't really believe that, do you? You don't
really believe that, do you? If you believe that, you're going
to have to give up your life of ease. You're going to have
to confess your sin. You're going to have to admit
what you are. You're going to have to bow to Christ the Lord and
submit to Him. You don't want to do that, do
you? Just look at what all you've learned. Look at this wall and
that wall and this wall. Man, you've read every one of
those books. What have you learned? That's the wisdom you've obtained.
You don't want to give that up. You don't want to become a fool
for Christ. You don't want to confess that
you don't know anything, do you? You don't want to confess that
Christ is your wisdom. You don't want to confess that
by seeking a man can't find out God. You don't want to confess
that there's none that seeketh after God. There's none that
knows Him. There's none that seeks His will and His purpose
and His grace. You don't want to admit that,
do you? That's what this flesh in us says to each of us. That's
what Eliama said to him. That's what those who hate Christ
say to you. That's what those who hate God
say to you. this flesh within us and those
all around us say, you don't want to really believe that,
do you? You don't really want to believe that, do you? And
now we begin to see what Paul and Barnabas learned once again.
That God's all-powerful to save His people from all our enemies,
from all our sins, from all our so-called intellectualism through
the declaration of the singular message of Christ and Him crucified.
And it's by the Word of God, the message of God's righteousness
revealed by the fidelity of His Son, that the enemies of Christ
are exposed as they object and reveal what their
hearts are. we see by these two lost men,
Eliamus and Sergius Paulus, it's not the title or the banner that
a man goes by that marks the voice of a thief to the believer. It's not the title or banner
a man goes by. Folks think that Armenians that
go by the title Armenians, or folks that believe Christ died
for everybody, that it's up to the free will of man, that it's
man's will, man's work, and all that, and that's Armenian. But
a man that's a Reformed Baptist that's telling you that you're
sanctified by the law, by your obedience, by what you do or
don't do, that that's your sanctification, that's something different. That's
something different. That man's not an Armenian. Listen
to me. There's a thousand different
titles for the same lie. There's a thousand different
titles men have come up with to try to distinguish themselves
and exalt themselves over another, and it's all the same lie. There is Cain who came to God
with his crops that he grew by his own works, and there's Abel
who came in the blood of a lamb. There is no other gospel. That's
it. That's all the religions in this
world, every one of them that's ever been throughout every age
and all time. It's either man or it's God. It's either man did something,
man aided in some way, man helped out in some way. If you put your
finger on the scale of God's holy justice, you've polluted
it. and I've polluted it. This thing
is 100% God, or it's nothing. That's how it is. That's how
it is. And these men right here revealed
to us that it's not a title. It doesn't matter if you're the
governor, or if you're a sorcerer, or if you're a Jew, or if you
go by the title of a wise man, or you go by the title of the
son of the Savior. It doesn't matter what your title
is. The fact of the matter is, what separates and is a discerner
of the thoughts and intents of the heart is, preach the Gospel. Preach Christ. You'll find out
real quick. You'll find out real quick. A thousand different titles
will line up over here against you. All those that hate the
Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Scribes, the Sanhedrin, the intellectuals,
the liberals, the conservatives, the Democrats, the Republicans.
It don't matter who they are. Americans, Europeans, blacks,
whites, men, women. It don't matter what title you
give yourself to try to exalt ourselves above one another.
Preach Christ and find out the whole world will line up and
join hands together in agreement against Him. Against Him. Let's see what happened. Verse
9, Then Saul, who also is called Paul, filled with the Holy Ghost,
set his eyes on him and said, O full of all subtlety and all
mischief, thou child of the devil, thou enemy of all righteousness,
wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord? Now,
this is what happens through the preaching of the Gospel.
Now, it's true Paul was given power by the Holy Ghost to literally
set his eyes on this man and to do in this man what's said
right here. He literally did this to this
man. But God does this today, right now, to His hearers, to
the hearers of the Gospel whenever Christ is preached. He does this
right now to the enemies of Christ. in this day and time. This is
a literal example of what happens spiritually when the Gospel is
preached. Listen, Paul filled with the
Holy Ghost. That's the only way a man can
preach the Gospel. He's got to be filled with the Spirit of
God or he can't say a word. Through the Word, through the
Gospel, the eye of God, represented here by the eye of the preacher,
pierces to the heart of those who are his enemies, just like
Paul set his eyes on this man. When a man preaches, I mean,
I can't tell you how many times I've sat in a congregation and
heard my pastor preach and said, he's preaching directly to me. He has found me out. He's preaching to me. He's preaching
to me. When God sends forth His Word,
it's going to accomplish the thing whereunto He sent it. And
it's got a two-fold purpose. It's a saver of death unto death
unto some. And it's a saver of life unto
life unto others. And right here we're dealing
with those who it's a saver of death unto death to. The verdict
is sent forth to the heart by God. And He says to you in the
heart, the enemies of Christ, He says, you're full of subtlety
and you're full of mischief. That word means easiness. You
just take lightly these things, and you know it. God goes to
the heart with His Word, and that's what He says in the heart
of His enemy. He says, you're a child of the devil. He went
by the name Bar-Jesus, Son of the Savior. But the Word comes
to the heart and says, you're Bar-Satan. You're Bar-Devil. You're the son of the devil. and the accuser of the brethren.
You use God's Word to point out the faults of men. You use the
law to accuse God's sheep of unlawfulness. The Pharisees,
what did they do? They watched to see if the Lord
would break the Sabbath. They said He eats with publicans
and sinners. They waited to see if they could
entangle Him in His Word. They said, your disciples don't
wash their hands like we do. So what? So what? If you wash your hands or you
don't wash your hands, does that make you holy? God said, it's
what comes out of your heart that defiles you. It's way deeper
than your hands. The Mississippi River starts
way back up there where a man can stand and straddle it. He
can take his hand and turn it whichever way he wants to turn
it. That's where God starts with the gospel, is in the heart.
Religion goes down to the Gulf of Mexico where it's just wide
and broad and tries to turn it down there. You can't damn it
up down there. You can't turn it down there.
You can't look at the hands and the eyes and the flesh and all
these things and expect you're going to turn a man by giving
him laws and regulations and rules. You can't do it. It's got to be the preaching
of Christ whereby God goes right to where the fountain is, and
that's the heart. Well, let's see what happens.
Now behold, the hand of the Lord is upon thee, verse 11, and thou
shalt be blind, not seeing the sun for a season. And immediately
there fell on him a mist and a darkness, and he went about
seeking some to lead him by the hand." What Paul did to this
man, what he did to this man is what the Lord said he was
going to do in the nation of Israel when he sent Isaiah forth
to preach. We're going to look at this here
pretty soon, end of Isaiah 6. This is what John said about
that, Isaiah 6. He said, God hath blinded their
eyes and hardened their heart that they should not see with
their eyes nor understand with their heart and be converted
and be healed by God. To one, this message comes across
as giving God all the glory. And when it does, to one who
is an enemy of God, he says, I will not bow to that. That
sounds like death to me. And I reject it. I don't think
that's who God is. And God says, I'll leave you
right there. I'll harden you and leave you
right there. And you shall not know me for
a season. And that season's the rest of
your life. He does that to some. It's a
savor of death when they hear it. And by God, it's a savor
unto reprobation. He says, you ain't gonna hear
it. You're not gonna hear it. Reject me, you won't hear it. But to others, but to others,
Something happens. Verse 12. Then the deputy, when
he saw what was done, believed, being astonished at the doctrine
of the Lord. By God's grace, this is the other
result that happens. Every time this word is preached,
every time this two-fold thing happens, by God's purpose in
grace, this happens. Two separate results occurred
when Paul preached the same message. Two separate results occurred.
One man was blinded. He went away trusted in men to
lead him. That's what some men do. They
say, I'm not going to hear that message. I'm going to go. I know
who God is. I'm going to go back to my church
where I hear a man tell me what I ought to do and ought not to
do. You know what he is? He's blind, trusting man to lead him.
He's looking to man to lead him. Blind leading the blind. But
the other thing that happens, the deputy saw something. He saw. He saw. How did he see? How did he see? How did he see? When they brought that blind
man, who was once blind in sin, and Christ gave him sight, they
brought him into the synagogue, he said this, one thing I know,
this is one thing I know, this is all I can really tell you.
You can question me and quiz me and ask me about... One thing
I do know is this. I was blind. And now I see. I see. I see. And here's what
he saw. He saw two men, Paul and Barnabas,
men just like him who did nothing more than preach that Christ
is all and that sinners must cast their souls upon Him or
perish. That's what he saw. He saw himself
exactly like Eleamus, a sorcerer, a false prophet, prudent but
ignorant in his self-described wisdom. He said he saw himself
just like Eleamus. He saw that the distinguishing
grace of God passed by Eleamus, left him in his blindness, and
yet gave him sight. And he beheld this grace is particular. This grace is sin and power to
somebody. God saves whom He will. He could
have left me in my blindness. I deserve to be just like that
man. And yet He came to me and gave
me this sight. And He saw by experiencing the
power of sovereign grace that He abhorred His flesh. He
abhorred all His religious experiences, all His professions, all His
works in His flesh. And He renounced them as dung
Because God's sovereign hand turned him. And until a man has
been turned by God's sovereign hand, he won't renounce those
things because those things are the product of his flesh. And
man by nature pre-eminently loves his flesh. And he won't let those
things go. But when God turns him, he turns
him. And he saw all this when he saw Christ Jesus. He saw Christ,
just like Isaiah last week we saw. He said, I saw the Lord
high and lifted up. I saw His glory fills the heaven
and earth. I heard the holy ones sing, holy,
holy, holy. They covered their eyes. They
covered their face. They covered their feet. And
He said, I'm undone. I'm cut off. And I dwell, everybody,
all mankind's undone. And all mankind are sinners.
And this is what this man saw. And he believed. He believed
this. He believed what he heard by
God's grace. He believed God. He believed
this is God. And I believe Him. I trust Him.
I have to trust Him or I'm going to perish. I have to trust Him. And he was astonished at the
teaching of the Lord. That tells us... You know what
that tells us? He wasn't astonished at a... Oh, well, that's an amazing
set of principles that you laid out there, Paul and Barnabas.
That's an amazing system of theology that you laid out there. It means
he was taught in the heart by the Lord. And he was astonished. He was astonished. He was amazed
at what God taught him. And in all this, Paul and Barnabas
are taught once again what you and I are taught. This is God's
work. This is God's work. God's work. The power is God's, not the preacher's.
They were taught, just preach Christ and Him crucified. Why
else would we want to do anything? We went into this synagogue and
preached the Word of God. Look what He did. We don't have
any other weapon. Why do we even look for another
weapon? This is it. And they were taught God's going
to make his word a saver of death unto death and life unto life.
He's going to reveal who his sheep are and who the chaff is. And he's going to separate them
simply by this message. You don't have to worry. You
don't have to try to separate the wheat from the chaff. You
don't have to wonder who's his and who's not. Just preach Christ.
It'll be made manifest soon enough. Just keep on preaching Christ.
And there's one last thing that summed this all up. Not to trust
the flesh, but to trust God alone. Look at verse 13. Now when Paul
and his company loosed from Paphos, they came to Perga and Pamphylia.
And after all that they saw done by God's grace, after everything
that God did in power, John departed from them. and returned to Jerusalem. Barnabas' nephew, the one Paul
thought, he's proven himself to be a preacher of the gospel,
let's take him with us. They taught one last lesson. Don't
trust the flesh. Don't look to a man even if he
professes to believe the gospel. Don't trust him. Receive him.
Don't doubt him. Don't dispute him. Receive him.
But don't depend on him. Don't look to man. Don't look
to your flesh. Don't look to my flesh. Don't
look to anybody else. And don't be disappointed when
they disappoint you. Don't be disappointed when they
leave you. We can't trust the flesh, brethren. Paul learned
this pretty quick, I think. Barnabas took some time to learn
this. He disputed with Paul to the point that they parted over
this thing a little later, as we'll see. He wanted his nephew
to go. Then Mary's his sister. This
is Mary's son. He wanted him to go with him.
Paul said he'd proven himself. He left us. He left us after
seeing God's grace. He'd proven himself. He can't
go. Now, later on, He obviously was proving to Paul to be a man
that was valuable. Paul said, send him. He can help me. He's
valuable to me. But the point is that they were
taught right here not to look anywhere else but to God. Don't
look to their own flesh or to the flesh of any man. Just trust
God. Preach Christ and shut sinners up to Him. And just declare the
flesh as grass. We can't trust the flesh before
or after conversion. It's grass before conversion.
It's grass after conversion. Look to Christ. Now, I don't have to go through this
to have an application, but I will. This is the application. If this
is God's work, let's submit ourselves to it. Is there anything more
practical than that? Let's just submit ourselves to
it. We think we know what that means, but do we? Some think
they've done it. Have we? We spend our life finding
out what it means to subject ourselves to him, submit ourselves
to him, to his pastors, to our brethren, trusting him. I'm not perfect and I'm going
to make a lot of mistakes, but you can trust this, the God whose
hand I'm in, he'll overrule my mistakes for your good. and for
His glory. And all you've got to do is trust
Him. Trust Him. A man who knows that don't have to raise up in
rebellion. He don't have to raise up in rebellion against any of
His brethren. He can just trust God. Trust
God. And then our responsibility is
to set forth the Gospel of man's absolute inability and God's
absolute sovereignty to save sinners, to make them holy in
Christ, to call them, to keep them, to bring them home. Make
sure this is the God you trust. And if you trust Him, give yourself
to tell sinners how that you and them are grass. And say,
behold God. Stop looking to this. Behold
God. And give yourselves to it. Let's give ourselves to it. We just started out. We just
started out today. Just like Paul and Martha. This
is their first journey. We're just on our first journey
right now. Let's be resolved to this. We've
got one message. That's it. And then thirdly,
God will conquer our enemies and save His people. Make sure,
make sure, if we know this, that we don't attempt to have our
own way. Make sure that we're not placing too much importance
on our ability, our own man. Forcing our hand to make sure
something happens like we want it to happen. But hold yourself
in a lameness. If you continue to behold yourself
in a lameness, a sorcerer, a false prophet, we won't force our hand. We'll
wait on God. And we'll trust He'll separate
the wheat from the chaff. Really, all it boils down to,
my responsibility is to bow to Him, look away from my flesh,
and to trust Him. To declare, if I'm given the
opportunity, He's worthy to be trusted, and I'm not. And to
declare that it's really not my responsibility to know who's
His and who's not. He knows. Just preach the Word. You'll find out real quick. Find
out real quick. Well, if God teaches us this,
He'll make this doctrine astonishing to us. He'll make it astonishing
to us. Amazing grace. How sweet the
sound. And when we get to glory, we'll
still be singing, Amazing Grace. How sweet the sound. Just as amazing to us then as
it was that first hour we ever believed in Him. This is how
He made Paul and Barnabas servants. And this is how they were made
to serve Him. And if He teaches us this in
our hearts, He'll make us servants. And we will serve Him. We will
serve Him.