Turn with me to Acts chapter
20 now. Book of Acts chapter 20. It's
been over 30 years since we looked at this together. I was so surprised
when I was looking back over some old notes. And what led
me to this, and I love when this happens, It's the way the Lord
bears witness with our spirit through His Word, comparing spiritual
things with spiritual things, scriptures that make you think
of other scriptures that make you think of other scriptures.
I was thinking about James chapter 5, verse 16, where these people
that are suffering And it says, the effectual fervent prayer
of a righteous man of Bailiff Mutt. And he talked about Elijah praying,
a man of like passion, the Lord stopped the rain. And in James
5, if you have a center reference in your Bible, which is wonderful, there were seven prayers listed. And the effectual fervent prayer.
Seven of them. I went back and read all of them. Moses, Samuel,
Elijah, Elisha. And Elijah and Elisha prayed
for two dead children. Somebody's son died and another
one died. And they both fell on that child
and prayed for him. The Lord raised them up. And
I thought about this story. So that's how we got here. Because
it lists that. Those stories of Elijah and Elisha
list the story of Paul and this young man who died. Paul was
preaching all over. He was traveling everywhere.
That's what he did. That's what preachers do. A preacher is supposed to be
a preacher, and he is. A true preacher, that's what
he does. He preaches the gospel. Paul
said, woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel. Everywhere he
went, he did one thing. He preached the gospel. That's
the purpose of the church. That's my purpose. Preaching
the gospel is the most needful thing of all. It really is now. It's a matter of life or death.
It really is now. The office of preacher of the
gospel is the highest calling on the face of the earth. It really is. I hope you believe that. If you
don't, but it is. It really is. The
most important office and person, not any particular individual. There's no power in the man,
nothing special about the man. But the office of preacher and
what he does, preaching the gospel, is the most important person
and office on the earth, more so than the President of the
United States. There was a missionary named
William Carey to Burma, and he was well known. He was a preacher,
well known and well thought of and highly esteemed. The Lord
used him for many years, about 40 years, wasn't it? He had a
son named Felix who was with him on the mission field. And
he was well thought of too, so much so that the Queen of England
appointed Felix ambassador of England to the nation of Burma,
country of Burma. And his father William was grieving
over that. He said, my son Felix, he wrote
a friend and said, pray for my son Felix. He's degenerated. into the ambassador for the British
government when he should be an ambassador of the King of
Kings. Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones, who lived
in the early part of the 20th century, early 1900s, was a medical
doctor, physician at a practice, a medical practice. The Lord
saved him and made him a preacher and he resigned his medical practice
to be pastor of the Westminster Chapel in London, England. A
high, much higher calling. A position of your body might fix you up temporarily,
but a man that deals with your soul is much more important.
you and your children. I hope you feel that way. I really
do. The book of Acts is full of stories
of preachers. It's all about the apostles going
everywhere doing one thing, right? When the Lord ascended on high,
it says he gave some gifts to men. He gave some apostles, some
prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers. And he
told these men when he left, go in all the world and preach
the gospel. He that believeth what you're preaching is baptized. It's going to be saved. Eternal
life. It's that important. It really
is. It really is life or death. It
really is, people. 1 Corinthians chapter 1. Turn
there. 1 Corinthians chapter 1. I don't magnify myself. I don't
magnify any man. But this office, what God has
ordained, is is the preaching of the gospel, and the gospel
is the power of God and the salvation to everyone that believes in
it. This is what God said. It pleased God by... Well, read
it with me. 1 Corinthians 1, verse 17. And Paul was a brilliant man.
Brilliant man. But he said, Christ sent me not
to baptize, but to preach the gospel. Not with wisdom of words
or intellectual words high-sounding oratory, lest the cross of Christ
be made of no effect. For the preaching of the cross
is to them that perish foolishness. But unto us which are saved is
the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy
the wisdom of the wise. How? By the gospel. I will bring
to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the
wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this
world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? Read
on. After that, in the wisdom of
God, the world by wisdom knew not God, and it pleased God by
the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. The
Jews want to sign, Greeks have to seek after wisdom, but we
preach. What do you preach, Paul? One
thing. Christ crucified. Under the Jews, the religious,
a stumbling block. Under the Greeks, foolishness.
But under them which are called, Jews and Greeks, Christ Crucified,
the gospel is the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because
the foolishness of God are what men call foolishness. What I'm
doing is wiser than men. And those
true preachers of the gospel that I've known over the years,
and still know right now, are wiser than any man, any leaders
on this earth. I started to say I wish one of
them was President of the United States. No, he would have degenerated.
from a gospel preacher to the president. Read on. Verse 26, you see your calling
brethren? How were you called? How was
I called? Paul in 1 Corinthians 15, he
said, I deliver unto you that which I also receive. He said,
I heard a gospel preacher, Paul said. I wouldn't be saved if the Lord
hadn't sent me a preacher. Same with me. Not many wives after the flesh,
and on and on it goes. So, you see your calling? Listen
to 2 Thessalonians 2. He says, We're bound to give
thanks to God always for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord.
How do you know God loves you? Because God had from the beginning
chosen you to salvation. Chose to save you. How? through
sanctification of the Spirit, set you apart from the general
public and belief of the truth, the true grace of God, whereunto
he called you by our gospel. Paul said there's another gospel,
Galatians 1, which is not another. It's a perversion. He said there's
another Jesus. It's not the true Jesus. But
he called you by this gospel. Is that your calling? to the obtaining of the glory
of our Lord Jesus Christ, to see His glory. So, the gospel
is the power of God. The Word of God. To kill and
make alive. To kill and make alive. The first thing the Word of God
has got to do to you is kill you. Slay you. kill your religion, kill your
God, kill yourself in order to raise you up. You've got to find
out you're dead and trespass into sin. And it's not this flowery,
God loves you and Jesus loves you and so do I, preaching that.
That doesn't strike the fear of God in anybody. That doesn't
make anybody hate themselves. That makes people think too highly
of themselves. When you talk about a holy and just and righteous
God on a throne who by no means cleared the guilty and all flesh
is grass and God doesn't need anybody. He doesn't need you
to make, church can't be spelled church without you. Yes, it can. Been to church a long time before
you were born. And you tell men and women that, that they're
worms, they're not worth saving. But God saved some in sovereign mercy. It's totally, completely up to
Him, not you. That put the fear of God in them. Make them hate
themselves, repent. God, would you have mercy on
me? You've got to kill you before
He makes you alive. Thank God. You know, Christ, the Lord Jesus
Christ, came to preach. He was a preacher, first thing.
Wasn't He? He said, I've come to preach. This is why I came into the world.
God's Son was a preacher. King of kings. Lord of lords. Became a preacher. In Ecclesiastes, Solomon wrote that, and king
is spelled with a small K, and preacher is spelled with a capital
P. As I said, it's not the man.
Paul said, I'm nothing. Who's Simon Peter? A fisherman? He's a nobody from nowhere, but
God. That's who he called to be a
preacher. That's who he saves. Nobody. Thank God His Son was
sent here to be a preacher. How shall they hear without a
preacher? So God in great love, mercy, and grace to a people
sends a gospel preacher to a town like Ephesus. That's where Paul
was. Now here in our text, Paul came
to Ephesus and he stayed there two years. They heard that Paul the Apostle
preached for two years. Boy, I'd like to have been sitting
there. But you know what? I've heard a man that equally
is good a preacher. That's who I sat under for 22
years. 26 years. Yes, sir. Yes, ma'am. Not the man. It's the message. He was there for two years. Paul
preached in chapter 19. He wrote, remember, is your favorite
book the book of Ephesians? That's why God has sent him there.
Not long after that, this, he ends up in jail in Rome, and
he wrote the letter to Ephesus, and Galatians, and Philippi. The word of truth, God's word,
the gospel, causes an uproar among the general population.
And that's what happened in Ephesus. Look at it. Chapter 19, verse
17. This is what happened. The Jews and the Greeks saw what
happened to this man with the evil spirit, and fear fell on
them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified. And
many that believed came and confessed and showed their deeds, that
is, their false religion and all their sorceries and all that.
Verse 19, they bought all their books. They bought every book
they'd ever had and read and collected and all that on every
subject. Philosophy, man's philosophies and, you know, self-help books
and all that. And burned them. Burned them. Verse 20, so mightily
grew the Word of God. They didn't want to hear any
word now but the Word of God. That's when salvation comes in.
You get verse 23. But at the same time, there arose
no small stir about that way. Everybody didn't believe. In fact, it was a remnant, a
few people. A few people. Verse 26. And they said, we see
and hear that not only in Ephesus, but in Asia, this Paul fellow,
have persuaded and turned away much people saying that their
gods, they're not gods that are made with hands. He's saying
our God's not God. That's exactly right. That's
what that Paul's saying, and that's what this Paul's saying
about the God today. I didn't have this written down
to say it, but I've got to tell it. Somebody hasn't heard it.
You know, Mexico, there are idols everywhere, literal idols. There
are in America. People have their idols, they
have their crosses, they have little Jesus. Have you seen these
little... What do you think about that? Little Jesus people. What do you think about that? That's their Jesus, alright.
There's a pig up here in front of Dairy Queen. They put a cross on the side
of that pig with a purple robe around it and flowers. A cross on a swine. I tell you, this generation doesn't
know God. They don't know Jesus Christ.
What do you think about that? A designer cross as your logo
on your church. That's no church of God. Where's
the fear of God there? These crosses and all that are,
I didn't want to go here, but they're
graven images which God expressly said, don't make an image, don't
make a picture, don't do anything. You serve and worship a living
and true God, a person. You don't need things. All right? There's no blood. There's no
blood on that cross. They're taking away the fence.
It's pretty. It's jewelry. It makes people proud of themselves. They're taking away the fence.
It's an abomination to God and an abomination to God's people. Exchange Milling up there. It's
owned by a German Baptist. There's a sign up there with
a pig on it that says, This little piggy loves Jesus. What do you think about that? That's this generation. It's gone to hell in a handbasket.
There's very little fear of God anywhere. And if you sit and
listen to a man that preaches the fear of God, preaches the
God of the Bible, as he is, and the Jesus Christ of Scripture,
Sovereign, reigning and ruling, doing as He will with whom He
will. Love, yes. Merciful, yes. Gracious, yes.
But not at the expense of His holiness, His righteousness,
and His justice. The God who hates sin so much
He killed His Son. And one thing will put away the
sins of God's people. Not you accepting His blood,
but His blood applied to you by God Himself. You have nothing
to do with it. It's completely up to Him to
put that blood on your soul and pronounce you clean. It's up
to Him. That's the God of the Bible.
And that will put fear in you and make you repent toward God.
God, forgive me. And make you burn all your religion.
and renounce it all, like Saul of Tarsus. It grieves me what I see and
hear all around me. Doesn't it you? It ought to.
If you know God, if you fear God, if you love God's glory,
if you love God's Son, it will grieve you at your heart. And
you read these signs, it will cut you like a knife. It's worse
than calling your mother or father or your wife or son or daughter
names. That's a fact. And Paul went everywhere preaching
the true God of the Bible, preaching the true Christ of Scripture,
and people hated him for it. But religious people, when our
Lord lived here, hated him. Why? He's the true personified. He exposed their religious games. Their religious facade, their
hypocrisy exposed it all. All their ceremonies and all
this. He said, where did Isaiah prophesy
of this generation? They draw near with their lips
when their heart is far from it. Not glorifying God, not worshiping
God, not needing mercy at the hands of God, going through the
motions, being good Christians. And so they say, we're going
to kill this Jesus fella. No, you're not. He might kill
you. You can't take his life from him, but he can sure take
yours from you. Nobody feared Jesus, and they
don't now. It's the fear of the Lord Jesus.
That's the beginning of wisdom. So Paul went everywhere, and
there was no small stir. And wherever the Gospels truly
preach, the God of the Bibles proclaim, and the Lord Jesus
Christ of Scriptures really proclaim, as He is, it will cause no small
stir in that town where this Gospel preached. And they'll
hate that preacher and hate those that believe it. That's a fact. But not God's people. Because
God has a remnant. God has an elect, a people he
chose through sanctification of spirit, through the preaching
of the gospel and belief of the truth. And I'm looking at a room
full of them. Well, full by our standards. Verse 2 in our text, well, verse
1. After the uproar, there was an
uproar. And Paul called unto Him His disciples and embraced
them. He embraced them. That's what
you do to people you love. You know that? You hug your husband
and your wife, your son or your daughter. Well, that's what believers
did. That's what Paul did. He embraced them. Over and over
again in the Scriptures, he said, greet one another with a holy
kiss. Romans 16, the whole chapter
is salute, salute, salute, salute this man, salute this person,
salute this person. Why? Look what they've done for the
cause of Christ. Greek one or another. Why? Because it might
be the last time. Do I greet you? I try to greet everybody. He embraced them. These people were his family.
And they're mine too. I mean, they really are. You're
my family. They called Paul a brother. Brother
Paul. I'd rather you call me that. Brother Paul. And he departed to go to Macedonia. He went all over, verse 2, all
over those parts and given them much exhortation. He came in
to greet. Much exhortation. What did he
exhort? What did he go everywhere exhorting
people to do? Well, remember this? Just Sunday,
Peter said, I exhort and testify that this is the true grace of
God wherein you stand. Exhorting, testifying of the
Lord Jesus Christ, who is the grace of God. The salvation of
God, the way, the truth, the life, the only way and truth. The Lord Jesus Christ went everywhere
preaching the gospel. That's what preachers do. If
a man is not preaching the gospel, preaching Christ crucified, every
time he stands up, every time he stands up, he is not God's
preacher. God didn't send him. That's what
Paul did. That's all he did. In verse 3, there he abode three
months, and when the Jews laid wait for him. See the Jews, they're
out to get him. Why? Why do you want to hurt this
man? Why do you want to hurt the Lord Jesus Christ? Why? Because men don't love the truth,
people. People don't love the truth. You didn't love the truth
until God made you love the truth. Till you received the love of
the truth. Received. Now accept it. Received the love
of the truth. Because man, the carnal mind
is enmity against God, Romans 8, 7. But God gives some, by grace,
the love of the truth. He used it. And he was about
to sail into Syria. He purposed to go or turn through
Macedonia. And they accompanied him, verse
4, into Asia. Sopater, as I've said so many
times, I'm so glad we've got men with names like John, Joe,
Mike, one syllable word. But Sopater of Berea, a Thessalonian
Aristarchus, and Secundus, and Gaius of Derbe, and Timotheus,
Timothy of Asia, Tychicus, and Trophimus, seven men. Seven men
accompanied him. Seven men were his companion. That's what the word accompany
meant. They were his companion, seven men. When I was preparing
this, I thought, I bet you there'll be seven men show up in this
study. Sure enough, not counting me,
it was seven men, my companions. And I thank God for you. These
men left everybody and everything to support Paul, to show their
love and support of him. They stood by him. Though the
whole town wanted him dead, these men wanted him to preach the
gospel. I just knew there would be seven
men. I just knew it. And sure enough, my companions,
that's what David said, I'm a companion to them that fear God. I don't
have any companions that don't love my God. I got nothing. We got nothing in common. I don't
like to be around them for a long time, any time at all. I don't spend time with people
that hate my wife. I sure don't spend time with
people that hate my God. I have nothing to comment. How
can we? Light and darkness can't do it.
You're my companion, and I'm so glad. I count it a high privilege,
a high calling, not just to be a preacher, but to be your companion,
your fellow laborer, your buddy, your brother in Christ. Stephen,
you've been here before I got here. We're still buddies, aren't
we? Your dad was my buddy. I'm so thankful. I expect you to be here until
the day you die, and I hope I am too. I hope I go first. I'm being selfish. My companions,
verse 6, verse 5, they tarried for us. They went before Troas
and tarried there, waiting on him. They were waiting on him.
You see me waiting on you all, standing at the window waiting
on you? And when some don't show up,
I'm disappointed. I got some good food here. I
got something you and your children need badly. You're going to love
this. I spent hours preparing it. And
I stand there waiting on the children to come. And when they
show up, there she is. Late, but she's here. Right? Better late than never. That's
a fact. I hope you come sit here and
wait on the Lord. Terry, wait on Him. Wait like
Cornelius. We need to hear something, Richard. Verse 6 and 7, we sailed away
from Philippi. We went to Philippi. Do you remember
who was Philippi? Do you remember the story of Philippi? Oh, my. That's where Lydia was, down
by the river with a few women. The Lord opened her heart. How? He opened Lydia's heart.
Preaching. She heard Paul preach the gospel.
And boy, she had him in her home and Silas and everybody. She
could fit in there. And from that day forward, she
was Paul's supporter and boy, Paul loved her and stayed in
her home every time he came into town. Used to do that with the
Barrys. Let's do that again. Let's come
over and spend the night with y'all. I miss it. But the jailer
of Philippi, remember that story? Paul and Silas were beaten within
an inch of their life. Bloody pulp. Why? Why, Todd? Preaching the gospel. Why would
people beat you up over that? Because they don't like it. But
they were in prison and Paul said, we're here on purpose,
Silas. God did this. Men with wicked hands took and
beat us, but God did this. He purposed this. We don't know
why, but let's just start singing. And they started singing, and
the chains fell off, and the doors opened up, and a jailer
sprung in and said, and God saved that man. He had to beat Paul
and Silas to save that man's soul. God's ways are mysterious. But the Lord raised up a church
there, Philippi. Or did Paul enjoy going back
there? And he did. What did he do there? One thing.
In verse 7, on the first day of the week, disciples came together
at Troas and came together to break bread, which we're going
to do in a minute. the Lord's table. This is for
baptized believers. That's who may partake of it.
Anyone that confess Christ and believe for baptism and believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ may partake of it. That's what we're
going to do. But Paul preached unto them first.
That's what I'm doing. Ready to depart on the morrow.
And he continued his speech or speaking until midnight. He preached until midnight. It is a sad day we live in. We might look at Nehemiah 9 real
soon where they did the same thing. They read from the morning
till noon, six hours. read all five books of Moses.
And everybody was attentive, even the children. And rejoiced. In fact, they started weeping
and crying. And Nehemiah and Ezra had to
say... And they were preaching. They
had about seven preachers. First Bible conference. And people
were thrilled. It went on all day long. With
Paul preaching until midnight. And there were many lights in
the upper chamber. You see where they were meeting
in the upper room? Anybody remember that message
on the upper room? Upper chamber. They weren't afraid of the authorities. This story of disciples meeting
in secret and putting a fish in their window so that you'd
know. That's not true. I mean, it may be true of some.
That's not the disciples of God did. That's not the early Christians.
They weren't struck with fear. When Simon Peter was beaten up,
they said, no, don't preach in this name again. What did he
do? He went right back to the temple. Yes, he did. And those men came
and they were trembling and took him and said, would you please
not do this? And that's when he said, we're not going to obey
men, we're going to obey God. We're going to preach until they
Kill us. No, they weren't meeting in secret
for fear. Disciples did before they knew
the Lord was raised from the grave. But when they saw that
He was raised from the grave, that changed everything. They
were no longer afraid of man. And nor should we be. We're afraid
to tell the truth. They were in an upper chamber.
Everybody knew what these people were doing in that upper chamber. And they were gathered together.
They were gathered together to break bread, to hear Paul preach. Brought together. Gathered together. Who gathered them together? Who
brought you here tonight? The lot is cast into the lap.
You said, honey, it's time to go to church. Well, I'm not feeling
too good, but I'll go anyway. Who gathered you here? Who brought
you here? The Lord did. He said this in
Isaiah, he said, gather my people from the north, from the north,
from the south, from the east, from the west. Bring my people
together. They're my people, my elect.
He gathers right now his elect from the four corners of the
earth to sit in a heavenly place to hear this man who has this
high calling to preach the most glorious message that human beings
can ever hear, the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's called
a high calling, a heavenly calling, and a holy calling. And God does
the calling, and He does the choosing, and He does the gathering.
And if you've been gathered to sit and hear this glorious gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ, you are the most blessed person on
the topside of this earth. I don't care if you've got a
dime to your name, if all your health is gone, If you have Jesus
Christ, you have it all. You have it all. And He gathered
you. That's what shepherds do with
their sheep, you know. Gathers them into the fold. Oh,
my, my. How blessed we are. I was going
to go to Ephesians 1 and start reading it. According to the pleasure of
His will, gathered together. You know, gathered together in
one. Even in Christ, what are they all doing? What's all God's
church doing? Right now, those that are meeting
on Wednesday night, Sunday, what are they doing? One thing! Worshipping
God in the Spirit, rejoicing in the Lord Jesus Christ, and
there's no flesh in it. None. Don't need it. Oh, my. Gathered, here we sit. Is this a heavenly place to you?
It's just an amiable tabernacle, Psalm 84. A lovely place. A good place to raise your young. I'm telling you. A good place
to raise your young. They'll know the Scriptures are
able to make them wise unto salvation. Oh, my. To break bread. All right? All right. And Paul preached
till midnight. What did he preach so long? Well,
I think I could do that without notes. I think I could start
in Genesis and start preaching. Genesis 1, In the beginning God
created the heavens and the earth. God said, Let there be light.
What's that? Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit moved on the
face of the waters. The trial of your God, Trinity.
Chapter 3, the woman's seed. How long could you preach on
that? That's Christ, the woman's seed. Bruised the serpent's head. Bruised his heel, but crushed
his pyre, crushed his head. Christ, that lamb slain in the
garden to cover the first two sinners. The promise of Christ
to come. Genesis 22, Abraham and Isaac
going up on that mountain. Oh, we could preach on that a
long time, couldn't we? Well, what about the Passover
lamb in Exodus? Hmm. It's what we're doing. That's what this is all about.
It's not the Passover. We're going to remember Christ,
our Passover, who was slain for, crucified for. The scapegoat, Leviticus 16.
You can preach that without notes, John, surely. Oh, my. Numbers 21, the brazen serpent. Huh? Deuteronomy, the cities
of refuge. Joshua, Ray had scarlet line. You want to hear that? Oh yeah,
we could preach till midnight. And if the Spirit of God blessed
us, it wouldn't be a person sleeping. But they're sat in the window.
Look at verse 9. They're sat in a window. a certain young man named Eutychus,
and he fell asleep. Now, the name Eutychus, and God
gave his name. He doesn't always do that. He
sometimes says a certain man or a certain woman. He gave his name because it means
something. It means fortunate. Fortunate, by definition, means
you're healthy, wealthy, and well-off. Maybe he was. Maybe he had affluent parents.
Maybe he was brought there by his parents. I don't know. He
was probably healthy and wealthy and well-off. But that night,
he's going to be dead. You understand? How quickly that
can happen? In just a matter of a few hours,
he's dead. He's lying on the ground dead. But his name is Fortunate. It
was his good fortune to be sitting under the gospel. A gospel preacher, a man that
God sent, a gospel has the power to raise from the dead. Nothing
else can. And there are dead people sitting
in this room right now. This young fellow was asleep. He's sitting in a
window. Obviously, he wanted to get as
far away from the preacher as he could. Men, women, and young people
prove their hatred of God and the truth more than anything
by not wanting to hear the Word of God, by not wanting to come
worship God. When the Scriptures talk about
the wicked, you don't have to be a murderer or a rapist or
a child molester or a terrorist and all that. You can just not
be interested in Jesus Christ. That is wicked to God. You're
not interested, my son, to go a whole lifetime without giving
God a thought, whom God does everything for you. Spares your
life. And take credit. Pride is to
take credit for what God gave you. To be proud of your strength,
to be proud of your knowledge, to be proud of your possession,
to be proud of whatever you do. That's taking God's glory from
him. That's wicked. Wicked. It's a worse wickedness than
a murderer. To not give God a thought all
our lives. To not be interested. God's going
to send a whole world of men, women, and children to hell because
they're not interested in Jesus Christ. Hmm. Well, God says,
okay. Okay. I'm burning this place
up. And I've got a whole new world
where everybody in it is completely taken up with Jesus Christ. And that's a fact. I'm not exaggerating
this. In fact, I'm not telling it as
really as it really is. It's the ultimate disrespect
and affront and offense to God to not want to hear the story
of his son, to not want to hear the gospel. It's the ultimate
affront and offense to God to say, I'm not interested. When's
this going to be over? Are we done yet? Brother Kelly, we don't deserve
to hear this, do we? This town doesn't deserve this
gospel. I don't deserve to preach it. I didn't deserve to hear
it. I was one of these young ones
like you. It was my good fortune. Tammy,
it was our good fortune for God to send us a true preacher, wasn't
it? The gospel that's the power of God to raise the dead. And
my preacher didn't ask us young people anything. He commanded. He preached with authority, with
power, Christ on the cross. And God did the work. God did
the work. Now, this young man wasn't interested,
and he fell asleep. Wake me up when it's over. And
God did something to wake everybody up, didn't He? He threw this
young man down on the ground and killed him. God did that. You're not interested in my son?
There. Isn't that right? If he'd have been at a rock concert,
he'd been on the front row and listening to every tune. If he'd been watching a movie
full of foul-mouthed, God-hating, God-blaspheming actors and worthless,
filthy people, he'd be hanging on every word, telling everybody
about that movie. But when the gospel of the Lord
Jesus Christ preached, he fell asleep. I understand I'm not, you know,
there's medicated sleep and a sleep weariness and all that. But this
young man, he just wasn't interested. And the Lord threw him down,
killed him. Can you imagine if that happened
in our services? This happened in the middle of
a worship service. And it shocked everybody. And
there are no accidents with God. The Lord kills no matter what
it is. There are no accidents. Nobody dies from a car accident. God wrecked that car. Nobody
dies from an accident. There are no such things as accidents.
The Lord says, I kill and I make you laugh. The judge of the earth
is just and righteous and he does what he will. Remember Sodom?
Nobody died by accident. God killed them all. But God. Saved a lot out of it,
didn't he? He sure did. And this young man,
though he's not interested, but God sent a preacher. Look at verse 10. So he fell
down from the third loft and he was taken up dead. Somebody
picked him up and said, he's dead. Do you think he walks down there
calmly? Do you think he'd walk down there? How do you think Paul felt? He'd been preaching the gospel.
He wanted this young boy to be saved. He wanted him to die. You know that? He ran down those stairs. And
he fell on him. He fell on this young man. Fell
down on his face on top of this poor fellow. Hmm. That's exactly what Elijah
and Elisha did. You go back and read the story
of those two men. When the widows said, my son's
dead, they went and they fell on him. And it says he embraced
him. You see that? He embraced him. He hugged him. What's he doing? What's going through his head?
What's he saying in his mind and his heart? What's he doing?
He's crying to God. You know he is. He'd been on
His face that night before He preached this message. The Lord
saved somebody. He didn't know He was going to
kill somebody. But that's what He's got to do before He saves
you. But He embraced this fellow. Do you see me embracing your
sons and daughters? Do you see me literally going
around embracing your sons and daughters? Do you? I do that,
don't I? Why? I love them. I'm concerned for them. I want
one thing for them. Honestly. One thing. And I think they know that by
now. I don't want to bury, I've buried
some of our sons and daughters. Haven't I? I don't want to bury any more
of them. I want to baptize them. I want them to be crucified with
Christ, buried with Him, risen to walking newness of life. And
then it doesn't matter. That's what I want. So I go around
and hug you. How you doing? I love you. Hope
to see you again. Oh, I do. I hope you hear the gospel. Parents,
I want you to exhort them. I want you to tell them, you
need to hear this preacher now. I do. I want you to tell them,
you need to hear our preacher. Sit up and listen now. I want you to set an example. Exhort
them by your example and show them that this gospel is life. If we don't have Christ, we don't
have anything. We'll die. We'll perish. Help
me out, parents. Okay? This really is life again. It
really is. Do you know what God did? Paul felt a heartbeat. He was
hanging on. He was holding that boy, that
dead son. And believe me, I preached and
preached and watched you go out of here, your sons and daughters,
and they can't wait to get out of here, some of them. And I
hug them. They're nice enough, but I think
they haven't heard yet. They haven't seen it yet. They
don't know the Lord. I'm praying, Lord, please, please,
please. Well, Paul felt a heartbeat.
He felt a heartbeat. Breath. Sobbing. He said he's alive. That's what
I want to say in here. It is. That's why I'm here. That's what we do here. It's
a hospital. It's a funeral parlor. It's a living. But the Lord brings
dead sinners in here and makes them alive through preaching
of Christ. The heart touched, broken over
sin. The heart needs Christ. The heart faith. The heart, man,
believe it. And the breath of life. The cry
and call of, Lord, save me. That's what we want, isn't it? Isn't it? Men, when we meet and
study down there, I've got a burden for this message. Join me, would
you? Coming up here, I think, Lord,
I hope, Lord, maybe the Lord will, tonight. Wouldn't that
be wonderful? What do you think? What happened
here? Wouldn't that happen? Look at it. Look at it. And when
he therefore came up again and broke bread and ate and talked
a long while, even till the break of day, and they brought the
young man alive, and they were not a little comforted. Not a little. And you know, Paul talked till
the next morning. Who do you reckon is listening
with all his ears? That young man. God spared my
life. I really am fortunate, aren't
I? I really am blessed, aren't I?
This is the greatest blessing. I didn't know it. I was asleep
to it all. Sleeping the sleep of death.
And now I realize I'm the most fortunate blessed person on the
top side of God's earth to hear the truth! Yes, I'm telling you the truth.
That he that blesses himself in the earth, blesses himself
in the God of truth. Isn't that what the Scripture
says? May the Lord make it so.