Open your Bibles, if you would,
to the Book of Acts, Chapter 20. We'll continue our study
in this wonderful book. Acts, Chapter 20. This wonderful
epistle written about the New Testament church. Of course, we know there was
an Old Testament church, too, don't we? Because all the elect
of God are the people of God. are the body of Christ. Let's
stand up and read together verses 12, or actually verses 7 to 12
of Acts chapter 20. Let's stand up and read this
together. And upon the first day of the
week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul
preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow, and continued
his speech until midnight. And there were many lights in
the upper chamber where they were gathered together. And there
sat in the window a certain young man named Eutychus, being fallen
asleep into a deep sleep. And as Paul was long preaching,
he sank down with sleep and fell from the third loft and was taken
up dead. And Paul went down and fell on
him, and embracing him said, trouble not yourself, for his
life is in him. when he therefore was come up
again and had broken bread and eaten and talked a long while,
even until the break of day, so he departed. And they bought
the young man alive and were not a little comforted. Praise
be to God. Wonderful, wonderful. Well, let's start right off in
verse seven. We read, and upon the first day
of the week, When the disciples came together to break bed, Paul
preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow and continue
to speech until midnight. My, oh, my. Paul preached all
the way through to midnight. And the saints loved it. They
loved it. They loved to sit and listen
to the word of God being preached. They gathered together on the
first day of the week. Again, this is our Lord's appointed
day for saints to assemble for public worship. But Christ is
our Sabbath, isn't he? Our Sabbath's not in a day, is
it? Our Sabbath is Christ. We can gather together and worship
him any day of the week. As a matter of fact, we do worship
him even on our own, don't we? And you know where two or three
are gathered together in his name, there is he in the midst
of them. So with Christ being our Sabbath, we worship him all
the time. He's our rest. That's what Sabbath
is, he's our rest. We rest from our labors, we cease
from our labors, trying to gain favor and merit with God, and
we rest and trust in Christ in his perfect, complete, finished,
sin-atoning work. The God-man said it's finished,
it's done. It's perfect. And he is the one we rest in
for the forgiveness of all our sins by the shedding of his precious,
precious blood. We can gather whenever we want.
Sunday is not the Believer's Sabbath. Jesus Christ is the
Believer's Sabbath. But we gather together on Sundays,
don't we, to worship in the praise's name. We've entered into his rest.
We don't meet Sundays to try to make ourselves better. or to try to gain acceptance
in God's sight, we worship on Sunday because we desire to worship
on Sunday. Just like we desire to worship every day, don't we?
Right? Every day we worship Christ.
I know preachers who have their service on Tuesday nights. That's
fine. I know preachers who have their
worship service on Sundays. That's fine. I know preachers
who do Bible studies on Friday nights. That's fine. Isn't it? We gather together here on Sunday,
we worship, and we don't come here to gain rewards or to gain
favor with God. We come here to worship our King.
We come here to worship the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords,
our Savior, Jesus Christ. You come to hear about Him, don't
you? I come here to preach about Him
by the grace of God. And when Norm was here, I got
to sit and listen too. And I just wanted to hear about
Christ, just like you do. It's wonderful. It's all about
Him. True saving faith is embrace
Jesus Christ as our sovereign Lord and our Savior. And by the
grace of God, we believe, we believe that Jesus Christ is
Lord, that Jesus Christ saves sinners. We didn't believe that
before we were born again. No. But now that we're born again,
we believe that by God-given faith. It's wonderful. by His supreme sacrifice, by
His supreme sacrifice on Calvary's cross. See, the Lord was sinless,
wasn't He? So He's dying on the cross for
sinners, and He's sinless. He's dying for His people. He's
dying for all those who were given to Him by the Father before
the foundation of the world. And as we saw on Sunday School
in Philippians 4.3, He's dying for all those whose names were
written in the Lamb's Book of Life. And when was their names
written in the Lamb's Book of Life? For eternity. Now let that
sink in our heads, in our hearts. For eternity, Sister, He loved
us. And He wrote our names in the
Book of Life. Before there was ever stars, before there was
ever heavens. That's amazing, isn't it, Sister?
Before we were ever were or were ever thought of. He knew us and
He loved us with an everlasting, unchanging love, even when we
were dead in trespasses and sins. He still loves His people, don't
He? That's amazing grace. This is
what Paul preached, that Christ was the Messiah. He was the long-expected
one. He's the one who the prophets
spoke of. And remember, he didn't have a New Testament. He preached
from the Old Testament Scriptures, and he preached Christ. He says,
we preach Christ, not ourselves. We proclaim Christ, the only
Savior of sinners. The question is, are you a sinner?
Because God's people, we admit, we're a bunch of sinners, saved
by the grace of God. He's had mercy on me. Praise
His mighty name. So true saving faith embraces
Jesus Christ as our sovereign God, our Lord, our Savior. And
by the grace of God, we believe that by his supreme sacrifice,
he saved us from our sins. By the shedding of his precious
blood, he saved us from our sins. And there's nothing in us that
would cause him to do that, would there? He did it because of his
mercy and his grace towards his people, whom he's loved with
an everlasting love. No wonder we rejoice in Christ.
No wonder. Look what he's done for us. So
my brother's great love for us. We love him only because he first
loved us, right? Yeah. How long has he loved us? From eternity? My oh my. It's true. And that love is an eternal,
unchanging love. Nothing in us has caused that
love to change. Even before we were saved, He still loved us. My, and Christ redeemed us 2,000
years ago. I preach a work that's already
finished. It's already complete. And we learn as believers, we
learn as God teaches us. We learn the work's already done.
We just rest in Christ, we trust in Christ. Now, the love of God
constrains us from sin, as Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians. It constrains
us from sin. We don't desire to go out and
live a riotous life because the love of Christ constrains us
now. It's amazing. We're turned from rebels to those
who praise God. all by the grace and mercy of
God and all by the power of God. My, he loves us with an eternal,
unchanging love. So when we come to worship, we
come to worship the King of Kings with a sincere desire to worship
our King, don't we? No one has to tell you, well,
you got to sing praises to him. We want to. David and I were
talking, and just before I came up, David said, let's praise
the Lord together. Amen, brother. Let's praise his
name. He's so wonderful to us. He's
so gracious to us. Isn't he? We have much to praise
him for. We have much to praise him for. Look at here. Notice that they
broke bread together. They were in Troas. And note
that Paul and those who were traveling with him and the saints
from other locations, upon the first day of the week, they came
together to break bread. I mentioned this last week. They're
observing the Lord's table. Okay? They're gathering together
in remembrance of the Lord Jesus Christ. They're remembering his
substitutionary death. They're remembering what Christ
done for them, saved them from their sins by the shedding of
his blood. They're rejoicing in what he
has accomplished for them. And note the pastors and the
leaders of the church didn't say, well, you know what? You
attend a different church, so we gotta keep you from attending
the table. Nope. They didn't fence the table,
did they? All believers were gathered together
there rejoicing in the Lord. Isn't that wonderful? That's
why we don't practice closed communion. If you believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ, come partake with us. That's the only prerequisite
is are you born again? Are you a believer in Christ?
Right? That's it. So people from other
great churches can come and they can partake in the supper with
us, can't they? My, oh, my. They didn't attempt to examine
anyone to see if they were worthy to participate in God's ordained
institute. No, not at all. They knew that
all believers are only worthy in and through the Lord Jesus
Christ to partake of communion, to partake of the Lord's Supper.
They'd been taught by God that, just as we'd been taught by God
that. And again, the only person who's
not worthy to come to the Lord's Supper is those who are not saved.
Don't ever partake of the Lord's Supper if you're not saved. Now,
after the Lord saves you, after you're born again, come on, let's
rejoice. But not before. Not before. One does not have true saving
faith in Christ, If one is unregenerate, if they're a mere professor of
Christ, don't dare take the table. My oh my. And here's another
truth from verse seven, is when the saints of God come together
for public worship, the glorious gospel is preached. The glorious
gospel is preached, beloved. And the gospel's concerning a
person. The gospel's concerning the person, the Lord Jesus Christ,
whose God incarnated in the flesh. We sing a few songs, and then
we listen to the gospel, don't we? Then we listen to the gospel,
the glorious gospel of salvation in and through Christ and by
him alone. Look at verse 7 again. Paul preached unto them. What
did he preach? Christ. We know that. He says, we preach Christ and
Him crucified. He didn't get caught up in all these other
things, did he? He preached Christ. He preached Christ. Turn if you
would to 1 Timothy 1. 1 Timothy 1. Note too that Paul didn't draw
attention to himself. He doesn't draw attention to
his education. He doesn't even draw attention to his prominent
position. He's an apostle. He doesn't even draw attention
to that. Remember, he was a Jewish Pharisee. He doesn't draw attention
to that. Nope. He does what all preachers do. He declares Christ. I'm not here to tell you about
me, because I'm a sinner saved by grace, just like you are.
We're all on the same level ground, aren't we? at the foot of the
cross. I'm just a sinner saved by grace,
sent to preach His glorious gospel." And it's wonderful. It's wonderful. The fact that we're saved is
wonderful, isn't it? First and foremost. That we're
washed in the precious blood of Christ. Look at this in 1
Timothy 1, 15 to 17. This is a faithful saying and
worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners. That's how Paul identifies himself
next. Look at this, of whom I'm chief. So that's Paul's identification. He's not talking about his former
education. He's not talking about who he
is. He says, right away, he says, I'm the chief of sinners. That's his label for himself.
That's our label for us, right? I remember reading a Spurgeon
sermon, he said, he said, all of us declare with Paul, we're
the chief of sinners. Because we know what we are.
And we know who we are. Before we were saved and even
after we're saved. We're just sinners saved by grace.
And it's wonderful, beloved. Look at this, how I pray for
this cause, I obtain mercy. If you're a believer here today,
if you're born again by the Holy Spirit of God, you and I, and
Paul, have obtained mercy. We didn't seek it, we didn't
earn it, right? We certainly didn't merit it,
but we've obtained it by the perfect, complete, sinatonic
work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And because of his mercy and
grace towards us, We've obtained salvation. It's a gift, isn't it, of God? Not of works, lest any man should
boast. Oh my, it's wonderful. How about, for this cause I obtain
mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all longsuffering
for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to everlasting
life. Now here's our King. Now look
at this. Look at this exaltation he gives of Christ. Now unto
the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour
and glory forever and ever. Amen. My! He's our King, Brother Tom. He's
our King. He's our leader. We're under
his banner. He's the captain of the Lord's
host. He's God incarnated in the flesh. He's the king immortal.
My, the only wise God, be honor and glory forever and ever, amen.
So Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit of God, he wrote this
over in 2 Corinthians. If you want to turn there, you
can. 2 Corinthians 4, verses 5 to 7. But he wrote this. And these are words that every
preacher of the gospel should take to heart. Should take to
heart. Any young preacher, any missionary,
preachers, we should take these words to heart. Listen to this. 2 Corinthians 4, verses 5 to
7. We preach not ourselves. We don't preach ourselves. We
can't save no one. but I'm gonna preach you to the
one who can save anyone who comes to him. My, oh my. We preach not ourselves,
but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves, your servants, for
Jesus' sake. See, the preacher and the deacons
are not the Lord over the congregation. We're servants to you. First
and foremost, we're like you. We're all servants of Christ.
But the preacher's here to serve the church, not the Lord over
it. Isn't that wonderful? We're a
family, beloved. We're a family. Look at this. For God who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. Who was in darkness? We were.
We fell in Adam. We were dead in trespasses and
sins. We were walking around groped in the darkness of sin.
We were covered by the darkness of sin. We were walking around
blind and didn't even know it. Right? Dead. Graveyard dead,
weren't we, brother? My. And God had mercy on us. Isn't that wonderful? God had
mercy on us. That's amazing. And He made the
light to shine in the darkness, didn't He, brother, in our hearts?
We were born again. We saw Christ like we'd never
seen Him before. My, He's the King. He's the Savior
of sinners. And God, the Holy Spirit, shows
us we're sinners. And by God-given faith, we flee
to Christ, don't we? We run to Him. He's our only
hope. And we have a knowledge now of
God that we never had before. We see Him, and He's the holy,
sovereign God over all. Now we have a, we have a, not
a slavish fear of God, but a fear of awe in who he is. And he's
our Father. My, and Christ is our Savior.
And we're in awe that we were dead and the Holy Spirit come
and regenerated us. And translated us from the kingdom
of darkness into the kingdom of God's dear Son. And who did that? Did we do anything
like that? We obtained that, didn't we?
By the grace and mercy of God. He did it all. Paul writes in
Philippians, he's the author and the finisher of our faith,
and everything in between too, isn't he? He gives the preacher strength
to preach. He gives men and women strength
to go to different places and become missionaries. The grace
to do that. My, oh my, God does that. And we praise his name for that,
don't we? That he's done that. And then look, it continues,
it says, but we have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency
and the power may be of God and not of us. See, religion says
you gotta do this, you gotta do this, you gotta do this. It's
all about what you gotta do. Grace says we got no power to
do that. It's God working in us. So our
gifts, as I said in Sunday school, our gifts and our talents all
come from God. We can't claim anything. Brother,
all the knowledge you have of the things you work on, all those
machines and stuff, God gave you that knowledge. It's amazing. The knowledge we have of the
scriptures, God gave us that. We didn't know it before we were
saved. Matter of fact, we didn't want nothing to do with it, did
we? I didn't. But now I love it. Isn't that amazing? That God
takes something that we once wanted nothing to do with, and
someone who we wanted nothing to do with, and now we want to
learn about him. Now we want to praise him. We
come here to hear about Christ, don't we? I used to sleep in on Sundays,
didn't care about nothing. That was my day to sleep in after
doing stupid things on Saturday night. I didn't have a care in the world,
but you know what? God arrests us, doesn't he? He stops us,
doesn't he? He saves us. He saves us, beloved, from ourselves,
from our sin. Isn't that amazing? takes rebels and turns us into
praisers. My, so the power may be of God and not of us. Once
we learn that we can't do anything, right, without God helping us,
I believe that's when God starts to use us. Yeah. And we're in awe that he
even uses us, aren't we? That he even opens up doors for
us to talk to people. Or if he uses us to come to church
and support a work where the gospel's going out into all the
world, like it is here. And we're in awe of that, aren't
we? Because we never would have wanted anything to do with this
stuff before. Neither did Paul. Remember, he's a Pharisee. He's
going out wiping out Christians. And now he's saying, in 2 Corinthians,
he says, We have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency
of the power may be of God and not of us. Paul was a works-based
preacher before. He was a Pharisee, following
the traditions of man and not of God. My, what the grace of God will
do. Isn't that amazing? Remember, John 15, five, without
me, you can do nothing. That's a good place for us to
sit. Good place for us to sit, isn't
it? Right there. We don't need to graduate from
there, do we? No. Isn't it amazing God uses us
though? Isn't that incredible? For his glory, for his honor,
for his praise. It's stunning, beloved. Well, let's continue in our text
here. Paul preached until midnight. Could you imagine that? Maybe
gathering together at one in the afternoon and he preaches
all the way to midnight. That's unheard of now, isn't
it? But hey, I think we would have liked it being there too.
Give us a little food. We'd be quite content, won't
we? My, oh my. think of this. He's not lacking
for words to preach because Paul knew the Old Testament. He, remember
this, he was a Pharisee. So he knew the Old Testament.
He knew it well. He actually knew, you know, you
read his epistles and how he goes in his talks with the Jews. And the reason he went to the
Jews is because he has a desire for them to be saved. And he's
preaching to them that Christ is the Messiah. That's what he's
preaching from the Old Testament. And he knew the Old Testament.
And when the Lord saved him, he had all that knowledge from
teaching or looking at that, but now it's all in a whole new
light. Now he sees Christ all through it. Right? And so he has a vast mind that
he can preach for 12 hours if he wanted to. Just keep pulling
stuff. Well, here's Christ. Here's Christ. You know the burning bush? That
was Christ speaking to Moses. My. You know the fellow that
visited Abraham with the two angels? That was Christ. You know the fellow that appeared
to Joshua and said, I'm the captain of the Lord's house? That was
a Christophany. That was Christ. That's the Word
of God. And in Isaiah, he saw the Lord
high and lifted on the throne, and angels were bowing down to
worship him. That was the Word of God. That was Christ. Isn't that amazing? So he's got
a mine of stuff to preach for. He could go all through Solomon
and just preach Christ all through. He's the beloved. He's the fairest
of 10,000 to my soul. My, isn't it wonderful? So let's read verses eight to
12 now. He's not lacking for words to
preach. He's glorifying Christ all through the scriptures. And
there were many lights in the upper chamber where they were
gathered together. And there sat in the window a
certain young man named Eutychus being fallen into a deep sleep.
And as Paul was long preaching, he sank down with sleep and fell
down from the third loft and was taken up to, he fell three
stories. That's a long way up, isn't it?
So I'd probably be like falling off the roof up here. falling off the top of the roof.
Man, that's a long way down. That's a long way down. And Paul went down and fell on
him and embraced him and said, trouble not yourselves, for his
life is in him. And when therefore was come up
again and had broken bread and eaten and talked a long while,
even till the break of day, so he departed. Paul preached all night. Guy fell out of the window, was
dead. The Lord revives him. Paul goes
right back up, starts preaching again. Now he's got lots to preach
about. Look at the miracle the Lord
just did. Oh, I love it. It's so wonderful.
The Word of God is so wonderful, isn't it? It's so wonderful.
And they bought the young man alive and were not a little comforted. So the lights were used, and
they didn't have lights like us where you can flip a switch.
They had candles and torches and stuff like that. But it's
nighttime, so it's dark. It's dark. And Paul continued
his preaching until midnight. And he'd have needed those lights
to read the scriptures, because obviously he was quoting from
scriptures too and reading the scriptures and saying, this is
Christ right here. unfolding the wonderful gospel
of God's grace, right? Because the Lord said, the law
and the prophets, they testify of me. So he's expounding on
portions, preaching Christ to them. And they would have needed those
lights. He would have needed those lights to read and the
saints would have needed those lights to see Paul and to see
one another. Not everybody had the scriptures.
Like now we carry a Bible. Everybody's got a Bible. They
didn't have it back then. Maybe a few people had the scriptures.
They weren't common like it is now, where you can get a Bible
all the time. But the only light they needed
for true worship was Christ, wasn't it? Right? They were there worshiping
Christ in spirit and truth. They're born again of the Holy
Spirit of God. They want to hear about Christ. And we see in verse
9 that Eutychus A certain young man, we know a true follower
of the Lord Jesus Christ, had seated himself in a window on
the third floor. Now, he didn't seat himself there thinking,
I'm going to fall asleep and fall out the window. No, that'd
be foolishness, wouldn't it? No. Maybe he sat there because
it was cooler. I don't know. But obviously he
sat there. Maybe he sat there so any older
folks could have a seat wherever they were sitting. We don't know.
But we know he's sitting in a window. And the window's obviously open.
It's on the third floor. Now back then, they just had
pieces of wood that they'd close and seal the whole window off.
So that would probably be open right now. And it's just, there's
the ground. I wouldn't want to sit there,
would you? But he's a young man. He's sitting
there. He'd fallen into a deep sleep.
And he didn't deliberately fall asleep, beloved, no. He wouldn't
have placed himself in that window if he was gonna deliberately
fall asleep. John Gill mentioned that the
youth of the young man was partially the reason for him getting so
sleepy, and his youth contributed to him falling into a deep sleep.
But let us always remember, Gill continues, that this was all
purposed by God. This is all purposed by God,
by our great sovereign God for the glory of Jesus Christ and
for the confirmation of the preaching of his gospel, end quote. So
all this was planned and purposed by God, that this young man would
fall out the window to confirm the gospel that Paul's preaching.
Let's read verse 9. And there sat in the window a
certain young man. Notice again, we've seen that
word quite a bit in our study, haven't we, in the book of Acts,
certain. Right? That's pointing him out from
all the other people. That's God's distinguishing grace.
A certain young man named Eutychus being fallen asleep into a deep
sleep, and as Paul was very long preaching, he sank down with
sleep and fell from the third loft and was taken up dead. So
we see in our text that Eutychus fell down from the third loft
and was taken up dead. dead. Now this miracle we will
witness, Paul raising the young man from a state of physical
death, would not be the first time that our Lord Jesus Christ
had performed a miracle to prove that Paul was his ordained apostle, to confirm that Paul's preaching
the gospel of God. and to confirm that he was his
ordained apostle and that he preached the gospel of salvation
through Christ alone, which was the gospel of God's salvation. Let's read verse 10. And Paul
went down and fell on him and embraced him and said, trouble
not yourself, for his life is in him. We see that Paul fell
on him and embraced him, just like Elijah did to the widow's
son in 1st King 1721. He fell upon him, as Elijah did
to the son of the woman, and fed him with all food. And when
he was back up, Elijah left her house. And then she's the one
that had her pots filled with oil by the miracle of God's powerful,
providential hand. And remember, all that befell
Eutychus was purposed by God for the glory of the Lord Jesus
Christ. I was talking to a preacher friend
of mine yesterday. He was riding a bike, a motorcycle, and he was planning on going
on a trip the next week. And he's riding a motorcycle,
he's cruising along at 40 miles an hour. And a deer jumps out
in front of him and he hits that deer head on. He went flying
off the handlebars and hit the ground, broke five ribs. He says, I'm laying there going,
well, thank you, Lord, for me being alive. And then he said,
I don't understand, Wayne, why it happened. And I said, well,
think about this. Your brother, last week his wife
died, right? And he said, yeah. And I said,
what happened to you happened a week before she died, right?
And he said, yeah. And I said, look how the Lord
didn't have your brother have sorrow upon sorrow. He goes, what do you mean? I
said, well, if you died and she died, he'd have sorrow upon sorrow. Isn't that amazing? And now he's going to do, he's
preaching her memorial next week. God's gracious, isn't he? Isn't
he gracious? But when it's that time for us
to go, let us know that we're gone. It wasn't John's time to
go. It wasn't his appointed time,
but it was Shirley's appointed time a week later. Both believers, both trusting
in Christ, one going home to heaven and the other one still
on earth. Isn't that amazing? And now he can comfort his brother
who lost his wife, who is also a believer. My, the Lord's so
gracious. He's so good. He's so good to
us. God is so, so good. So all that
befell Eutychus, this was all according to the providence of
God. It was purposed by God for the confirmation of his gospel.
Let's read verses 11 and 12 now of Acts chapter 20. When he therefore
was come up again and had broken bread and eaten and talked a
long while, even till break of day, he departed. So he departed. And they bought the young man
alive and were not a little comforted. So we see in verse 12 that they
bought the man the young man, alive. And they were not a little
comforted. In other words, they had great
comfort. Great comfort that he was still alive. Great comfort. And it fell upon all the saints
of God for his recovery and restoring him to their fellowship. See,
when a saint dies, we mourn because of our loss of fellowship with
them, because we love them. We know that if a person was
believing on Christ, they're in a far better place, aren't
they? And they are not concerned about us at all. Let me tell
you that. The people in heaven are not
concerned about us at all. They're too busy worshiping the
king. Now, if they were concerned about
us, then there'd be sorrow in heaven, wouldn't there? Well,
there's no sorrow in heaven, is there? Heaven's the land of
no mores. No more crying, no more sickness, no more pain,
no more sorrow. No more suffering. And being with Christ and seeing
Him face-to-face forever. And heaven is heaven because
Christ is there. Right? Oh, my. We get to see our Redeemer face-to-face.
It's wonderful. So look at this. They brought
the young man alive. God's saints, they're rejoicing.
They're so rejoicing about this. And note in verse 11, our text,
Paul, therefore, I love this, I love this. He come up, he ate
some more bread, right? And then he preached to them
all night. You want to have a 24 hour worship, Simon? We'd have
to take breaks, wouldn't we? It's wonderful, I'll tell you
why. And they were rejoicing, beloved. Now Paul was going to
depart from them. And he's in Troas. That's where he is, preaching
the gospel to the saints there. My, he ate and he talked a long
while, even until the break of day. Sun's coming up, he's still
talking. He's still preaching. They may
have just been sitting around fellowshipping too, but he's
talking to them about Christ. I love that. He went right back
up to the third store where he'd been preaching, continued talking
until the break of day, and then he departed. He refreshed himself with some
much-needed food so that he could be strengthened for the trip
that was before him. Then he bid farewell. Look at
verses 13 to 16. I had to look up some of these
words, so I'm not gonna stumble around on them today. the names
of these places. Look at verse 13. And he went
before to ship and sailed unto Assos, there intending to take
in Paul, for so had he appointed minding himself to go afoot.
So Paul went by foot, and when they met at Assos, we took him
in and came to Mytilene. And we sailed thence, and came
the next day over to Chios. Now, Chios is a Greek island.
I found that out yesterday. It's a Greek island. The next
day we arrived at Samos, and tarried at Trogilium. And the
next day we came to Miletus. For Paul had determined to sail
by Ephesus, because he would not spend the time in Asia, for
he hasted, if it were possible for him to be at Jerusalem, on
the day of Pentecost, at Jerusalem, the day of Pentecost. So we see
in this passage that it was not the purpose of God, the Holy
Spirit, to give us a lot of detail. Remember, earlier in this chapter,
we looked at that too, and there was not a lot of detail given.
So we know Paul preached. He went to all those places.
We know he preached the gospel, because that's what he did. He wasn't on a sightseeing mission. He was there to preach Christ,
just like you are, David. You're there to preach Christ.
You know, you hear about these short-term
missionary folks, and they go on a trip somewhere, and they
do this, and then they spend half their time looking around
at sites. That's not a mission trip. That's a vacation. Mission trip, you go and preach
Christ. You help the folks there. David, what's the most important
thing you can give those people out there? Christ, right? You
help them, you're with them, but Christ is the most important
thing that any of us can offer and get, you know what I mean,
to proclaim to people is Christ. That's the only hope we have. My oh my. I was sitting at McDonald's
today with Josh. And there was a bunch of bikers
gathering together. They're all patched up and everything. They're
all gathering together there. And I finished my meal and I
said to Joshua, I should go out and preach to them guys. He goes,
what? I said, dude, just go out and
talk to them about Christ. He goes, dad, he goes, I'll be visiting you
in the ER. And I said, no, you won't. I said, I used to do street
evangelism. These guys are harmless. They're
just guys, you know. You get them separate, they're
actually nice guys when you get them separated from the other group.
And he's like, well, I'll drive my car home and bring your car
so they have your license plate. I said, son, you don't have to
be afraid of these folks. They need Christ. They need Christ. And I said, the gospel is the
most important thing we can bring to people, isn't it? Now, we don't tempt God, do we?
We don't put ourselves in situations, but just going and talking to
people? What would they gain with beating
someone up over the gospel? Nothing. They'd end up in prison.
They don't want to do that. They may hate the God we're presenting,
but hey, we can still talk to him, right? Even if we do end up in the ER.
Right? No. But we take whatever door
the Lord opens for us, don't we? We do. We do. People are just people. Whether
they're wearing a jacket with a biker patch on it, or whether
there's some guy who's sharp-dressed, we're all the same. We're just
a bunch of sinners. Right? Just a bunch of sinners. That's
all we are. My, oh, my. And I love how Paul,
he just goes and preaches. He goes into the synagogues,
he preaches. He goes into the streets of these places and he
preaches. He just proclaims Christ, doesn't he? Isn't that wonderful?
And isn't it amazing, as I said in Sunday school, isn't, you
know, think of this, the Lord, He didn't come to save the righteous,
did He? He saved harlots and publicans and sinners, tax collectors,
adulterers, murderers, drunkards. That's who he saves, isn't it?
Hell's full of good people, you know that? I've said that many
times. Hell's full of good people in
their own eyes. Heaven's full of sinners, saved
by the grace of God. That's why heaven's full of sinners.
People, and remember what we read in Sunday School? And such
were some of you, but now you're washed, washed in the blood of
Christ, born again by the Holy Spirit of God. Christ came to save who? Sinners. Thou shalt call His name Jesus,
for He shall save His people from their sins. Therefore, if He saves us from
our sins, what do we call? Sinners. Right? And, brother, we're saved
sinners by the mercy and grace of God in Christ. Hallelujah.
What a Savior is Jesus Christ, my Lord. He saves sinners. Question
is, are you a sinner? Are you a sinner? If you are,
then God's showing you you are. Because we don't believe we're
sinners in our natural state. We think we're good. Oh my. We find out there's none
good, no not one. But praise God, Christ came to
save sinners. And Paul said, of whom I'm chief.
And every believer says, that's me too, Paul. That's me too. So we're given a little bit of
information here. Luke tells us that he and some of Paul's
companions, they sailed by ship to Assos, but Paul traveled by
foot. We don't know why, but he traveled
by foot. Where he boarded the ship with
them, where all of them then continued their journey together.
Now Paul's the one making the decisions. He's being led by
God, right? to go where he's sent to go. So because he's the person who
was given the responsibility to go where the Lord was sending
him, we see in verse 16 that it was not Paul's intent to stop
at Ephesus. If it had been God's purpose
for him to stop at Ephesus, he would have stopped at Ephesus.
But it's not God's intent for him to go there. God's preachers and teachers
and missionaries, and we go where God sends us. Remember Jonah? He didn't want
to go to Nineveh, did he? Well, God sent him there, didn't
he? Oh, yeah. He preached the gospel, he preached
Christ the Messiah, and many were saved. My. Paul desired to go to Jerusalem
on the day of Pentecost. Look at verse 16. For he hasted,
if it were possible for him to be at Jerusalem the day of Pentecost. Now, some foolish people have
said, well, Paul, see, he was still following the law of God.
That's why he wanted to go to Jerusalem. That's not why he
wanted to go to Jerusalem at all. No. Paul's saved. He knows Christ is the end of
the law for righteous. He wrote that by inspiration
of the Holy Spirit of God in Romans. You know why he's going to Jerusalem? Because all those Jews will be
gathered together from all over the place. And God's got some sheep in there. who must hear the gospel. They must. And Paul's gonna go there and
preach the gospel. That's why he wants to go there. Paul wanted to go to preach at
Jerusalem. He knew that there'd be many, many Jews there. From
all over, they'd gather together in Jerusalem to celebrate the
Passover. What an opportunity to proclaim Christ, to proclaim
Christ as the Messiah. Where's the first place he went
to when he entered into the city? The synagogues. And he preached
Christ the Messiah from the Old Testament scriptures. It's wonderful. So by the life-giving power of
Jesus Christ our Lord, Paul had been delivered from the law of
Moses. He knew Christ is the end of the law for righteousness.
He'd been delivered from the law of Moses. He'd been delivered
from that old covenant of works. And he had faced those lawmongers
many times since, hadn't he? Preaching the gospel of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Oftentimes he suffered under them at their hand. All because he preached Christ.
All because he said Christ is the Messiah, and he went to the
cross and died for the sins of his people. And he rose again
on the third day and is seated at the right hand of the Father
right now, interceding for his people. And they hated him. He preached Christ, fulfilled
the law perfectly. Perfectly. Isn't that wonderful? That's a burden off believers,
isn't it? Because we can't even fulfill one law Let alone all
of them. And Christ fulfilled them all
in our room and place perfectly. Perfectly. What does Scripture
say in Galatians? He redeemed us out from under
the law. Isn't that wonderful? We're free
in Christ, beloved. We don't know how free we are
in Christ. But we are free in Christ. Our
sins are forgiven, past, present, and future. That doesn't cause us to want
to go out and go crazy, does it? It causes us to be in awe
of God, that he'd have mercy on a sinner such as me. My. So he'd been delivered from all
that. He went up against lawmongers, and oftentimes he suffered from
their wicked hands just because he preached Christ. And he preached
that Christ has perfectly fulfilled the law of God according to the
will and purpose of God in perfect obedience to God in our room
and place. Isn't that magnificent? That's
magnificent, beloved. Christ fulfilled the law in perfect
obedience as our substitute. So his life and his death go
together. He was perfect in all things. He wove a coat of righteousness
that we're now clothed in, a perfect righteousness, where God accepts
us now. Isn't that amazing? Stunning. Absolutely incredible. The sinless
one offers himself up for a bunch of sinners. My, I'm never going
to get over that, are you? That's amazing. Paul preached
that Jesus Christ had established a perfect righteousness. You
know that? That's what he did. In his life,
he established a perfect righteousness that we could never do. And now,
we're clothed in it. I've said it many times. Remember
the Father says, bring forth the best robe and place it on
him. What's the best robe? The righteousness
of Christ. Right? in whom God accepts us,
being clothed in that righteousness, he looks upon us and looks at
us and sees Christ in his perfect obedience. That's amazing. Paul wrote this by Divine inspiration,
Jesus Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone
that believes, Romans 10, four. And then he wrote, no man is
justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident the just
shall live by faith, Galatians 3, 11. And then he also penned,
if you be led by the spirit, you are not under the law, Galatians
5, 18. Praise his mighty name. Christ fulfilled the law in the
ruined place of all his people. All we could say is hallelujah,
right? Praise His mighty name. So Paul was not desirous to go
to Jerusalem to keep any of the feast days, not at all. Christ
is his Passover, right? Christ is his Sabbath. Christ
is his rest. No, he's not going there to keep
any feast laws established under the Mosaic economy. He'd been
taught by God the Holy Spirit, and he had learned and been taught
by God that Jesus Christ was the fulfillment He was the fulfilment
of everything under that old dispensation. Right? All those sacrifices pointed
to Christ. Remember, those sacrifices couldn't
take away sin, but they pointed to the one who can, the only
one who can take away sins, the Lord Jesus Christ. My! Paul gives us a glimpse in
his intent in going to Jerusalem when he tells us with these inspired
words and listen to this in Romans chapter 10 verse 1. Brethren,
my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they
might be saved. What's Paul's desire? To preach
the gospel to lost souls. Isn't that wonderful? Those wicked,
unbelieving, self-righteous Jews, they hated Paul with an incessant
sinful desire to kill him. Which they eventually did, again,
by the permissive will of our great God, right? Because they
couldn't do anything to him that God didn't allow. But we see in Romans 10.1, I'll
read it again. Brother, my heart's desire and
prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved. That's why
I love it when you guys pray for the messages to go out and
that sinners would be saved. Because that's why we're here.
We're here for the furtherance of the gospel. Right? For the gospel to go out into
the world, into Almonte here. It's wonderful. Paul didn't hate
the Jews. They hated him, but he didn't
hate them. No, it's evident. Because my heart's desire and
prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved. He has a
desire that the Lord would save them. They were his kinsmen in the
flesh, and he's moved. He's moved to pray for them.
He has a sincere desire that they might be saved. He's not
just saying this as lip service. He desires this. This is why
he preaches Christ. Faith cometh by hearing, and
hearing by the word of God. He preaches the gospel. And in
going to Jerusalem, Paul had been taught by God that if the
Lord Jesus Christ had purposed to save them, that here, and
believe his glorious gospel, they would be saved. And his
duty was to preach. He's just a mouthpiece. We can't
save anyone, but I can preach to you someone who can save anyone
who comes to him. He saves the worst of the worst. He saved Paul, he saved David,
he saved murderers, he saved me, and he saved you. Ain't that
amazing? God's so good to us. So his desire,
his desire is to go there and preach the gospel, because there's
going to be a multitude of unbelievers there. Oh my, what a door. What an open door. Let's go to
Jerusalem. My desire is that the Lord would
say, let's go there. Who put that desire in his heart?
The Lord did. Who put that desire for David
to go to Ecuador? The Lord put that in his heart. Isn't that
amazing? Isn't that incredible? Who put the desire for me to
come here 10 years ago? The Lord put that in my heart.
Kevin told me one time, he goes, I thought after what had happened
that you wouldn't want to come here at all. I said, my thoughts
never changed. I wanted to be here. And that's
by God. That's God's grace, isn't it? And here we are 10 years later.
We have an amazing group of people. We love each other. We're here
to worship Christ. We're here for the furtherance
of the gospel. It's absolutely incredible. People come here
and they go, my, the unity you guys have is unbelievable. Well,
it's all by God, right? We don't take no credit, do we?
I can't take no, it's all him. He's done this, he's fostered
this amongst us. It's absolutely amazing. So next
week though, we are gonna see Paul's farewell to the Ephesus,
the elders at Ephesus. He's gonna be leaving Ephesus
and he will not see them again. He knows that his time is at
hand. He knows his time is coming, that he will be ushered out of
this world. And he gives a farewell address to them. Paul understood
that his appointed time of departure was at hand, very near. And he
knew that those faithful men had been appointed by the Lord
Jesus Christ to be leaders in the church in Ephesus, and that
they would see his face no more. And he knew grievous wolves would
come in, too. He's going to tell them that. that when I depart,
grievous woes come in. That's like the Judaizers. All
these people say, well, salvation's in Christ, but you gotta do this. No, salvation's in Christ, period.
End of story. It's in Christ alone, right? We're saved by Christ in Him
alone. It's a marvel. As Paul awaited that bright,
unending, glorious day when Paul would see our Savior face to
face, my, this was not a sad day for him. He looked forward
to it. He looked forward, just like
we do, he looked forward to seeing our King face to face. What a
glorious day that will be, beloved. It's going to be amazing. And
it's all because of the will and purpose of God. And by his
grace and his mercy, show unto sinners such as you and I in
and through Christ alone. And we say praise his mighty
name. Isn't he good? Brother David, would you close
us in prayer?