The name of the message is traveling
and preaching. Traveling and preaching. Open
your Bibles to Acts chapter 20. Two weeks ago we finished chapter
19 during our last study and we saw what Paul had determined
to make it to Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost. Let's stand
up together and read Acts chapter 20, verses 1 to 7. This will
be our text for today. Let's stand up and read this
text together. And after the uproar was ceased,
Paul called unto him the disciples, and embraced them, and departed
for to go into Macedonia. And when he had gone over those
parts, and he had given them much exhortation, he came into
Greece. And there abode three months.
And when the Jews laid wait for him, as he was about to sail
into Syria, he purposed to return through Macedonia, and there
were accompanied to him into Asia, Sophor of the Bria, and
of the Thessalonians, Archaeus, and Sandaeus, and Gaius of Derbe,
and Timetheus of Asia, and Tychrus, and Teropimus. Those gone before
tarried for us at Troas. And we sailed away from Philippi
after three days of unleavened bread, and came into Troas in
five days, where we abode seven days. 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 unto midnight. Those names are a mouthful. I'm
sorry if I mispronounce them. I tried listening to them, and
I'm still mispronouncing them. So just blame it on me being
a Canadian. That's the best way. Oh my. So we see Paul. We had saw, I
believe it was in the last chapter, we saw that Paul had sent Timothy
and Urtus into Macedonia to let the saints in that area know
that he was coming. But Paul stayed at Ephesus for
a little while. We see it even after it calmed
down. In verse 20, we see here, "'And
after the uproar was ceased, Paul called unto him the disciples
and embraced them and departed for to go into Macedonia.'" So
he stayed there a little while after that big riot that happened. And this is all according to
determined counsel and foreknowledge of God, isn't it? God is sovereignly
in control of all things Paul's going to do and where he's going
to go, just like us. Isn't that amazing? It's absolutely
amazing when you think about that. He's so good to us. Again, this was all predetermined
by our sovereign Lord, that his apostle would be in Ephesus until
the appointed time, and that he would be there to help the
persecution that was coming against the church to be there to comfort
them with the gospel, to comfort them with Christ. The risen,
exalted Christ of God took care of that uproar, didn't he? Remember?
We saw how he took care. He used an unsaved town clerk.
He used an unsaved town clerk to calm down that uproar. And
then he used friends of Paul who weren't saved to warn Paul
not to go into the square, remember? Isn't it amazing? It's absolutely
incredible. God is in sovereign control.
He's in sovereign control, beloved. He took care of that uproar without
any harm coming to His disciples. Remember, they let them go. No
harm came to them. They didn't beat them. They yelled
at them, but they didn't lay a hand on them. And that whole city, now you
can be sure, you can be sure that that whole city of Ephesus
had heard about that. Because remember in chapter 19,
the whole city was in an uproar. They were like, these guys are
preaching Christ. They've broken our laws. No,
they hadn't. They hadn't at all. Remember
the town clerk said, they haven't broken any Roman laws. They broke none. And as a matter of fact, the
town clerk let the people know, we better be careful because
if the Romans get a hold of this, and we're just a colony of Rome,
they can send a legion in and wipe us all out. Thinking that
there was an uproar going on, thinking that there was an uprising.
Because the whole city was rioting. So God not only used that town
clerk to preserve his people, but also the people of Ephesus. And they calmed right down, didn't
they? Oh my. God can use anyone, can't
he? Used a donkey, didn't he? Remember
how Norm preached on that? Gave that donkey a voice. And
you know what the funny thing is? Balaam talked back to him. The donkey said, haven't I served
you all these years? And Balaam answered back to him.
Oh my goodness. We'd be like, what? This donkey's
talking to me? God's in control of everything.
Oh my. So the whole city's being made
aware that God has established a church in this city. And remember,
we saw many came out of the pagan idolatry. They were worshiping
false gods, gods of their imagination. And the one who was in an uproar
was that silversmith, remember, who made shrines of Diana and
probably made shrines of little statues of Diana and sold them.
He said, they're taking money out of our pocket. Well, no,
they weren't. They were preaching the gospel.
People were turning from idols, and they didn't want any more
of those idols anymore. They wanted nothing to do with
them. We still have people like those silversmiths. And you know
what? Religion's a big money, isn't
it? Oh, it's big money. Buy this
little shawl, and when you pray, it'll give you extra special
prayers. Buy this here and put it in your
house and hang it on your wall, and God will bless you. No, he
won't. The only way we are blessed is
in and through the Lord Jesus Christ and by his perfect work,
period. Isn't that wonderful? That's
wonderful. It's not based on our doing. Now, do we desire
to serve the Lord? Of course we do. But our salvation
is not dependent upon us. Can your name be taken out of
the book of life? When was it written in there?
Before the foundation of the world. Will Christ lose any of
his sheep? Anybody he saves, will he lose
one of them? One of them. Not one, eh, brother,
not one. Not one. He says, all that the
Father give me shall come to me. In him that cometh to me,
I will in no wise cast out. Isn't that comfort? Jesus will
never cast his people away. Oh, I get comfort from that,
because I know how much of a sinner I am, even now. But now sin bothers me. Did it bother us before the Lord
saved us? Not at all. Now it bugs us, doesn't
it? Now it bothers us. And you know
what? Think of this, too. Think of
how many sins we commit, we don't even know we do them. Our sins are forgiven, sins of
omission and sins of commission. Sins we don't know we do and
sins we do know we do. They're all washed in the blood.
And not one of us has a desire to run out that door and sin
as much as we can, do we? No, because now the love of Christ
constrains us. So here's a bunch of idol worshipers,
bunch of pagans, right? My kin were all a bunch of pagans.
You go back far enough, they were Gauls. They were just a
bunch of pagans. Right? Bowing down to statues
and pieces of wood and all kinds of stuff. But God had mercy on some of
them. How do I know that? Because he's got a people out
of every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation. And I also know that
because there's a book written called Galatians. To the churches
in Gaul. Isn't that wonderful? It's absolutely
wonderful. It's amazing. God's got a people
of every kindred, tongue, tribe, and nation, and a whole bunch
of them in Ephesus the Lord had saved. Greeks, Gentiles, just
called Gentiles by the Jews. Looked at as dogs by the Jews. Well, praise God I'm saved. According
to the mercy and grace of God. Now all through this study, we've
seen sinners turn to Christ, embracing Christ as their Lord
and Savior. And we've seen in our study in
the book of Acts, this glorious God-honouring truth that Jesus
Christ is the exalted God-man, and that he is right now seated
at the right hand of the Father, and he mediates for you and I,
beloved. I still need a mediator, do you? All the time. And he's our advocate. Oh my. Satan accuses us. And
Christ says, there's my blood on him. There's my blood on her. And God says, when I see the
blood, I'll pass over you. My, oh my. It's absolutely wonderful. Think of this, too. All things happen. according
to God's will and purpose. He's working all things after
the counsel of his own will. Don't be alarmed by things we
see going on in this world. Let us just keep looking to Christ.
He's in full control. You say, well, but things look
so chaotic. Things look chaotic to us, but
everything's working according to his will and purpose. He's
still saving his people. He's still saving sheep. The
gospel messages are going out into the world. And the Lord's
still using. He's still moving. My, oh my. Nothing happens by chance, beloved.
Nothing. Everything that happens in time
was purposed by our great sovereign triune God before time began. Believers in the Lord Jesus Christ,
we look now after the Lord saved us, and we see God's sovereign
hand in our lives, don't we? Moving us. He took you to Korea,
brother, to meet your beloved bride. Isn't that amazing? You didn't know each other before
that. He brought me down from Canada
to America to meet my bride. We didn't know each other. We
met up on the internet. No chance. All determined by God according
to his sovereign will and purpose. Isn't that wonderful? It's absolutely
wonderful. God is so good. He's so merciful
to us. It's absolutely incredible. And we look back and see his
hand in our life. I can look back and see where
he preserved me, where I should have died. In my eyes, preserving us the
whole time, till the day we hear the gospel. And we who are God's
people, we don't believe in mother nature. You notice the world
talks about mother nature? There's no mother nature, beloved.
God's in control of everything. The weather too. The weather
too. We don't believe in fortune.
We don't believe in what people call lady luck. There's nothing,
there's none of that. That's just lies. That's man wanting to have nothing
to do with God. Not wanting to admit that God's
a sovereign God. I thank God that he's sovereign.
I'd have destroyed myself years ago. Would you? Oh, he's so wonderful. He's so wonderful. God's born-again, blood-washed
saints want nothing to do with that stuff. Mother Nature or
Lady Luck or any of that. We don't want nothing to do with
that. Chance. I don't want nothing to do with
that. You know, there's no such thing as luck. There's not. If something happens,
don't say, oh, I was lucky. Just say, praise God, he kept
me from that. Spurgeon said we as believers
should take the word luck and try to get it right out of our
vocabulary. Hard thing to do, isn't it? Because it's ingrained
in us from youth. My. May God give us grace to
understand that all things are under his absolute control and
to just trust him, to trust in his wisdom, to trust in his love,
to trust in his care, because he's in control. I'm not in control. You know, that's a hard thing
for us to admit, right? We're not in control. We want
to control things, right? Control our lives. We want to
control the situation we're in. We're not in control. If we have a wonderful life,
give God the glory. We live in a peaceful country,
give God the glory. We have a loving family, give
God the glory. We have wonderful parents, give
God the glory. If we're saved, oh my! That's
the most important thing, right? I tell my kids, I don't care,
I don't care where you are in life, what stage in your life,
I just pray the Lord will save you. That's the most important
thing to me. That's the most important thing.
And we lift our kids up, don't we, to the Lord, asking Him to
save them. It would be His will. Knowing
because He's the only one who can save them. Because He saved
us and we couldn't do anything about it, right? Now, He made
us willing, so we ran to Him. But what I'm saying, when I say
we couldn't do anything about it, we couldn't save ourselves. If a sinner is saved, God must
save that sinner. That's the only way we can be
saved. in and through the Lord Jesus Christ, and by his perfect
work, which was accomplished 2,000 years ago. Now, if the
work of salvation was accomplished 2,000 years ago, which it was,
why do we think we can save ourselves? If we could save ourselves, because
this is how we're wired, beloved. We're wired thinking that we
have to do something. I gotta do something to maintain
my salvation. I gotta do something to get my
salvation. I gotta do something to maintain
my salvation. I just might lose it at the end. Not if it's God's
salvation. He's the author and he's the
finisher of our salvation. And then the scripture says we're
kept by the power of God. So he saves us, we're born again,
given faith to believe on Christ. And then he keeps us, keeps us,
keeps us, keeps us. And then the finisher, off to
glory. He works in us and through us. And we are receivers of grace,
receivers of mercy. See, this is why free grace is
so wonderful, because it's not dependent upon us. Remember,
the scripture says, he who had begun a good work in you, who
began it? Did we begin it by walking down
an aisle or praying a prayer? No, he began it in us. Did we cry out to him? Absolutely.
Did we ask him, Lord, save me? Absolutely. But only because he'd begun a
good work in us. That cry of faith, God be merciful
to me, a sinner, a Republican, that came from a regenerated
heart. He was already born again. He's got faith now to cry out
to God. because God began a good work in him. And he'll finish
it, right? Which means he'll continue it
too, right? Do you see how much of a freeing it is knowing that even
my spiritual growth is not dependent upon me? I read my Bible, I listen
to sermons, I fellowship with one another, get iron sharpened
in iron, but that growth that comes in us is all the work of
God the Holy Spirit. That's wonderful. And God the
Father is conforming us to the image of Christ like a sculptor. It's beautiful. See, we're receivers of grace
and mercy. God begins the work and finishes
the work of salvation in us. Salvation's of the Lord, right?
Jonah 2.9. It's all Him. And this is what
we can rest in, beloved. What a hope we have. And then
we find out, like we found out in Philippians chapter 4 verse
3, that our names are written in the book of life. When? From
eternity. And our names are written in
that book because we were chosen in Christ from eternity. My! Me? Yep. Not because of anything
we did either. That's incredible, isn't it?
That's mercy, isn't it? That's mercy. That's grace. My. May God give us the grace and
the understanding to just be in awe of the fact that he is
in absolute control. And give thanks to him for this.
Look at verse 1 again of Acts chapter 20. And after the uproar
was ceased, Paul called unto him the disciples and embraced
them. and departed to go into Macedonia. We see Paul was not
allowed to leave Ephesus until the Lord allowed him to leave. And he wasn't allowed to leave
until the Lord had calmed down the crowd. So Paul would be a comfort to
the saints there. Remember, he wasn't at the theatre
when all that broke out. The Lord, through his fellow
laborers in the gospel, had warned him. And then the Lord, through
his unsaved friends, had warned him, don't go into the theater. Because they figured he'd be
dead. They looked at him as the ringleader. So that vicious mob of pagan
idolaters, which they were, When it was the appointed time for
his apostle to continue his ordained missionary trip, his journey,
God the Holy Spirit led him to when it was time to leave. And Paul's sincere desire to join Timothy and Eurydice
as soon as he could, but the love that he had for the saints
at Ephesus would not allow him to leave until he had given them
a farewell embrace. Now look at that. Look at the
love that he has for them in verse two. He embraced them and
departed. This is the Christian love. The
family aspect. Like I said, what we have here
is very special. We're family. We have the same
Father. We come from all different backgrounds.
We have the same Spirit. And we're saved by the same Redeemer.
In His precious blood, the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's read verses two and three
now. Acts chapter 20. And when he had gone over those
parts and had given them much exhortation, he came into Greece,
and there abode three months. And when the Jews laid wait for
him, as he was about to sail into Syria, he purposed to return
through Macedonia. Note, what is he doing when he's
traveling? He's preaching. He's exhorting
the saints, but he's preaching to them. And the God-given love in Paul's
heart for lost sinners was manifest by his desire to preach the gospel. Everywhere he goes, he has a
desire for lost sinners to hear the gospel. That's what we have,
isn't it? We're here for the furtherance of the gospel. And
here's the gospel going from here to all the world. It's absolutely
amazing. We desire to see the gospel go
forward. We desire to see people saved
from their sins. And even within hostile opposition
and environments, let us realize that God is in sovereign control
and he will take care of his people. And again, Paul's love for the
born-again, blood-washed saints of God, too, is manifest because
it's so evident he desires to visit the brethren along the
way and to exhort them. How does God's people comforted?
By the gospel, by the preaching that Christ has done it all.
Salvation's finished. My, that's wonderful. So here
he is, he's traveling. And remember, he's traveling
by foot. They don't have cars then and stuff. He's traveling
by foot, and each place he goes to, he's preaching the gospel.
So he's traveling and preaching, isn't he? It's wonderful. And Paul didn't have to slam
open the doors. He just waited for doors to open
up for him, and he preached the gospel. He'd go in the synagogue. You know, he had to wait there
while other things were done, and then he'd say, they'd ask
if anyone wants to speak, and he'd speak. Isn't that wonderful? And he'd reason with lost sinners. My. And here he is, going around,
exhorting the brethren, exhorting them to continue in the faith,
just keep clinging to Christ. Just keep looking to Christ,
no matter what you see happening in this world. And that world
was just as brutal as our world. There's nothing new under the
sun. Let's never forget that. Everything that's happening now
has happened in the past. Everything. Man is still just as wicked as
they were as in the days of Noah. Nothing new under the sun, right?
Lost men are dead in trespasses and sins, and God's saints who
are saved by the grace of God were still sinners struggling
through this world. But what a hope we have in Christ Jesus
our Lord. What a hope we have. Oh, it's wonderful. And let us
never lose sight of this God-honoring truth, that it was the Spirit
of Christ working in the heart of the Apostle, both to will
and to do of His good pleasure. Remember that God is working
in us, just like He worked in the Apostle, to will and to do
His good pleasure. That's over in Philippians, if
you want to look that up. If you want to write down the reference,
Philippians 2.13. He's working His will in us. We're being conformed to the
image of Christ. It doesn't say we're working.
It says he's working in us. Remember, we're clay, right?
What does a potter do with the clay? Does the clay say, hey,
make me a candlestick? No. The clay is an object in
the hands of the potter. He's the potter and we're what?
The clay. Oh, isn't God good to us? Isn't
he merciful to us? He's so merciful. He didn't leave
me in the pagan stuff I was into before he saved me. I was a Catholic,
then I got into New Age stuff, all this New Age stuff, oh my,
just wicked stuff. But he didn't leave me there. He saved my soul. And where you
came from, where you were when He saved you, we were both dead
in trespasses and sins. Do you know that? And I was no better than you,
and you were no better than me. But God saved us. What mercy,
what grace, what love. He didn't leave us where we were,
beloved. My! The eternal love of God for his
born-again, chosen, blood-washed people was the reason that Paul
was sent to preach the gospel. Do you know where you heard the
gospel was ordained by God? Where you were the exact second
that the Lord saved you, that was your time of love, ordained
and purposed by God. My. Why? Because your names are written
in the Lamb's Book of Life. Because you're chosen in Christ
from before the foundation of the world. Oh, it's truly amazing. It's
truly amazing. And it was the same love of God
that sent Paul to exhort the true disciples of Christ to continue
in their faith for His glory, the same love Paul had in his
heart to exhort them, and it was the same love that spoke
life to the dead sinners in Ephesus, who were God's people. Remember,
he says to Paul, keep preaching in here, because I have much
people in this city. That's before he's even preaching.
I have much people in the city, go preach the gospel. Paul's just a mouthpiece, isn't
he? And remember, Paul's a sinner just like you and I, O wretched
man that I am. Who can deliver me from this
body of death? You think Paul struggled with sin? All the time. You think David struggled with
sin? All the time. You think any of these dear saints
we read about ever got mad at people? All the time. They struggled just like you
and I. But the amazing thing for we believers is now we repent
of those things. Not so that we can be, not that
we're lost because we sinned, because if God saved us, we're
saved, but because now we have godly sorrow within us. Now we
repent of our sins. Now we confess our sins to God.
He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness. When will we cleanse from all
unrighteousness? At Calvary's cross. Do we still confess our sins?
Absolutely. And that same love that we have
for one another is the same love that constrains
us from sin. Because the love of God, Paul
writes, the love of God constrains us from sin. You know why we're
not as bad as we could be? Because God restrains us with
love for Christ. Did you have that love for Christ
before he saved you? No, we didn't. We had contempt
for him before he saved us, didn't we? Or we just didn't want, we
didn't even think about him. Now we love him. Isn't God wonderful? Isn't God
merciful to we sinners? He's so good to us. In every generation during the
gospel age, the exalted Christ of God has been doing the same
thing he was doing during the apostolic age. delivering his
lost sheep from the power of darkness, and he's still doing
it today. Delivering his sheep from the power of darkness under
the preaching of his glorious gospel, the finished perfect
work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Isn't that wonderful? And God's preachers, we have
the desire and the honor of preaching the gospel of God's free grace.
What a privilege. But we're no different than you.
We're all on the same level. It's an honor to preach the gospel.
It's an honor to proclaim Christ, but I'm just a safe sinner like
you are. I struggle with sin all the time,
do you? My. But we have a true love for
our Lord, and we have a true love for his people too now,
don't we? That we never had before. And we have a true desire for
the gospel to go forward now. See, this is what is driving
Paul. Why do we keep on keeping on?
Because the Lord keeps us. Left to ourselves, we wouldn't
keep on keeping on. So this is why, and you see,
the saints needed the same exhortation we need. to hear the gospel of
Christ, to hear about Christ, to hear about what He's done,
not about what we have to do to stay saved or to be saved.
No. If you're saved, Christ saves
you. And that's peaceful. But now
what do we do? We just keep looking to Christ,
don't we? We are marveling that we're saved. I still marvel that
I'm saved. I was looking through that Bible
study for Philippians 3. Marveling! My name was written
in the Lamb's Book of Life. In eternity? Me? Glory be to God. You? You can say the same thing, eh,
Brother Travis? Me? Praise His mighty name. That's
mercy. That's grace. So I preach the
gospel of free salvation in and through the Lord Jesus Christ.
It's an accomplished work. It's already done. You can't
add to it, and you can't take away from it. We rest in a perfect salvation,
don't we? In and through the Lord Jesus
Christ. I have a friend of mine, he says, oh, he can get a salvation
and lose it. I said, you have no peace, man.
You have no peace. And if that salvation is based
upon you, then you don't have salvation. Right? We have peace with God,
how? In and through the Lord Jesus
Christ. It's all about him. It's his work. God sent his son
into this world to save us, because we can't save ourselves. God,
the son, sent the Holy Spirit to regenerate us and teach us
the things of Christ, because otherwise we're just dead in
trespasses and sands. Then he gives us an understanding
of his word and we marvel. Oh my, God saved me and he keeps
me. Now, do I desire to walk a life,
a holy life? Yeah. You ever been sitting there
and you're just struggling with sin in your mind? You're just
struggling. Oh my gosh, you're just struggling with it. And you know what we need to
do then? We need to open our Bibles. and
just read some scripture, or turn on an audio Bible, or
turn on a sermon, get our minds on Christ, and cry out to Him. Remember? God, be merciful to me, the sinner.
That's true Christianity, isn't it? Because you know what we
are? We're sinner saints. We're saints
of God, and yet we're still sinners. And remember what Christ said
in John chapter 15? He said, without me you can do...
Somebody tell me. Something? No. Nothing. I look at those apple trees.
I love looking at these trees in spring and summer. I'm looking
at those big apples now on the tree and I'm thinking, that little
branch didn't say, okay fruit, appear. All the nourishment came
up through that vine, up through that trunk, and out to all those
branches. And that fruit, that fruit came
from the vine, came from the trunk. He's the vine, and we're
the branches. And the fruit that's produced
in us is the fruit of the Spirit. It's all of God. Praise His mighty
name. Let's give Him the glory. Let's
say hallelujah to Him. What a Savior is Jesus Christ,
my Lord. He's wonderful. Praise His name. He's so good. He's so good. My. So Paul has this burning love
for the saints, for lost people. His desire is to honor God by
the preaching of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, salvation
in and through him. His desire is for lost sinners
to come to Christ, the same desire we have, beloved. My. And let us never forget that
only the Holy Spirit of God can make the preaching of the gospel
effectual. I can't make it effectual. Only
God can take the words from my mouth and between my mouth and
your heart, apply them to you and make them effectual. Isn't
that wonderful? I'm just telling you about my
King. I'm telling you about the one
who can save anyone who comes to Him. My. And if you come to Him, it's
by the grace and mercy of God, praise His mighty name. It's
wonderful. If I could only speak how I feel. If I could only speak how I feel
about my King to you. Words aren't even sufficient,
are they? And if you could speak to me how you feel about our
King, words aren't sufficient, are they? Our hearts just bubble
over with joy and love for the wonderful, merciful Savior, the
Lord Jesus Christ. He had mercy on a sinner like
me. Praise his mighty name. It's wonderful. And it's God himself who builds
up our faith, beloved, under the preaching of the gospel.
And we're saved by his almighty power. And again, he who has
begun a good work in us will perform it. Listen to this in
Philippians 1.6, being confident of this very thing that he, that
being God, which had begun a good work in you. Now look at that.
God begins a good work in each one of his people. He begins
a good work. We don't begin it. This is wonderful. He that began
a good work in you will, not maybe, not well, not if you exercise
your free will to follow him. No, it doesn't say that. Are
we made willing? Absolutely. We have wills. We're made willing now, aren't
we? But look at this. Look at this. Listen to this.
That he, being God, which hath begun a good work in you, born
again to the Holy Spirit of God, will perform it until the day
of Jesus Christ, taken home to glory. He began it, and praise his mighty
name, hallelujah, here finish it. It's wonderful. My. Let's read verse 2 and 3
again. And when he came, when he had
gone over these parts and had given them much exhortation,
he came into Greece. And there abode three months.
So we see he came into Greece. He abode there three months.
Greece is a colony at this time of Rome. It's under Roman rule. And we see God, the Holy Spirit,
didn't move Luke to give any details about Paul's activities,
except that he exhorted the saints. During those three months in
Greece, we don't see anything written about him. But we know
that he was preaching the gospel. And during this time, it's believed
that he wrote two letters to the Corinthians. We don't have to guess what he
was doing. Every opportunity he had, he preached the gospel.
He preached the gospel. Three months in Greece, he's
preaching the glorious gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ whenever
he had the opportunity. He's exhorting God's saints wherever
they can be found in that area. And he has the honor of spending
time with them, and they have the honor of spending
time with him. And they're growing in the Lord together, right? Just like how sometimes
we see things in the scriptures, we go, I didn't see that before.
We're growing in the Lord, aren't we? We're seeing things we never
saw before. God's revealing things to us.
Praise his name. Now let's look at the second
part of verse three here. And when the Jews laid wait for
him as he was about to sail into Syria, he purposed to return
through Macedonia. We see here some unbelieving
Jews heard that he was about to sail to Syria. They didn't
like that. They didn't like that. We see
in verse three, what'd they do? They plot the death of Paul.
They wanna kill him. Oh, the wickedness of our natural
hearts, right? Because you know, before the
Lord saved me, we'd all, and before the Lord saved you, we'd
all be in that same state. Right? People say, isn't it wild
to hear people say, well, if I was at the cross, or if I was
with that mob in Jerusalem, I would never have said, crucify him,
crucify him. You would have if you weren't saved. And so would
I have. That was just natural man manifesting
their hatred for God. That's all. But praise God, now we say praise
His mighty name. Isn't that wonderful? We're turned
from rebels into those who praise Him now. God's magnificent. He's absolutely magnificent. So here they're plotting the
death of Paul. They would have carried it out, but the Lord
intervened. The Lord intervened. He revealed
to Paul what they were about to do. He's made aware of what
these ungodly Jews are plotting. And it could be said of ungodly
Gentiles too. It just, this is the ungodly.
This is us in our natural state. And the unbelieving Jews were
one of the largest group of persecutors of Christ. Do you ever think
of that? The unbelieving Jews, as we read the scriptures, the
unbelieving Jews are one of the largest group of persecutors
of the New Testament church. And the Lord said, marvel not
if they persecute you. And that's everybody in the world. Marvel
not if the world hates you. It hated me first. See, they
can't get to God. They can't get to Christ, so
they get to his people. So when someone comes at you
about your faith, pray for them. Pray for them. They just, they hate Christ in
you. That's what it is. That's what it is. Now let's
read verses four to six. And there, accompanying him into
Asia, So Parter of Berea and of the Thessalonians are Tissus
and Secundus, and Gaius of Derbe, and Timothy, and of Asia, Tychrus,
and Trophimus. These, going before, tarried
for us at Troas." So they went before him. And we sailed away
from Philippi after the days of unleavened bread, and came
unto them into us in five days, where we abode seven days. So
we see that the Holy Spirit honored many of Paul's traveling companions
by moving Luke to record their names. Here are some names of men who
accompanied Paul, whose names are written in the book of life.
just as all believers' names are written in the Book of Life.
It's wonderful. Written in the Lamb's Book of
Life from eternity. And these men in our text were
no different than any faithful supporters of the Lord's Church
and the Lord's preachers. They were just like us. Just like us, just normal folks
who the Lord had saved. Sinners saved by the grace of
God in Christ. It's amazing. And they went along
with Paul through the preaching of the gospel. And they were
saved, they were saved by the same power of God that raised
Christ from the dead, which is the same power that raised us
from our dead natural state. Born again of the Holy Spirit
of God. All according to God's will and power and purpose. It's
magnificent. It's magnificent. And we see here again that the
Holy Spirit didn't give Luke any details about Paul's activities
on this part of the missionary journey. So we see here another rapid
description of Paul's missionary journey, just like we saw in
the earlier verses. He spent the next few months
traveling by land and sea. He didn't, when he went to Syria,
he was gonna go to Syria, they believe by boat, and then he
went off into Macedonia, I believe, and he
went by foot. He went by foot. And all this is leading up to
the Apostle's farewell message to the Ephesian elders at the
church, churches in Ephesus. But Luke, he gives us a quick
update here after the uproar at Ephesus. He spent the next few months
traveling by land and sea through Asia, Macedonia, and Greece,
visiting the churches which had been established during his earlier
missionary journeys. And everywhere Paul went, he
did the same thing. He preached Christ. He preached
Christ. He exhorted the saints, continue
to look to Christ. He didn't write books. to tell
him how to live a Christian life, he exhorted him to look to Christ.
Because if we look to Christ, our minds won't be on other things
in this world. Right? Oh yeah. Everywhere he went, in the synagogues,
in the streets, in the churches, in the marketplaces, Paul preached
Christ. He preached Christ to the people.
But all the while he was hurrying to Jerusalem. Look at Acts 20
verse 16. 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. So he desired to get to Jerusalem. Why? To preach on the day of
Pentecost, to preach Christ as the Passover lamb. to his brethren
of the flesh. His desire is to preach to lost
souls, to build up the saints and to preach to the lost. This
is the desire of every true preacher of God. My, God use the message for your
glory and honor and praise. Let us look to Christ and Christ
alone. And Paul and his company got
to Troas. They remained there for seven
days. And when they were at Troas, we see three very important truths
recorded in verse 7. Now look at this in verse 7.
This is amazing. Let's read Acts 20, verse 7.
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. Now
note, We see one very important truth that stands out in this
verse is Sunday, the first day of the week. They worshiped. It's a day our Lord has appointed
for worship. Now, Christ is our Sabbath. We
can worship him any day, right? But the first day of the week
is a day set apart for us. We're not Sabbatarians, right? We're not Sabbatarians. We don't
worship Sunday. No, not at all. No. We can worship God any day of
the week, can't we? Because he's our Sabbath. But
we see here, the first day of the week was set apart for the
saints to assemble for public worship. This is when our Lord's
disciples came together. Again, Sunday's not the believer's
Sabbath. People say, oh, it's the Sabbath
day. No, it's not the Sabbath day. Christ is my Sabbath, which
means rest. Is Christ your rest? He's our rest, right? That's
what that means. Rest. Sabbath means rest. He's my rest. I've ceased from my labors of
trying to save myself. I'm just resting in His finished
work. Are you? It's wonderful. Absolutely wonderful. My oh my. He's so good. He's
so good to us. And think of this. He's fulfilled
every jot and chittle of the law for us in our room and place,
in our room and place. And by God-given faith, we've
entered into his eternal rest now. We're looking to Christ
by God-given faith. God's born-again, blood-washed
saints do not meet on Sunday to try and make themselves more
acceptable in God's sight. There's groups out there that
do that. There's groups out there that,
they can't cook on Sunday, they can't do nothing on Sunday. They make this day, they make
this day to do all and win all. Christ is our everything. Now
this is the day we choose to meet together, right? But we also meet on Wednesday
nights, don't we? We also meet live streaming on the Thursday
short messages, right? We fellowship through the week
with one another, call each other, send each other texts, prayer
requests. It's wonderful. We don't come to church on Sundays
to make ourselves more acceptable to God. We come to worship Him,
don't we? We come to praise Him. We come
to gather with the Lord's people, right? This is a day set aside
for us to come and worship the Lord. But we're not gaining merit
and favor with God by it. All the merit and favor we have
with God is in Christ, who is our rest, who is our Sabbath.
Now, like I said, I look forward to Sunday like no other day because
I'm with you all. And I love it. But we're not getting together
believing that God's going to bless us
in a special way, which he will anyways by the preaching of the
gospel. But because we're doing this, we're not gaining favor
with God. We come here because we love him. We love him. That's
why we support the church. That's why we come to hear the
gospel, because we love Christ. Right? And do we willingly come?
Oh, yeah. My, we love it, but Christ is
our Sabbath. A true born-again child of God
doesn't come to church on Sunday morning with the thought of becoming
more sanctified. Oh, I'm going to become more
sanctified by coming to church today. No, we come to listen,
to hear about Christ, and He builds us up. He has us grow
in grace. By His power, we're sanctified
in Christ. We're set apart in Christ. And
now we're growing in grace, aren't we? Under the preaching of the
gospel. We come to hear about Christ. Tell me about my King.
Tell me about the one who saved me. Tell me about the one who's
loved me for eternity. And I didn't even know it. Tell
me about the one who shed His blood for me and gave His life
for me on Calvary's cross 2,000 years ago. Tell me about His
everlasting love for me. Tell me that His eye was upon
me when I was in my mother's womb. That He formed me in my
mother's womb. Tell me these wonderful things.
Tell me from the cradle to the grave that I'm His. Praise His mighty name. I'll
make you say hallelujah. He will. Oh my. Tell me about my King. Tell me
about my Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who left heaven to sacrifice
himself for my sin. Mine, for yours, if you're a
believer. Mine. We come to worship the King of
Kings and the Lord of Lords, don't we? That's why we come. We come to sing praises to the
King of Kings. We come to hear a message about
the King of Kings. We come to hear a message about
the only Savior who can save sinners, and He saves sinners
such as we. He's amazing. saints of God, we're not motivated
by a desire to gain more rewards, are we? Christ is our reward.
If Christ is my reward and he is, what more do I want? I come to worship he who is my
reward. Do you? Isn't it wonderful? We
come to be with a bunch of other sinners saved by God's grace.
This is a hospital for sinners. Do you know that? Yeah. This is an oasis in the desert
of this world. My. True saving faith embraces
Christ as our sovereign Lord and Savior. We believe that by His supreme
sacrifice, He paid the ransom price for our souls, beloved.
We're motivated by love. We're motivated by love, the
love of Christ shed abroad in our hearts. Another truth we see in verse
7 is the Word of God does not teach closed communion. Huh? Look, look at verse 7. 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 continue
his speech until midnight. Well, we see Paul's breaking
bread with those who he's traveling to and who he's traveling with.
Oh. So the table is open to all who
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. The only way that we warn people
not to come to the table, not to take communion, is if you're
an unbeliever. But if you're a believer in the
Lord Jesus Christ, come and rejoice with us in the remembrance of
what Christ has done for us, saving us from all our sins. We see that the pastor of wherever
they were and the leaders of the church didn't say, well,
you can't take communion with us. I've been in churches like
that. where even people of like-minded faith, they say, well, no, you
got to just take that at your church. What? I've seen it. It's horrible. My. We come together remembering
the perfect sinatoning work of the Lord Jesus Christ, and he
saved my soul by the shedding of his blood. So they'd been taught that there
was one body, the body of Christ, comprised of believers all over,
all over. Again, the only person who's
not worthy to come to the table is one that does not have true
saving faith. Don't take communion if you're not saved. All unregenerate, self-righteous
professors of the Lord Jesus Christ, who dare to try and come
to take the Lord's table without spiritual discernment concerning
what His death accomplished for them, eat and bring damnation
to themselves, the scripture says. Let's read verse 7 again. Upon
the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to
break bread, Paul preached unto them, there he is, he's preaching
again, ready to depart on the morrow and continue his speech
until midnight. Another truth that stands forth,
and this is the third truth in this verse, is when the saints
of God come together for public worship, the glorious gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ is preached. The most important thing is not
the singing. The most important thing is the preaching. Before I was saved, I went to
a couple churches, and they have 40 minutes of worship. A 15-minute
sermon, if you can call it that, was all about what you had to
do. And another 40 minutes of worship. That's unbalanced. The reason we do one song, scripture
reading, and then the preaching of the gospel, and then one more
song, is because the preaching of the word is paramount. It's
the most important thing. Now, I love singing with you
all. I love it. I love worshiping the Lord with you, but the preaching
of the gospel is the most important thing. It really is. And the message is all about
Christ. We know Paul, look at this, Paul preaching them ready
to depart on the morrow and continue to speech until midnight. Do
you imagine if I sat here and kept preaching for another 12
hours? Isn't that amazing? He didn't
stop. You know why? Because the Bible's
a mine full of gems. And remember, he knew the Old
Testament better than the Jews knew it. So he's just pulling
Christ out of all the Old Testament. He's just going. Preached all
the way to midnight. Next week, we're going to see
someone fell out of the window and fell on the ground. Guy fell
asleep. My, oh, my. How could he continue his speech
until midnight? Well, he had a source, a mind
full of gold nuggets, didn't he? He had the scriptures. And
the scriptures then is the Old Testament. There was no New Testament
then. And he preached all the way to
midnight. Oh, my. My, oh, my. And Paul didn't draw attention
to himself. He didn't bring attention to his education or his prominent
position as a Jewish Pharisee or the fact that he's an apostle.
He didn't do that. He desired to declare the long-suffering
of our Lord Jesus Christ for sinners such as we. And he preached
that God has shown mercy to hell-deserving sinners in Christ. Isn't that
wonderful? It's wonderful. Paul used God's
mercy to draw our attention to Christ. To Christ. He said, we preach not ourselves,
but Christ Jesus, the Lord, and ourselves, your servants, for
Jesus' sake. See, we preachers are just servants. You all who
are here, you're just servants. We're both servants. We're bond
servants for Christ. That's what we are. We're bought
with a price. We're not our own. Isn't that wonderful? Listen
to this. Paul wrote this, for God, who
commanded the light to shine over the darkness, has shined
in our hearts. Born again. To give the light
of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ,
but we have this treasure in earthen vessels. We have this
hope, this treasure of salvation in and through Christ alone in
earthen vessels. We're as secure now as the saints
in heaven. It's true. We have this treasure on earth
and vessels, that the excellency and the power may be of God and
not of us. 2 Corinthians 4, verses 5 to
7. See, the power isn't in us. We can't save ourselves, we can't
keep ourselves. But praise be to God, we've been
saved by the only Savior of sinners, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shed
his blood. to save us from our sins. And
we come here each Sunday to worship our king, to praise his mighty
name for his mercy and his grace that he's showing us in and through
the Lord Jesus Christ. And we say, hallelujah. What
a savior. What a wonderful, merciful savior
is Jesus Christ, my Lord. Christ is all and in all to us,
isn't he? He's the lily of the valley.
Oh my, he's the fairest of 10,000 to our souls. Praise his mighty
name for his grace and his mercy, which has been bestowed upon
sinners such as we. Amen and amen. Brother Brian,
can you close us in prayer?