today is Paul and Corinth. Paul and Corinth. We'll start this new chapter
in this wonderful study of Acts. It'll be in Acts chapter 18,
which starts out, we will see, Paul departs Athens and goes
to Corinth. It's about 40 miles away from
Athens. And Corinth is a major seaport. It has two seas, the Aegean on
one side, and I can't remember what the other one was, but it
has two seas close by. So it was a major port for things
coming in and out. And there was, again, just like
Athens, temples of false gods all through the city. But Corinth
was known more for sexual immorality. And Corinth, the word Corinth
was a byword, was a curse word. People would use it like a curse
word, Corinth. It was so wicked. So that gives
you a little setting of where Paul's going. Let's stand up
and read verses one to four of Acts chapter 18 together. We'll
be going a little bit further down in the chapter, but I just
wanted to read these four verses for us to get us an idea of how
this chapter starts here. Verse one, after these things,
Paul departed from Athens and came to Corinth, and found a
certain Jew named Aquila, born in Pontus, lately come from Italy,
and Priscilla, because that Claudius had commanded all Jews to depart
from Rome, and came unto them. And because he was of the same
craft, he abode with them, and wrought, for by their occupation
they were tentmakers. And he reasoned in the synagogues
every Sabbath, and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks." My! What's Paul doing? Well, he's
a tentmaker by trade, so he's in the marketplace again,
like he was in Athens, and His favorite thing to do is go to
the synagogues and preach Christ. Isn't that wonderful? Absolutely
wonderful. So again, in biblical times,
Athens was about 40 miles from Corinth. Again, Corinth was a
commercial and political metropolis of Greece. It was actually the
residence of the Roman procouncil. Roman procouncil, he did not
control the military in that area, but he was like a governor.
Set there by Rome. So for Greece, the Roman procouncil,
because they were under Greek rule, that was where he lived. Remember Paul went to Cyprus?
And remember the Lord saved the procouncil there? That was amazing.
That was absolutely incredible. My oh my. And again, a Roman
pro-council was a title held by the civil governor, put in
place a power over countries and territories, which were part
of the general Roman empire. Now look at verses one and two
again of Acts chapter 18. And let us, this is amazing. As I was studying for this, this
is amazing. You know, we talk about God's
will and purpose being put into effect, right? And sometimes
we can see it, and sometimes we can't. But it's always working,
isn't it? He's always working his sovereign
will and purpose. Now, Aquila and Priscilla, they
were in Italy. And they were Jews. And Claudius,
the emperor at that time, had said, out with the Jews. So by God's providential hand,
now think of this, this is wonderful, he moves them to Corinth. And Paul's in Athens, he's like,
I'm out of here, right after he's done preaching, he left.
And now by God's sovereign purpose and will, he's in Corinth, and
who does he meet? Well, a couple of God's lost
sheep. Isn't that amazing? So marvel
at that in these two verses, as we see God's unfolding will
and purpose occurring. It's absolutely incredible. So
here, after these things, Paul departed from Athens. So he says,
remember last week? They blasphemed, the Jews blasphemed,
said, I'm going to the Gentiles. And a whole bunch of Gentiles
the Lord saved, and now the time has come for him to leave Athens.
But Timothy and Silas are not yet there with him. Remember,
he said, he told the, when he left and fled to Athens,
he said, sent a message back to Timothy and Silas and said,
meet me in Athens. Well, before they could meet
him in Athens, Paul left and went to Corinth. And we're going
to see later in the text, they end up going to Corinth. So the
saints at Athens must have said he went off to Corinth now. Probably left a message behind.
Tell him I've gone onward. But look at this, look at God's
unfolding will and purpose here. Look at this. After these things,
Paul departed from Athens and came to Corinth, all by the will
and sovereign decree of God, right? And found a certain Jew named
Aquila, born in Pontus, lately come from Italy. So Italy was
the heart of the Roman Empire. It's where Rome was, and it's
the heart of the Roman Empire. With his wife Priscilla, because
that Claudius, the emperor at that time, had commanded all
Jews to depart from Rome. So now we see they were in Rome. And that wicked ruler said, we're
gonna get rid of all the Jews, they gotta leave. They gotta
leave. But see, now that must have caused
some turmoil in their life, right? My, we gotta leave? We're making
tents, this is where we practice, this is where we do our craft. And we know there was a synagogue
in Rome too, so they probably went to the synagogue. And now
their whole life is uprooted. But God's will and purpose is
coming to pass. Oh my, I love this stuff. This
is the stuff that just gets me so excited. I'll tell you why,
it's wonderful. and came unto them. So here's
Paul. And look at that word again that
we've seen so much in our study of Acts, a certain Jew. Not all
of them, a certain one. One of God's lost sheep and his
wife. Another one of God's lost sheep.
Isn't this amazing? Remember we saw in our studies
a certain man all through the study of Book of Acts? It's wonderful. So Paul had been given a specific
instructions for Silas and Timothy to join him in Athens. Instead,
we're going to see they joined him in Corinth. And he must have
instructed some of the new converts to let Timothy and Silas know
where he went. And Paul was spiritually minded as he did not know what tomorrow
might bring, just like we don't know what tomorrow might bring.
You know, we make plans all the time, don't we? All the time. And some might think this is
silly, but even when I'm walking over to the church here, I'll
say to Vicki, well, I'll see you, Lord, well, and I'll see
you later. I might die walking across the
road. I don't know. Right? But Lord willing, we'll
see ya. Do you know I never even thought
that way before the Lord saved me? Did you? So when we make
plans, we should just say the Lord willing. I'll do that Lord
willing. If the Lord wills. Because Paul
knew that the Lord Jesus Christ works all things after the counsel
of His will. Why are we sitting in here as
born-again, blood-washed believers, and there's so many outside these
walls who are lost and have absolutely no care for the gospel? Because
it pleased God to save us by His will and purpose in Christ
Jesus, by the shedding of His precious, precious blood. Not
because there's anything good in us, no, no. No, we'd all say we're the chief
of sinners. But all because it pleased God
to do so. Isn't that wonderful? That'd make your heart sore.
This is incredible. God saved me because he wanted
to. Even though I sinned against
him, because that's who we all sinned against, right? We can
tell people, God saved me And I sinned against Him, and yet
He loved me so much with an everlasting love that He sent His Son, the
Word of God, to come to this sin-cursed world full of death
and sin to save me from my sins. What a Savior, eh, Brother Tom?
What a Redeemer. What love is manifest in that
act of giving His life for us, living the perfect life in our
room place, and then offering Himself up as a Lamb without
spot and blemish, shedding His blood to save us from our sins. No wonder we're filled with joy.
No wonder we rejoice in the Lord Jesus Christ. It pleased him to save us, and
he's loved us. Remember, I keep hitting this,
and I'm gonna probably do it for the rest of my life. He loves
us with an everlasting love. That love has never changed.
That love has been set upon us from eternity, and it will forever
be set upon us. Even when we were dead in trespasses
and sins, he still loved us with an everlasting love. And again,
in John 17, he tells us that God the Father loves us as he
loves Christ. Because we're in Christ. He's the head and we're
the body. And we don't know these things
in our natural state before the Lord saves us. We have no idea.
And then we start to learn about this. Brother Brian, it's wonderful,
isn't it, brother? It's marvelous, man. It's the
best news we've ever heard in our lives. Oh, my. Again, the city of Corinth was
a large seaport. It was a commercial meeting place
of the East and the West. On one side of Corinth, here's
the two Cs, was the Ion Sea. And on the other side, the Aegean
Sea. So it was a port with two Cs. So again, export for East
and West went right through there all the time. As Athens was the intellectual
center of the ancient Greek world, so Corinth was the economic powerhouse,
the economic center of Greece. So Athens is the intellectual
center and Corinth is the economic power for Greece. It was famous for its spectacular
bronze and famous for its sensuality. Now let's read verse one again.
All providentially arranged by our great God for Paul to leave
Athens and to go to Corinth. After these things, Paul departed
from Athens and came to Corinth. Again, at the very minute, second
that God wanted him there, he arrived there. People say, come
on, Wayne, that's, yeah, that's true. I believe that. God's absolutely
sovereign. We live and move and have our
being according to His will and purpose. It's amazing. Then marvel at
verse 2. We see that it's God's divine
will and providence. He moves two Jewish believers
from Rome all the way to Corinth. And their names is Aquila and
Priscilla. Verse two, and found a certain
Jew named, again, a certain Jew named Aquila, born in Pontus,
lately come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because that
Claudius had commanded all Jews to depart from Rome, and came
unto them. So again, we see God's sovereign
will and purpose at work. This Roman Empire cast out the
Jews from Rome by Again, think of this, all by the sovereign
purpose of God. Now, men evilly act, right? But
God turns the evil of men into work for good. You know how? Think of Calvary's cross. Wicked
men took our king and hung him on the cross. and said, he could
save him. He saves others, let him save
himself. Little did they know, here's our king hanging on that
cross, saving a number that no man can number by the shedding
of his precious, precious blood. Oh my. He took the evil of man, the sinfulness
of man, and turned it into the greatest blessing. that God's people can ever have,
the Lord Jesus Christ dying in our room and place. Isn't that
marvelous? Wondrous. It's absolutely wondrous. Again, all this is happening
according to God's will and purpose. Aquila and Priscilla have to
leave Italy according to God's sovereign will. They're moved
to Corinth, and by God's sovereign will and purpose, they meet Paul. Some people say, well, that's
just chance and lucky. There's no such thing as chance
and lucky. That's the will and purpose of God at work. Isn't
that amazing? He moves them all the way from
Italy, all the way from Rome to Corinth. They had no idea. They weren't saved yet. Christ
had redeemed them on the cross, but they didn't even know that.
Remember us before we heard the gospel? I'm just living my life,
doing whatever I want. And then I find out that the
Lord Jesus Christ purchased my eternal soul 2,000 years ago
by his shed blood. That's amazing, isn't it? And
we're never the same again, are we, brother? We're never the
same again. We're new creatures in Christ,
beloved, born again by the almighty power of God, the Holy Spirit.
Now we have faith. We believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now we have repentance before God that we never had
before. Now we see the unfolding of God's will and purpose as
he illuminates the scripture for us, teaching us the things
of Christ. And this just increases our faith
in him, doesn't it? To know that he's in absolute
control. To know that the one who holds my soul is sovereign
over all. and his will and his purpose
will never be thwarted. Never! Not by anyone or anything. That's comfort, isn't it? That's
comforting. My! Look at verse 3. And because
he was of the same craft, he abode with them, and wrought
for by their occupation, they were tent makers. So here, now,
they're like, well, why don't you live with us while you're
here? Maybe that's, I don't know how the conversation went, but
he met them in the market, probably, because that's where they all
did their work. Probably met them in the market, and he said,
hey, we're tent makers, too. Why don't you come stay with
us while you're here? We just moved from Rome and we got a
house with lots of rooms. Why don't you come on? God providing,
isn't he, for Paul. Now he's got shelter. He got
a place to stay. It's amazing how God takes care
of his people. And they were experienced in
the same occupation as Paul. God's apostle, Paul, he's of
the same craft as Aquila and his wife. They're tent makers. And note, too, that he wrought
with his hands. Paul wasn't afraid to get his
hands dirty, was he? He wasn't like, well, I'm a preacher.
I'm not going to get my hands dirty now. I'm not going to be
with those folks. You know what? I'm a son of a
trailer mechanic. and son of a stay-at-home mom. And my dad, he didn't even get
past grade eight. But I found out he's one of the smartest
men I know from life, from life experience. And you
know what I'm supposed to do? Never forget the rock I was hearing
from. Isaiah tells that. Don't forget where you came from.
I'm one of you. I'm just a sinner saved by grace.
I have the privilege and honor of preaching, but I'm just a
sinner saved by grace, just like all of you. We don't have time
for folks that vault themselves up, do we? Above other people. We just don't have time for that.
We're all a bunch of sinners, gathered here and by God himself,
providentially, knit together in love, which is absolutely
amazing. In my past, you guys wouldn't
have even wanted to be around me. And I probably wouldn't have
wanted to be around you. But here we are. By the grace
and mercy of God, a bunch of sinners saved by grace. Somebody
told me once, well, I can't come over there because I'm too much
of a sinner. I said, my church here, not my church, but our
church is filled with sinners who don't think they're anything
better. We're just a bunch of sinners saved by grace. And you
know what the church is? It's a hospital for sinners. Spurgeon
said that. The church is a hospital for
sinners. That really is what it is. We come here and we get
the balm of Gilead on us by the preaching of the gospel, right?
Isn't that wonderful? We hear Christ and, oh, thank
you, Lord. It's wonderful. It's absolutely
wonderful. So I love this. Paul's not afraid
to get his hands dirty. He's right there with everyone
else. And I love when he writes his letters because he says,
Paul and Timothy and Silas, they're all on the same level, aren't
they? That's how it should be. Paul realizes that the preacher
is a servant just as much as anyone else in the body of Christ.
We're a bunch of servants. Doulos in the Greek, bond servants. If you're born again and you're
blood washed, we're bond servants for Christ. That's wonderful. There's no hierarchy. Just a
bunch of sinners gathered together. It's wonderful. Absolutely wonderful. So he wrought with his hands. He wrought with his hands, earning
a living. And he did this for his daily
needs during the week. And what do we see he did? What
did he do on the weekend there? Well, every Sabbath, we see in
verse four, Paul goes to his favorite spot. He loved, he made a beeline for
the synagogues, didn't he? Because he's carrying the gospel. He knows the law of God better
than the Jews know the law of God. He was a master in Israel. He was a Pharisee of Pharisees.
But he counts that all as nothing. And we see there, let's read
verse 4. And he reasoned in the synagogue
every Sabbath. So he went there every Sabbath
day. And persuaded Jews and the Greeks. Now the Greeks there
would be proselytes, they would be people who switched over into
Judaism from worship and idols. And this is incredible. So he
goes right there. And Paul doesn't use human reasoning
or logic. He reasoned with the people in
the synagogue from the Old Testament scriptures. He said, There's the Messiah. That's Christ. That's Christ. And the New Testament
wasn't made that, right? So what's he preaching out of?
Amen, brother, the Old Testament. He's proclaiming Christ. Christ
is all through the Old Testament. It's wonderful. He says, the law, remember he
said to the two on the road to Aramis, the law and the prophets,
they testify of me, our king said. So Paul's taken the scriptures
and reasoning with them, which the Greek word means to
preach, to say thoroughly. He's preaching to them. It also
means to dispute and to argue. I imagine some of them got pretty
hot. He just kept putting scripture in front of them. Mickey and
I were talking about that, how we just try to keep putting scripture
in front of people. My buddies across the road that
I see on Mondays, I just keep putting scripture before them.
There it is. I talked to one guy this week,
or last week, and I said, Do you believe in, what do you think
of election? Like this, and he goes, oh, you
mean the last election? I said, no. I told Eric about
this. He said, no. I said, no. I said, what do you
think about election in the Bible? He goes, well, God chose the
Jewish nation. See, they're fine with that.
And you notice the angels that didn't fall, they're called the
elect angels, right? They're fine with that, too.
And I said, well, what do you think about election in the New
Testament? Oh, no, no, no, no. Oh, no, no.
Okay, well, God doesn't change, right? So if He chose the people
in the Old Testament, it just comes to pass that He chose the
people in the New Testament, right? And I said, you know the
word in, when it says chosen in Him, in Christ, that the believer
is chosen in Christ from before the foundation of the world in
Ephesians 1, 4. And he says, yeah. And I said, that means
to select in the Greek. No, no, no. I said, you believe the Bible.
You tell me all the time you believe every word the Bible
says, and yet here I'm giving you something. You say no. See,
man does not want to let go. of the God they've manufactured
in their minds. We've had to learn, as the people
of God, that God's in control. And we praise His name, don't
we? We're thankful that He chose
us, because as the hymn writer said, we would never have chosen
Him. I know that. You know that too, eh, brother?
We know that. We never would have chosen Him. Praise God. He says, I loved you before you
loved me. I've chosen you. Now, do we know who all the elect
are? No. So who do we preach to? Everyone. And let God do the saving, right?
I was talking to my daughter this week about Christ, and you
know, I got that old thing where I got Tell her more. I gotta
get her. I gotta get her. No, I don't. Only God can save
her. And I had given her her fill.
I knew I had given her her fill. And one of the hardest things
for us with our kids is just to step back and let God do the
work, isn't it? But that's how we have to be
with everyone. Because only God can save. Oh my. So we just, we put it
out there and we leave it in God's hands. The same when we're
preaching, Jonathan, eh? We preach and we leave it in
God's hands. I like what Henry said, preach
it and leave it. Just let it be. Oh my. It's wonderful. Because God knows
who his sheep are, we don't. So we preach to everyone. Come
to Christ. He's the only hope for sinners.
So he didn't use human reasoning or logic. Paul preached Christ. He preached the resurrection
of Christ. He preached that Christ died and rose again from the
grave. He gave them the true spiritual
meanings of the Old Testament. And only God the Holy Spirit
could save them, right? Can make that effectual. Paul thoroughly preached the
Lord Jesus Christ, death and resurrection for sinners. And
God must make his gospel effectual. The preacher can't make the gospel
effectual. We're just proclaiming a message.
God saved me. And he can save all who come
to him. We know that all who come to him are his sheep, right?
But still, we preach to everyone. God does the saving. He makes
the gospel effectual. And he must do that by the power
of God, the Holy Spirit. Somewhere between my mouth and
your heart, or whoever the Lord saved you under when you were
saved, the preacher preached the words and the Holy Spirit
made it effectual. And just like that, you're born again without
even moving a muscle. That's amazing grace, isn't it?
That's amazing grace. He preached Christ and Him crucified. He preached by the power and
might God saves His lost sheep. He seeks them out. He finds them. And He takes them home to be
with Him forever. That's glorious. That's absolutely
glorious. Paul preached what Christ accomplished. This is important. We're a bunch
of sinners. We're born sinners, just like
our moms and our dads and all the way back to Adam. When Adam
fell, we fell with him. And sinners can only produce
sinners, right? My kids are sinners. Even though I'm saved now, I
can't produce saved people. No, I can't even save myself,
but Christ has saved me. Praise his mighty name. So he preached what Christ accomplished.
He saved his people from their sins. How? By his perfect, sin-atoning
work on Calvary's cross, he offers himself up as our substitute
before God. fully satisfying the law and
justice of God in our room and place. And this is God doing
that. This is God in the flesh. His
blood is so effectual that He saves a number of people
that no man can number, out of every tribe, kindred, tongue,
and nation. And here we are. If we're one of His people, we
can say, and I'm one of that number. That's amazing grace. That's glorious. The Lord Jesus Christ, also by
his life of submission, right, and servitude to God, totally
fulfilled the law of God in our room and place. So the law of
God has no claim on the believer. Like, I mean none. Absolutely
none. Do we live contrary to it? Nope.
I don't think the Holy Spirit will lead us contrary to the
law. No. But we're not under it. Because
Christ is the end of the law for righteousness. Praise his
mighty name. The law has no claim on the believer.
We're married to Christ. We're his bride, beloved. And
he purchased us with his precious blood. And then, that, you know, when
he was living that life, I think it was Spurgeon said, he's weaving
a coat of righteousness. a perfect coat of righteousness
by totally fulfilling the law. And then we're clothed in that
by God. Remember the prodigal son coming?
And what does the dad say? Bring forth the best robe, singular.
That pictures the perfect righteousness of Christ, beloved. And he puts
that on us, doesn't he? Oh, my. This is a wonderful message
for sinners, isn't it? That's wonderful. The question
is, are you a sinner? Has God shown you you're a sinner?
If anyone listens to this message, my prayer, my hope, is if you
do not know Christ, that God will show you you're a sinner
and save you by His grace, be His will. Because that's all
He's done for me and for you who are here and are saved. And
we just marvel, don't we? What mercy, what grace we've
received in Christ. And this righteousness performed
by Christ, right, because he was in perfect obedience to the
law, is now given to the believer. And now we can stand in the presence
of God, clothed in the perfect righteousness of the God-man,
the Lord Jesus Christ. We're made righteous before God.
When? When we get to heaven? Right
now. That's good news, isn't it, Brother
Jonathan? Right now, we're made righteous in Christ, right now!
Do you know we're as secure as the saints in heaven right now
in Christ? Do you know we have absolute
security in Christ? Oh my, I'll tell you what. That'll put a spring in your
step, won't it? It's wonderful, isn't it, sister?
It's wonderful. Undeserving, unmeriting sinners
saved by the grace of God and clothed in the perfect, spotless
righteousness of Christ. And Paul again preached that
Christ, by his perfect work, he accomplished salvation by
satisfying the justice of God. Now the justice of God had a
claim on us, right? The soul that sinneth, it must
die. So he goes and dies in our ruined place. Oh, my. God himself, being worshipped
by angels, becomes a man, submits himself to humility, being spit
upon, despised, rejected by men, even by we before we were saved. And He goes to the cross, I must
redeem my people from all their sins. And the only way He's going
to do it is by giving His life for us. What a Savior! What a Redeemer is Jesus Christ
our Lord! My! And we wonder, how can people
not see this? How can they not run to Christ?
Let us remember the state we were in. We were in darkness. I was talking to Norm at West,
and I said, oh, my past is just the stuff I did and the things
that I said, because the Lord didn't save me until I was in
my 30s. And the Lord saved Norm when Henry Mahan came to preach
at his conference, and he was a workspace preacher. And when
Henry left, he said, I hate that man. Well, all Henry did was
preach Christ to him. And two weeks later, he says,
I love that man, because he bought him the gospel. But I was talking
to him, and we were talking about the darkness. I shared this with
Eric. We were talking about the darkness that we were in, right?
And I said, Norm, I was in so much darkness. And he goes, your
darkness was no different than mine. I went, what? He goes, I was in religious darkness.
You were in worldly darkness, but it's still the darkness.
Oh, my. Isn't that true? God has taken us from the kingdom
of darkness and translated us into the marvelous kingdom of
his dear son, the Lord Jesus Christ. It's amazing. He took us out of the darkness
of sin. We didn't even know we were sinning, did we? We thought,
oh, I'm a good guy. I used to say, did you say that
sometimes? Oh, I'm a good person. I'm going,
I've not killed anyone yet, or, well, in my mind I probably did,
but we're not going to talk about that. Oh my. And then we find out a little
bit after the Lord saves us, and we're still learning this,
the depths of our sin. so that we're not looking at
other people and saying, look what they've done. Now we're
like, oh my Lord. And that's why, as we saw in
Sunday School, Paul said, I'm gonna forget about those things
and not let them hinder me in my race to Christ. And look into
Christ, right? I'm not gonna let the past hinder
me. I know I was wicked. I know I was, but see, we look
it back and we say, look what the Lord saved me from. Look
at this wonderful Savior. So beloved, if you're a born-again
believer, you were in the same darkness I was in, whether you
were in religion or in the world. And praise God, we've been saved
from that. We've been saved from our sins. Oh, it's just magnificent. I'll tell you what. It's magnificent. And Paul preached when Christ
hung on the cross under the penalty of the law for all his people,
for us. that he totally satisfied the
claims of justice. He's the perfect spotless lamb
of God who dies in our room and place. And Paul preached that Jesus
Christ, our Savior, put away the sins of his people. How many
of our sins were future when Christ died at Calvary's cross? Well, all of them Well, we can say Christ died
for my past, present, and future sins. But that doesn't give us
a license to go crazy, does it? But it's true. We're either absolutely forgiven,
or we're still under the penalty of the law and the justice of
God. And if you're a believer, we're totally forgiven. And that doesn't cause us to
want to go out and sin more. Now the love of Christ constrains
us from sin, Paul wrote to the Corinthians. Constrains us now. It was my sin that put him on
the cross. Remember that song, Oh, How I
Love Jesus? Because he first loved me. And
he manifested that by dying on the cross for us, didn't he?
We'll have to sing that again sometime. I like that song. We'll
have to sing that one. And Paul preached that by Christ's
life and death, the Lord Jesus Christ secured and guaranteed
the eternal salvation of all his people, all who the Father
gave him into eternity. We have absolute security in
Christ. In Christ. And God, you know,
God will save every single sinner for whom Christ died. There won't
be one of them missing. Not one. Why is this world still
going on? Because there's still lost sheep. But when that last sinner's saved,
it's all over, beloved. Right? It's all over. Oh, my. And we just keep... Again, we're here for the furtherance
of the gospel, right? We just keep putting the gospel out.
The Lord will deal with it whatever He wants. It's wonderful. Not one of God's elect will perish.
Not one of them. By his life of righteousness
as our representative, Christ merited the blessings of God
for us. I read what Tim James says, no
merit, no merit, no merit on our behalf. All the merit we
have before God comes in Christ, in him alone. Magnificent. all by his perfect sin-atoning
death as our substitute. He literally silenced the claims
of the law of God, and he silenced the justice of God that was against
us. Literally silenced it. Isn't that wonderful? So we will
never be brought into condemnation, ever. We will never be brought
into judgment, ever. At that great white judgment
throne when the goats are on the left and the righteous are
on the right, the only difference between the two of us is we're
clothed in the righteousness of Christ. That's it. And we will not be judged because we're in Christ and clothed
in his perfect righteousness. That's wondrous, isn't it? We don't have to dread death
or the judgment. As believers, we've already been
judged in Christ. Remember, what did Moses do? He struck the rock once, right?
That's all he was supposed to do, because it represented God
striking Christ for us. But then he struck the rock twice,
and he wasn't allowed in the promised land. You know why?
Because Christ could never be struck twice. Brother Tom, our sins are bought
and paid for by the precious blood of Christ. and we will
never come into judgment. That's glorious. That's glorious. My oh my. We're free from sin. Not from the presence of it,
right? Not from the presence of it, but one day we will be.
But you know what we're freed from? We're freed from the guilt
of sin. We're freed from the penalty of sin. And we're freed
from the punishment of sin. all because of what Christ has
done for us. But one day, we're going to be totally free of sin.
Can you imagine what that's going to be like when we go into heaven?
And you know, people say, well, I want to go to heaven to see
my mama and my dad. I want to see Christ. Do you? That's who I want to see. I hope
I get to see you all, too, who are believers. But I want to
see Christ. I want to see my Redeemer. And
Job says, I'm going to see him. I know my Redeemer lives. I'm
going to see him. Oh, and if you're a believer,
we're going to see him, beloved. All because of the mercy and
grace of God and because it pleased God to save us in Christ. And
this is what Paul preached. He preached the resurrection.
Remember last week we saw he preached the resurrection to
those folks in Athens? They started mocking him and laughing. He
just said, okay, I'm going to the Gentiles now. And we saw many of the Gentiles
believed. all according to the will and
purpose of God. We're going to see later on in this chapter
18 that Paul is told to go into the city because God has much
people in the city. I got a lot of sheep in there.
You need to go preach to them. Isn't that wonderful? God uses means,
right? He uses sinful men who have been saved by the grace
of God to preach about the one and only perfect, wondrous Savior,
the Lord Jesus Christ. And by, again, he must make it
effectual. And he does. It's wonderful. Clay pots, we've
got a bunch of holes in us, and he's using us to preach and proclaim
his gospel. It's amazing. Paul would preach the resurrection
of the Lord Jesus Christ to the God-man, who was raised for the
justification of all the elect of all the ages. And because he died, and because
he lives, we're gonna live. We're gonna live. Now let's read
verses five and six. Acts chapter 18. And when Silas and Timothy were
come from Macedonia, Paul was pressed in the spirit and testified
to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ. What that means is he's
testifying that Jesus is the Messiah, the Christ. He's the Messiah. He's the long-awaited
Messiah. Now we see here, by the grace
of God, Silas and Timothy have arrived. And you imagine the
joy, like we felt, the joy when they saw one another again. Whoa,
love just in your heart for each other. Think of that when we
haven't seen each other for a long time and how we feel. It's wonderful. Do you know, we get separated
in this world, but you know, in heaven, we'll never be separated.
That's wonderful, isn't it? That's wonderful. So notice, too, he was pressed
in the Spirit. I mean, he is an unction from
the Holy Spirit of God and testified to the Jews that Jesus was the
Christ. There's his one mission, preaching
Christ. And when they opposed themselves
and blasphemed, he shook his ramnet and said unto them, Your
blood be on your own heads. I am clean. Henceforth, I will
go to the Gentiles. Again, Corinth is 40 miles away
from Athens. It's a wicked city, wicked city. It was known for corruption and
it was known for wickedness. And Paul and his companions preached
in Corinth for a year and a half, a year and a half. And during that time, he's working
at his trade as a tent maker. And at the time that he was in
Corinth, he wrote two epistles, 1 Thessalonians and 2 Thessalonians. All by the sovereign will and
purpose of God. We know the true author is God
the Holy Spirit, but he moved Paul to pen those beautiful books
that we now have. And again, Silas and Timothy
have joined Paul This is all providentially arranged by our
great God and Savior, who works all things after the counsel
of his own will. And we've learned, haven't we learned from the joyful
experience of seeing brethren that we haven't seen for a long
time? The love that must have filled their hearts. Oh my, I
get to see them, come here, giving each other hugs and just enjoying
the fellowship that they had together. My. They were filled with joy as
they came together for the first time in many, many weeks. We see in our text that Paul
was pressed in the spirit and testified to the Jews that Jesus
was the Messiah. He was the Christ. Look at verse,
the next verse. They opposed themselves and blossomed.
Then Paul shook his remnant and said unto them, your blood be
upon your own heads. I'm clean from henceforth. I
will go unto the Gentiles. So remember, he went to the synagogue
first, like he always does. And they're mocking him, they're
blaspheming him. He shakes his remnant, which
picture's just shaking the dust off of him. Says, I'm going to
the Gentiles. I'm going to the Gentiles. And
Paul's soul was filled with trouble over this. When he observed the
impenitence and unbelief, the contradiction and blasphemy of
the greater part of the Jews, and being filled with zeal for
their welfare, we see he testified to the Jews that Jesus was the
Christ. He didn't get angry with them
and say, I'm out of here. He testified to them. Now, when
they started blaspheming and mocking him, he said, okay, I'm
going to the Gentiles now. I've told you the truth, right? He presented it and left it there,
didn't he? Just like preachers are supposed
to do. We preach the gospel and we leave it in God's hands. It's
amazing. Verse six, we see that these
unbelieving Jews opposed themselves. Notice that. Did you ever think
when we were dead in sin, we opposed ourselves? We did. As I was putting this together,
I was saying, man, we opposed ourselves before the Lord saved
us. We didn't want to hear the gospel. We opposed ourselves, beloved. My, I saw myself in that text
going, my goodness, before the Lord saved me. And think of this, these are
the very ones who the oracles of God have been given to, right?
Who have received the Old Testament. The very ones who have received
that word, and Christ said, the law and the prophets, they testify
of me. This shows us that unless Christ reveals himself, as we
talked about before, Tom, that we will never know Christ. We'll
never know him. But if he reveals himself to
us, oh my. We see ourselves for what we
are, sinners. We see God for who he is, a sovereign,
glorious God who saved his people from their sins. So they're opposing
themselves. The scriptures had been committed
to national Israel. And in doing so, in saying, I
don't believe that, they're actually blossoming against God. That's
what's being bought forth here. In rejecting the truth of Christ
as Messiah from the Scriptures, they're blaspheming God. They're
opposing themselves. That was all our state before
the Lord saved us. He opened the Scriptures and
reasoned with them. My, oh my. You ever talk to somebody
about limited atonement? That Christ died for the elect. Do you remember in the Old Testament
is a picture of that. I talked to somebody last week
about this, about limited atonement, and I said, the Old Testament
is the church in the Old Testament, which is pictured in Israel. When Israel offered the sacrifices,
right, they weren't for the Egyptians, were they? They weren't for the Romans,
they weren't for the Syrians, right? The Day of Atonement was
done, it was only for the nation of Israel. The Iranians had nothing to do,
the Persians had nothing to do with it, nothing. That's a picture
of Christ dying for his people, beloved. Now the blood of Christ, if God
chose even more people, it could save a multitude. even more. But God has a number that he
saved and chosen. Again, it's a number we can't
even number, which is just amazing. And so those sacrifices in the
Old Testament were pictures of Christ dying for his sheep. Now,
this fellow I was talking to about that, no, Christ died for
everyone! And I said, well, then the atonement failed. If Christ died for everyone,
and you're telling me he died for people in hell, then the
atonement failed. No, no, it's based upon their
will. I said, we can't choose God in our natural state. But I told him, I said, the scripture
says in Isaiah, he shall not fail. And then I took him to
the cross and he said, it is finished. The work is done. All
whom the father gave him, he's redeemed. And think about that. If he died for everyone, including
people in hell, then the atonement failed, beloved. But it didn't. He says, I give my life for the
sheep. John 10. And if you read further
down in John 10, he says to some Pharisees, you're not my sheep. Those are chilling words. I'll
tell you what. And remember Matthew 7, many
shall say to me, Lord, Lord, have we not done all these wonderful
things? They're religious. Take note of that. Those are
religious people. Have we not cast out demons in
your name? Have we not done all these things? And he says, depart
from me, you wicked, you cursed, for I never knew you. And that
in the Greek is, I never gnosked you, which is, he knows them,
he created them, but he doesn't know them intimately like he
knows us. My, oh my. That's amazing. That's grace. That's grace, beloved. So these unbelieving Jews opposed
themselves and blasphemed. We see Paul shook his remnant.
Look at, your blood be upon your own heads. I'm clean from henceforth.
I will go unto the Gentiles. They were heaping condemnation
upon themselves. See, if a man goes to hell, it's
100% man. That's it. But if a man goes
to heaven or a woman goes to heaven, it's 100% God. That's
it. Oh my, that's glorious. Paul here warns him, he says,
I'm clean from your blood. I'm clean from the loss of your
eternal soul. I've told you the truth and you've rejected it. They're bringing ruin. When he
says, you're opposing yourself, they're bringing eternal ruin
and destruction upon themselves. Now, we don't know if some of
them were the Lord's sheep and he saved them later on. We don't
know that. But he's warning them, isn't he? He said, your blood
be upon your heads. I'm clean. He was letting them
know, again, that by their actions and their words, they're bringing
eternal ruin upon themselves. Paul warned them. He's free from
their blood. He's free from the loss of their
eternal soul. That doesn't mean he's responsible
for it. He's just saying, I preach the gospel to you. That's the command for we preachers,
is to preach Christ to whoever gathers together and preach the
true Christ who saves and keeps, who's God in the flesh. It's
wondrous. Look at verse seven. Now when
it says he goes to the Gentiles, he didn't leave the city. He's
saying, I'm gonna go to the Gentiles in the city and I'm gonna preach
the gospel to them. And look at this, verse seven. And he
departed thence and entered into a certain man's house named Justice,
one that worshiped God, whose house was joined hard to the
synagogue. So there's another believer.
He worshiped God. Paul didn't leave the city of
Corinth. He left the presence of those unbelieving Jews, entered
into the house of a brother named Justice. And he'd been delivered. He was
a Jewish proselyte. He was probably a Gentile, John
Gill says, who'd been delivered from the pagan gods of the Gentiles.
And he worshipped the one true living God now. Says he worshipped
God. His house, the house of justice
lived in, was joined hard to the synagogue. In other words,
the house of justice was very close to the synagogue. Now let's read verse 8. Here,
look at this. Here again. So Paul, he doesn't
just take off, right? He goes into the house of justice,
and he's preaching the gospel still, right? Look what happens. Look what God does. And Crispus,
the chief ruler of the synagogue, he had heard Paul preach Christ. And God made it effectual, beloved. Look at this. The ruler of the
synagogue believed on the Lord with all his house. Not only was Crispus saved, but
so were a whole bunch of people in his home. Remember? God sends his preachers
to where he's got sheep. Norm Wells told me, he says,
the only reason you're going to Elmont is because God's got
sheep there, Wayne. That was 10 years ago. Here we
are, rejoicing in Christ. And then, look, not only did
Christmas and some in his house believe, and many of the Corinthians
be hearing believed and were baptized. Praise God. The power
of God. There's the beginning of the
Corinthian church, beloved. Isn't that wondrous? Paul preached, left it in God's
hands, the Holy Spirit made it effectual, regenerated those
Corinthians at Christmas and those in his house, they're born
again. They're made willing to flee
to Christ, aren't they? They weren't willing before that. Now they're made willing by the
power of God, and now they worship the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, it's wonderful. There were
a bunch of pagan idol worshipers a week before, right? They were bound down to
wood statues. Christmas was religious and lost.
The Corinthians were a bunch of idol worshipers. Just like that. See, when we preach the gospel,
God's gonna use it. He's either gonna build up his
saints or save lost sheep, or he's gonna use it, unfortunately,
not unfortunately, but he's gonna use it where it'll bring condemnation
upon people who do not believe. My, sobering, isn't it? Sobering. But marvel, marvel at this before
us. Crispus was given faith to believe
on Christ. Some in his household were given
faith. And many, I love that word, many, those little words,
many of the Corinthians hearing believed and were baptized. Do
you notice it doesn't give us a number? Because numbers don't
matter. The fact that God saved these sinners, that's what matters.
Many. Many. It's wondrous. It's absolutely wondrous. We
see by the power of God, the Holy Spirit, many of the Corinthians
heard the gospel, and by God-given faith, they believed on the Lord
Jesus Christ and were baptized. Oh, marvel, beloved of God, is
those Gentile Corinthians, no doubt, heard of the conversion
of Crispus and those in his household, but that's not what caused them
to believe. That's not what caused them to
believe. Like all of God's saints, they
had to hear the gospel. They had to hear the gospel.
Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. They
had to hear the gospel. And when they did, they were
born again by the power of God, the Holy Spirit. And we see they
believed and then they were baptized. And think of this too, neither
Paul or Silas or Timothy would have baptized them unless they
were believers. Right? They wouldn't have said,
oh, you can get baptized. unless they were believers. And
look at the... This is incredible, because look
at the order. And many of the Corinthians hearing,
believed. And were baptized. Just leave it there. It's wondrous. So, how can they believe? Except
by the power of God, the Holy Spirit. How can they hear the
gospel? God sent them a preacher, didn't
he? All the way from Athens to Corinth. And what's his mission? Preach
Christ. Reason with him out of the scriptures.
Preach Christ. Preach Christ as the Messiah.
And he did that, and many of the Corinthians were saved. Praise
the life-giving power of God. Praise the sacrifice of the Lord
Jesus Christ, our wonderful, merciful Savior, who has redeemed
us with his precious blood, and by whom we are saved from all
our sins. Amen and amen.