Open your Bibles to Acts chapter
14. Lord willing we'll finish this
chapter today and next week we'll look at chapter 15 where we will
see the visit to the council in Jerusalem. Let's stand up
together and read Acts chapter 14 verses 24 to 28 together. And this will be our text today,
Acts chapter 14, verses 24 to 28. And after they had passed
through Pisidia, they came to Pamphylia. And when they had
preached the word in Perga, they went down to Attila, and then
sailed to Antioch, from thence they had been recommended to
the grace of God for the work which they fulfilled. And when
they were come and gathered the church together, they rehearsed
all that God had done with them and how he had opened the door
of faith unto the Gentiles. And there they abode long time
with the disciples. My, oh my. This is a homecoming. Remember it was the church at
Antioch that the Holy Spirit sent Paul and Barnabas out from.
So this is a homecoming for them. They're coming home. to the church
that they were sent out of. So the church at Anox is very
dear to Paul and Barnabas. Let's go back up to verses 21
of this chapter though and read verses 21 to 23 to see the context
of our verses today, which will be verses 24 to 28. Paul and Barnabas are on the
way to Derby in verse 20. And we'll pick up right there
in verse 21, where we see they've arrived. They've arrived in Derbe. And what did they do? What did
they do when they were in Derbe? Well, they did in Derbe what
they do wherever they go. They preached the gospel, didn't
they? They preached the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh
my. Look at this. And when he had
preached the gospel to that city, that being Derbe, and had taught
many, they returned again to Lystia and to Iconium and Antioch,
confirming the souls of the disciples and exhorting them to continue
in the faith, that we must, through much tribulation, enter into
the kingdom of God. And that's what we looked at
last week, remember? We looked at how, through much tribulation,
we enter into the kingdom of God, which just means that while
we're on this earth, we're gonna face tribulation, we're gonna
face trials. It's natural, right? The Lord said, marvel not if
the world hates you. It hated me before it hated you.
So it's something that we expect now as believers that we're gonna
go through trials and tribulations. Oh my, and it comes, doesn't
it? And when they had ordained them
elders in every church and had prayed with fasting, they commanded
them to the Lord, on whom they believed. Now look at that, whom
they believed. They believed on the Lord Jesus
Christ, didn't they? That's true of every born-again,
blood-washed believer. We have no desire to come to
Christ until the Holy Spirit starts working in us, right,
and drawing us to Christ, and that's what he does. He draws
us to Christ. In the Greek, it's actually dragging,
but I don't feel like I got dragged, do you? No, I came running, did
you? Because we were made willing
in the day of God's power, right? He made us willing to flee to
Christ. I don't feel like anyone dragged me to Christ, but I praise
God that he did. That's the truth. He did, didn't
he, brother? He bought us. We were going this way. Huh? I want nothing to do with God.
And he turns us around, doesn't he? and makes us will in the
day of his power. So they believed. That's what,
this is what is the one characteristic among
all true born-again believers, and I say true born-again believers,
because there's lots of people who profess Christ, but aren't
born again. And the Lord said you must be
born again in John chapter 3, right? And when we're born again,
what comes first, faith or regeneration? Regeneration, amen. You must
be born again. And then we're given faith, right,
to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And do we exercise that
God-given faith? Absolutely. And that faith has
one object, Christ. And we believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. And if you're a believer, praise his mighty name. Because
God made you a believer. Isn't that wonderful? Religion,
I thought I was the one who made myself a believer, but I found
that I can't make myself a believer. God does it. Salvation is what? Of the Lord. From its planning,
till its execution, till the glorification. It's all of the
Lord. It's all of the Lord. And it's
wonderful. And we're quick to give him all
the glory, honor, and praise. So we see that our Lord had established
churches in these cities where his gospel had been preached.
And again, it's the Lord who's establishing these churches.
And certain men had received gifts from God that qualified
them for positions in the church. I'm going to say something, it's
not politically correct, but it's fine. There's no such thing
as women preachers. There's not in the scriptures. Period. Someone wants to get
mad at me, you're getting mad at God, not me. If you see a
church where there's a woman preacher, that's a church that's
disobeying God. You may as well just put apostate
on the church. I know that don't go over too
well nowadays, but that's true. That's true. So they had came to Derby. There's
a church established. And then men who were qualified
were put into positions. And that's just God revealing
the giftings of the people. I am no different than you. I've
been given a gift to preach. And God increases that gift.
I don't. I study. I pray, read my Bible,
but that's a privilege, isn't it? It's God who makes us who
we are. And remember, as I've told you
many times, the ground at the foot of the cross is level. There's
no preacher mound, is there? There's no evangelist mound,
no preacher mound, no deacon mound. All the guys here will
tell you that too. There's level ground. Sinners
saved by grace, by the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
So just because these men were put in these offices doesn't
mean they were any better than anybody else. No. They're sinners
saved by grace just like everyone else. And whether a person's in an
office in the church or whether we're just assembling there,
we're all servants of Christ. Right? That's what we're servants
of Christ. So these men were put in preaching
positions and teaching positions, exhorting the saints. And then
their other giftings were recognized and they were put in these positions. Who ultimately puts a man in
the position of preaching if he's truly sent by God? There's
a lot of guys out there who say they're preachers. They're not
sent by God. You know how you know if a man's sent by God?
Let me tell you something right here. You know how you know if
a man's sent by God? Who gets the glory? In his preaching, does God get
the glory? Or does man get the glory? Because true preachers
sent by God will give God all the glory and honor and praise. That's what it is, I'll tell
you. So you hear a man preaching Christ alone too. And that's
the other thing. They won't preach themselves, they'll preach Christ.
Now we may give you examples of things that happened in our
lives, but we're not gonna preach that we're better than anyone
else, because we're not. I'm just a dead dog sinner saved
by grace. And I praise his mighty name.
And I get to tell other sinners about Christ who can save any
sinner who comes to him. Isn't that wonderful? It's wonderful. Oh my gosh, it's wonderful. My oh my. So everywhere they
went, what did they do? They preached the word. They
preached Christ. They preached the gospel. They
didn't mess around with 10,000 ways to live a better Christian
life, did they? They didn't do that. As we saw on Sunday school,
we saw practical Christian living in Sunday school, but it's all
Christ-centered, isn't it? It's all around Christ. We live
humbly and we walk humbly before our God. That's how we are. It's born again believers. And
you know what? I listen to these two guys on
the internet. They're reformed pastors, but I'll tell you what,
they're more like grace preachers than anything else. And I love
them. They're fantastic. You know what
they say? We're gonna live an ordinary Christian life. You
know what that is? Resting in Christ. Well, that's music to
my ears. Is it music to your ears? Because
religion tells you everything you've got to do. I'm going to tell you just to
rest in Christ and to walk humbly before our God. That's it. Trusting and resting
in the Savior. And I ask you this, do you sin
more than you want to? Do you sin more than you want
to? Ask yourself that. Do I sin more than I want to?
Yeah, a lot more than I want to. Do you hate sin? Yeah, I hate sin and myself more
than anywhere else. Right? Did you feel that way
before the Lord saved you? Didn't have a care. Drank sin
like water, didn't we? Who made you to differ? And what
do we have that we didn't receive? God made us to differ, didn't
he? God saved us, not some mere man or a good teacher. God, Emmanuel,
God incarnate in the flesh saved our souls by the shedding of
his precious blood on Calvary's cross, period. Do you know I spell my, what
I believe I spell D-O-N-E. D-O-N-E. What's that? Done. Religion spells it D-O. We spell what we believe is D-O-N-E. Why? Because our king cried,
it is finished. And now we walk a life humbly
before our God. And that humility only comes
from the grace of God, because as we looked at in Sunday school,
we struggle with that, don't we? I do. I told you the story
about my class. You want a little chuckle? Listen
to the Sunday school lesson. About me making a tea. I'll tell you, we struggle. We
struggle every day, we sin every day. Spurgeon said, I sin enough
just getting out of my bed and going to the breakfast table
to damn a thousand souls. Yep, that's how I am too. Is
this how you are? We say, well, but we didn't even
think we sinned. That's the problem, isn't it?
Everything we do is tainted by sin, even though we're saved
sinners. This is what makes salvation amazing. This is what makes grace
amazing. That God has saved a sinner like
me. And if you're a believer, that
God saved a sinner like you. Isn't that amazing? And he did
it on purpose. And he did it according to his
will. Because it pleased him to do so. My. I'm never going to get over that,
are you? My. Put a smile on our face, won't
it, Brother Brian? Oh, my. So we see they believed. They
believed. Oh, my. And they preached Christ. They preached the only Savior.
They preach from the Old Testament. They didn't have the New Testament.
Somebody says, well, Christ isn't in the Old Testament. Well, I
beg to differ, because Paul and Barnabas and all them, that's
all they had was the Old Testament. And Paul says, I preach Christ
and Him crucified. See, I used to believe that.
I used to go around telling people that the Old Testament was for
the Jews and the New Testament was for believers. I knew nothing,
beloved. I didn't know a thing. The Lord said, remember, on the
road to Aramaeus to those two, he said, the law and the prophets.
That's Moses and all the prophets. That's the Old Testament. They
testify of me. My Christ is all through the
Old Testament. It's wonderful, beloved. It's absolutely wonderful. So they preach Christ. They preach
the glorious gospel of salvation through the redeeming precious
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Not by works of righteousness,
which we have done, but according to his mercy, he has saved us. By the washing and regeneration
of his spirit, we're born again. And we see in our text that they
came to Pamphylia This was a region in south of Asia Minor between
Lycaea and Sicilia. It extended from the Mediterranean
to Mount Taurus, which, you know what, all this is in modern Turkey.
So they're going around modern Turkey. Look on the map and you
see Turkey, that's where they're moving around. It was bounded on the north side
by Bessalia, and was therefore, this was a small country. I learned
all this looking this up. It's amazing what you can find.
Historically, it's incredible. Where the Lord had these men
go? It's absolutely incredible. So it was a small country. It
only had a coastline of 120 kilometers, which is 75 miles, with a breadth
of about 50 kilometers, 30 miles. So it's a very small country.
And Perga was a Greek city in Pamphylia. which at the time
of this writing was the capital of the Roman province of Pamphylia.
So it was a Roman province. It had a governor. Note how the
Lord had the Romans build all these roads and now Paul's using
these roads and Barnabas and they're preaching the gospel
through all the Roman Empire. Isn't our God amazing? absolutely
sovereign, using the hands of wicked men to build roads that
his gospel will go on fire. Oh my. My, oh my. Next we see that they went into
Attilia, which is another city in Pamphylia, which bordered
the sea. And what did they do all along
the way? Amen. They preached the gospel, didn't
they? Brother Travis, they went, they said, we preach Christ and
Him crucified. People arguing about this over
here and debating about this over here, and they're, I'm determined
to preach Christ and Him crucified. Not gonna get caught up in all
the stuff that goes on. Determined just to preach Christ
and Him crucified. Oh my, isn't that wonderful?
Absolutely wonderful. And there they go. They're preaching
Christ. They're preaching Christ crucified. They didn't have time to stop
and socialize, did they? Or look at the local sites. They're preaching Christ and
Him crucified. And whoever they came in contact
with, they'd tell them about Christ. And then we see Paul and Barnabas
boarded a ship and sailed to Antioch. They sailed to Antioch. They come back to Antioch, where
Paul and Barnabas were sent out by the Holy Spirit as God's ordained
missionaries. It's a homecoming. Coming home. Isn't that wonderful? This was where God the Holy Spirit
had made it known to the leaders of the church that he had separated
these two for his work. There would be a light to the
Gentiles. He called them to this work, and the leaders of the
church sent them out, all by the grace and mercy of
God. And now they're returning back after their first missionary
trip, and what do they want to do? Well, they want to do the
same thing we'd want to do. Brag on God. Tell him the great
things the Lord hath done. Right? Not, oh, the Lord used me to
do this, and I won a thousand souls, and I did this, and I
did that. That's foolishness. I remember going to a website
of this one fellow and I thought, I'll go check this website out
because I got a book in the mail. When you're a preacher, the church
mailbox Dan can testify, it gets full of all these little booklets
from different places. You want to try our conference,
you want to try our books, you want to try our stuff, we're
going to try this. Well, this guy sent something, and I thought,
oh, I checked the mail before Dan got there. I'm like, oh,
I'm going to check this website. Go to the website there. Surfing
over there. Always go. Right away, I usually
go to the About Us. Because I want to see what they
believe, right? You want to know what someone believes. So I go
to the Baudos, and oh, there's a blurb of this guy went to this
school, and he did all this, and he's won over 250,000 people
to Christ. And I went, click. Bye. I don't need to hear about that,
do you? God's preachers don't brag on
what they've done. They brag about what Christ has
done. They marvel. They marvel that God even uses
them. I marvel that God uses me. I'm just blown away. Last thing I thought I'd be was
a preacher. That's the furthest thing in my mind growing up and
being a young man and living in Canada. It was the last thing
I ever thought that I'd even live in the U.S. and be a preacher.
Last thing I'd ever thought of. Here I am. Isn't God good? He's amazing. Oh my. So here they are, they come back.
And remember, all this is planned and purposed by our great God,
right? Their missionary journey was planned and purposed by God.
Everything that occurred, the souls that were saved was all
planned and purposed by God and accomplished by God, right? They're just vessels preaching
the gospel. That's all a preacher is. We just get up and we get
to proclaim Christ and Him crucified. That's what we do. So this is
all planned, purposed by our God, and executed by our great
God. All in his providence. And look
at this, let's read verses, let's read verse 26 here, Acts 14,
26. And we see that what they were
sent to do, God fulfilled. God fulfilled. So not only does
God equip his preachers and send his preachers, But He is the
reason for any success that comes about from the ministry. It's
all Him. It's all God. I'm telling you
that as a preacher. It's all Him. I know, I know
the sinful man I am. And God uses sinful men to preach
the gospel to other sinful people. And He does the saving, doesn't
He? But I'm a safe sinful man. Are you? And that's the difference,
isn't it? Unsaved men who are in pulpits
aren't preaching the gospel. They preach works. Something you gotta do. Now that's
just foolishness, isn't it? Look at verse 26. And then sailed
to Antioch, from whence they had been recommended to the grace
of God for the work they had, look at that, fulfilled. They
were sent by God. They were equipped by God. And
think of this, too. We've seen this in our study.
They were protected by God, weren't they? I'm still amazed. I was thinking
about it this morning just as we were getting ready and Sister
Kathy was singing about how here's Paul. They drag him out. They stone him. He gets right
back up and marches right back in the city and goes and preaches
the gospel again. My, that's the grace of God,
isn't it? That's a miracle of God. That's a miracle. Because they thought he was dead,
right? Supposing he was dead. Well, we know he wasn't dead.
But if he was, God just raised him from the dead if he wanted
to, right? But he wasn't. It wasn't his time to die. So
we've seen them being protected. Remember those fellows who wanted
to kill Paul and Barnabas? And some of the folks at the
church heard about the plot and then sent them out at night.
Didn't they raise them down in a bucket or something, right?
Thessalonica, I think it was. Off they went. And remember we
saw Peter? He's in jail. He's locked up. He's going to be executed next
day, isn't he, Brother Brian? All of a sudden, the angel of
war comes in. The shackles fall off. They walk
right out of that prison. Them guards don't even know they're
gone. Protected by our great and glorious God. You know, he
does that stuff for us all the time. You ever think why you're
maybe, why you're a minute late for something? Dan and I were
driving one time, and there was a detour. Remember that, Dan?
There was a detour. And we were talking about how,
well, maybe there was an accident. And I think there was an accident
down the road. But if we figured out, if we hadn't stopped at
McDonald's to get a drink, because I needed a drink, we probably
would have ran right into that. Isn't that wild? God protects us, and we don't
even know it. It's absolutely amazing. And let me tell you
this, he takes care of his sheep. Every one of them. Every one of them. I'll tell
you a little story. There was a major out in Colorado
that was kind of getting on Jake's heels, our buddy Jake. He's captain
and he does, Jake's captain, he does all the purchasing for
the whole base there in Colorado. And this major was getting on
him. And he called me up and said, man, I'm just, this guy's
bothering me, Wayne. This guy, it's really getting,
it's getting bad. And I said, well, let's pray about it. That
the Lord will protect you for a moment. It had nothing to do
with us. A month later, the guy got transferred. Don't mess with God's sheep. You don't. I'm telling you. Some say, oh, that's just a coincidence.
It ain't a coincidence. I'm telling you, it's not a coincidence.
God protects his people. We have proof of that right here
in this church. It's amazing. So we see when they return home
to their home church in Antioch. You remember, this is the same
place that Peter came when they were in Galatians, when Paul
rebuked Peter. Because Peter was dissimulated,
and Barnabas too, with the Jews, remember? And Paul said, why
are you trying to put on the Gentiles what you yourself can't
even keep? Right? Which is under the law. And so these folks were very
dear to Paul and to Barnabas. Look at verse 27 and 28. And
when they were come, again by the providence of God, by his
protecting hand, and had gathered the church together, they rehearsed
all that God had done with them, and how he had opened the door
of faith unto the Gentiles." The name of the message, actually,
is faith given to the Gentiles. Look at that. He had opened a
door of faith unto the Gentiles. You know, Paul used to pray for
doors of utterance. We can pray for those, too. that God would
give us a door of utterance to speak to somebody of the wonderful
things about Christ. A door of utterance with our
family members, a door of utterance with our friends. Oh my, if God
would be pleased to do that, what a blessing it would be to
be able to proclaim the great things that God had done for
us. Look at this, he had opened the
door of faith unto the Gentiles. If he opened it, that means it
was shut before, wasn't it? We're going to see in a couple
chapters that God opened the heart of Lydia and she believed. You know, that's what he did
for all of us. Isn't it wonderful? When God opens a door, no man
can shut it. Despite the opposition that man
may bring to the preaching of the gospel, no man can shut it. And look at this, and there they
abode long time with the disciples. So let us ponder, let us ponder
with how much Paul and Barnabas would be so full of joy at seeing
what God had done. They wouldn't be saying, oh,
we preached to hundreds of thousands of people, which they probably
did, and God saved 80,000 of them by our preaching. No, they'd
be giving God all the glory, wouldn't they? They'd be saying,
look what God did. We went and just preached Christ, and he
did all. He was moving half a whole city.
We were in a city, and half the city the Lord saved, and the
other half the Lord just left in their sins, and they were
all, they were disputing about us preaching the gospel. We were
just, all we were doing was preaching Christ. But praise God, he seemed half-deceited.
My, look what he done! What did he tell the gathering
in Dormantioch? Go and tell the great things the Lord hath done
for you. Paul and Barnabas are gathering together with our brothers
and sisters, and they are telling them in Antioch the great things
that God had done for the Gentiles. Isn't that wonderful? It's amazing. It's absolutely
amazing. And they're quick to give God
all the glory. That's why even, no matter what
happens here within the body, we give God all the glory. He
gets it all. And we marvel that He's using
us, don't we? We marvel at that. It's absolutely incredible. But
He does. Just like He used Paul and Barnabas.
He uses every gospel preacher to for his gospel to go forth. And so they're filled with joy.
Do you think as they're sailing, do you think they're talking
amongst each other? And do you think the anticipation
would be so high? We're going to go see, talk to
our brethren. And we get to tell them what
we witnessed. We get to tell them what God's
done. Isn't that amazing? They would
just be overflowing with anticipation. And this would be joyful anticipation,
too. And what blessings they would
all receive together, giving God all the glory, honor, and
praise, right? Were they looking for a following? No. Could they have wrote a book,
The Journeys of Paul and Barnabas? Oh, sure they could have, but
did they? No. They sent letters to various
churches, some inspired by God the Holy
Spirit. Oh, my. They sought to give God all the
glory. And think of the blessings that
we receive when we get together. Are you blessed when you hear
the gospel preached? It's wonderful, isn't it? I was blessed last
week. I listened to Travis. I was blessed.
Wonderful message. God's grace and mercy. I listen to Donnie. I get a blessing.
I listen to Norm. I get a blessing. I listen to
Henry. I get a blessing. My, oh, my. Listen to any gospel preacher
and you get a blessing. As long as they're telling me
about Christ. Don't tell me about what you're
doing. Tell me about what Christ has done. And they'd been gone for a long
time, Paul and Barnabas. Could you imagine the sweet fellowship
they had when they got together? You remember when Brian and Linda
came back? Remember how the tears were flowing? Remember that? That's exactly how it would be.
Same way. No doubt, the tears were flowing,
beloved. Oh, praise God. I get to see
my brothers and sisters again. Oh, my. They've been gone a long
time. So what a blessing it would be
for them to gather together with the church in Antioch when they
returned. And no doubt, they gathered together as soon as
they could, couldn't they? They probably weren't waiting for
no special day. They get together as quick as
they can. Do you know that Christ is our Sabbath? You know that? You know no day is different
than any other? And I know I say that and somebody might go, whoa,
wait, careful, careful. Do you know we could have service
on Tuesday night if we wanted to? We have Wednesday night service
where I come in and do a couple of short messages and in the
spring and the summer we do Wednesday night messages. One of our churches
does Friday night messages. Who's my Sabbath? Amen. Amen. Is not every day a day of worship? Is not every day a day for us,
say sister, to worship our King? If He's our Sabbath, then that's
every day. Isn't that wonderful? I'll tell ya. I'll tell ya. This resting in Christ is amazing.
It's absolutely amazing. I'm not gonna change our day
from Sunday to another day, but I'm just saying, Christ is our
rest. He's our rest. Oh my. And you know, when I go
somewhere to preach, like when I went to Norm's, I
think that was last year, wasn't it? Yeah. Or no, the year before,
year before. When I went to Norm's and preached
out there. You know who I'm thinking about
when I'm out there? You all. You know who Norm's thinking
of when he's here? the brethren in the dowels. Every preacher,
I'll tell you what, you talk to every preacher, and when they're
away from their home church, they're thinking about the, they're
praying for whoever's preaching. They're praying the Lord will
bless the message and bless the folks. And we can't wait to get
home. We can't wait to get home. I understand how they felt. They
would be so excited to see the brethren again, to see their
family. Not that the other churches weren't
their family. No, because they were. You guys find out that
there's folks all over worshiping God. But this is my family right here. I get the privilege maybe sometimes
to go preach. I don't do it a lot because I
want to be here with you. But I always want to be back
home. And whenever I get home, you guys testify this, I'm always
like, oh, so good, so good to be home. What a blessing to be
back. Oh my. So I can just imagine
the anticipation that they felt because they're the unity that's
with your family in Christ. My, who, who, who do we have
our kinship in? Who do we have our unity in?
Christ. So when we're reunited as a family,
what a great blessing. This is what's happening here.
This is the church that they left from. And again, they would
have gathered as soon as they could, they would have gathered
together, and then they'd start bragging on Christ. And they'd
be saying, the door of faith was opened, and a bunch of Gentiles
believed according to the mercy and grace of God in Christ. All
we did was preach Christ as the only Savior of sinners, and God
moved and did the saving. And remember, I love that one
part where, as many as were ordained to eternal life believed. Here's
the Gentiles, they're standing there, right? Remember, they
all gathered together the following Sabbath day, they all gathered
together, and there was the Jews and the Gentiles. And Paul said,
you counted yourself unworthy to the Gentiles. And he turned
to the Jews, and he turned to the Gentiles and preached the
gospel. And as many as were deigned to
eternal life believed. Oh my, isn't that wonderful? Paul be telling them all about
this. Oh yeah, I just, I turned from them and preached. And the
Lord saved a whole bunch of them. Then we went to the next city,
and I love that one though, where half the city, the Lord says
half the city, and it's not a small city. Tom looked up the population,
it was 30,000 people. Surrounding area, 80,000 people. So just a rough estimate, say
15,000 people. Taken from darkness to light by the power of God Almighty,
and Him alone. And him alone. Oh, so they'd
be saying it was amazing. And then Barbaras goes, they
hauled Paul out, they stoned him. We all thought he was dead.
Paul got right back up. You know what he did, beloved?
He went and preached Christ again. He went and preached Christ again.
Paul said, yeah, yeah, I wasn't dead. And he considered just, that's
what he's sent to do, isn't it? He didn't set up a healing network,
did he? No, because he's a preacher sent
by God. And he's sent to preach Christ. He knows he can't heal
anyone unless the Holy Spirit works and moves. You know, we have no giftings
except those given to us by the Lord. We're unprofitable servants. And yet, God says, precious in
the eyes of the Lord is the death of his saints. Brother Brian,
we're like diamonds to Christ. We're precious. We don't see it, do we? But we're precious in His eyes.
So they're gone for a long period of time. They return. They gather
the church together. And we see these two faithful
brethren, these missionaries, didn't stand before their brethren
and tell them what great things they had done for the Lord. I know some folks who every time
you get around them, they tell you the supposed great things
they've done for the Lord. I don't want to hear that. I
don't want it. I used to be like that. I see
myself when people are doing that. Before the Lord saved me.
You ever been around people like that? All they want to do is tell you
what they've done for the Lord. You want to say, well, what has
the Lord done for you? I'll tell you what the Lord done
for me. Saved my soul. washed me in his precious blood.
My, oh my. Oh, and we see they rehearsed
all that God had done with them. They're probably, they're on
the boat and on the travels, oh yeah, I remember this, yeah.
And they might have even written it down, I don't know. But obviously
they rehearsed it, they talked about it. Oh my. Do you know what rehearsed means
in the Greek? To announce in detail. So they didn't just say, yeah,
we traveled to this city and God did this. They went and said,
man, God did this. And went into details, beloved,
about what God had done. Could you imagine hearing all
this stuff? Well, we just did, didn't we? We've heard what they heard.
You know, I used to say, oh, I wish I'd have been a fly on
the wall until Norm said, we have everything we need. Do you know everything God has
to say to us is right here? I read an article this week,
and it was by Spurgeon. And he was talking about these
folks that say, I've got a word from the Lord. So obviously, that was happening
back in the 1800s, too. I thought it was just something
modern, to be honest with you. But I have to realize, every time
I get surprised like that, I have to realize that there's nothing
new under the sun, is there? So these folks are saying, I
got a word from the Lord to Spurgeon. He said, I don't want to hear
from a madman. Everything God has to say to
me, he says to me in his word. I don't need to hear what you
think in your imaginations and in your dreams, what you think
God is saying to you. And then he says, and it isn't
God saying it to you. How does God speak to us? Through
his word. Right? Through the preaching
of his gospel. My oh my. Now do we get moved
to maybe do something sometimes? Yeah, sometimes. But we don't hear it. Travis,
do we have a bat phone to God? Remember that bat phone that
used to go, we don't have no bat phone, do we? We don't have
no hotline to God. I actually want to ask somebody
sometimes about that. Do you have a hotline to God
that I don't have? My oh my. But aren't you thankful,
beloved, that we can go boldly to the throne of grace to find
grace to help in time of need? We can go to the throne of God,
where Christ our Savior sits, and we can find grace to help
in time of need, and we just plead, we just talk to our King,
don't we? Everything, I'm telling you,
everything God has to say to the believer is right in this
book. Now we don't understand it all, and I don't think we
ever will. Anyone who tells you they've
arrived or they've... I got a story, but I'm not going
to say it. But someone told me they were a Bible scholar the
other day. They didn't know hardly anything about the word. And
I felt pity for them. I felt pity for them. I really
did. These people have been taught wrong, beloved. They've been
taught wrong. God speaks to us right through
here. Speaks to our hearts, doesn't
he? My oh my. So they didn't say,
you know, they announced what God had done in detail, beloved.
They were giving God the glory for what he'd done. And they
gave an accurate report of what God had done with them for the
Gentiles. They didn't say, look what I've
done for the Lord. They said, look what the Lord's done. There's
a difference, isn't there? And I know I'm not trying to
pick on anyone either. I'm really not. Because I came
out of religion, remember? I was a bragger about going door
knocking. And I used to even say to Vicki,
why don't these other Christians go door knocking? I was like
that, beloved. I was horrible. I was a Pharisee.
It was awful. And then sometimes when the message
would be preached, I'd say, oh, I wish that fellow was here.
He needed to hear that. Well, what'd that tell you? That'd
tell you I heard nothing. That's what that tells you. Now I sit
there like a mercy beggar and say, preach to me. Preach Christ
to me. I want to hear about my king. There's a hunger now, isn't
there? And thirst for righteousness,
which is Christ. My, oh, my. So they're giving God all the
glory, honor, and praise for salvation in and through Christ
alone. And remember, it's God who separated them for this work,
the work that he had purposed for them before time began. And
it was God who sent them out. He directed their path. He appointed
a time and places where they would preach his gospel. Look
at verse 27 again of Acts 14. They rehearsed all that God had
done with them and how he had opened the door of faith. These
wonderful words bring our great God all the glory, honor, and
praise. They proclaim Christ. They proclaim
what he did in his sovereignty with them. And we clearly see
it's God who opened the door of faith for the Gentiles. Marvel at what's set before us
here in these words. God in his providence has opened
the door for Paul and Barnabas to preach salvation to the Gentiles,
and then he opened the door of their hearts. He opened the door
of faith for them. They were born again. They were
the lost sheep of God. They didn't have a clue, did
they? They're worshiping idols one second, and then they're
worshiping the true and living God the next second. Oh, it's amazing. I'll tell you what. And they
willingly embrace Christ, don't they? They believed. They believed. Oh yeah. And God has opened the
mouths of his preachers to preach the gospel to them. And then
he opened their hearts to believe. Turn if you would to Jeremiah
chapter 33. Jeremiah chapter 33. You know what? They were given an understanding
that they were desperate sinners and they needed Christ. They
needed Christ. God, by his grace given them
faith, not by anything they did, or based upon any merit in them,
all by his free and sovereign grace. And they believed on the
Lord Jesus Christ. And the Gentiles who were saved
by God, given faith, received Christ and his gospel into their
hearts. Look at this in Jeremiah. This
is brought forth over here in Jeremiah chapter 33. We'll read
verses six to eight. Look at this. Look who's speaking
here. God's speaking, right? And he
says this, Behold, I will bring it health and cure, and I will
cure them, and will reveal unto them the abundance of peace and
truth. Now notice who's saying this.
It's God. And notice these words, I will. By his stripes we're
healed, right? By his stripes we're healed.
I'll bring it health and cure, and I will cure them, and will
reveal unto them the abundance of peace and truth. Who's the
way, the truth, and the life? Jesus Christ our Lord. What do
we have with God through Christ? Peace. Peace with God. Look at this. And I will cause
the captivity of Judah and the captivity of Israel to return,
and will build them as at the first. Now look at this. Here
we go, verse eight. And I will cleanse them from
what? Some of their iniquities, Amen, Brother Brian. All, all
their iniquity, I mean everyone, whereby they have sinned against
me, we've sinned against God, haven't we? And I will pardon some of their
iniquities? All, amen, Brother Brian, all
their iniquities. Look at that. all their iniquities,
whereby they have sinned, and whereby they have transgressed
against me. That's what happens to us in
Christ. God himself has pardoned us from
all our iniquities, and it's him we've sinned against, we
transgressed against him, And he's cleansed us from all our
iniquities by the precious blood of the God-man, the Lord Jesus
Christ. And he's pardoned all our iniquities. That's something
to rejoice about, isn't it, beloved? Who made you to differ? Who made
me to differ? And what do we have that we didn't
receive? And in the Greek, that's who distinguished you. Who distinguished
us from our family and our friends? I think all my high school friends,
and so many of them are still just dead in trespasses and sins,
and doing the same thing that I would still be doing if God
hadn't saved me. It's only God who made us to
differ. That's why we give Him all the glory, honor, and praise.
We have been forgiven for Christ's sake. You know that? For Christ's
sake. God has forgiven us for Christ's
sake. Through His San Antonio perfect work, by the shedding
of his precious blood. And we who are the born-again,
blood-washed saints of God, we have now all, I mean all, all
our iniquities forgiven. They're all pardoned. You think
of the worst sin you've ever committed that you ever know
that you've committed. And they make us blush, won't them? Forgiven. Paid in full. By the precious
blood of Christ. My oh my. And this is what, this
is so amazing. We have been pardoned by the
very one we sinned against. We're not like that, are we? Someone wrongs us, we're like,
I'm gonna get that fella. I'm gonna get that person. And
even, I'll tell you what, even as a believer, It's hard for
us to let that go, isn't it? Praise God. God doesn't do that
to us. All our sins and all our iniquities,
pardoned and cleansed and washed in the precious, precious blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And God says, when I see the
blood of Passover, He doesn't mark our iniquity. Blessed is the man to whom God
will not impute sin, because it was imputed to Christ. He
bore it all for us. What a Savior. What a Redeemer
is Jesus Christ our Lord. And all this that we've seen
in our salvation has all come to pass based upon the perfect,
complete, sinatonic sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ as a
substitute of all the elect of all the ages. And think of this,
Jesus Christ has made full satisfaction full satisfaction, God is absolutely
satisfied with the sacrifice of Christ. So much so that he
says, your sins and iniquities to his people, I will remember
no more. I don't deserve that, do you?
But we have that in Christ. No wonder we praise him. No wonder
we sing glory to him. No wonder Paul and Barnabas only
wanted to tell them about what Christ had done. And this is a full pardon. This
is a free pardon, too. We don't deserve it. And it's
full. We see in that text, it's full.
From all, as Brother Brian said, all their iniquities. All their
transgressions. Even the ones we remember and
we just bow our head in shame. Gone. Gone, beloved. Cleansed in the precious blood
of Christ. Hallelujah, what a Savior is
Jesus Christ our Lord. And let us remember it's God
who opened the door of faith, not only to the Gentiles, but
to us too. We heard a preacher preach the
gospel. And God made it effectual, didn't
he? Born again by his almighty power. Now, I can't put a date
on when that happened to me. I know it happened, though. I know it happened. Someone asked
me, how do you know you're saved? Because all my hope and all my
trust and everything about me is resting on Christ and him
alone. And I sure wasn't doing that
before. Good question though someone
asked, isn't it? Gives us an opportunity to testify the great
things the Lord has done for us. He's done it all. And you know what? God sends
his preacher, next week it'll be 15 years here. God sends his,
or nine years, what am I talking about 15 years? I kind of doubled
it there, didn't I? It's a 15th, that's why. It'll be nine years that God
sent me here. He sent me here and here we are.
He sends his preachers to appointed places that he's assigned for
the ministry, and we have the honor of preaching and proclaiming
the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and salvation through
Christ alone. And only God can do the saving.
We're just, as Brother Norm says, we're mailmen. We just deliver
in letters. Report, Isaiah said. Who hath believed our report?
And God is the one who makes the factual, doesn't he? Prayer
is his mighty, mighty name. Brother Travis, will you close
us in prayer?