Open your Bibles, if you would,
to Acts chapter 14. The name of the message is Much
Tribulation. Much Tribulation. During our last lesson in the
book of Acts, we saw where our sovereign God under the ministry
of Paul and Barnabas had healed an impotent man who had never
walked. He was born and had never walked. He was lame from his mother's
womb, never walked. And the Lord healed him, and
he was leaping. See, God's healings are instantaneous,
aren't they? My, oh my. And remember, we looked
at how that man was a picture of you and I in our natural state.
We were just like him. We couldn't help ourselves. We
have no ability to save ourselves, right? From our mother's womb,
we're born dead in trespasses and sins, right? And it's God who must regenerate
us. We must be born again by the Holy Spirit of God. And when
he does that, we sure leap, don't we, in our hearts for joy. My
and you ever think we're lame from a fall Remember Mephibosheth
was lame from a fall. We're lame from a fall beloved.
We fell in Adam Spiritually, we're lame. We can't help ourselves.
We can't heal ourselves. We're in the same condition that
man was And we're being born again by the Holy Spirit of God
by his almighty power Because we were redeemed by the
Lord Jesus Christ at Calvary's cross, and because God chose
us in Christ in eternity. It goes backwards, doesn't it?
Isn't that wonderful? So as a result of that, in time
and space, we're born again. And then we're going to live
our life in this time and space that we're locked in right now.
And then God's going to take us out of time and space. And
we're going to be with him forever, Brother Tom. It's amazing. But I ask you this. Do you have
much tribulation in your life? Do you have things that you go
through that you don't share with no one else? Do you have agony of the heart?
Sometimes agony of the mind? Or do you just go through things
and no one else even knows? You know, when I was in religion,
I used to hear that there was gonna come in a seven years tribulation,
which is seven years of suffering, basically, right? Do you know what the Lord says
of the believers? He doesn't put an amount of time on it.
Eric and I were talking about this on Thursday. He doesn't
put an amount of time on how much tribulation we're gonna
go through. He says, in the world, you shall have much tribulation. In this world, we live in the
great tribulation for the believer. This is all the tribulation,
trials, and sufferings that we're ever gonna go through is right
here. There'll be no more. Remember,
we're going to the land of no mores, right? No more sin, no
more sorrow, no more suffering, no more tribulation, no more
trials, no more crying, no more darkness, because the lamb is
the light of glory. Oh, it's wonderful. So God used
the healing of this lame man to prove that he had sent Paul
and Barnabas. And we are gonna see in our text
today that we are told that we must go through much tribulation
to enter into the kingdom of God. It's normal. Let's stand up and read together
verses 19 to 23 of Acts chapter 14. And this will be our text for
today. Acts chapter 14, verses 19 to 23. And there came thither
certain Jews from Antioch in Iconium, who persuaded the people,
and having stoned Paul, drew him out of the city, supposing
he had been dead. Howe obeyed, as the disciples
stood round about him. He rose up and came into the
city, and the next day he departed with Barnabas to Derbe. And when
they had preached the gospel to that city and had taught many,
they returned to Asteria and to Iconum and to Antioch, confirming
the souls of the disciples and exhorting them to continue in
the faith, and that we must, through much tribulation, enter
into the kingdom of God. 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. Oh my, what a wonderful
portion of scripture. What a wonderful portion of scripture.
Now our last study, we left off verse 19 of chapter 14. And we saw that the unbelieving
Jews had followed Paul all the way from Iconium and from Antioch,
and they persuaded the people in Lystra. They persuaded them. It's a stone, Paul. They got them all fired up against
Paul. They got them all fired up. You ever see a group of people?
Could be kids, it could be adults. They get someone all fired up
against one person. All right? Kids and humans, we like to group
up against people. They can group up against somebody
and they can just, well, they can bully them, right? Well,
this is more than bullying. They're so mad, they want to
kill them. They want to kill them. They want to kill Paul
and Barnabas. And Paul's the speaker, so they
stone Paul. And these unbelieving Jews are
persuading the Gentiles to get worked up against Paul and Barnabas.
They're actually enemies of the gospel. They're enemies of the gospel.
They're trying to persuade them not to believe the gospel of
Jesus Christ that's being preached to them. Now, what does God have
to do for a man to go to hell? Amen, Brother Tom. Nothing. Just
leave him alone. Just leave him alone. But what does God have
to do for a woman to go to heaven? Everything, right? He must save
us. So, Paul had just told them,
remember, that their God was a false God. He was nothing,
a figment of their imagination. That's fighting words to them,
isn't it? That's fighting words to them. So it wouldn't take
much for them unbelieving Jews to get them stirred up against the
Lord's preachers, because the Lord's preachers preach that
salvation's in Christ alone, in Him alone. He's the creator.
Sinners can only be saved in and through the Lord Jesus Christ.
And let us remember that all this is happening, again, this
has been amazing as we've been going through this study, all
this is happening according to God's providence. Let us stop,
and we were talking, Sister Mary Jane and Sister Diana were talking,
and I had talked to Zane this week earlier, just about how
If we stop and think that all the things that are happening
in our lives are happening according to God's providence. And you know it's hard for us
to be content. We're always trying to fix things,
aren't we? Let's be honest. We're always trying to fix things.
But may God give us contentment. to just rest in Christ. You know,
that's the hardest thing for us to do, just to rest in God's
providence, and just to rest in His work, His will being played
out in our lives. But let us just rest in Him.
Let us just, by God's grace, trust in Him. So they knew that
all these things that had happened to them, remember, we've seen
several things happen to them. They're all falling out according
to God's will and purpose. Well, it's time for them to move
to another city, isn't it? Time for them to go to Derby
now. My, I forgot to look up Derby, Brother Tom. I love that.
Was it Listeria that you looked up? Yeah, Tom looked up Listeria.
It was 80,000 people in the surrounding area, right? And 30,000 people
in the city itself. So that means the city was divided.
That means 15,000 people around that the Lord had saved. And
15 other thousand were against them. And remember, they thought
they were gonna stone Paul and get him out of there, and they
thought, oh, the gospel's gone, we're gonna get rid of him. Little did they know
there's a bunch of converts sitting there. Isn't that amazing? The Lord's amazing, isn't he?
He's amazing. Oh my. But all this is happening
according to God's sovereign providence and purpose. Our two
beloved brothers, they're God's missionaries to the Gentiles.
And they were on a divine schedule, weren't they? You know, some
of us like schedules. I'm kind of a guy that doesn't
really follow a schedule, but some people like a rigid schedule,
right? Some people like that, and that's
how they function, right? And others of us, we kind of
just loosely go into our day and, right? Still accomplish
things in the end, but God has a schedule, doesn't he? Even
the times of our death are on that schedule. The time of his
coming back, the Christ coming back is on that schedule. None
of us know what that is. Just like we don't know when
we're gonna die. But they're on, and as I was thinking about
this, it's amazing, because it's like, well, your time is up over
here, so I'm gonna move you over here. But he's gonna bring him
back again. But it's amazing that when, and let us think this,
too. Brother Tom, we were in the exact
place that God wanted us to be when we heard the gospel. So
he's moving Paul and Barnabas to places where these people
have appointments. It's their time of love. It's
their time to be born again. And what does God do? He moves
a preacher over there, doesn't he? Anybody ever ask you, well,
what is God gonna do about a person on a deserted island that's one
of God's elect? He's gonna send a missionary. He's gonna send
a preacher, that's it. We have proof of it right here
in our text. He's sending Paul and Barnabas
to the places where God's sheep are, and it's their time of love
to hear the gospel, and he has ordained means, the preaching
of the gospel, right? The Holy Spirit takes the gospel,
he says, faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God,
right? And he regenerates his people.
by God's power, and all this is happening according to God's
will and purpose. It's absolutely amazing. So where
you are right now is according to God's will and purpose. Isn't that amazing? It's absolutely
amazing. My oh my. So these men who persecuted
God's servants, you know what they are? They're pawns in the
hands of our great God. They're just pawns. Isn't that amazing? I was talking
to a fellow this week. I think it was Eric and I were
talking. We were talking about hewers of wood and dryers of
water. And I remember Norm telling me this. He said, do you remember
when the Israelites came in the Promised Land, and they were
going to the Promised Land, and there was that group of people that
dressed themselves up as sojourners, and they got molded bread, because
they didn't want to get wiped out by the Israelites. And they
come up, and they said, we'll be your servants and everything.
And so Joshua said, you can be hewers of wood and drawers of
water. And Norm said, the unelect are hewers of wood and drawers
of water for the elect of God. That's pretty amazing. And Eric
and I were talking, I said, yeah, I said, think of this, he has
an unsaved pilot fly a preacher from this end of the continent
to this end of the continent to preach the gospel, and then
has them fly him back to get back home to preach to his congregation
back there. And he uses that pilot and that
airline to do that. And that pilot's totally unaware.
He just got a bunch of people in the back. He's ferrying to
one place to the other. I'll tell ya. It's absolutely
amazing. So Paul and Barnabas, their time
was up. to be in, and it was their time,
their appointed time for his servants to continue on their,
for God's servants to continue on their missionary journey.
And our Lord Jesus, think of this too, he lifted his restraining
hand because he restrains folks, doesn't he? He was restraining
those folks. They didn't kill Paul and Barnabas
right away. They didn't try to. He's restraining
them. So when it's time for them to leave, he just lifts his restraining
hand and comes to persecution and they say, well, off we go
here. That's all according to God's will and purpose, beloved.
Isn't that amazing? Think about what this church
went through in the last, what, seven years, even before I got
here. All that stuff, beloved, we don't
know, but all that stuff was happening according to the will
and purpose of God. And look at where we are now. Rejoicing. Rejoicing in what we have here. Knowing it's so special. But
all that had to happen, right? And I'm sorry for those of you
who went through. I know Brother Brian and Jonathan, you guys
went through a lot, man. And I'm sorry you did. But look
what we have now. Look at the love we have now
for one another, too. Look at how we're knit together
in love. Isn't that amazing? That's absolutely
amazing. all according to the will and
purpose of God. My, oh my. So everything that's
coming upon these two missionaries from these ungodly men, God has
lifted his restraining hand and has allowed persecution to come to let them know it's time to
leave. Look at verses 19 and 20, and there Came thither certain Jews from
Antioch in Iconium, who persuaded the people, and having stoned
Paul, drew them out of the city, supposing he had been dead. Now,
these fellows must have heard that Paul and Barnabas were in
another city, and did they just decide, oh, well, let's go persecute
them? Well, maybe they did think that in their minds, but little
did they know their pawns in the hands of the Lord. Their
pawns, beloved. God's gonna use them, lifting
his restraining hand, He's gonna use them to stir up the Gentiles,
and then Paul and Barnabas, they're gonna go off the derby, and what
are they gonna do? What did Paul and Barnabas do
wherever they went? They preached the gospel, amen.
They preached Christ, didn't they? That's what they did. Oh my. They didn't get caught
up in all this other stuff. I was reading something this
week. I can't even remember what it was, but somebody was asking,
are you Calvinistic or monolistic or whatever? I couldn't remember.
I'm looking at this going, I don't care. I'm trusting Christ. And this was supposedly a question
to believers. I never even heard of this other
thing that they're mentioning. Right? We got to just focus on
Christ. We got to just focus on preaching
Christ. That's what's most important,
right? I love theology just like anyone
else, but Christ is what's most important. In all truth, theology
is wrapped up in Christ. It's all wrapped up in Him, beloved.
Oh my. And so they went and they preached
Christ. Look at this and look at... and persuaded the people,
having stoned Paul, drew him out of the city, supposing he
had been dead. Halibate, the disciple, stood round about him.
He rose up and came into the city, and the next day he departed
with Barnabas to Derbe. Now take note of something here.
This persecution didn't take Paul and Barnabas by surprise.
They're used to it. They've been persecuted in every
place they've went. They expect it. And they're even going to
tell us that through much tribulation, by inspiration of the Holy Spirit
of God, that through much tribulation we will enter into the kingdom
of God. I ask you, is this life not tribulation? Is this life
not hard? I was watching something, and
I know enough not to click on these things, but there's some
preacher from somewhere, and I click on it, and the guy in
the big background, he's got this huge sign that says, joy! Now that you're a Christian,
joy! And I'm looking at that going, now that I'm a Christian,
joy. Okay, I understand that the Holy Spirit is the one who
works joy in me, right? But is not the Christian life
hard sometimes? Is it not a life with tribulation?
Now there's joy. Oh, we're going to go to glory,
beloved. That should excite us. But I'm
talking every day in this life, do we not go through trials and
tribulations? Do we not go through hardships?
Was not our king a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief? Oh my and did not our did not
our master say through much trip in the world in in the world. What's our verse? You will have
tribulation but be of good cheer. I've overcome the world My oh my Sister we have much
tribulation here, don't we? But be a good cheer our Kings
overcome. He's overcome the world Do you know Paul says think of
this too This is amazing, because it doesn't feel like this. And
I'm not trying to downplay what we go through, but Paul wrote
in scripture that what we go through is light affliction. Light affliction. Don't feel
like light affliction, does it? But when we contrast what we
go through with what Christ went through, it's light affliction, isn't
it? It's a lot of affliction. Oh my. Isn't our God so good
to us? What a great God. What a great
God. So, there's nothing new under
the sun. And these self-righteous religionists,
they hate Christ and they hate the truth of his gospel. And
do you know that Paul and Barnabas are being persecuted by the same
spirit that prevails now, which is Antichrist. Do you know that
Antichrist, what Antichrist means is Antichrist. It means against
Christ in the Greek. It's a spirit. People are looking
for a man. It's a spirit. Calvin, Spurgeon,
Gale, Brother Henry, all believed that Antichrist was a spirit. Think of this, free willism. Free willism says I got the power
to choose. I got the power to save myself. To choose God or not, when the
scripture says there's none that seeketh after God, there are none good, all have sinned and come short
of the glory of God, that's why we must be made willing in the
day of God's power. That's why God, now do we choose
Christ? We sure run to him, don't we?
Because we're made willing. And unless God makes us willing,
we'll be totally unwilling. That's the miracle of grace.
He made us willing to flee to Christ. He gave us faith to believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. It's a work of God. Salvations
of the Lord from beginning, from the planning to the end, all
through execution, application, all through. It's all Christ.
It's all Him. And self-righteous religionists
hate this. And that's what Paul and Barnabas
were preaching. They were preaching that salvation's only in Christ. And the spirit of Antichrist
dominates the enemies of God in his gospel. Paul and Barnabas
had not forgotten the unbelievers' hatred for Christ and the glorious
gospel of God's sovereign, amazing grace, especially Paul. Paul
was guilty of doing what they're doing. Paul knew what their motives
were. Do you ever stop and think of
that? Paul was one of them, just like we were one of them. Paul was going around hauling
Christians out of homes, taking them in chains. He was there
and consented to the stoning of Stephen. He knew what was
driving them, their hatred. And yet here he is with grace,
preaching Christ. God changed him, didn't he? He's
a new creature in Christ, born again by the Holy Spirit of God.
He'd been given faith to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and
now he's not gonna go around telling people what he thinks.
He's preaching Christ. See, I got no time to argue and
debate with people. I'll sit and talk and fellowship.
That's wonderful. I love that. I love sitting and
talking about Christ and fellowshipping around Christ. But I got no time
to debate about end time stuff. I got no time to debate about
all these other things that religious folks get themselves all caught
up in. I used to get myself all caught up. I got no time for
that. We're here for Christ, and we're
saved for Christ's sake. Right? And not alone. And Paul
and Barmas were preaching God's sovereign, amazing grace of salvation
in and through Christ alone. And after these Jews from Antioch
persuaded the people at Lystra to turn away from Paul and Barnabas
they carried out their evil plot that they had intended to carry
out it on our remember They wanted to kill him at Antioch They wanted
to stone him at Antioch, but God didn't let him now here Now
they're going to carry out what they intended to because God's
allowing this to happen, right? He's allowing this to happen And they persuaded the same people
who Paul and Barnabas who thought, who thought, think of this now.
Think of how fast these folks have switched. They just thought
Paul and Barnabas were gods. And then Paul and Paul speaks
against their gods. And they're maddered and wet
hoists and they want to stone them now. It wouldn't take much for
them Jews to get them worked up, would it? Nope. Nope, not at all. Not at all. What fickleness of mind. The
Gentiles said, that's a picture of us in our natural state. Oh, we're a bunch of rebels saved
by grace. And let us not forget the unbelieving
Jews did the same thing to our Lord Jesus as they marveled at
his gracious words. They marveled at his miracles.
They marveled at all the things he'd done. And they said, crucify
him, crucify him. And we'd have done the same thing
if we'd been there. I know I would have in my natural
state, would you? Oh, man. I know what God saved
me from. He saved me from myself. Oh, my. My, oh, my. So they ran him out
of the city. They tried to kill him. Remember,
they wanted to throw our Lord over the steep cliff. That's
the spirit of Antichrist, beloved. You ever encountered that? You
ever encountered that? Oh my, it'll rear its ugly head. I've seen many people over the
years who will agree with what I preach, things in the scriptures,
and they may even start to attend worship. And then they'll hear something
that's just as biblical as anything else in the scripture. Right? But they don't believe
it. But it's just as biblical as
justification, sanctification. Let's use election, because election
is one that usually, or a limit of atonement. Either one of those
two, okay? So they're agreeing with, oh
yeah, Christ loved, He came and saved His people from their sins,
and He was gracious and merciful. And then you say, well, He only
died for the sheep, and vroom. They just recoil. Or you say,
well, you know, God chose a people in eternity. Whoa. You ever heard that happen? I
was one of them before the Lord saved me. You all know that. I recoil over
election. But that same spirit is still
here. Oh. They hear something that
doesn't fit their religious mold, and it's done. I ain't going
there no more. So you believe this part of the
Bible, and you believe this part of the Bible, and you believe
this part of the Bible, but when this truth is brought forth,
you say, I don't believe that. Do you know it's only the grace
of God that's made us to differ? I read some stuff and I go, I
don't understand this, Lord. Lots of times, you ever heard
that, lots of times? I don't understand this, but I believe
it, because it's in your word. It's in your word. How could
I before recoil out of election, and now for me it's my favorite
doctrine of the Bible? Because I'm born again now. I'm
a new creature in Christ now. But as Eric and I were talking
about too, it's a process. Vicki and I have talked about
this too. Sometimes it's a process. Sometimes the Lord years He's
drawn us. Sometimes it happens just like
that, right? Someone hears the gospel, I believe. And sometimes
the Holy Spirit's just drawn them slowly. But when they do,
when they are born again, they're gonna believe. They won't understand.
Did you understand everything? Think of this too. This is the
other thing. When the Lord first saved us, did we understand all
these great doctrines? And even now, when you really
think about it, we just know a little bit about them. Really. But our minds just are overwhelmed,
aren't they? By the goodness of God and the
greatness of God. But now we've been given an understanding.
that we didn't have before. Little though it may be. And
it's wondrous. It's absolutely wondrous. A baby
doesn't start talking as soon as they come out of the womb,
do they? A baby doesn't come out of the womb walking. No. They grow, just like we grow
in Christ. We're being conformed to the
image of the Son. Remember, we're being stones
made ready. He's chipping away at us, conforming us. Who doesn't
want to be conformed to the image of Christ? Oh my. And we ourselves, we sit there
and go, I'm getting worse instead of better. You know what that
means? You're growing in grace. because you see yourself more
as a sinner. These folks that, and I hear a couple of my friends
that say, well, I don't sin as much as I used to. And I'm like,
you're lying. You're just lying. You're just lying. Man. I remember Donny Bell and
I talking. He says, I call him up. I said,
I'm getting worse, Donny. He goes, you're growing in grace,
brother. You're growing in grace. See, because we see more of Christ's
mercy and grace and love. As you said, Sister, mercy, the
mercy of God. We see it more and more, and
it just absolutely fills us with awe. So, we are like these Jews before
the Lord saves us. Because the scripture says we
were enemies in our minds with God by wicked works. But God's taken the enemies in
our minds and now made us worshippers. That's amazing. That's absolutely
amazing. So instead of the one believing
what the Word of God plainly preaches and teaches, they change
their mind about the one who's preaching. Remember the folks
that I was telling you about that come in and then they listen,
they agree, they agree, they agree, and then all of a sudden,
oh, I don't like what that guy's preaching. He's preaching the
truth. My oh my. And then they go as
far, and we've had this happen here, they go as far with a group
a few years ago, They go as far as accusing the one who's preaching
that they're not preaching the gospel. My oh my. Who are we? Who are we to speak against the
Lord's servants? And I'm not talking about me,
I'm talking about the other preachers out there. Who are we? You know? My oh my. Now if they're not preaching
the gospel, then yeah, we're gonna say something, aren't we? But oh my. And you know what
they do? They go and they find someone,
they go and find someone that'll pat him on the back and say,
oh yeah, I agree with you, that guy's not preaching the gospel. And then you got a bunch of disfellowship
happening. And you know what? What does the Holy Spirit do
within the body of Christ? He unites us. See, we sinful
men have divided ourselves so much as believers. That's why I love what we have. We need to cherish what we have
here, beloved. It's special. It really is. We're family. What we have is
rare. You see it in Grace churches,
and you see it in some other churches, but it's rare. It really is,
beloved. My, oh, my. And so they get patted
in their air. And you know what? There's nothing
new under the sun. This has been happening since the beginning. And sadly,
it will continue until the Lord returns. Until the Lord returns. So if we have a church that the
preacher is preaching the gospel, let us come with teachable spirits,
right? I was talking to Gary Shepard
one time, and I said, you know, Gary, I always want to have a
teachable spirit. I just do. No matter who I'm
listening to. I listen to Donnie. Donnie had
Cody Henson and Todd Nyberg preaching on the weekend. I saw you were
watching too, sister. And they were wonderful messages,
weren't they? Wonderful. I learned so much. It was wonderful.
And Cody's only been preaching for a few years, but wonderful
messages. See, it's not about, it's not
the man, it's the message, right? That's what's most important.
Do they got the message? Well, praise be to God, right? Praise be to God, my. So if we have a church where
the preacher's preaching the gospel, let us come with teachable spirits
and let us rejoice together in the gospel. Do you know the joy
that we can have comes from knowing what Christ did for us. comes
from the Holy Spirit of God. You guys know I'm a pretty excitable
guy, but because I think of what the Lord saved me from, and this
is so real to me. It's amazing. He saved a sinner
like me, and I get the privilege of preaching to other people,
right, about the glorious things that God done for me. Isn't that amazing? What an honor,
what a privilege. And we all, we all, including
me too, because when preachers come here and when I'm listening
at home, we all get to hear the gospel preached to us. It's wonderful. And every single
person in the church is there by the providence of God. Is there by God's providence. My oh my. Let's look at verse
19 here. Look at this. After they stoned
Paul, they dragged him out of the city. And as I was reading
that, I was reading someone this week, can't remember who it was,
but it might have been Gil, and he said, could you imagine? He
said, they went over here, they stoned Paul, and they dragged
his body through the streets. all the way outside the city,
and he just tossed them away. See, we don't visualize that,
do we, when we read these, but that's what they did. They stoned
him in the city and dragged him out. My, oh, my. And I hope God, the Holy Spirit,
gives us a picture of that scene. They were so angry, so mad at
him, that they stoned him and just dragged him right out and
tossed him away. But look what happens. They left Paul for dead. Look
at this. Now, here's a miracle before
our eyes. You know, after someone gets stoned, they're probably
bleeding and bloody, and maybe even have some broken limbs. Halibe, as the disciples stood
around about him, he rose up and came into the city. the city, and they cast him. He obviously wasn't dead, but
they cast him. He comes right back into the
city. Could you imagine their faces to see him walk right back
into the city? And what's Paul gonna do when
he walks into the city? Someone tell me. He's gonna preach
the gospel, isn't he? They're not gonna shut him up. Oh, this is amazing. This is
amazing. And we see here, isn't this amazing? We see that the Lord had made
his gospel effectual. Remember, Paul had preached.
Paul had preached. Our great God made the gospel
effectual because how about it is the disciples stood around
about him. There's some believers come out of the city. But maybe
some of the 15,000. Obviously, it was some of the
15,000. And then Tom said around the
city was, in the surrounding area, was 80,000 people. So there
might even be more, beloved, who the Lord saved. Oh my. So Paul wasn't dead. And the
reason we can know that is because verse 19 tells us that they supposed
he was dead. You see that? He wasn't dead. They supposed he was, though.
They thought he was, but he wasn't dead. But we see here, marvel
at this, the healing hand of God, no less a miracle than actual
resurrection from the dead. Paul rose up just a short period
after he'd been stoned and his persecutors left. He just stood
right up. Don't you think he'd been like,
oh, you know, maybe dragging a leg or maybe an arm broken? He just stood right up, walked
right back into the city. We don't see that, do we? It's
a miracle, beloved. God's at work. God's at work. Oh, and the injuries he would
have received would have taken weeks of medical attention. We
break a bone, and we're in a cast for what? A month? We got blood pouring all out
of us, we gotta be stitched up and everything. He just stands
right up and walks him back into the city. That's amazing. And think of this, not only has
he been restored to health, but his strength has been given to
him too. Could you imagine how the beating that would have been
to the strength in his body? So not only does God heal him,
he gives him strength just to stand right up. Go right back into the city.
You ever been sick? You ever been sick where you
got no strength left, nothing? How long does it take us to recover? Paul just gets right up. Goes
right into the city. It's a miracle, beloved. My oh
my, we see the miraculous hand of our Lord who healed them instantly. And our Lord performed that miracle
not only for Paul and Barnabas to continue their missionary
journey, because what do they do the next day? We're off to
Derby. Think of that too. He was stoned,
left for dead, dragged through the city, thrown out, and then
he just gets up, and the next day he's walking to Derby, and
Derby's about 60 miles away. My oh my. My oh my. And it was also to encourage,
not only for Paul and Barnabas to continue on their missionary
journey, but also to encourage the young converts there. Could
you imagine them seeing that? They'd be like, we are hearing
it. Oh my gosh. But they saw it. Paul, we saw
you get stoned. You're walking back into the
city. Next day, see, I'm going to Derby.
Love you, brethren. Walking right out the gate. It's
amazing, isn't it, Brother Brian? It's amazing. Oh my. My, oh my. And note also, and think of this
too, the Lord gives us courage when we need it. He gives us
the words to speak. He says, when you're facing persecution,
you know, he gives us the words to speak. He gives us the courage
to stand against things, doesn't he? Because in our own self,
we're just going to cave, aren't we? But look at this. They just stoned him, right? He's left for dead. He gets up
and he goes right back into the city. That's courage given to
him by the Lord. Because what would natural man
do? Now, there's only two guys and
there's a whole city there, OK? I don't care the bravest man,
OK? Bravest of us here. What would we do? Tom, what would
we do if it was you and I and 15,000 people got against us?
Would we want to go right back in that city? No, we'd be going
the other way. And you're a brave man. Man. See ya! I'm not coming back! Right? But Paul goes right...
See, that's the Lord giving him fortitude. That's the Lord giving
him courage. That's the Lord giving him grace to go right
back to the very ones who persecuted him and to preach the gospel
to them. My! And he preached Christ to
them. He preached Christ to them. My oh my, it's truly amazing. So God's people, we have a reverential
fear for our God. Remember the Lord, the Lord told
his disciples, he said, fear not them which kill the body,
but are not able to kill the soul, but rather fear him which
is able to destroy both body and soul in hell, Matthew 10,
28. Don't fear what man can do to
us. Fear Christ. And that's a reverential fear.
That's not a slavish fear. That's a fear of reverence, which
every believer has. Which every believer has. An
awe of who God is. And God's born-again, blood-washed
children being taught by God that our Lord Jesus Christ is
in absolute control over all things. Take note of verse 20 here. It
says, the next day he, Paul, departed with Barnabas to Derbe.
Howbeit, as the disciples stood round about him, he rose up,
came into the city. The next day he departed with
Barnabas to Derbe. Well, Paul and Barnabas, they
had to leave Iconium because of persecution. They fled to
Lystra. And now because of persecution,
they're going to go to Derbe. Their time in Lystra was now
over. And it was time for them to go
on to the next portion of the missionary journey that God on
his divine timetable had set up. They were on a divine mission. They were sent by God to go and
preach the gospel. And think of this, all the things
that occurred in their life was ordained by God. Bring it right
home to you and me. All the things that have happened
in our life, good and bad, have happened according to the will
and purpose of God for our good, for our good and for his glory. And we do not understand that,
do we? But it's true. We bow our knee to the word of
God, don't we? The distance between these two
cities, again, was about 60 miles. In verse 21, we see, let's read
verses 21 to 22. And when they had preached the
gospel, look at, I love this, I love this, look at that. And
when they had preached the gospel to that city, so they go into
Derby, and what do they do? They preach the gospel. They
go in and they preach the gospel. They're not setting up stands
about coming here, you know. They're going in and they're
preaching Christ. And they're preaching Christ to sinners,
aren't they? Such as we. And they're preaching to all,
knowing that it's God who does the saving. Oh my, look at this. They preached the gospel of that
city and had taught many. People were born again by the
Holy Spirit of God. And then look at this, Brother Tom, we
probably never went back to that city, right? Look at this, where'd
they go? They returned to Lysteria, or Lystra, and to Iconium, and
to Antioch, the very places they were persecuted. Remember Antioch,
that's not Antioch Syria, that's Antioch in Galatia. So the very cities that they
were persecuted in, they go right back. They go right back. Oh, what grace God gave them.
Same grace he gives us, isn't it? Oh my. But they're sent to
preach the gospel, so what do they do? They go into Derbe,
they preach the gospel. And by the power of God, Paul
and Barnabas were courageous soldiers of the cross. Despite
the opposition they received in those cities, they went right
back into those places. Right back into the front lines.
What courage God gave them. What grace God gave them. What motivated them to do this?
Worldly riches? Nope. They didn't care about money.
Paul was a tent maker. Was it the praise of man? Were
they looking for a following? I'm always weary of people looking
for a following. Were they looking for a following?
Remember Paul dealt with that in Corinthians? I'm of Apollos,
I'm of Paul, I'm of... Never ever, and I'm gonna warn
you about something. Don't get into this My Favorite
Preacher stuff. It's not the man, it's the message. It's the message, beloved. It's the message. Now, different
men may deliver it in different ways, but it's the message. It's
the message that's most important. So by the power of God, they
go and they preach the gospel, but they're not motivated by
worldly riches. They're not motivated by the
praise of man. They don't want a following, no. They don't want prominent
positions in the church. You ask any preacher, we weren't
looking to become preachers. None of us. Do you know what motivated them?
the glory of God in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. The salvation
of God's elect motivated them. The well-being of our Lord's
newborn, blood-washed saints motivated them. And we see that
here. Look, and had taught many. They preached the gospel, they
taught them, and they returned back to the very cities that
despised and rejected them, knowing that there's brethren in there.
Eric, there's family in there, isn't there? There's family in
there. Oh, my. So these two men are
sent to preach. And they preach to a lot of people
in a lot of places. They preach to Jews and Gentiles.
They preach to rich and poor. They preach to learned and unlearned.
They preach to women young and old, men young and old, religious
people, profane people, influential people. People who despised them. Believers and unbelievers, yet
their message was always the same. They preached the gospel. They preached Christ. Their message
never changed, no matter who was in front of them. Isn't that
wonderful? That's how it should be. Right? My, oh, my. And look at Acts
14.7. It's brought forth there, and
there they preach the gospel. I was listening to a fellow yesterday.
He was talking about something. Do you remember what the topic
was? Oh, women preachers, women preachers. And I turn him on,
and I'm listening to him. He's gonna give a definition
of different, like error, heresy, all these different things, and
then finally blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. And he's trying to figure
out where he's gonna put women preachers in there, right? And
you know what he did? He said, okay, before we get
into this, I gotta tell you about my book. And I'm sitting there going,
are you kidding me? Yeah, let me tell you about this
book I published, and this is how much it costs. Now, the topic
he talked about was neat, interesting, but first he had to peddle his
book. They preached the gospel. I like reading books just like
anyone else, but my job as a preacher Jonathan, when you fill in for
your brother and for other people, and Travis, we preach the gospel. That's what we're called to do. That's what we're called to do.
I told Vicki the other day, I just wanna pour my life out, the rest
of my life out for Christ. You know, these short messages
I've been doing, I'm gonna continue them even when we start Wednesday
nights again. Because it's more opportunity for the gospel to
go out, isn't it? It's more opportunity for the gospel to go out into
the world. For the glory of God in Christ. That's what it's all about. So
we see they preached the gospel in verse 7, look at verse 21.
And when they had preached the gospel in that city, they preached
the gospel. They preached one message, Christ
and Him crucified. Christ dying for sinners, Christ
shedding His blood to redeem hell-deserving sinners. We fell in Adam, and here comes
the second Adam. Here comes the Lord Jesus Christ,
God incarnated in the flesh to save His people from their sins.
They preach Christ. And regarding that message, they
all see eye to eye. They speak with one voice. God's preachers speak with one
voice, Christ and Him crucified. We preach Christ. That's it. That's the only hope
for sinners such as we. My, oh my. Richard Sibbes said,
preaching is the chariot that carries Christ up and down the
world. From one end of the world to
the other. The preaching of the gospel is the chariot that carries Christ all over
the world. Up and down. And think of this, the preaching
of Christ involves At the very least, the clear declaration
of this, number one, the glory of his person, Christ, is the
God-man mediator. He is God incarnate in the flesh.
He's the one mediator between God and man. He says, I am the
way, the truth, and the life. No man can come unto the Father
but by me. There's no other hope for salvation
because the scripture plainly declares that he came to save
his people from their sins. And he cried, it is finished.
What does that mean? It means it's finished. Praise God, it's
done. It's done. Oh my. And then preaching
the gospel also brings forth the efficacy of his work as the
sinner's substitute. He died as the substitute of
his people before God's wrath and before God's justice. And
remember, as we looked at this morning in Sunday school, that
is an infinite wrath of God that was due us because it would have
been eternal. The infinite wrath of God that
was due us was poured out by the infinite God upon his infinite
Son, that we might be saved eternally. That's amazing. That's grace,
isn't it? And the efficacy of his work
is that it was accepted by God. It's a perfect redeeming work.
It's done. Perfect in all ways. And then
when we preach the gospel, we also preach the universal sovereignty
of his dominion. He is God, and he reigns. He reigns, doesn't he? Think
of that. The one who saved us reigns. We get, and I'm being honest
here, we get worked up about our own politics in our own little
country, don't we? My country, my Canada now, pray
for it. They're having riots up there
now. It's awful. They're calling for the extinction
of Israel. Montreal, look it up, Montreal
had a bunch of riots. Man hating man. Sinful man. But you know what? Even over
that, our Lord's in full control, isn't he? And he's working all that. And
think of this. So here we are in our own little
countries, and the politics get us worked up, don't they? They
do. I admit it, we do. But God is over all of them. We gotta bring it right back
there. We gotta look to Him, don't we? And I love that you men,
Brother Neil and Tom and Brother Brian, and you guys pray for
the country. We need to do that. We need to
pray for our nation. We do. Oh my. And we need to pray that God
would awake his sleeping elect. Brother Billy says in his storm
warning messages, God would awake his sleeping elect, those who
do not know him, by the preaching of the gospel. So we preach the universal sovereignty
of his dominion. He is a king. See, we've forgotten
what kings are. I'll tell you what, you look
in history, when a new king took over, what did he do? He wiped
out all the old king's family. And then if there, think of this,
Zane and I were talking about it, Zane brought this up. He said if there
was a, so think of England. They had all kinds of different
little places. If there was a rebellion over here, say in this part of
England, the king would send his troops, what'd he send them
to do? Squish that rebellion, right? That's why what we receive is
mercy. God's a king. And we've all rebelled
against him. We're rightly deserving of death. But he's had mercy on us in Christ. He loves his people so much that
he sends his son, the Lord Jesus Christ, down to this earth. And
we know he's a man of souls acquainted with grief. He's bone of our
bone and flesh of our flesh. He's going through things that
we can't even imagine. Imagine the wrath of God being
poured out upon him for every one of his people. We can't even imagine. And he preaches, or he proclaims,
it is finished. So I preach a work already done,
a perfect work, that we don't add nothing to. We can't. It's already been performed by
the Son of God. He's obtained eternal redemption.
He saved us from ourselves. He saved us from our sins. He
saved us from hell. He saved us from the wrath of
God. He saved us from the law of God. He saved us from the
justice of God. And think, that's his law. That's his justice. That's his
wrath. Who did we sin against? God. And God himself saved us. Praise his mighty name.