Open your Bibles, if you would,
to Acts chapter 13. We're going to read the very
last few verses of Acts chapter 13, but our text will be in Acts
14. We'll be actually looking at
verses 1 to 7 in Acts 14, but I want us to stand up together
and read verses 49 to 52 of Acts chapter 13. The name of the message
is, They Preached Christ. They preached Christ. So let's
stand up together and read verses 49 to 52 of Acts chapter 13. Acts chapter 13. And the word of the Lord was
published throughout all the region. But the Jews stirred
up the devote and honorable woman and the chief men of the city
and raised persecution against Paul and Barnabas and expelled
them out of their coasts. But they shook off the dust of
their feet against them and came unto Icaron. And the disciples
were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit. My oh my. This is wonderful. Now let us
look at Acts 14 starting in verse 1. So we see by the grace of
God and by the providence of God according as you said brother
Tom his divine organization that's that's so true. We see it in
we see it in nature and we see it in in providence and his working
in our lives too. but according to his will and
purpose, everything we see occurring here and everything we see occurring
in the world, right, is occurring according to the will and purpose
of God. We have to remember that, that even the things we don't
understand, God's allowing things to happen and they are fulfilling,
somehow they're fulfilling his will and purpose, we don't understand
them all the time. But this is God's will. I remember Henry Mahan saying
something a long time ago, and I had never heard a preacher
say anything like this. He said, God will have a war to start
to have one of his sheep to hear the gospel. You ever think of that? He will
allow it to happen. He will allow it to happen in
order for that lost sheep in that country, who wouldn't hear
the gospel normally, is able to hear the gospel. We don't think like that, do
we? Think of, you know, people say all these people come from
all these different places, right? How many of them are gonna hear
the gospel? We don't know. And think of this too. I got
something to tell you about it. Milton Howard is down in Louisiana. He's a grace preacher who used
to be a missionary to Mexico. Well, down where he lives, him
and a Presbyterian preacher, who preaches the gospel too,
they get to go into the ICE prisons, the immigration prisons. And
this is where these guys are there before they're getting
shipped back to whatever country they came from. He's allowed
to go in there. When I talked to him last time,
he's going five times. five times a week, and he preaches
five times in the ice prisons. And he preaches to those fellows
before they get sent home. Isn't that amazing? Might be some lost sheep in there,
right? We see, we don't understand that
happening, but it happens. So we don't need to know all
the answers, do we? We just need to know that God
is working and moving. So here in our text we just read,
they're being expelled out of the country. They're like, get
out of here. We do not want you here. Right? They're being thrust out of Antioch. Not Antioch in Syria, but Antioch
in the Roman area. They're being thrust out of there.
Little do they know the countrymen there that are thrusting Paul
and Barnabas out, there's a whole bunch of believers left behind. But look at this, according to
God's will and purpose, and as I was putting this together,
at the exact time that happened. That happened at the exact time
according to God's will and purpose, do you know that? It wasn't chance,
it wasn't them deciding that we're gonna do it at this time,
it happened at God's exact timing. because God wants them to go
over and preach in another place. And this place we see is called
Iconium, or Iconum. Look at verse 51 of Acts chapter
13. Now let's look at verse 14, or
verse 1 of chapter 14. And it came to pass in Iconum
that they, went both together into the synagogue of the Jews.
And so spake, that a great multitude, both of Jews and also of Greeks,
what? Believed. Oh my. So at the exact time of
God, His timing, He has them, the persecution comes about,
they're thrust out of that country, right? And here they are, they
go into Akronim, Right? And they go into the synagogues,
and they preach the gospel. They preach the gospel, beloved.
They go into the synagogue of the Jews there, and they so spake,
which means we know what they spoke. They spoke the gospel.
They preached Christ, didn't they? They preached Christ, beloved. And the Holy Spirit moves, and
a great multitude, look at this, both of Jews and also the Greeks
believed. They believed. Now, Paul and Barnabas, they
didn't deviate from what our Lord called them to do. They
didn't say, well, we're going to go on a sightseeing tour since
we're on this missionary journey. We're going to go on a sightseeing,
see the land a little bit around us here. You know, you hear about
missionaries, suppose that people go on short-term missions and
they go out and they go do a little bit of work. And then you say,
well, what else do? Oh, we went and visited the town
and saw all these sites and all that. They're not doing that,
are they? They're there to preach the gospel. They're not there
to put puppet shows on. Right? You hear people do that.
Well, we went there, what'd you do? We did a bunch of puppet
shows. That's not mission work. Preaching the gospel is the most
important thing, isn't it? That's the most important thing. You know, you talk to Lance Heller.
What do you do, Lance, in Papua New Guinea? I preach the gospel.
We used to have Walter Grover. I never had the pleasure of meeting
him, but some of you all probably did. Walter, what did you do,
Walter? I preached the gospel. Milton,
what did you do down in Mexico? I preached the gospel. I preached
Christ. What did Paul and Barnabas do?
They preached Christ. Right? Everywhere they went.
And here's something. Persecution comes upon them for
what? For preaching the Christ, for
preaching the gospel in Antioch. And they don't get discouraged,
do they? Brother Tom, they got thrown
out of that land. They didn't even get discouraged, did they?
Well, here we go. We're going over here now. Let's
go to Icarum. And they didn't put their tail
between their legs and say, oh, we're not gonna open our mouths
up at the next place. And we know this is all by the
power of God, the Holy Spirit, right? We know that. I'm not
gonna deviate from that because it's all by the power of God.
The boldness comes from God's power, the grace comes from God's
power, the mercy, the ability to endure suffering comes from
God, the Holy Spirit, right? It all does. and out of love
for these people. Remember too, God's given them
a love for his people. They don't know who they are.
So they're going to preach the gospel to whosoever will, right?
And we see a whole bunch of them. They went to the synagogue. There's
Jews and Gentiles. There's Greeks and Jews there.
And what do they do? They preach Christ. They preach
Christ. They're not discouraged. It doesn't
take much to get me discouraged. I get discouraged real easy,
can you? I'm being honest, I can get discouraged real easy. But
by God's grace and mercy, he keeps us going, doesn't he? He
keeps us going, doesn't he? And they didn't get discouraged.
I get discouraged about a lot of things, but by the grace of
God, I don't get discouraged about the gospel, because it
goes forth with power, and it does what it accomplishes to
do, and that's wonderful. That's why they, and God's preachers,
God gives us grace to just keep preaching the gospel. Right? Jeremiah never saw one
convert. Not one convert. Did that discourage
him from proclaiming the word of the Lord? Nope. Isn't that amazing? Just keep
preaching. Just keep preaching. Oh my. Oh my. So we see persecution
comes upon them. They're not discouraged. They
go about their assigned tasks. They're soldiers. They're soldiers.
They've been given a task. And what do they do? We're going
to complete that task by the grace of God. We have to remember
we're soldiers for Christ, beloved. We're here on a mission. Right? We are right here in Alma for
a reason. Isn't that amazing? This is an outpost, beloved,
and we're soldiers of the Lord, placed here, every one of us. And in the unit, in the army,
you talk to Todd, every soldier's important, isn't it? Every single
one. There's not one that doesn't
have a purpose. I'm telling you, it's true. We're the body of
Christ, beloved. My, oh, my. And remember, They've
learned and they've been taught by our great God, just as we
have, that our Lord says, suppose ye that I am come to give peace
on earth, I tell you nay, but rather division, Luke 12, 51.
There is going to be division amongst the people of the world
in God's people. There will be. We ought to expect
it, beloved. But always remember, we were
there. And as long as they're breathing, keep praying for them.
Because there's hope. There's hope. Right? They may have heard the gospel
when they were young. I think of my son, he's heard the gospel
ever since he's been little. Lord's not being pleased to save
him yet, but doesn't stop me from praying for his salvation,
does it? Nope. But he could go to some folks
and he could tell them, he could say, what you're saying there
is wrong. God's sovereign. And I've heard him say it to
people. But he doesn't, it's not real. But he knows things. But do we
stop praying for him? Nope, keep praying. And if you
will, please keep praying for him. And I'll keep praying for
your kids too. Oh my. So they don't get deviated. They've
been taught by God, you're gonna get persecution. And who separates
the sheep from the goats, really? It's God who does that, right?
It's not us. God does that. We were amongst
them, and he separated us. He called us out. You ever think
of that? We looked just like a goat before
the Lord saved us. Folks think, oh, man, that guy
won't be saved. That's usually the ones the Lord
does save. Oh my. Never say never, beloved,
because it might be one of the Lord's sheep. And how does he
separate the sheep from the goats? Well, under the preaching of
the gospel, right? Under the preaching of the gospel. We can
be sitting there. I grew up with a whole bunch
of friends. I had a very large friend group
that I had. But out of that friend group,
the Lord saved four of us. He moves and saves whom He wills.
Some families you see, the whole family the Lord saved. Other
families you see, one person. Other families you see, a couple. Because it's the Lord's will,
right? It's according to His will and purpose. He's the one
who does the saving, right? He's the one who does the saving. So Paul and Barnabas, they come
to Icranium and they did the same thing they did at Aniok.
Look what they did in verse 1. They went both together into
the synagogues of the Jews, and so spake that a great multitude,
both of Jews and also of the Greeks, believed. And we know
they preached Christ. They went into those synagogues,
and they preached the glorious gospel that God had entrusted
with them, which is salvation in and through Christ alone,
by his precious blood alone, according to the will and purpose
of God, the sinless one dying for sinners, shed in his blood
to redeem us from our sins and to obtain eternal salvation for
us, right? And then we're born again by
the Holy Spirit of God, again, according to the will and purpose
of God. And they preach that Christ is the perfect man who
died on Calvary's cross to redeem, to save his people from their
sins. And he did it, he accomplished it. And His perfect righteousness
is accounted to us, given to us, we're clothed in it. And
our sins are laid upon Him. My, oh, my. And the sinless one
bore them all over 2,000 years ago. It's finished. We preach a finished work. It's
complete. It's already done. It's already
accomplished. There's nothing for us to do.
And we say, praise be to God. And he just says, look to me
and live. And he gives us the ability to look. Isn't that amazing? We don't want to look. We're
like, no, I don't want to see it. I don't want to see Christ.
And all of a sudden, we're like, oh, you're Lord. You're King
of kings and Lord of lords. After we're born again by the
Holy Spirit of God and given faith to believe. Isn't that
amazing? So they went and preached Christ. Now think about this. Brother Zane bought this up.
This was fantastic. Brother Zane, we were having
lunch together. Brother Zane bought this up. This is amazing.
So all through the book of Acts so far, we've seen, where do
Paul and Barnabas go? They go to the synagogues, right?
They go to the synagogues. Zane and I are still thinking
that all weekend, man, all week. So here they are. They go into
Icaronium, they've already been going to all these different
places, Antioch, the synagogue, the synagogue's all over the
place, right? So the Jews are being dispersed, and they're
building, before Christ even died, synagogues all over these
areas. In Rome, in various towns, in
other towns, they're all, and they're just building them so
they can, because they're dispersed, well, we can get together. And
Christ hasn't even been born. He didn't even come. And then
Christ comes, and He stays in the land of Israel. Right? He stays in the land of Israel.
And He lives a perfect life and bleeds and dies for us, saves
our souls, is raised up and goes to glory. And those synagogues
are all over the place, aren't they? And then God saves Paul and Barnabas.
And these synagogues, they're not in, we already know Israel
already has a bunch of synagogues. These synagogues are in Gentile
countries. You ever think of that? See,
you blew my mind away with that. They're in Gentile countries.
So the Jews could get together and worship. And before that,
the Romans had, the Greeks had come in, they went as far as
to India, and then they were stopped. Then the Romans came
in, they conquered, see the Greeks conquered militarily and intellectually
because the Greek language, now we were talking about this too,
why didn't the Romans replace the Greek language with Latin? Because that's what they spoke.
They spoke both Greek and Latin, but why didn't, why didn't, because
it wasn't God's will. So the Romans, they conquer even
further than the Greeks did. They take over that huge, I can't
remember the country name down below, Italy and all that. There's a huge, Carthage, Carthage
and all that. They take over all that, up into
Spain and all that. Huge swaths, even more than what
the Greeks conquered. And they kept the Greek language.
Hmm. That's by God's providence, right?
Okay, so now here's the stage set. Greek is the universal language
like English is today. Synagogues in all these Gentile
cities, all over, all over Rome, all over. In Paul and Barnabas,
the Lord says, set them apart and send them to the Gentiles.
And when they go into these synagogues, I think Zayden was saying that
strangers were allowed to, if they were, I think of Jewish
descent, they were allowed to speak. They would say, anyone
have anything they'd want to say? They have places that they
can already go and preach. And have we been seeing that
through Acts? They're going to the synagogues.
Now we know why. They go to the synagogues and
they're like, you got anything to say? Oh yeah, I got something
to say. But it's all being arranged by
God's providence. Isn't that magnificent? All prearranged
by God. They're building those temples
thinking, oh, great, we've got a place to worship. We're going to build
a synagogue. We can get all of us together. Little did they
know, here comes Paul and Barnabas 100 years later or 50 years later. Here comes Paul and Barnabas. Because didn't they go into a
synagogue in Antioch and preach? And next thing you know, the
following week, the whole city comes out, almost the whole city
comes out. Oh, and that's why they expelled them, because so
many people, the Lord saved so many people, that the Jews were
jealous, and the self-righteous Jews were jealous, and they stirred
up the people against Paul and Barnabas for preaching the gospel.
And we're going to see this is a pattern that happens all the
time. Self-righteous religious people hate the gospel. And these
are unbelieving Jews just like unbelieving Gentiles. There's
no difference. They're unbelievers. We were
unbelievers. Now we're believers. by the grace of God, right? But
think of that. So God providentially set up
all these places. And remember, as we go further
too and read further, because we're going to see more of this.
Right to the synagogues, right to the synagogues. Oh my, isn't
God good? Isn't he so merciful? His sheep
are there. They're building their temple
thinking, well, this is for us. And next thing you know, 50 years
later, The Lord's moving and saving one of his lost Greek
sheep that are at the temple. They're at the synagogue. Because
look at our text. Let's read verse 1 again. And
it came to pass, in Icronium, that they went both together
into the synagogue of the Jews. So it's a specific place. It's
a synagogue of the Jews that the Jews built for their worship.
And so spake, they preached the gospel, that a great multitude,
look at that, both of the Jews and also of the Greeks, believed.
Born again, just like that. All according to God's will and
purpose. Isn't that magnificent? They preached the glorious gospel
in the synagogues and Gentile cities, Again, they were building
them to worship their way, and our great God's gonna use them
for his gospel to spread like wildfire. And they went into the synagogue,
and they spake, they preached the gospel, and a great multitude,
both of Jews and also Greeks, believed. So may our Lord never
let us lose sight of what we learned in verse 48, of chapter
13 and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed, there
it is. These folks were ordained to
eternal life just as much as the folks that were in Acts chapter
13, just as much as you and I who are believers were. You marvel
at that? We were ordained to eternal life
by God. By God. Did we know that when
we were born? No, didn't have a clue. Did we
know that when we were growing up? Didn't have a clue. We may
have sat in the church where they talked about that, but until
we were born again, we were like, don't understand it. Because a natural man doesn't
receive the scriptures. They may have a general understanding,
but they don't have a spiritual understanding. Oh my. And then look at verse two. Here
we go. But the unbelieving Jews stirred
up the Gentiles and made their minds evil, afflicted against
the brethren. So here's the self-righteous
religionists. And you know, I've experienced
this because I was one of them. Self-righteous religious people
are the meanest people on earth. I was one of them. I know. I'm not anymore. I'm a recovering
Pharisee now. But I'll tell you what. They're mean. And when the sheep's down, they
don't help them, they just boot them. Kick them while they're
down. Find all the faults and point
them all out. Oh my. And we see here, when
they hear the truth, they're willingly rejecting Christ and
his gospel. And what do they do? They bring
damnation upon themselves. And that's true of anyone. who
rejects Christ, willingly bringing damnation upon their heads. Again,
what does it take for a man or woman to go to hell? It's all
them. God just has to leave us alone.
But what does it take for us to go to heaven? Everything.
God's got to do it all. He's got to do it all. He's got
to save us. And we see here in verse two
that they turn, they stir up people. They stir up Gentiles,
it says here, idol worshippers. They probably just said, well,
they're preaching that there's only one God. Well, these, remember,
the Gentiles are pagan worshippers. They worship all kinds of idols.
The Romans had multiple gods. The Greek had multiple gods.
And then the Roman Caesar was declared to be a god. And so they turn the Gentiles
against the Paul and Barnabas. And how do they do this? Well,
by filling the minds of unbelievers with evil lies. Look what it
says. And made their minds evil afflicted against the brethren.
They filled their minds with lies. See, the false gospel is
just a lie, isn't it? No matter what form it comes
in. It's got different labels. Right? Workspace salvation. Then you got the big denominational
names. I'm going to name a few. Church
of Christ, believe you have to be baptized to be saved. Catholic
Church, believes in baptismal regeneration. What does that
mean? It means that they believe that the person's born again,
the little baby's born again who gets baptized. That's really
what they believe. That's another gospel. That's
not the gospel. Seventh-day Adventists, they're Sabbatarians. They believe
you have to worship on a Saturday. That's another gospel. Anybody
who puts anything else along with something you or I have
to do with salvation, that's the key right there. That's another
gospel. And I'm not trying to be mean.
I'm telling the truth. I'm telling the truth. That's
another gospel. Remember the Judaizers were saying
you have to be circumcised to be saved. That's adding to the
gospel. And Paul said, let him be anathema,
let him be damned. That's harsh words, isn't it?
But that's what he said. God doesn't like anyone taking
glory from Christ. And he will not share his glory
with anyone. And if a man says that he can save himself, he's
just glorying in himself. That's all. But we preach that
Christ dies for sinners. He's the perfect man. He's God
incarnate in the flesh. My, oh, my. So they stirred up
lies. Sometimes they say things like
this. They say things like, well, those folks don't believe that
we're under the law of Moses. They're a bunch of antinomians.
You ever heard that? I've heard people say, well,
if I preach like you preach, then I can go out and do everything.
I said, you're getting the wrong message there. God forbid. God forbid. That's what Paul
said to that. Oh my. And then they say this,
well, those folks there, they don't believe that God loves
everybody. Well, come on. They don't believe that Jesus
died for all men. No, he didn't. That's why we
don't believe it, because the scripture says that. And then
they say, oh, they also don't believe that man has a free will
that determines their own destiny. No, I believe we have a will.
I just believe it's tied to our nature. And that without being
born again, we'll never choose Christ. We won't be made willing
unless the Holy Spirit makes us willing. We won't willingly
come to Christ on our own. We're proof of that. Do you know
that? We're living proof. Isn't that amazing? We're living
proof of that. But all they can do is stir up
unbelievers against us, that's all. That's all. They're so accustomed to hearing
lies that they think that the lie is the truth. But it's not. It's not. Oh my. And they will even bring
lies against God's born-again, blood-washed preachers saying,
oh, they're not preaching the gospel, they're not doing this,
they're not doing that. Well, I think you can listen
to the message I preach and others preach, pretty much tell we're
preaching the gospel, aren't we? Salvation's not dependent
upon anything we do. Nothing. So the unregenerate man will
not only receive, they will not receive the true gospel of the
Lord Jesus Christ because it's foolishness to them, the scripture
says. But they'll gladly join up with other false teachers
and speak against God's people. They'll gladly do that. Oh my. And think of this. These things that we're reading
about, we're studying, they're written for our learning. Nothing's
changed. There's absolutely nothing new
under the sun. There really isn't. There's nothing
new under the sun. What man is doing today, man's
done in the past. It might just have a different
label on it, that's all. But there's nothing new. There's
nothing new. And let us not be discouraged
when we face opposition from unbelievers. Let us not be discouraged. Because as we grow in grace and
in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, we learn to trust
him in every situation we go through. We learn that the whole
human race is doing exactly what Jesus Christ, the glorified God,
meant his purpose for them to do. And we learn the true meaning
behind it, and we know that all things work together for good
to them that love God, to them who are the called according
to his purpose. They were persecuting Paul and Barnabas according to
the will and purpose of God. And think of this, those Jews
had set up all these synagogues, and God's just moving them around
to preach at all these different places. Because where's the first
place they go, Brother Tom? Right to the synagogue, isn't
it? They go into a city, whoo, and there's a beeline in it.
I love it. It's wonderful. Right there they
go. Oh, let's look at verse 3 now.
Oh, so we realize that we shouldn't murmur about situations that
occur in our lives and in this world because it's all happening
according to God's will and purpose. Let's just give them glory. Look
at verse 3. Long time therefore abode they speaking boldly in the Lord,
which gave testimony unto the word of his grace, and granted
signs and wonders to be done by their hands. Look at that. Long time, therefore,
abode they, speaking boldly in the Lord, which gave testimony
unto the word of grace, and granted signs and wonders to be done
by their hands. So our Lord allowed Paul and
Barnabas, look at this, to stay in that city. Isn't that amazing? How did that happen? By the will
and purpose of God. God restrained them. God restrained
them from casting Paul and Barnabas out of that city because his
will and purpose hadn't been finished yet for Paul and Barnabas. Does God have a will and purpose
for every one of us in our lives? Yeah. Isn't that amazing? And the new believers needed
to be established in their faith And then the word of God's grace
and the power of God, we see was displayed here by signs and
wonders, which probably consisted of miraculous physical healings
and casting out of demons. And they were a true testimony
to that which was being preached, which brought glory to God and
glory to the Lord Jesus Christ. Now we don't need signs and wonders
today, do we? We don't need those things. We've
got the Bible. We've got the Word of God. We've
got the complete Word of God. And the New Testament reveals
the truths of the Old Testament. So we have the Word of God. We
don't need signs and wonders anymore. Not at all. We have a complete Bible now.
Remember, they preached out of the Old Testament. That's all
they had. The New Testament was being written. And God's true
preachers, where do we take our hearers? Right to the holy scriptures.
Right to the scriptures. Right to the scriptures. Proving
the gospel by the scriptures. And we preach, we preach the truth to those
who are sent by God to hear the words. And we who preach are
sent by God to come and preach the words. I thank God he sent
me here almost nine years ago. It's wonderful. I love you guys. Our hearts have been knit together,
haven't they? In love. And that's God's doing. God's done that. And by the grace of God, I'll
just continue as he allows to bring you to the word of God
and to show you from the word of God what God teaches me. It's amazing. And some believe and some don't,
right? But it's God who makes us to
differ. Let's read verses four to six together. But the multitude of the city was divided. Look
at this, the whole city's divided. And part held with the Jews and
part with the apostles. Oh my goodness. So God allows
them to stay there. They just keep preaching the
gospel. And now we see the whole city's divided. I should have
looked up the population of the city. I didn't, but I should
have done that. Now the whole city's divided. And when there was an assault
made both of the Gentiles and also of the Jews with their rulers
to use them to slightly and to stone them, they were aware of
it and fled into Lystia and Derbe, cities of Lyconia, and into the
region that lieth about. Well, Paul and Barnabas are sent
on a divine mission, aren't they? They're to go into these Gentile
cities and preach the gospel. And these places, remember this
too, these places had all been appointed by God for them to
go to. And at the appointed time that
God has determined and purposed for them to be in those cities,
they will be in those cities. I am here, you are here, we are
here according to the will and purpose of God and God appointed
it. for us to be here right now today. Isn't that amazing? And that's an appointment of
God. That's incredible. So here they are. They're preaching
away. The Jews are causing a stir with
unbelieving Gentiles. The unbelieving Jews are causing
a stir with the unbelieving Gentiles. Now, the city's divided in half
now. Some with the apostles, some
with the Gentiles. And now we see that the unbelieving
Jews and the Gentiles are making a plot. They want to assault. They want to assault the... They
want to kill him. Or they want to beat him and
cast him out of the city. Paul and Barnabas. They want
to stone him, it says here. Well, if they want to stone him,
they want to kill him, don't they? Because we saw Stephen get stoned. He
killed him. But look at this, in verse 6,
they were aware of it. God revealed it to them. What
those evil men were planning and purpose, God revealed it
to them. Oh, my. They were getting together behind
the apostles' back, behind Paul and Barnabas' back. They were
hatching up plans how to get rid of them. How can we get rid
of these fellows? Maybe we get together, we're
gonna stone them together. We're just gonna cast them out
of here. And God made them aware of it.
They had no clue, did they? They were just preaching the
gospel. They had no clue all these plans were being made.
No clue at all. But God knew, didn't he? God
knew. And God would not let his will
and purpose be thwarted, would he? Oh my. It wasn't their time to
die. Now they had an appointment down
the road, didn't they? Paul got his head chopped off, right?
But it wasn't right here. There are more places they have
to go and preach the gospel. More synagogues to visit, beloved. Oh my! And look at this. We see that the whole city is
divided. Believers and unbelievers siding unbelievers siding with
the self-righteous Jews and the believers siding with the apostles.
And our Lord Jesus Christ, we see here, look at this too, look
at this, God puts his restraining hand upon them, doesn't he? They
got, they're gonna, in their minds, we're going full board,
we're gonna get rid of these guys. No, you're not. Isn't that amazing,
beloved? No, you're not. So they're swinging air, aren't
they? Remember shadow boxers, you ever
see shadow? They're swinging, there's nothing
there. They're not making any connection, are they? You shall not. God protects his people, look
at that. Even today, 2024. People come against us, and if
it's God's will for them not to, you shall not. You shall not. Oh, my. He did allow them, though. He
did allow the unbelieving Jews to stir up the unbelieving Gentiles,
didn't he? He did allow that. And what did God have to do? What did God have to do for that
to happen? Just let them be, right? You see, we've seen a
picture right here. He saved the other ones that
are siding with the apostles. They've been born again. They're
like, now these guys are telling the truth. We were serving a
bunch of idols. They're preaching to one true
living God. That's all they're doing. Oh my. But the plan is thwarted. The assault by the enemies of
God is revealed and comes to nothing. In verse
six, we see, and they were aware of it and fled into Liste and
Derbe, cities of Lyconia, and unto the regions that lieth about.
The plot has been revealed. They'd been made aware of it.
And they continued on their missionary journeys. What do they do? They
just go to the next place where the Lord purposed them to go.
They didn't just say, well, I want to go here. They may have said,
well, we're going to go here. But that was all according to God's
will, wasn't it? God's leading. We see they fled into Lystia
and Derbe. Those are two cities of Lyconia
and in the region that lies about. So they visited two more cities.
And how did all this happen? By God's perfect timing and according
to his perfect will and according to his purpose, right? All of
that happened. And again, Paul and Barnabas
didn't go, well, you know, since we're going to go to Derby and
Listia, let's go on a sightseeing tour. Man, I heard there's a
great place over here we can put our feet in the water over
here. No, they didn't do that, did they? Look at verse 7. Look
at verse 7, beloved. He's amazing. And there they
preached the gospel. The one thing needful for sinners. They preached the gospel. They
preached Christ. They preached Christ, beloved.
They went into Listeria, they went into Derbe, and they preached
the gospel. And when they arrived in those cities, they preached
the gospel. The gospel that they were called
by God to preach, they went in there and preached the gospel.
They were not called to preach or to march against prostitution,
were they? They were not called to march
against homosexuality. They were not called to march
against premarital sex. They were not called to march
against abortion. They were not called to march against anything,
were they? Now, all those things we don't
agree with, do we? But they weren't called to get
in a rally and march. What were they called to do?
Preach Christ. That's what we're called to right
here in Alma. Preach Christ. Right here. And by the grace
of God, we have the message go forth, don't we? Right? Oh yeah. And when the glorious gospel
is made effectual by the life-giving power of God the Holy Spirit,
you know what He'll do? He'll take care of those sinful
issues. You know that? You know Paul says, in such were
some of you. He goes through this whole list. But people we
look at go, oh my goodness. He says, it's us versus some
of you. And we're not list. I can identify with quite a few
things in there. If we're honest with ourselves,
we go, yep, yep, yep, yep. God saved us from our sins, from
our wickedness. God didn't save good people,
did he? He saved sinners. That's what we are. God saved
us, beloved. Turn, if you would, to Romans
chapter 10. Why did they go in there? Why did they go in there
and preach the gospel? Why? Because it's essential,
beloved. This is why we say that when
the church isn't preaching the gospel, there's nothing there.
It's like, you remember the prodigal son, he was eating husks of corn
with nothing in them, no value. And he said, even my father's
servants are eating better than I am, eating pig husks. There's
no sustenance in those things. That's quite a false gospel.
There's no sustenance there. It doesn't feed the sheep of
God. We need clover, don't we? We need food. We need cheap food,
which is the preaching of the word, right? We lay down in his
green pastures. He makes us to lay down. You
ever think of that? He makes us to lay down in his green pastures.
And look at this. Look how essential preaching
the gospel is, preaching Christ is. Look at how essential it
is here. Romans chapter 10, starting in verse 11, we'll go all the
way to verse 17. For the scripture saith, whosoever believeth on
him shall not be ashamed. There it is. That's called the
general call. Whosoever will, whosoever believeth on him shall
not be ashamed. Do you believe? You won't be
ashamed of Christ. But if unbelievers, I want nothing
to do with him. Remember where we were. Remember where we were. Look
at this, verse 12. For there's no difference between
the Jew and the Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich unto
all that call unto him. Doesn't matter if you're Jew
or Gentile, if you call upon Christ, he's the one who has
all spiritual wealth, doesn't he? Justification before God,
salvation, redemption, sanctification. All these wonderful words. Look at that, rich unto all that,
what? Call upon Him. There's the key. Do you believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ? Oh, look at this. For whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord, what? There's that little
word again. Oh, I love that word. Don't you love that word? Shall
be saved. Isn't that a wonderful word?
Shall be saved. Not might be. Shall be saved.
I love that word. And look at the words before
that. For whosoever, what? Shall, call upon the name of
the Lord. Shall be saved. Isn't that, that's
a glorious verse, isn't it? Whosoever, whosoever shall call
upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. We don't know who the suhoosu
ever will. God knows them, don't he? But we don't, so we preach
this. Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall. And whosoever shall call, look
at that. We're made willing in the day
of God's power, aren't we, Brother Brian? And we call upon Christ,
save me. Save me, Lord, I'm a sinner.
I need to be saved. You're the only hope I have. This is wonderful. This is a wonderful gospel. This
is what for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord, and
here it is, shall be saved. Look at that. Have you been given
faith to believe? Well, if we're given faith to
believe, I'll tell you what, we shall call upon the name of
the Lord. If it's true God-given faith and not something man's
mustered up, Oh, look at that. And you know
what? We're gonna keep believing if it's true faith. We're gonna
keep hanging on to Christ. We cling to him, don't we? But
more importantly, he holds on to us. Oh my, look at that. Look at this. How then shall
they call on him and who they not believed? How shall a man
call on God who they don't believe? How? This is the importance of
these beautiful words. They preach Christ. They preach
the gospel. Look at this. Look at this. How then shall they
call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they
believe in him of whom they have not heard? These were idol worshipers,
beloved. These Gentiles, they're bowing
down to a hundred different idols. They've not even heard of Christ.
They've not even heard of Jehovah. Jehovah, the one true living
God. To them, the Jews is just another
religion. Right? Just another religion. That's why people say, people
make these stupid statements. I'm going to call it a stupid
statement, because it is. They say, well, all roads lead to
God. That is just not right. There's only one way to God,
and his name is the Lord Jesus Christ, period. And I'm sorry
if I said stupid, but that's just a statement that should
not be said. Because it's a lie. All roads do not lead to God.
Christ said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh
unto the Father but by me. That's why they preach the gospel,
beloved. That's why they preached. Because we're seeing it right
here. Look at this again, let's keep reading here. And how shall they believe in
him of whom they've not heard? And how shall they hear without
a preacher? And how shall they preach except they be saved?
I can't tell you something, I can't tell you about Christ unless
Christ saved me. Right? But he saved my soul, beloved.
I'll tell you about him. He has saved all who come to
him. To the uttermost. Oh my. Look at this. And how shall they preach except
they be sent, as it is written? How beautiful are the feet of
them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings
of good things. But they have not all obeyed
the gospel, for Isaiah saith, Lord, who hath believed our report?
So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by what? The word
of God. We must preach the gospel. We
must preach the gospel of Christ. We must preach salvation in Christ
alone. Absolutely have to do this. And
now the natural man, Natural man can clean up their act, can't
they? Oh yeah, natural man can clean up their act, so to speak. They can become moral solitarists. Remember, he was good in people's
eyes, but he's just as wicked as all of us. And they can clean
up, men can clean up their lives, but still be just a wicked, self-righteous
person. Again, Paul was persecuting the
church. And we see it here also by these
self-righteous religions who are now persecuting Paul and
Barnabas, thinking they're doing God's will. Oh my. This is why we must preach Christ.
We must preach the perfect redeeming work of the Lord Jesus Christ
and salvation is only through his shed blood. His precious
blood. Christ shed His blood to redeem
His people from all their sins, because we're a bunch of sinners.
We must be saved from our sins, right? We have to be. Christ
did it. He said, it's finished. Oh, my. It's finished. And think about
this, when we are regenerated, when we're born again by the
power of God, the Holy Spirit, under the preaching of the gospel
of salvation in and through Christ alone, we learn these things.
Here's one, number one, we learn that Christ is the true and living
God. There's no other God. Oh my,
and we bow down to him, just like we saw on Sunday school,
we bow down to him. We bow the knee of our heart, right, to
Christ. Number two, we learn that he
is our righteousness, that our righteousness is like filthy
rags before the Lord, but Christ is our righteousness. He's our
righteousness, beloved. He's our acceptance before God.
And the only righteousness that God will accept is perfect righteousness. We're all sinners. Our righteousness,
we're just, we're filthy. But he's perfect. He never sinned
once. Thought, word, or deed, or practice,
nothing. Nothing. And his perfect righteousness,
his perfect life, his perfect submission to God's law and justice,
his righteousness is given to us. Then we learn this, number
three, we learn that Christ bore our sins in his body on the tree. He bore our sins. We can say
personally, he bore my sins. You know, I was thinking about
this this week, you know, the Romans nailed him to that cross,
right? But it was my sins that hung him there. My. My, oh my. And then we learn
this. We learn that the blood of Jesus
Christ cleanses us from all unrighteousness. We learn that his precious blood
has been shed to obtain eternal salvation. His blood is shed
to redeem us from all our sins. The God-man, the blood of the
God-man. The blood of the God-man. Number
five, we learn this. We learn that nothing can be
laid to the charge of God's elect. We can live in that. Nothing
can be laid to our charge, beloved. God has justified us. God has
justified us. Number six, we learn when these
truths are revealed to us that the Lord Jesus Christ will clean
up our sinful lives, won't he? We don't want to do the things
we once used to do. We grieve it. We grieve now when
we sin. We sin all the time, but we still
grieve over our sin, don't we? We never did before, beloved.
We never did before. Let's read verse seven again.
And there they preached the gospel. So some people will ask, why
must you preach the gospel? Well, here's why. Paul wrote
this. Turn if you would, actually,
1 Corinthians. 1 Corinthians, turn here. Paul
gives us the answer. Why did Paul of Barnabas preach
Christ? Why do God sent preachers preach
Christ? Here's the answer. First Corinthians
1, 23 to 24. But we preach Christ crucified.
Under the Jews' stumbling block, we've seen that in verse chapter
13 and 14. And under the Greeks' foolishness,
we've seen that with the unbelievers, right? The unbelieving Jews and
Gentiles. But unto them that are called,
Remember, half the city is with Paul and Barnabas, but unto them
that are called, both Jews and Greeks, look at that, Jews and
Gentiles, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God, because
the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of
God is stronger than men. Christ is the power of God unto
salvation for us, isn't he? He is. He's our only salvation. He's the only one who God will
accept. as a substitute for sinners. And we preach Christ, you know
why? Because he's our deliverer. He's our deliverer, beloved. And we need deliverance from
our sin. We need deliverance from sin
and Satan, don't we? Because by birth, by nature,
we're sinners. We need to be delivered from
that. Number two, we preach Christ because he's our reconciler. When Adam fell, we fell. We need
to be reconciled to God, don't we? Because now we're all born
sons and daughters of Adam, and we're all a bunch of sinners
at enmity, the scripture says, with God. So we need to be reconciled
to God. Well, God's reconciled the people
that he gave to Christ by Christ dying on the cross. Thou shall
call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people. He shall save
his people from their sins. He did it. We need to be reconciled. You and I need to be reconciled. So I preach Christ the reconciler
and I preach Christ the deliverer. Number three, we preach Christ
who is the bringer of grace. He's the bringer of grace. We
don't go and get grace. We don't want grace by nature.
We don't go get it. Christ brings it to us, doesn't
he? Isn't that wonderful? It's wonderful. How will poor
sinners get grace if we preach not Christ, the bringer of God's
grace? So I preach Christ, the bringer
of God's grace. Number four, we preach Christ
is our completeness. Everything that God demanded
for the salvation of our souls is in Christ. And you know what? As a result of that, the scripture
says this. This is what the scriptures declare
of us being complete in Christ. Colossians 2, 9 and 10. For in
Him dwell all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and ye are
complete in Him. In Him. In Christ. Which is the
head of all principality and power. So, I preach Christ, the
completeness. The completeness for the believer
in Christ. Christ is our completeness. He's our completeness. We're
forgiven of all our sins in Christ Jesus. And then the believer's
clothed in his perfect spotless righteousness. And then we preach
Christ because Jesus Christ is our comfort. He's our comfort. We need comfort, don't we, in
this world? We need comfort. In all the perplexities of this
life, people need comfort. Well, true comfort's only found
in Christ, therefore I preach Christ, God's people's comfort. Christ the Comforter. Number
six, we preach Christ because Jesus Christ is the supplier
of need. What's the one thing most needful for man and women?
Christ. Salvation's only found in Christ.
Nowhere else. Nowhere else. And notice that
I said need, not want. He's all we need. Because by
nature, we don't want him. We want things that we can consume
by our own lust, by nature. But in the believer, he's all
I need. I don't need nothing else. I
just need Christ. How can poor sinners have any
hope without Him who fulfills spiritual and physical needs?
So I preach Christ, the supplier of need. We need to be saved, don't we?
Salvation's only in Christ and Him alone. We're all a bunch
of sinners. So what more is there to preach
than Christ Jesus our Lord? Nothing, is there? Nothing. Nothing. God himself summed it
up as he had Paul. Remember who the true author
of these words are. God himself summed it up by the pen of Paul
when he said, when he said, Christ is all. Christ is all. That's what he
is to the believer, isn't he? He's all. What's more than all? Nothing. Is there anything more
than all? If you have all, is there anything
more? Christ is all I need. I don't
need nothing else. Do you? Isn't that wonderful?
And he saved us. Let us leave here rejoicing,
beloved, and knowing that our King is in full control. It's
wonderful. Absolutely wonderful. My, oh,
my.