Turn, if you would, to the book
of Acts. We'll continue our study through
this wonderful book, penned by Luke, who is a mere secretary,
authored by the Holy Spirit of God, Luke chapter 11. Luke chapter
11. Now the word tidings is an Old
English word for recent news. Recent news. The preacher of the gospel is
preaching good tidings, good tidings, good news of glad tidings. What's the glad tidings? Well,
sinners are saved in and through the Lord Jesus Christ by resting
and trusting on him and looking to him. Saved by the grace and
mercy of God. It's wonderful. It's wonderful. There's life in a look, isn't
there? There's life in a look to the Savior. And the preacher
of the gospel also preaches this good news, these glad tidings
that Christ died for sinners. The question is, are you a sinner? Most people don't think they
are. I didn't before the Lord saved
me. Did you? But now I profess I'm just a
saved sinner, saved by the grace and mercy of God in Christ. And
I got some good news. I got good news to proclaim.
Christ came into this world to save sinners. Paul said, of whom
I'm chief. And all we believers says, no,
I'm chief. Don't we? Oh, my. We'll see the word tithings in
our text in verse 22 of Acts chapter 11. Let's stand up and
read from verses 19 to 24. We'll read together. Acts chapter
11, verses 19 to 24. Now they which were scattered
abroad upon the persecution that arose about Stephen, traveled
as far as Phineas, and Cyprus, and Antioch, preaching the word
to none but unto the Jews only. And some of them were men of
Cyprus and Cyrene, which when they were come to Antioch, spake
unto the Grecians, preaching the Lord Jesus. And the hand
of the Lord was with them, and a great number believed and turned
unto the Lord. Then tidings of these things
came unto the ears of the church, which was in Jerusalem. And they
sent forth Barnabas, that he should go as far as Antioch,
who, when he came, had seen the grace of God, was glad, and exhorted
them all, that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto
the Lord. For he was a good man, and full
of the Holy Ghost, and of faith, and much people was added unto
the Lord. My, oh, my. This will be our
portion today. Y'all can sit down. This will
be our portion today. Now, in our last lesson, Peter
went to Jerusalem, and he had some news to report, didn't he?
But before he could report the news, our Jewish brethren said,
we heard you went into a house of a Gentile. Remember, they
still had some grave clothes, right? They still had some gray
clothes on. And then what did Peter do? Peter
told them, God sent me there. And God sent me there, and I
preached the gospel unto them. I preached Christ alone. Salvation
in Christ alone. And by the power of God, the
Holy Spirit, many believed. Many believed. So instead of
rejoicing with Peter over the fact that the Gentiles had been
saved, they were looking at Peter and saying, what are you doing?
Because remember, the Jewish law would not allow a Jew to
go into the house of a Gentile. But when Peter told him, hey,
God sent me, who am I? Remember at the end there, too,
he said, basically, who am I to argue with God? And then what
happened? Well, they changed their tune,
didn't they? Then they glorified God and they rejoiced along with
Peter. Oh my. So now we come to this
next section here. And it's taking us back a little
bit. Because remember we saw Stephen being martyred earlier
in the book of Acts. He being martyred for his faith.
And the one that they laid the coat down, his coat down at the
feet of, was Saul of Tarsus. And remember,
we looked at the Greek word and that said he was actually filled
with joy over the murder of Stephen. And this is Paul in his unsafe
state. He hated Christians so much,
he hated the gospel so much that it filled him with joy to go
out and slaughter Christians and have them thrown in jail.
But you know what? Paul was a chosen vessel, wasn't
he? Paul was going to be the instrument that God was going
to use to have the message go to the Gentiles. He didn't know
it. In his zeal as a Jew, he was just persecuting believers. But he had a Damascus Road conversion,
didn't he? God revealed himself to him.
He said, Saul, Saul, why kickest thou against the pricks? Now, pricks were the horses,
or the, I didn't realize this until we did that study, but
the oxen were linked up to a cart, and behind them were these little
pointed things that come out called pricks. And whenever they
bucked, they'd go against the pricks, and then they'd move
forward again. So it kept them in line. But
think of this, too. we're gonna see that God uses
the enemies of the gospel without their permission, because
he's God, right? He's sovereign, to accomplish
his will. Isn't that amazing? God overrules
the enemies of the gospel. and uses it to accomplish his
will. Look at this. Look at verse 19. Now they which
were scattered abroad upon the persecution that arose about
Stephen traveled as far as Phineas, Cyprus, Antioch, preaching the
word to none but the Jews only. Oh my. Here we go. God had used that to have all
these believers scatter abroad. Now, what did they preach? What did they preach? Well, they
preached the same message that Peter's preached, right? Oh,
my. What was that message? Well,
Peter preached first that Jesus Christ is Lord of all. He rules and reigns over everything. You know, there's nothing that
happens in this world outside of his permissive will. Nothing. There's not a maverick molecule
in the universe, is there? There's not a molecule going,
oh, I'm going to do whatever I want. That's not true. Everything is
ordered. Pink, A.W. Pink used to say that
when you see the dust from the sunlight, We don't normally see
that dust, do we, dancing around in the air? But when you do see
it in the sun, all those little pieces of dust are ordained by
God to be exactly where they are. The God who orders all that is
the one who has us in his hands, who saved us by his grace. Can
he keep us? Not a problem, is it? Not a problem. It's so comforting. It's so comforting. So he preached Jesus Christ is
Lord of all. And then he preached that Jesus Christ was anointed
of God. He was the Messiah. He was the
long-awaited Messiah. He was the Messiah that the prophets
spoke of in the Old Testament. They testified of him. He even
told the two on the road to Arimaeus that, didn't he? He said, the
law and the prophets testify of me. Oh my. Then Peter preached the death,
burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. that he died
for sinners. He shed his blood for sinners.
That's why he came here. He came to save his people from their
sins, and he did it. And then he died. He's really
dead. And he was buried for three days.
And then he rose from the grave, and Scripture says, why did he
rise? For our justification, that we might be justified before
God, that we might stand before God in a perfect standing, clothed
in the righteousness of Christ. and the righteousness of another.
Because our own are like filthy rags, right? We can't work our
way to heaven. We can't do anything to gain merit and favor with
God. And we must be perfect to be in God's sight. Well, how
can a sinner be perfect? Only in Christ. And even then,
we're still sinners while we're on this earth, aren't we? But
see, God looks at us and sees Christ. I remember reading F.W. Kramacher. I'd never read him,
and I started reading him a long time ago, and he bought that
out, and I had never heard that. I'll be honest, I had never heard
that God looks upon us in Christ in his righteousness, and it
knocked my socks off. That was years ago, and I'll
never forget that. I'll never forget that. You know,
the missing sound in today's preaching is the righteousness
of Christ. People don't talk about it. People don't talk about it. But
you know, if you're not clothed in the righteousness of Christ,
then you can never stand before God. Why is it not mentioned
in religion today? Because man's going about to
establish their own righteousness. I do all this and I do all that.
Was it good for us to serve the Lord? Absolutely. But we don't
do it. We don't do it to gain merit
and rewards and favor with God. The only favor and the only merit
we have with God is in and through the Lord Jesus Christ and him
alone. There's no other. Right? Salvation's in the Lord,
period. There's nothing else. And that's what Peter preached.
And then Peter preached that God reveals Jesus Christ to his
chosen people. We can't come to know him by
our own knowledge. You must be born again. And then God reveals himself
to us, doesn't he? And we're never the same. And
Peter preached that the risen, exalted Christ of God was ordained
by God to be the judge of the quick, the living and the dead. Do you know who we're all stand
before on that great day? the Lord Jesus Christ. And the
sheep will be separated from the goats. Right? My, oh, my. But people say, well,
I don't believe in Christ. Well, you're going to see him
one day. And I'll tell you this. He's either going to be your
judge or your savior, one or the other. He's my savior. Is he yours? May God make it
so if he's not. May God make it so. My, oh, my. And then Peter preached the message
that God commands him to preach, which is, he preached through
the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, that whosoever believeth in him,
in Christ, shall receive remission, forgiveness of sins. How many
sins? Heaven forgiven you all trespasses. All trespasses and sins. Oh, Brother Brian, that's wonderful,
isn't it? Oh, my. Again, I keep telling
everyone this, and I'll keep telling as long as I got breath.
I preach a finished work accomplished 2,000 years ago. It's done. It's
done. There's nothing to be added to
it, nothing to be taken away from it. It's finished. And Christ
did it all. He did it all. It's wonderful.
So let's read verse 19. Look at this again. So we see
here, after the death of Stephen, that some of our Lord's ordained
preachers were scattered throughout different parts of the country
surrounding Jerusalem. Luke takes us back to that time in history to reveal to us some of the events
that took place. And remember, all these events
that we're going to read about are all happening according to
the predetermined will of God and the purpose of God. We got
to always remember that. There's no such thing as luck
or chance. It's just not, it's not real. It's not real. We are, we, The
scripture says the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord.
Well, how can we be called good? Only in Christ. Only in Christ. Outside of Christ, we're not
good, are we? And that good comes from him, not from us. Oh my,
it's wonderful. So he takes us back to a time
and reveals some of the events that took place, again, according
to the predetermined will of our sovereign God, our sovereign
Lord. We see that our Lord took his preachers as far as Phineas.
Now, Phineas is a country close to Syria and Galilee, in which
there were many towns and villages. So they probably went through
there preaching the gospel, preaching about Christ. And then we see
some went to Cyprus, which is an island that lays between the
shores of Syria and Sicilia. And then we see that some of
them traveled as far as Antioch. which is a great city of Syria,
and it's about 280 miles from Jerusalem. So Stephen's persecuted,
right? And the church just scatters.
You've heard me say many times, I use that illustration about
what happens if you have a fire and you put your foot in it and
go like that, the sparks just fly, don't they? That's what
happens to God's church under persecution. And we see it here. They just went all over. Oh my. So as far as 280 miles
from Jerusalem. And then we see that there were
many Jews who dwelt in Antioch. Now let's read verse 20 and 21. And some of them were men of
Cyprus and Cyrene, which when they would come to Antioch, speak
unto the Grecians. That's the Greeks. And what do
they do? Preaching the Lord Jesus. They
weren't playing games, were they? They weren't entertaining. They
weren't having a bouncy castle or anything like that, were they?
That's all Tom Fuller, you know that? I read an article by a
guy named Archibald Brown on entertainment back in the 1800s.
And he said that's so against what the scripture brings forth.
Because we're to preach Christ. And this fella took over for
Spurgeon a few years after Spurgeon died. I was driving down the road about
a month ago and I saw bouncy castles and a Ferris wheel and
all this at a local assembly. That's awful. I'm sorry. We don't conform to
the world, do we? I have one message. Whether I'm
here or across the road or talking to others, when the Lord opens
the door, I have one message. Christ came to save sinners. came to save sinners. Is that
not the most important news and the most important message, right?
Oh, my. So they went preaching to the...
At first, in verse 19, they're preaching to the Jews only, but
we see in verse 20 that they've come to Antioch and they start
preaching to the Greeks. And what happens? God saves some
of them. According to His will and purpose.
You see, the church has been scattered. And the Gospels, not
just in Jerusalem now, it's going all over, beloved. Oh my. So marvel, beloved of
God, at all these ordained events. And we're reminded of the wisdom
of God in ordaining Stephen to be martyred. Right? It was because of the persecution
of Saul of Taurus that these preachers were scattered all
over the place. Otherwise, they wouldn't have
been scattered. But God had some lost sheep all over there, didn't
he? And he got a preacher to them,
didn't he? Isn't that wonderful? Oh, how blessed we are to have
this wonderful truth revealed to us. Our Lord Jesus Christ
works all things after the counsel of his will and according to
his purpose. And we see that it is his will
to start a work in Antioch. So what's he do? He has some
preachers go over there. And you know he's still working?
And he's still moving? And he's still setting up local
assemblies? I heard three groups within our
group of churches that just all have pastors now, young men.
Well, praise be to God. Praise be to God. Isn't that
wonderful? And God raises up preachers as he's pleased to
do. Yeah? Got a new one over there in Ohio. One up in Pennsylvania. A couple down in Florida. God is good, isn't he? And there's
other churches we don't even know about. We don't even know
about. All over this country and all
over this world. Isn't it wonderful? It's absolutely wonderful. And so he continues to establish
his local assemblies. Why? Why? For the purpose of
saving his elect. That's the reason we're here.
For the furtherance of the gospel. And the message is not only here,
but it's going out all in the world, isn't it? My oh my. But the only reason
there's a church here in Elmont, Michigan is because there's sheep
here. I'll say first, bah. I'm a sheep, so are you, right?
My oh my. So these ordained sent ministers
traveled to places preaching the word at first to none but
the Jews, because that's who the Lord sent them to preach
to, to the Jew first and then also to the Gentile, right? Oh my, but his church is comprised
of Jews and Gentiles. And it was ordained by God that
the gospel again would go to the Jews first, and then to the
Gentiles. And it wasn't until Peter was
sent by God to the house of Cornelius that it was revealed to God's
apostles that our Lord had chosen people among the Gentiles as
well. And that was a shock to them, wasn't it? Because they
thought the Messiah was only for their nation. But they find
out that The Messiah is for a people that God gave to Christ from
eternity. I ask you, beloved of God, aren't
you not glad? Aren't you rejoicing that God
included you and me? Oh my. Praise God he included
me. Would we ever have chosen? Would
we ever have chosen, sister? We never would have, would we?
No. But praise God he chose us. My, that's never going to get
old, is it? That's never going to get old.
Oh, my. And it's obvious that our Lord
Jesus has sent these men to preach the gospel at Phoenice, Cyprus,
and Antioch, because look what our text says. It says, and the
hand of the Lord was with them. So God sent them, and he was
with them. This is the gospel preacher can
stand up in the pulpit knowing that God's word will not return
unto him to God void. And it's not dependent upon me.
I'm just a mouthpiece. That's all I am, just a mouthpiece,
an instrument. You know, doctors use instruments,
right? Sister, you're a nurse. Doctors use instruments, right? We're just instruments that the
Lord uses. That's all. It's amazing. But he's the great
physician. He's the only one who could save.
I preach Christ who can save anyone who comes to him. And
he's the one who does the saving, isn't he? Oh my. And then look at this, the hand
of the Lord was with them, and look at verse 28, and a great
number believed and turned unto the Lord. Now remember, these
are idol worshipers. These are folks that are worshiping
all different idols. Syria, they're worshiping pieces
of wood and stone and false gods of their imaginations. And look
at what it says here. And a great number believed. What did they believe? That Jesus
Christ is Lord of all. that Jesus Christ came into this
world to save sinners. And they'd been shown by the
Holy Spirit of God that they were sinners and needed to be
saved. And the only reason they knew
that is because they were born again of the Holy Spirit of God.
What comes first, faith or regeneration? I had a fellow two weeks ago
tell me, well, faith comes first. I said, you can't believe. Dead
men can't believe. You must be born again. And it
happens just like that. And we're given faith to believe.
And look at this. A great number believed. And
what? What did they do? Well, they turned from the idol worship,
and they turned to the living God. Didn't they? They turned from the gods of
their imaginations, and they turned to the living and true
God. Isn't that wonderful? They turned
from idols to serve the living and true God, just like the Thessalonians
did. And how did they do that? By
the power of God, the Holy Spirit. How do we believe now? By the
power of God, the Holy Spirit. Let's give God all the glory
and honor and praise, because he's the only one worthy. Oh, beloved of God, it's God
himself. He who is the one who grants repentance unto life.
And every believer was predestined unto the adoption of children
according to the good pleasure of God's will. Do you know that?
According to the good pleasure. If you're saved, it's according
to the good pleasure of God's will. I ain't never gonna get
over that either. That's amazing. And every born-again,
blood-washed believer was ordained to eternal life. Turn, if you
would, to Acts chapter 13. How do we know that? How do we
know that? Well, the scripture declares it. Acts chapter 13. Look at this. Paul and Barnabas, they're, look,
it's starting in verse 46. They're preaching to a bunch
of Gentiles here. They're preaching to Jews first, and the Jews are
filled with envy. Look at verse 45, where it says,
But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy and
spake against those things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting
and blasphemy. So Paul's preaching the gospel,
and these Jewish guys, they're mad. They are burning mad. Then Paul and Barnabas waxed
bold and said, it was necessary that the word of God should first
have been spoken to you, to the Jews. Look at this. But seeing ye have put it from
you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn
to the Gentiles. For hath the Lord commanded us,
saying, I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that
thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth. So
they're preaching Christ now to the Gentiles. And look at
verse 48. This is absolutely stunning.
And think of this in light of our own salvation. And when the
Gentiles heard this, they were glad. This was good news. They could be saved too. And glorified the word of the
Lord, and as many as were what? What's that word right there?
Ordained. Who ordained this? God. As many as were ordained to eternal
life, believed. And the word of the Lord was
published throughout all the region. Oh my, that'll make your
heart leap for joy. We would never choose God, we
would never choose Christ, but God ordained that we would believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ to the saving of our souls. My oh my. Why is it so difficult for people
to believe that our sovereign God also ordained, predestinated,
appointed the time and place where he would enlighten the
minds of his promised children under the preaching of the gospel? All of us who preach the gospel,
all of God's preachers, we know that our preaching is in vain unless the hand of the Lord is
with us, unless the Holy Spirit makes it effectual. He must make the gospel effectual
for the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ and for the glory of His
grace. That's why we always say, be
quick to give God all the glory, honor, and praise. Be quick to
give it all to Him. God's jealous of His glory. He
won't share it with anyone. Oh my. So marvel at what we see
here, as well as how the Lord, oh, now think of this. Think
of how the Lord overruled the persecution which came at Jerusalem. They saw Stephen killed, and
they were weeping as they were carrying him off. They were weeping. The death of Stephen, they saw
them murder him. and other faithful servants of
the Lord as well. But we see the scattering of
his people now in the Gospels going far and wide. How little are the enemies of
the cross aware how greatly their wickedness sometimes turns out
to the furtherance of the truth. as it is in Jesus Christ our
Lord. They had no idea. All they wanted to do was kill
Stephen. And they had no idea that by doing that, the gospel
would spread like wildfire. Our God reigns. He reigns, beloved. He overrules
the wickedness of man to accomplish his own purpose. Men wickedly
did this, right? And you know what? You know what?
If I hadn't been saved and I was there, I'd have probably joined
in with them. All of us would have. It's like
folks say, well, if I was there when the crowd said, crucify
him, crucify him, I wouldn't have said that. Oh, my. In our natural state, we all
cry, crucify him, crucify him. But now, God takes rebels and
turns us into praisers, takes out that stony heart of unbelief,
gives us a heart of flesh, that hungers and thirsts after Christ,
after righteousness. What a Savior, what a Redeemer
is Jesus Christ our Lord. So how often have the enemies
of God became unwilling instruments in promoting the very opposite
of what they intended? I can say it, we've seen it here,
didn't we? Look at the unity we have now. That wasn't purposed by those
folks who left. But God overruled it all, didn't
he? And look what we have. It's wonderful. And it's all by God's grace and
mercy and according to his predetermined will. My, oh, my. So we see here in our text, and
so it is now that the Lord will make it that way as long as God's
people are in the world and the church remains. As long as the
church remains in this world, God will take care of his people
and he will take care of his church. This is God's work. It's
not mine. I get the privilege of preaching,
but this is God's church. And the church, remember, is
the ecclesia. It's not the building, is it? It's the people. called out once, according to
the Greek. What are we called out of? The
world. My oh my. You know, and sometimes in religion
they lay all these, you can't do this, you can't do that, you
can't do that. Well, there's some things I don't want to do
anymore. Is it so for you? But then there's also some things
I have liberty to do if I want to, but if I'm with a younger
brother or a brother who came out of that stuff, then I won't
do it. See? That's the key, isn't it? That's
the key. What did we see in Sunday school?
Esteeming others better than ourselves. By looking at them
as sinners saved by grace, just as we are in Christ. Isn't that
wonderful? Hard to find fault with people,
your brothers and sisters, when you're looking at them in Christ.
Because they're faultless. We're faultless in Christ, aren't
we? Isn't it wonderful? I'll tell you what, it's wonderful. We are the freest people in the
world, beloved. Stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ
hath made you free, and be not again entangled with the yoke
of bondage. Galatians 5.1. My, stand fast in that liberty.
Look at verse 22. Then tidings of these things
came unto the ears of the church. News travels. which was in Jerusalem,
and they sent forth Barnabas, that he should go as far as Antioch. So he's gonna go that 280 plus
miles. Glad tidings, good tidings of
the Lord's blessing on the preaching of his gospel had reached the
ears of the church, which was in Jerusalem. And this tells
us that the church in Jerusalem continued to flourish when Saul
was persecuting God's people. And we know it continued to flourish
all the way until the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. Again, Antioch was 280 miles
from Jerusalem, so it would have taken 14 to 15 days to walk there. would take me 30, but on average
it would take 14 to 15 days to make that trip on foot, which
was the most common way that people traveled back then. Isn't
that amazing? We just jump in our car and drive
280 miles like it's nothing. 14 to 15 days on foot. Oh my. And in verse 22, Barnabas was
sent to those places where the gospel was received, even as
far as Antioch, because he was best equipped for the mission.
Barnabas himself was from the country of Cyprus, and so he's
able to speak their language. And he was sent to confirm the
truths of the gospel to these new disciples. He was best fitted for the task.
Again, this was all providentially arranged by our great God, never
forget that, ordained by our great God, arranged by the Lord
Jesus Christ, because he always equips those he sends, always. He always equips the servant
for the task that he's going to send them to do. And our sovereign Lord has always
worked this way in every generation. He doesn't change. Today is no
different. Today is no different. He still
equips his servants to accomplish his eternal purpose. Do you ever
think of that too? We are saved according to the eternal will
and purpose of God. My. And you know, he'll continue
to do this. He will continue the work until his last sheep
the last lost sheep is saved, then it's all over. Then it's
all over. When the last sheep of God is
saved from the darkness that we were in, naturally, and translated
into the eternal kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ, it's all over. Now, for all of God's children,
We consider it a great honor to serve our Lord, don't we?
It's a great honor to serve him within the local assembly, to
serve him even in our lives each day. Now let's read verse 23. Here comes Barnabas, who when
he came and had seen the grace of God was glad. My, could you imagine going down
to Antioch? He's going down there, and he's, man, there's a bunch
of Gentiles the Lord saved down here. There's a bunch of Jews
the Lord saved down here. And he's rejoicing, he's glad.
He's glad. And he exhorted them all that
with purpose of heart, they would cleave unto the Lord. You know what the hardest thing
for us to do in this world? as sinners saved by grace, is
to cleave unto the Lord, to just rest. Jotaro, my dear brother
who went home to be with the Lord, used to always tell me,
Wayne, the hardest thing for us to do is just rest in Christ. Here we're exhorted by God the
Holy Spirit. Remember who the true penman, the true author
of these scriptures is God the Holy Spirit. Luke's just a secretary
writing down words, isn't he? We're to cleave to Christ, lay
hold of him. And you know what? Our salvation's not dependent
upon our hold of him. It's because he's holding us. And he'll never let us go, will
he? He says, of all that the Father give him, here lose none. Of all that he shed his precious
blood for, here lose none. My, what security the believer
has in Christ. So he arrived at Antioch, and
Barnabas saw with his own eyes the grace of God. Nothing said
about those who preach the gospel. You notice that? We're just instruments. God gets all the glory. God gets
all the glory. Nothing said about those even
who received the gospel. We just read that Barnabas saw
the grace of God and was glad. There wasn't a preacher there
counting numbers. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. 150,000, 200, nothing like that. I went to one guy's
website one day. The Lord has used me to save
250,000 souls. You know what I did to that website? Click. Goodbye. The flesh, the flesh, the flesh,
right? We're all the same. My, oh my. But think of this. Barnabas had
saw men and women who'd been born again by the Holy Spirit
of God. He saw men and women who were now praising the Lord
Jesus Christ, who had turned from idol worshiping, all by
the life-giving power of God the Holy Spirit. He heard personal
testimonies from folks, telling them, I believe in the Lord Jesus
Christ. He's my Savior. I was dead. I didn't know nothing.
I was dead in trespasses and sins. I drank sin-like water.
Now, now, I sin more than I want to, Barnabas." Oh, my. And he heard them praising the
Lord Jesus Christ with their lips. Oh my, how it must have filled
him with joy and gladness, beloved. And we see it caused his heart
to be filled with joy. And we see that he was glad and glorified
God. And all of God's born-again blood-washed
children rejoice when we witness the sovereign grace and sovereign
mercy of God bestowed upon those who are born again by God's almighty
power and converted to the Lord Jesus Christ. We rejoice. And
I'll tell you what, you know, sometimes we can get down thinking,
oh, we don't see a whole lot going on. And you know what?
God's still moving, beloved. God's still saving. Right? The message is going out all
over the world, and God is using it for His glory, for His honor,
and for His praise. And therein do we rejoice. Right? My! My, oh my! We just have to be... I'm called just to faithfully
preach the gospel. We're called to, in this fellowship,
we're here for the furtherance of the gospel, for the gospel
to go forth. And that's what we desire. My oh my. So then we see Barnabas exhorts
them with a purpose of heart that they would cleave unto the
Lord. Just keep holding on to the King. Just keep holding on
to the Savior. No matter what happens in this
life, because they're going to face persecution, aren't they? We're
seeing that with our Philippian brethren in Sunday, in our Sunday
school. They are facing, they're Roman
citizens and they are facing persecution from their fellow
Roman citizens because now they're born again. They don't want to
worship the emperor anymore. They don't want to worship the
false gods of the Romans. Now they're worshiping the one
true living God and they're facing persecution for that. And then
they got the false teachers within, the Judaizers, And now there's
certain to be fractions within them. And Paul just, he exhorts
them to unity, right? Remember what he's done? Look
to Christ, look to Christ, look to Christ. Keep looking to Christ. And that's what Barnabas is doing
here. Cleave unto the Lord. Cleave unto the Lord. Let's cleave
together, beloved. Let's cleave together unto the
Lord. Oh my. That's all I can tell you. He's
the only savior of sinners. And what does that mean? What's
it mean? It means with a fixed resolution in the Greek. A fixed
resolution in the grace and strength of Christ. They will hold to
his person. They would cling to Christ and
abide by his truths and his ordinances. Keep close to his people. Follow
his cause and interest and hold on and out until the end. Knowing, they might not have
known this at this time, but now we know. that it's God who
keeps us too. As we're holding on, He's keeping
us, isn't He? And you know, there's peace and
comfort cleaving to the Lord, isn't there? I get in trouble
when I start to wander off. Is it so for you? Oh my. But you know what? God's a good
shepherd. He never disciplines us in anger. And I love that
crook in the shepherd's staff. He just gently puts that around
our neck and draws us back to him, doesn't he? Oh, what a Savior. What a Redeemer is Jesus Christ
our Lord. So this is what all God's preachers
do. We exhort you to cleave to Christ. Here's an exhortation
from the book of Hebrews. Let us hold fast the profession
of our faith without wavering, for he is faithful that promised.
And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good
works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the
manner of some is, but exhorting one another and so much more
as you see the day approach in Hebrews 10 verses 23 to 25. Beloved God, we are prone to
forget. We are prone to wander. Why do we have to hear the gospel
continuously? Why do I have to keep hearing the gospel? Because
we're prone to forget. We're prone to wander. We're all weak in the flesh,
all of us. And we need to be exhorted with
that purpose of heart that we would cleave unto the Lord. And
notice, it's not something we have to do. It's just cleaving,
just looking at the Lord, grilling ahold of him. It's not like,
I gotta have more joy, I gotta have more love, I gotta have
more peace. Those are fruits of the Spirit. We can't muster
those things up, can we? No matter how hard we try. Trust
me, I tried in religion. It don't work. It don't work. You get more miserable. But just resting in Christ comes
joy. Resting in Christ comes peace.
resting and cleaving to Christ comes love, comfort, encouragement. Oh my. Look at verse 24. Look at verse
24. It says of Barnabas, for he was
a good man and full of the Holy Ghost, and much people was added
unto the Lord. Now, Take notice, brethren, that God
the Holy Spirit is the one who called Barnabas a good man. Well, we know from Scripture
there's none good, no, not one, right? But the Holy Spirit has
Luke pinned here that Barnabas was a good man. Oh, my. Now, in his unregenerate
state, there was nothing good about Barnabas, was there? In
our unregenerate state, there was nothing good about us at
all. Before we were born again, there was nothing good in us
at all. And even after he was converted to Christ by the quickening
power of God the Holy Spirit, there's still nothing good in
his flesh, is there? Nope. But Barnabas was full of
the Holy Spirit of God. And he was only good, the only
good that was in Barnabas was Christ in him, the hope of glory.
That's the only good in him. You see, it all centers back
to our King, doesn't it? See, religion will take this
and say, oh, see, he was a good man. No, he wasn't. The only good in us is Christ.
That's it, beloved. Any good that came from Barnabas
was a result of God, the Holy Spirit, who was working in him,
both to will and to do his own good pleasure. Philippians 2.13
says this, for it is God, look at this, this is wonderful, for
it is God which worketh in you, me, believers, which worketh
in us, right? What's he gonna do? Both to will
and do of his good pleasure. For it is God which worketh in
you. How do we keep cleaving to Christ? For it's God that worketh in
you. Why do we keep loving the gospel?
For it's God that worketh in you. Why do we desire to come
hear the gospel preach? For it's God that worketh in
you. In me. In us. What both to will and to do of
his good pleasure. Of his good pleasure. Remember,
he's the potter, right? Or the clay. When a potter makes
a vase, he can make that vase into whatever he wants to. And
he can he can make that clay do whatever he wants to do. And it's for the potter's good
pleasure, isn't it? And it's also according to his
will, because he can say, well, I want to make this into a candlestick
instead. Or no, I want to make it a plate.
I want to make this one a serving dish. It's all according to the
potter. The clay is just moldable, right? Why are we born again? For it is God which worketh in
you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. My rejoiced beloved of God, every
true born again blood-washed child of God is only the way
we are because of God alone. He's made us to differ one from
another. The only reason we're saved and
others are left dead in trespasses and sins is because it pleased
God to save us. Right? We don't get what we deserve. We receive mercy. What a Savior! What a Redeemer is Jesus Christ
our Lord! And so then we cry out that salvation
is all of the Lord with no contribution of man. No contribution of a woman, no
contribution of a child, because salvation's of the Lord. It's
His. He's the one who saves. And anything
we have, both in this world physically and spiritually, all comes from
Him. Right? All comes from Him. We acknowledge that as believers.
Worldly blessings come from Him. Spiritual blessings all come
from Christ. And our sovereign God distributes
those things according to His good pleasure and His will. You know, have you ever asked,
why me? Why me? Are so many other folks
better than I am? For it is God which worketh in
you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. All we can
say is hallelujah. What a savior is Jesus Christ
my Lord. And in this, in believing the
way we do, that there's no contribution by man or woman or child to our
salvation, it leaves absolutely no room for us to boast in anything
we've done. Therefore, we boast in Christ
and what he's done. And again, it's God himself who
equipped Barnabas to what he had called him to do. And also, think of this, only
because of God's predetermined will and purpose, and His grace
working in Barnabas by the power of God the Holy Spirit under
His preaching, were much people added to the Lord. The preachers were just instruments. It was God saving souls according
to His will and purpose. Greeks, Jews, Sinners, by birth,
nature, and choice, saved by the grace of God and the mercy
of God in Christ. So our gracious God, he uses
his appointed ministers who preach the gospel as his ordained means
to call his chosen blood-bought children out of darkness into
the marvelous light of his darling son. You know, I had a friend
of mine, the Lord saved him from reading scripture. And someone
said to me, when I told him that, someone said to me, well, faith
cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. How should
I hear except a preacher? And I said, well, if he was reading John,
what's John doing to him? He's preaching, isn't he? If
he's reading Luke, what's Luke doing? He's preaching to him.
If he's reading Paul, Paul's preaching to him. Oh my, we muddle
things up so much. God, the Holy Spirit uses the
word. Yes, uses the word. My oh my, it's God who saves.
It's God who saves. And he uses ministers just as
instruments who preaches gospel, but it's God who does the saving. It's by his almighty power that
he saves. And the one who purchased us,
the Lord Jesus Christ, God incarnate in the flesh, beloved, he purchased
us with his own precious blood. The life of the flesh is in the
blood and he gives his life for us. And it is he who adds to the
church daily. It's he who does that. Such as
should be saved. And I'll tell you what his name
is. His name is the Lord Jesus Christ. That's his name. That's
his name. The God-man, God in the flesh,
sent by God the Father to save his people from their sins. Now
let's look at verse 46 and 47. Look what happens here. Oh, actually,
turn to Acts chapter 2. I'm sorry. Acts chapter 2. I
got all excited and went way far ahead there. Acts chapter
2. Look at this. Oh, my. Acts chapter 2, verses
46 and 47. And they, continuing daily with
one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to
house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart,
praising God and having favor with all the people. And the
Lord added to the church daily, such as should be saved. You
see? It's God who did the adding,
isn't it? Right? We don't do counting or adding,
do we? Nope. It's God. God takes care of all
that. Praise be to our great God that it's not up to us to
convince the hearers of their need for Christ. In the Gospel
of Truth, we just have to, all we do is tell them the wonderful
things that Christ has done for us. That's what witnessing is.
God opens the door for you, just tell them the wonderful things
that God's done for you. That's all. And knowing this wonderful
truth that our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, is the true and
living God, the only one who can give life, and knowing that
He is the one who sets His people free. If the Son sets you free,
you're free indeed. I'll tell you. Free from the
condemnation of the law. Right? Free from the condemnation
of our sins. All our sins bought and paid
for. free from the power of darkness, free from the sting of death.
Death's just a doorway into heaven to see our Savior. And how does
he do that? He does it under the preaching
of his gospel. Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word
of God. And I will continue, by the grace of God, to preach
his gospel every time I have the opportunity to preach Christ
and him crucified, the only Savior of sinners, praying each time
that God may be pleased to make his gospel effectual. Please
pray that for me, that God would make his gospel effectual as
it's preached. for his glory, honor, and praise,
and for the glory of his grace. And oh, sinner friend, may God,
the Holy Spirit, make this message effectual for the salvation of
your souls, if it be his almighty will. May God, the Holy Spirit,
call you out of spiritual darkness, as he's done with his people,
we who are his people, by his personal inward effectual call,
which is a holy call, because he's the Holy Spirit of God.
And may you meet me in heaven one day. Spurgeon wrote this
in the end of a book called All of Grace, and I love this. He
said, meet me in heaven. Meet me in heaven. And if you do, we'll be there
for eternity, all because of the grace and mercy of God, and
we'll sing praises to our great God and King forever. And we
say that to God be the glory, great things he hath done.