Turn if you would to Acts chapter
20. The name of the message is Paul before the Ephesian elders.
Paul before the Ephesian elders. Now God had ordained Paul and
sent him to preach the glorious gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was an ordained apostle. He
was relentless in what our Lord had sent him to do. He had one
message. He had one message, and that
was preaching Christ and Him crucified. And the Apostle Paul
knew that Jesus Christ had to be revealed by the life-giving
power of God the Holy Spirit. Paul knew that you must be born
again, and he was determined not to know anything amongst
those he had the honor of preaching to except Christ and Him crucified.
And he boldly proclaimed Christ. He boldly proclaimed the Lord
Jesus Christ to be the eternal Son of God, our sovereign creator,
the second person of the Holy Trinity. And he boldly proclaimed
and declared that God, our creator, had become man. He did not hold
back. And he became man. He boldly
proclaimed that our Savior became a man so that he could establish
a perfect righteousness for his people. by his perfect obedience
to the will of God the Father who had sent him. Paul didn't
hold back anything. He declared the one perfect redeeming
work of the Lord Jesus Christ. The one perfect redeeming work. And that's the work that Christ
did. And he stated and secured the salvation of his Paul boldly
stated that Christ had secured the salvation of his chosen people
by the supreme sacrifice of himself. He did that. He sacrificed himself
for us, for his people, willingly. And Paul declared this truth.
And God's ordained apostle warned his hearers of the coming judgment,
of the coming judgment. He boldly declared that God had
appointed a day in which he would judge the world. In all righteousness, by who?
By Christ. By Christ. And he declared that
Christ is Lord of all. Ruler over all. And in preaching
Christ, he assured God's born-again blood-washed people that there
is now no condemnation to them. He did all this for preaching
Christ. And he gave all the glory to Christ. He did not exalt himself. At all. And he warned unbelievers
that they would be cast into eternal torment if they refused
to bow down to the Lord Jesus Christ. If they refused to believe
on him. And it's plainly set forth on
the pages of scripture. Now on Paul's second missionary
journey, he spent three years at Ephesus preaching the one
true gospel. The gospel that I just mentioned
that he boldly declared. He spent three years preaching. declaring God's sovereign grace,
declaring his mercy bestowed upon hell-deserved sinners in
and through Christ. And the Holy Spirit was pleased
to deliver many of his chosen blood-bought children under Paul's
preaching during the three years that he spent there at Ephesus.
Now Paul's on his way to Jerusalem. He's finished the work that our
Lord Jesus sent him to do at Ephesus. He's making his way
back to Jerusalem, and he desired to be there on Pentecost so that
he could preach the gospel to many Jews who would be there
at the time, and he sailed by Ephesus. He was elsewhere, and
he sailed by Ephesus, and he wanted to stop and see the saints
at Ephesus. And we see verse 16, Acts chapter
20, and Paul had determined to sail by Ephesus because he would
not spend the time in Asia, for he hasted, if it were possible
for him, to be at Jerusalem at the day of Pentecost. That was
his goal. He wanted to be at Jerusalem at the day of Pentecost. From Miltus, he sent to Ephesus
and called the elders of the church. So it was during this
meeting with the elders from Ephesus that Paul gave his final
farewell. He didn't just call them together
to say goodbye. That's one of the reasons why
he called them together. But we see that there's more
to this meeting than just that. Paul knew that he had finished
what the Lord had sent him to do at Ephesus. He knew that his
time of departure from this life was drawing near. He knew this.
And he knew that he'd never see them again in this life. He'd never see the faces of these
elders and saints at Ephesus. He'd never see their face again
until they awoke in glory with him. But on this earth, he knew he
wouldn't see them again. But he had a hope. And Paul lays
a serious charge unto the elders, God's ordained ministers. This
applies to all God's preachers in every generation. As we look
at these inspired words by the Holy Spirit of God, may God the
Holy Spirit impress upon us the seriousness of not only preaching
the one true gospel of his amazing grace every time we meet, but
also the importance of keeping ourselves under the preaching
of the gospel as believers. Keeping ourselves under the preaching
of the gospel on a regular basis. Many professing Christians get
caught up in the things of this world and do not lay these words
to heart that in all things He, Christ, might have the preeminence.
He's to have the preeminence in all our life. He is. And oh, that Christ is everything
and in every respect for God's people. That He might occupy
the chief place, that He might stand first and be preeminent
in our lives, in every believer's heart. And my prayer is may God,
the Holy Spirit, make it so for us. Make it so for us. Now, remember, Paul was God's
ordained apostle. He was sent by God. He was sent
by our sovereign God to preach the gospel. In all these different
locations that he had traveled to, you read the book of Acts
and you see he went all over and this was all ordained and
orchestrated by God for him to do that. We know that under Paul's
preaching, many Jews and Gentiles believed on the Lord Jesus Christ.
They believed the scriptures. They repented from their wrong
view of God. They repented from their wrong
view of God and from their wrong view of themselves. Because isn't
that what God reveals to us when he reveals himself to us? He
reveals to us who he really is. He reveals to us who we really
are, sinners, before a holy and righteous God. And he reveals
the one true Savior, Jesus Christ, the God-man, the only Savior
of sinners. There's no hope outside of Christ,
no hope outside of him. And we know Paul's just an instrument
in the hands of our great God, just like every preacher is,
just like every saint of God is, just instruments in the hands
of the Lord. And it's our great God who ordained
him to be an apostle, for him to be a minister of the true
gospel of his sovereign grace. And we know that by God's almighty
power, many turned away from the gods of their own imaginations.
And they embraced Christ through the preaching of the gospel.
They embraced Christ as a living God, the risen, exalted Lord. Beloved, our great God has not
changed. He's not changed. He's still doing this today.
He's still taking people from darkness to light today. He's
still saving his lost sheep. And when that lost sheep that
the Lord has ordained to be saved is saved, it's all gonna end.
It's all over. And he still sends his preachers
today where his lost sheep are, where his people are. And just
like the apostle, God's ordained ministers preach the same gospel.
Preach the same gospel that the apostle preached. And just like
the apostles, we're only instruments in God's sovereign hand. That's
all we are. Instruments in the hand of God.
We can't boast in anything. Can't boast in gifts. Can't boast
in ourselves, but we can boast in Christ. We can boast in Christ,
who's everything to us, and that's what we do. And we preach Christ
and Him crucified. And only the Lord Jesus Christ
can make the gospel effectual. Never forget that. Only God can make the gospel
effectual. Only He can. We're here for the furtherance
of the gospel, for the gospel to go out and go forth. But only
God can make that gospel effectual. And He's pleased to do so, as
He's pleased to do so. It's incredible. It's absolutely incredible. And
only He can give true saving faith to sinners, to embrace
Christ as Lord and Savior. We'll see that in the next portion
of our text here. Remember, just as we're seeing in the life of
Joseph's study, it's our great God who's ordained this meeting
between Paul and the Ephesian elders. It's our great God who's
ordained this. He's orchestrated the whole thing. And it's the Holy Spirit of God
who moved our beloved brother Luke to write these words for
our learning, for our learning. And it behooves us then to lay
to heart this charge as we look at these scriptures here before
us. Look at verses 18 to 21 in Acts chapter 20. And when they are come to him,
he said unto them, you know, from the first day that I came
into Asia, after what manner I have been with you at all seasons,
serving the Lord with all humility of mind and with many tears and
temptations which befell me by lying in wait of the Jews, and
how I kept back nothing. Look at that. That's so important
right there, and how I kept back nothing. I kept back nothing
that was profitable unto you, but have showed you and have
taught you publicly, openly, openly, beloved, from house to
house, testifying both to the Jews and also to the Greeks'
repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.
So we see here Paul talking to the elders and talking to them
about some truths concerning himself and for his reasons for
coming to them. From the first day he was with
them until it was his appointed time to continue on his missionary
journey, Paul was a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ. He served
Christ. And we know that our Lord Jesus
had humbled Saul, we know that, on the road to Damascus, when
he was converted. And he kept his mind humbled
by God-ordained testing, just like what our sister sang about
today. He kept Paul humbled, and he keeps us humbled by God-ordained
testings, too, as well. Remember that. He puts us through
some things, but he's ever with us. He's ever with us. He'll
never leave us nor forsake us. That's what we got to just keep
telling ourselves. As Brother John mentioned, we
got to come and we got to hear, we want to hear the gospel, we
want to hear about Christ, and we got to keep our minds focused
on him and him alone. Set your eyes on things above,
on Christ. And Paul's doing what the Lord
called him to do. In the face of hostile opposition, we see
that in verse 19, right? Which befell me by the lying
in wait of the Jews. They were constantly trying to
catch him. Catch him in something so that they could cast him into
prison or do something awful to him. But he kept preaching the whole
counsel of God, didn't he? Look in verse 20. He proclaims
that he kept back nothing from his heroes that was profitable.
Nothing. And we know he preached Christ.
He didn't keep nothing back to him. He didn't hide the doctrine
of election. Did he? No. We know he preached
and proclaimed it. His preaching wasn't done in
secret in dark places. No. It says he preached publicly,
openly, proclaiming the gospel. proclaiming the gospel. In marketplaces,
in Jewish synagogues, from house to house, Paul testified to the
Jews and to the Gentiles, beloved. The glorious gospel of our Lord
Jesus Christ and him crucified. And he did not hold back. He
kept back nothing that was profitable unto them. Nothing. Again, he didn't hide the doctrine
of election. Some folks say, well, you shouldn't
talk about that. Why? It's marvelous. It's wondrous. God chose me. It's absolutely
wondrous. Wondrous. He didn't hide the
doctrine of election. No, he preached that God our
Father chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world.
And we see that over in Ephesians, right? We all know those verses
real well. It says that we were chosen in
Christ before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and without blame before Him in love. He didn't hold back,
he just preached it. He preached this truth. He didn't
keep the truth concerning the doctrine of predestination in
the closet either, did he? No. Folks say, well you believe
in predestination. You know what I always say to
people when they say that to me? Tell me what you think predestination
is, because I guarantee you it won't be what the scriptures
say. It won't be. And then they tell you something,
you say, well, I believe that we're predestined to be conformed
to the image of the Son. Oh. My goodness. Because the scripture
says, the adoption of children by Jesus Christ himself, according
to the good pleasure of his will, were predestinated to be conformed
to the image of the Son, were adopted in Christ Jesus. He didn't hold back any of these
truths. Paul just let them go, let them out there. He preached
Christ. He boldly declared that Christ
was the promised Messiah in the Old Testament. Remember, they
didn't have the New Testament. They preached Christ from the
Old Testament. The New Testament wasn't even
around. It was being written. See, we forget these things,
don't we? But when folks say, well, Christ isn't in the Old
Testament, well, then what did Paul preach with? He preached the same books as
Peter preached the same books as John preached the Old Testament. And they preach Christ. It's
wonderful. It's absolutely wonderful. They
preach Christ. Paul held back nothing from his
hearers. He boldly declared that Jesus Christ was the promised
Messiah from the Old Testament, the one who the prophets wrote
about. And he held back nothing from his hearers that was profitable
unto them. And Paul kept back nothing from
his hearers in the fact that he declared the perfect obedience
of the Lord Jesus Christ in establishing a righteousness for his people.
He did it all. He did it all. And these are
the same truths you hear from every gospel preacher. It's the same truths. And Paul preached that the only
righteousness that makes a sinner acceptable in the sight of God,
and he knew this from his own experience, didn't he? Remember,
he said he counted all his works as done. He knew, he knew that
the only righteousness that made him acceptable before God was
the righteousness of Christ. And he preached that. He proclaimed
that. He said the only way you can
be acceptable in his preaching The only way you can be acceptable
in the eyes of God is through Christ. That's it. That's the
only way, right? The only way. The perfect obedience of the
Lord Jesus Christ is the only thing that makes a sinner righteous
in the eyes of God. The righteousness of Christ which
we're clothed in. And Paul preached Preach this
right to Christ-hating people. Listen to this. In Romans 10,
verse 4, Jesus Christ is the end of the law, the righteousness
to everyone that believeth. He's saying there's no righteousness
but Christ to make you acceptable before God. He's the end of the
law for righteousness. It's Him. Then He said this too, if you
be led of the Spirit, you are not under the law. Wonderful. Wonderful. Good news for sinners. And Paul declared that the Lord
Jesus Christ by Himself, by Himself, by Himself, purged the sins of
His people from God's sight forever when
He offered Himself a supreme sacrifice for their sins. And He did not keep back this
truth from His from His hearers, He said, by His own blood, Jesus
Christ obtained eternal redemption for His people. So He didn't
hold back anything that was profitable to His hearers. He didn't just
declare the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ from the dead,
beloved. He preached that Jesus Christ is the exalted God-man.
He preached that. And He boldly declared that Jesus
Christ is the power of God, and that all power in heaven and
earth belongs to the risen, glorified Son of God. Who's Lord of all? And look, we see in verses 21
and, in verse 21, and let's start in verse 20 there. And how I kept back nothing that
was profitable unto you, but have showed you and have taught
you publicly and from house to house, testifying both to the
Jews and also to the Greeks, repentance towards God and faith
toward our Lord Jesus Christ. Repentance and faith. Now consider for a moment how
important faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is and repentance towards
our God. Our Lord said these words, except
you repent, you shall perish. And he said this without faith,
Paul wrote this without faith, it's impossible to please God. So there, except you repent,
you shall perish. And without faith, it's impossible
to please God. Paul preached repentance towards
God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ, or you die in your
sins and go to eternal torment. So what does the scripture teach
us about faith and repentance? Well, here's some things to remember
about repentance and faith. Both faith and repentance are
sovereign gifts of God. Both of them. Both of them. I've heard people
say, well, you have to have faith and then you repent. Well, no,
repentance and faith are like a piece of paper here. This piece of paper right here. One side you have faith, one
side you have repentance, and they're both given to you by
God. If you have faith, you're going
to have repentance before God. If you don't have faith, you
won't have repentance before God. They go hand in hand, and
they're both a gift of God. They're both a gift of God. Turn,
if you would, to Acts chapter 5, and then put your finger in
Ephesians chapter 2. Acts chapter 5, they're both
sovereign gifts of God, both of them. So if you have repentance before
God, you will have faith in Christ. And they're both given to you
by our great God. From His sovereign hand. Acts chapter 5, verses 29 to
31. Then Peter and the other apostles
answered and said, we ought to obey God rather than men. The God of our fathers raised
up Jesus, whom he slew and hanged on a tree. Him hath God exalted
with his right hand to be a prince and a savior. Look at this. For to give repentance to Israel.
That's God's people. That's the Israel of God. And
forgiveness of sins. Look at that though. For to give
repentance to Israel. It's given to us. It's not something
that we can muster up. Nothing we can muster up. We
know faith isn't something we can muster up either, is it?
Look at that, and forgiveness of sins. Now turn to Ephesians
chapter two, verse eight and nine, and look at this. I know
we all know these verses, but let's look at these two verses
here, because we just saw there that repentance is given to us
by God, right? Look at Ephesians chapter two,
verse eight and nine. We've all been taught these when
we were little. I didn't know what they were, Now I do. Now I do. Oh my. Look at this. So we saw in Acts
that repentance is given to God's people by God. Now look at this.
What about faith? Look at this. Verses 8 and 9.
For by grace are you saved through faith. Okay? Through faith. Believing on Christ. That not of yourselves. You can't
muster it up. Can't muster. It's a gift of
God. What's that mean? It's given to you. It's given
to you. Not of works, lest any man should
boast. And works there in the Greek,
that means anything you can do in your mind, or anything you
can do by your hands, works wise. So we saw right there in the
scripture that repentance is a gift of God given to us, or
given to us by God. And we see here that faith is
a gift of God given to us. So both faith and repentance
are given to the sinner by our great sovereign God. And we say
hallelujah, what a savior. This is wonderful. Wonderful. And faith and repentance are
also commands of God. Turn, if you would, to Acts chapter
17. Acts chapter 17. We're told in 1 John 3.23, and
this is His commandment, that you should believe on the name
of the Son of Jesus Christ and love one another, as He gave
us commandment. We're to believe on the name
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at this in Acts, chapter
17, verses 29 to 31. For as much then as we are the
offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is
like unto gold or silver or stone, graven by art and man's device.
In the time of this ignorance, God winked at, but now commandeth
all men everywhere to what? Repent. Because he hath appointed
a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by
that man whom he hath ordained, wherever he hath given assurance
unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead." Now
turn to 1 John 3.21. I read it already, but we'll
read it again. So we see there that men are
commanded to repent. And look at this in verse 23. This is His commandment, 1 John
3, 23, and this is His commandment, that we should believe on the
name of the Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, as He gave
us commandment. So faith and repentance, own,
bow, and submit to the true Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ. And both
faith and repentance are not isolated experiences, no, rather
a lifelong state of being, That's powerful, permanent and perpetual.
We believe and we continue to repent, don't we? We know our
sins are forgiven, but we still come before our God, don't we?
And say, God have mercy on me. I'm a sinner. We still do. We still grieve over our own
sin, even though we know it's forgiven. We have repentance before God.
But remember this, that our faith and our repentance are not the
ground or cause of our salvation. People make a god out of their
faith. They're gifts from God. Our salvation is based upon the
Lord Jesus Christ. And faith, we know from Galatians,
is a fruit of the Spirit. It's given to us. It's given
to us. The ground or cause of our salvation
is the Lord Jesus Christ. It's him. It's Christ alone. And both faith and repentance,
again, come at the same time, not apart from each other. Where
you'll find a broken and repentant heart before God, you'll find
someone who has faith in God. where you find a proud, rebellious
spirit shaking their fist at God, you'll find no faith. They
go hand in hand, beloved. They go hand in hand. And as
our faith grows, right, as we grow in the grace and knowledge
and truth of the Lord Jesus Christ, we still have repentance before
God. I do. I know you do too. We still say,
oh Lord, have mercy on me. You know why? Because we have
a deeper conviction of sin than we did when the Lord first saved
us. Paul said, I'm the least of all
saints. And then at the end of his life, he said, I'm the chief
of sinners. He had a deeper understanding
of who he was and what his sin was. And he said that as a saved man.
He said, I'm the chief. Well, we all feel that way, don't
we? Every one of God's people feel that way. We say, no, Paul,
sorry. We are. I've often chuckled with
believers from all over, and we talk about that one thing
that sometimes where we just, well, no, we all feel that way.
We all do. Every one of us. But as our faith grows, we have
a deeper conviction of our sin, but we also have a greater esteem
for Christ. Don't we? We esteem Him more
and more. Because it's He who's put away
our sin. It's He who did that freely and willingly for us. And so the deeper our faith grows
in Christ, the more we see of Christ's beauty. Just as Brother
John said, keep your eyes on Christ. Because when we keep
our eyes on Him, and not on the world, and not on each other,
right? We start to see Christ in all His glory. And we marvel in that. We see Him in His beauty. And the more we see the repulsiveness
of our own depravity and our sin, because we're just saved
sinners, the more we see beauty in the Lord Jesus Christ, who's the fairest of 10,000 to
our souls. Why? So we see Paul led by God the
Holy Spirit, He lays this charge, a serious charge to these men
from Ephesus, we'll see as we continue, who were called of
God to preach the gospel. And they were to preach the whole
counsel of God. They were to hold back nothing,
just as Paul had done. Don't hold back nothing. Preach the
whole counsel of God. For the glory of God. And they,
again, they were to hold nothing back for the glory of God. And
Jesus Christ, in His sovereign grace, had made the difference
in Paul's life, just as it does in every believer's life. He
made the difference in our lives. Always remember that. Never forget
the rock you were hewn from, and never forget who made you
to differ from another. Because it's God. It's our great
God in Him alone. All of God's people can say amen
to that, because it's our wonderful Lord Jesus who has made us differ.
He gets all the glory. He gets all the glory. God gets
all the glory for his unspeakable gift, eternal life through Christ
and what he accomplished at Calvary's cross 2,000 years ago. Now let's
read verses 22 to 24. And now behold, I go bound in the Spirit unto Jerusalem,
not knowing the things that shall befall me there, save that the
Holy Ghost witnesses in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions
abide me, but none of these things move me, neither count I my life
dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy in
the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus Christ, to
testify the gospel of the grace of God. So Paul was bound in
the Spirit to go to Jerusalem, we see, and there was no doubt
in his mind that he was going to Jerusalem, and as he's going
to Jerusalem, it's God's ordained path for him to go there. There's
no doubt in his mind. And we see that it appears that
there were many men of God in different cities that Paul had
visited, who had prophesied of bonds and afflictions, waiting
for Paul when he got to Jerusalem. We see that in verse 23. Turn,
if you would, one chapter over. Chapter 21, one chapter over.
Let's read verses 8 to 15. We see in the next chapter in
this blessed book that this was plainly foretold by God's prophet,
Agabus. And this occurs when Paul is
on his way to Jerusalem. Acts chapter 21 verses 8 to 15. And the next day, we that were
of Paul's company departed and came unto Caesarea, and we entered
into the house of Philip the evangelist, which was one of
the seven, and abode with him. And the same man had four daughters,
virgins, and did prophesy. And as we tarried there many
days, there came down from Judea a certain prophet named Agabus.
And when he had come unto us, he took Paul's girdle, and bound
his own hands and feet, and said, Thus saith the Holy Ghost, So
shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man that owneth this girdle,
and shall deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles. And when
he heard these things, both we and they of that place besought
him not to go to Jerusalem. They said, No, don't go, Paul.
Don't go. Look what Paul answers. Then
Paul answered, what mean ye to weep and to break mine heart?
For I am ready not to be bound only but also to die at Jerusalem
for the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now remember who this
is saying this. This was Paul who was going from
house to house. Saul slaughtering, having Christians
taken and put into prison and to their eventual death. What
a change the Holy Spirit has wrought in this man. He's not
the same man. Physically he is, but inside
he's not. He's born again in the Holy Spirit
of God. And look at this testimony. What
means ye to weep and to break mine heart? For I am ready not
to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name
of the Lord Jesus Christ. The very name that one time he
cursed and persecuted. Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou
me? And he's persecuting Christians, right? The body of Christ. Now
he says, I'm ready to die for my Lord. Oh my. Miracle of grace
right there before us, isn't it? My. And when he would not
be persuaded, what did they do? They ceased. They couldn't convince
him. He's like, no, I'm going. I'm ready to die for my Lord.
No matter where he sends me, I'm gonna go. That's what he's
saying. And they just see, saying, look
at this, this is wonderful. What a way to end that statement.
The will of the Lord be done. That's how we should be. Oh,
the will of the Lord be done. If we trust him, God's will be
done. And after those days, we took
up our carriages and went up to Jerusalem. So Paul had been
warned in various cities that this would happen. But Paul was
bound in the spirit to go to Jerusalem. And he did not know
what was waiting for him. Let's go back to Acts chapter
20. He did not know what was waiting
for him. He had no idea. But he knew that God's will would
be done. And he knew that it was God's plan for him to be
there. And he was resolved to do God's
will, even if it meant that it would cost him his life. He was
resolved to do the Lord's will. My. Look at that. My goodness, what
a change, what a change has been wrought in Paul. Let's read verse
25. And now behold, I know that that
ye all among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God
shall see my face no more. He's saying this to the Ephesian
elders. And this confirms what I stated earlier, that Paul knew
that his departure from this life was drawn near. He didn't
know when, where, or how he would be delivered from the body of
death that he was in, but he knew that it would be soon. He didn't know that it was the
last time in this life that he would see their faces. Now remember
too, Paul's heart would be knit to them. He'd been there for
three years, and his heart was knit to the saints of Ephesus.
He spent three years preaching the kingdom of God to these men,
to the saints of Ephesus. And during that time, the love
of Christ, the Holy Spirit, had put in their hearts, had bonded
them together in true Christian love for one another. Look at verses 37 to 38 of Acts
chapter 2. 20 here. Look, they wept when they
heard this news and they all wept sore and fell on Paul's
neck and kissed him. Sorry, most of all, for the words
which he spake that that they should see his face no more.
And he accompanied him to the ship. Oh, we're to cherish one another,
beloved. We'll cherish one another. Let's go back to verses 26 and
27 of Acts, Chapter 20. Wherefore I take you to record
this day that I am pure from the blood of all men. For I have
not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God. In Acts chapter 18, Paul had
told some unbelieving Jews. Let's turn there. Acts chapter
18, just one couple of chapters over. Look what he said to them
here in Acts chapter 18, verse 6. And when they opposed themselves
and blasphemed, he shook his remnant and said unto them, your
blood be upon your own heads. I am clean from henceforth I
will go unto the Gentiles. So again, he held nothing back.
He held nothing back. So he's saying the same thing
over here in Acts chapter 20. He says, I'm pure from the blood
of all men. I didn't hold anything back. I preached the gospel to
them. I declared the gospel to all who were set before me. In that phrase there, your blood
be upon your own hands, I am clean, that's absolutely true
of every hell-deserving sinner who turns a deaf ear to the one
true gospel of salvation through the merits of Christ alone. If
the blood of sinners is upon their heads, of those who shun
to declare the whole counsel of God, what does it say about
men who are preaching salvation by so-called the free will of
man? Oh my. Oh, my. And if these words from verse
26 and 27 do not speak to us of the importance of making sure
that we preach or that we what we hear is the true gospel, then
nothing will. Then nothing will. Look at verses 26 and 27. For I have not shunned to declare
unto you all the counsel of God. Look at this. Take heed therefore
unto yourselves and to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost
hath made you overseers to feed the church of God which he hath
purchased with his own blood. My. It's so important for us to be
under the preaching of the gospel. No wonder Paul was moved by the
Holy Spirit to write these words, for though I preach the gospel,
I have nothing to glory of, for necessity is laid upon me. Yea,
woe unto me if I preach not the gospel. He must preach the gospel. First
Corinthians 9.16. Now let's read verses 28 to 38
now in Acts chapter 20. Take heed, therefore, unto yourselves
and to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you
overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased
with his own blood. For I know this, that after my
departing shall grievous foes enter in among you, sparing not
the flock. Also of your own self shall men
arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after
them for their own glory. Therefore, watch and remember
that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn everyone
night and day with tears. And now, brethren, I command
you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build
you up and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified.
I have coveted no man's silver or gold or apparel. Yea, ye yourselves
know that these hands have ministered unto my necessities, and to them
that were with me. I have showed you all things,
how that so labor, and ye ought to support the weak, and remember
the words of the Lord Jesus Christ, how he said, it is more blessed
to give than to receive. And when he had thus spoken,
he kneeled down and prayed with them all, and they all wept sore,
and fell on Paul's neck and kissed him. Sorry most of all for the words
which he spake that they should see his face no more. And he
accompanied him onto the ship. So we see in verses 28 to 30
that Paul gives us a warning. gives a warning to the Ephesian
elders, to God's preachers who are overseers, and that word
means bishop. And our text tells us that God the Holy Spirit is
the one who makes certain men overseers, bishops, undershepherds,
ministers of the Lord Jesus Christ. And all of God's preachers are
sinners, just like everyone else, chosen in Christ by God the Father,
redeemed by Christ. united to Christ by the life-giving
power of the Holy Spirit, and we were converted under the preaching
of the glorious gospel. And as we mature in faith, as
we mature in faith in the same way all babes in Christ mature
under the preaching of the same gospel that our Lord used to
call us out of darkness, certain men, not women, Certain men are
set apart for the ministry according to God's eternal purpose and
ordained plan for them. And our Lord Jesus Christ gives
special gifts to his ordained ministers, giving them the heart
to serve him as overseers and sends them to the assigned locations
to what? To preach the gospel. To preach
the gospel to those he's pleased to bring under our ministry. And our text there refers to
called out saints as the flock. The flock. The flock of God. Look at verse
28. Take heed, therefore, unto yourselves
and to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you
overseers to feed the church of God, which he had purchased
with his own blood. Beloved, we're the flock of God. And what do we do? We flock together
on God's appointed days of public worship to rejoice in our great
Redeemer. To rejoice in our great Redeemer. In our unregenerate, Christ-hating
state, we were sheep, but we were sheep who'd gone astray.
That's what the scripture declares. We were always sheep of God.
But we were sheep that had gone astray. We'd wander off to our
own way. We wandered off. And Christ's
flock has no goats in it. None at all. It's all sheep.
It's all sheep. All sheep. And this is lost sheep. We needed to be found, didn't
we? We were wandering off. We weren't
seeking God. We were wandering off. Off we
went. And he found us. He sought us
out. He saved us by his grace and
by his mercy. Christ did all this in Christ
alone. And His sheep, enlightened under
the preaching of His gospel. Again, we flock together, don't
we? We desire to hear the gospel preached. We feed in the same
pasture, beloved. We feast on Christ, don't we?
We feast on Him. He's the true bread from heaven.
And the preaching of His gospel is the heavenly manna that all
of God's people feast upon. He's our food. We feast on His Word, which tells
us all about Him. And the preaching of the glorious
gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ increases our faith. It increases our faith. It causes
us to mature in faith, to grow in grace. and in the knowledge
of our Lord Jesus and our Savior. There's an old saying about a
coal basket. Read this illustration years ago. There was a grandpa who was sitting
in his cabin and he had a stove which used coal. And his grandson
said to him, I want you to go down to the
coal pile, and I want you to get me some coal. And then I
want you to go down, and I want you to wash that basket. And every day, he'd go down there,
and he'd wash the basket, and it still had coal residue on
it. It didn't come totally clean, right? Because years of use,
years of use. But every day, he'd go down there
and put it in the river and wash that. And of course, the sides had
coal marks on them. And his young grandson asked
him, why do you keep having me run down there? Why do you have
me keep running down there and dipping out in the water and
calling it up? And he said, well, look at the bottom. It was all
nice and clean. All nice and clean. So we keep coming under
the gospel, we keep hearing the gospel, Lord, what does it do?
It convicts us of our sin, it points us to Christ, keeps our
hearts and our minds focused upon him, beloved, him alone. And we're sanctified by his word,
beloved. We're sanctified by his word.
It's wonderful. We're sanctified in Christ, we
know that too, but we need to hear the preaching of the gospel.
And as we grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus
Christ, the preaching of the gospel strengthens us. Even sometimes
we don't see it, but then when we go through a trial and the
tribulation reminds us of something that we heard, we're like, oh
my, that's wonderful. That's wonderful. And the gospel is made effectual
by the Holy Spirit of God. Only he can make the gospel effectual
to us. And he equips us for trials that
are to come through the preaching of his gospel too. To hearing
about what Christ has done for us. And hearing that we should
keep looking to him. Because you know why? We forget.
Quickly. That's why the Lord commands
us to come to the table. Do this in what? Remembrance
of me. continually have this before
you, what I've done for you. What the great sacrifice that
he made for us. And the preaching of the gospel
brings that to our forefront all the time, doesn't it? Brings
it right to the forefront, right before us every time. We sit
under the gospel, we hear about the glorious things of Christ.
And the things of this world just kind of fade away, don't
they? cares and troubles in this world for the time that we're
here and we can we can hear the gospel, preach and proclaim.
Oh, it's honey to the soul of the believer. And we we are built
up in our faith. God's ministers are those who
who are set aside by God himself to oversee his flock and are
given this divine exhortation, feed the church of God, which
which he hath purchased with his own blood. And some of the sheep our Lord
laid down his life for are still in spiritual darkness. Some of them are still in spiritual
darkness, still lost. So we preach with a sincere desire
that God the Holy Spirit would make his gospel effectual to
them. And you pray for that too, don't
you? That's what we all pray for.
Lord, make your word effectual. Open the eyes of the spiritually
blind. Deliver them from the power of
darkness. Translate them into the eternal kingdom of the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's what He's done for us. And our love for Christ, and
our love for His lost sheep, and our love for those He has
delivered is the motive that keeps us preaching His gospel,
that keeps God's preachers preaching the gospel. And notice what verse 28 says
there. Look at that. Don't let this pass you by. Look
at this. Feed the church of God, right? Feed the church of God
which He had purchased with His own blood. Don't ever lose sight
of that little portion there in that verse. That's incredible.
The blood of the Lord Jesus Christ is plainly declared in that verse
to be the blood of God. He's the God-man. He's the God
man. Marvel that God incarnate in
the flesh has purchased us with his own blood, given his life
a ransom from a soul. Don't let that become commonplace.
Marvel at that. That's incredible. That the sinless,
spotless Lamb of God would die for sinners, for we who just
shake our fist at him in our natural states. Would you die for someone shaking
their fist at you and hating you? Well, we all know the answer
to that, don't we? God's ways are not our ways.
And his thoughts are not our thoughts. Mercy. What mercy is proclaimed right
there in the latter part of that verse? Feed the church of God
which he hath purchased with his own blood. This is a declaration
of the deity of Christ, who he is, God incarnate in the flesh. And the blood of Jesus Christ
came from a man, and he was fully man and fully God. But it's from
the God man. And it's he who has purchased
every single member of his body. And we are all purchased by the
exact same blood, the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, which
says here, feed the church of God, which he has purchased with
his own blood. My. Every born again, blood washed
child of God knows this truth by divine revelation, don't we?
We know this truth by divine revelation where we are a purchased
possession. We're not our own. We're purchased. We're not our own. And it's God
who's bought us. We see that, right? It's God
who bought us. And what was the price? His precious
blood. His life. Glory to his name.