We began what will be a relatively
brief series of messages entitled, Simple Signpost to the Celestial
City. Taking the term Celestial City
from Bunyan's immortal Pilgrim's Progress, used as a graphic synonym
for heaven, this series of sermons will be an attempt to preach
and to apply some of the most simple and clear texts in all
of the Word of God, which indeed constitute signposts to heaven. Texts which address the great
issues of sin and of grace. Texts which call us to repent
and to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. text which contained
the heart of the whole message of the Bible concerning the great
and pressing question, what must I do to be saved? Well, tonight we're going to
fix our attention upon another simple signpost to the celestial
city, a signpost taken from a sermon preached by the great Apostle
Paul. Have you ever wondered what it
would be like to have heard an apostle preach the gospel? As I have read biographies, I
have wished that somehow I could be shot into a time capsule and
taken back to some of the open fields in England and hear the
great Whitefield preaching Christ with such passion, with such
earnestness and burning, almost seraphic eloquence. I have wished
that I could have heard Spurgeon, as I have read his biography
and read accounts of everything from the captivating, mellifluous
voice with which he spoke to the earnest, tender passion with
which he pleaded with sinners, But I must confess that beyond
the yearning to hear Whitefield and Spurgeon and other greats
of the past, I have wished that I could have been somewhere to
have heard Peter preaching, to have heard Paul or one of the
other apostles. Well, in the book of Acts, God
has given us a few, at least shorthand summary statements
of several of the sermons of these great apostles. And one
of them is recorded in Acts chapter 13, and it is to that chapter
that I direct your attention, and from which we shall, God
helping us, discover another of these simple signposts to
the celestial city. Here in Antioch of Pisidia, we
have the record of Paul's sermon preached in the synagogue, beginning
in verse 16 of Acts 13 and continuing through verse 41. And it should
not surprise us that this sermon has three very clearly marked
divisions. Now, not all of the recorded
sermons or all of the shorthand versions of the sermons have
clear divisions, let alone clear divisions, three divisions, but
this one does indeed have such divisions. You will notice Paul
begins in verse 16, and Paul stood up and, beckoning with
the hand, said, Men of Israel and ye that fear God, hearken! Here is a man determined to be
heard. He raises his hand to gain their
attention, and then he solicits the commitment of their ears,
hearkened. And then through verse 25 he
sets forth the history of Israel up through the coming of John
the Baptist in preparation for the coming of the Lord Jesus.
So his first heading of his sermon in the synagogue in Antioch of
Pisidia focuses upon Israel's history in preparation for the
coming of Jesus. Then in verses 26 to 37, his
second heading is the history of how God fulfilled his promises
to Israel in the death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. Notice in verse 26, brethren,
children of the stock of Abraham and those among you that fear
God, he's again addressing his audience. He's fearful perhaps
he's lost their attention since he raised his hand and said,
men of Israel and you that fear God, listen. They were perhaps
getting a little weary, so like a good preacher he calls back
their attention and says, Brethren, children of the stock of Abraham,
those among you that fear God, to us is this word of salvation
sent forth. And then he gives the history
of how God fulfilled his promises to Israel in the death and resurrection
of Jesus. Then his third heading begins
in verse 38. Be it known unto you therefore,
brethren, having completed his statements with respect to the
history of the death and resurrection of Jesus, he now makes an announcement
that the great blessings of salvation are now available to men and
how they can obtain them. Be it known unto you, therefore,
brethren, that through this man, or more literally this one, is
proclaimed unto you remission of sins, and by him every one
that believeth is justified from all things from which you could
not be justified by the law of Moses. Beware, therefore, lest
that come upon you which is spoken in the prophets, behold ye despisers
and wonder and perish. For I work a work in your days,
a work which you shall in no wise believe, if one declare
it unto you." Here then in verses 30 to 48, is that portion upon
which we shall see etched a simple signpost to the celestial city. The first thing we notice as
we stand before it is this, that the forgiveness or the remission
of sins is the central blessing held forth in the gospel. When we get excited about the
gospel, when we get excited about the grace of God, what is it
that lies at the very nerve centers of the gospel that gets us excited? Well, if you look at our signpost,
we read in verse 38, Be it known unto you therefore, brethren,
that through this man is proclaimed unto you remission of sin. And in those words, there appears
on our simple signpost to the celestial city the truth that
the forgiveness or remission of sins is the central blessing
of the gospel. Now, the gospel is like a many-faceted
diamond. It has many planes, and it shines
in many ways. because our needs as sinners
are many, and there is no need that we have as sinners which
is not addressed in some marvelous facet of gospel privilege in
Christ. However, shining out of the deepest
center of that diamond and radiating to every plane of every facet
is its most marvelous provision, and that is the blessing. of
forgiveness of sins. And hence, when the apostle in
his sermon there in that synagogue comes to bring that sermon to
a conclusion, having demonstrated in his first heading how God
prepared the world through the history of His ancient people
Israel for the coming of His Son, and how under his second
head his son had come in fulfillment of those prophecies and had died
and been raised from the dead. Now on the basis of that mighty
redemptive activity of God, he says, be it known here Here is
the great blessing procured by all of this work of the mighty,
gracious, saving God throughout human history, this central blessing
of the gospel, even forgiveness or remission of sins. But then there's a second line
on this signpost that we're considering tonight, and it is this, that
this forgiveness is found only in connection with the Christ
of Old Testament prophecy and New Testament history. Now, you
must not miss that. It's not enough to see on the
signpost. There is forgiveness for needy
sinners. Look at the second line. It says
this forgiveness is found only in connection with the Christ
of Old Testament prophecy and New Testament history. You see
that in the text. Look at it again. Be it known
unto you therefore, brethren, that through this man, or this
one, is proclaimed unto you remission of sins, and by him every one
that believeth is justified from all things from which you could
not be justified by the law of Moses. Through this one and by
him. Now, to whom is the apostle referring? Well, if we read back through
the first two heads of his sermon, it's very plain to whom he is
making reference. It is the Jesus who was the great
magnet of all of the Old Testament prophecies. It is the Christ
of Old Testament prophetic foresight and utterance, the prophet speaking
of the coming one who would be the deliverer of God's people. Under his second heading, he
is demonstrating that it is Jesus of Nazareth to whom John pointed
and bore witness, of whom David had spoken that his flesh would
not see corruption. It was this one, verse 31, who
was seen for many days of them that came up with him from Galilee
to Jerusalem, who are now his witnesses. You see what Paul
has been saying? He has not been holding up some
nebulous, ephemeral, mystical Jesus concept. some new age guru
that you can make him whoever you would make him so long as
you find meaning by having trust in him. Never. In this simple
signpost to the celestial city, there is clearly printed the
statement, forgiveness of sins is the central blessing of the
gospel. But then underneath it, printed
with equal clarity, is this statement that this forgiveness is found
only in connection with the Christ of Old Testament prophecy and
of New Testament history. for the simple reason that true
forgiveness deals with the true God and with real sins that can
only be dealt with with the real Christ of real biblical revelation. There's the signpost. It tells
us forgiveness of sins is the great and central blessing set
forth in the gospel. It tells us, secondly, that this
forgiveness is found only in connection with the Christ of
Old Testament prophecy and New Testament history. But then there's
a third line on this simple signpost. Look at it in our passage. Paul
goes on to say, Be it known unto you, brethren, that through this
man is proclaimed unto you remission of sins, and by him every one
that believeth is justified from all things from which you could
not be justified by the law of Moses. What's the third line
on this simple signpost? It's this. This forgiveness is
received in Christ by faith alone. This forgiveness is received
in Christ by faith alone. Yes, it will always be a penitent
faith in which the sins for which I seek forgiveness will be detested
and loathed and forsaken. It will be a submissive faith
that disposes me to embrace the Lord Jesus, not only as my sin-bearer,
but my sovereign and my master. Yes, that is true, and we take
second place to none in affirming and preaching and defending that
truth. But my dear sinner friend and
my dear preacher friend, let us never, never obscure the glory
of sola fide. By grace are you saved through
faith. And Paul does not put a big parenthesis. Of course, I mean penitent faith,
submissive faith, faith that leads to a holy life, faith that
leads to a sincere embrace of the Lord. That's all true. But
He dares to say, by grace have you been saved, through faith.
He dares to say in this synagogue, as He is etching this simple
signpost to the celestial city, right in a synagogue made up
of Jews and of Gentile proselytes, by Him everyone that believes
is justified. See, it is the unique nature
of faith that it is totally receptive. It takes what is offered by another. It receives what is provided
by another. Therefore, it is likened to drinking. of the water of life. It is likened
to eating of the bread of life. It is likened to looking upon
the serpent of brass. It is the unique capacity of
faith to have nothing in itself upon which to rest and to go
totally out of itself into another, to find all of its needs met
in that other, and that other is the Lord Jesus. This signpost on which is written
the words, forgiveness is the central blessing in the gospel.
The words, this forgiveness is to be found in connection with
the Christ of biblical history and prophecy. It also says that
this salvation is received in Christ by faith. alone? Faith alone? And that's the great
stumbling block of the gospel, isn't it? That's the great stumbling
block of the gospel. Man wants to have something plus
Christ. Something plus faith alone will
give him the grounds to have something plus Christ. Because
faith alone is the empty hand that takes a full and inadequate
Faith alone is the parched mouth that drinks of him who is the
water of life. But thou must hasten to look
at the fourth line there on our simple signpost, and it is this,
look at it in the text, by him everyone that believes is justified
from all things from which you could not be justified by the
law of Moses. And what did Paul do with that
truth? Back up. to verse 38, Be it known
unto you therefore, brethren, that through this one is proclaimed
unto you remission of sins. The fourth line in our simple
signpost says this, This forgiveness in Christ by faith is freely
and sincerely proclaimed to all without distinction. This forgiveness
in Christ by faith is freely and sincerely proclaimed to all
without distinction. When Paul said, Be it known unto
you therefore, brethren, that through this man is catangelo,
solemnly declared is the sense of that verb. I'm not just shooting
off the mouth because it's my job as an apostle to talk about
Jesus. I am solemnly testifying as one
who stands in the presence of the living God, that there is
no one here in this synagogue within the sound of my voice.
whether you are of the stock of Israel after the flesh, whether
you are part of those Gentiles who had come to embrace the God
of old covenant revelation, whatever your background, whatever your
sins, whatever your blindness, whatever your perversity, I solemnly
declare to all of you, freely, sincerely, without distinction,
And then he moves from the general to the specific that everyone
by him, everyone that believeth to all is the proclamation made. But the promise must be embraced
one by one. It's promised only to believers. It's proclaimed to all. Those
are the four simple lines that God has etched on this simple
signpost of the celestial city. You got them in your mind? Line
number one says, forgiveness is the great blessing held forth
in the gospel. Forgiveness is to be found only
in the Christ of biblical revelation. Forgiveness is found in Christ
only to those who believe Forgiveness is sincerely offered to all,
and you are urged to believe. But then, as I look down at the
bottom piece of that simple signpost, there's an asterisk. And you
know what it says? It says, warning. Warning. And the warning is against the
greatest sin of all. And you know what the greatest
sin of all is that will keep you out of heaven? It's not the
sin of lying. There'll be many, many forgiven
liars in heaven. Thank God I'll be one of them.
There'll be many forgiven murderers in heaven. There'll be many forgiven
adulterers and homosexuals and pedophiles and child abusers
and every vile kind of sinner in heaven. But there's one kind
of sinner that won't be in heaven. You know what that is? An unbelieving
sinner. The crowning, damning sin is
the sin of unbelief. Beware, therefore, Paul says,
lest that come upon you spoken by the prophets. Behold, you
despisers, and wonder and perish. I'll work a work in your days
which you'll in no wise believe if one declare it unto you."
In other words, they were listening to the word of the prophet in
a spirit of cynical unbelief. And he says, such unbelievers
will perish You know the New Testament counterpart of that,
don't you? He that believeth not shall be
damned. He that believes not, the wrath
of God abides upon him. And I would conclude our study
of this second simple signpost to the celestial city by saying
to every one of you kids and men and women and friends gathered
here tonight, look at the asterisk on that sign. We've looked at
the four simple statements that constitute this signpost to the
celestial city, but here's the warning. Beware, beware, beware
of going out and saying, Oh, that was nice, and I liked that
imagery of the signpost, and that was clever how he... My
friend, I don't care what you think about the sermon! My concern is, will you go out
with the Savior or without Him? That's the concern! Beware! Beware lest, having heard again,
you say, either I don't need such a Savior, or such a Savior
is unwilling to receive me. In either case, it's unbelief
about what God says you are, or unbelief about what He says
His Son is. And you've got to believe what
God says you are, a hell-deserving sinner, whether you're three
years old or thirty or ninety. and that Christ is the only Savior
suited to any sinner, three, thirty, or ninety. Don't go out
in unbelief, but embrace the offered Savior. Stand by that
signpost and say, Oh God, thank you for planting it in your Word,
for bringing me near it in the preaching. Oh Lord, I see beyond
the preacher and beyond my mom and my dad and the friends and
the visitors around me, oh Lord, I see that I stand before you
covered with my sins. I see that there's no way to
have them removed unless Christ takes them away. I see that Christ
alone can take them, Christ is willing to take them, and I want
them taken. What do I wait for? Just as I
am, without one plea, but that thy blood was shed for me, and
that thou bidst me come to thee, O Lamb of God, I come.