Would you turn back to this 28th
chapter of the book of Acts. We read of a miracle that Paul
is used by God to perform. And I have entitled this message,
The Same Old New Story. every one of those words used
in that title mean a great deal the same I better preach the same thing
every time I preach the gospel doesn't mean I'm using the same
verse of scripture but it is the same message and Paul said
to write the same things to you. To me, indeed, is not grievous. It must be the same message. I always, not always, but quite
often, I've heard people complain about this church. They preach
the same thing. You've heard them once, you've heard them all the time.
Good, good. I want it to be that way. The same old new thing. The gospel is eternal. It's the
old message. It's as old as God. That's how
old the gospel is. The everlasting gospel. And it's new. The gospel always comes as news. It's new. And it is the greatest
story ever told. The same old new story. And this is a supernatural book
written by God himself. Here's what the scripture claims.
Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. This book is divinely inspired
without error. And we have to have this because
I've said this many times, if we don't have this, all we got
is my opinion and your opinion. We're in trouble if that's the
case. but this is a divinely inspired book. And God gives
us this book to tell us who he is, his character. We can make all kinds of guesses
about what we think God's like, and they're just that, guesses.
Some may be close to accurate, but they're still guesses, nothing
more than that. But God reveals his true character. His person in this book. And this book gives us the good
news of His Son. And let me repeat, the good news
of His Son. It's good and it's news. You know, the gospel is the only
thing that remains ever new. Isn't it a blessing when you're
enabled to hear the gospel like you've heard it for the very
first time? It's new. The Lord said concerning the
scriptures, they are they which testify of me. Every scripture, doesn't matter
what scripture you're dealing with, they testify of the Lord
Jesus Christ, all of them. So when we go to any passage
in the Word of God, any historical narrative of something that took
place, any of the laws, any of the ceremonies, any of the miracles,
we know ahead of time what the purpose is. It's to teach us
the gospel. It's to illustrate the gospel. We know ahead of time what the
purpose is, to make the old, old story ever knew. Now, such is this passage before
us. Now, when the Lord walked upon
this earth, he performed miracles, supernatural miracles that only
God could do. I love thinking of his miracles.
Every one of them are given to illustrate some aspect of the
gospel. You know, as far as the performing
of miracles, nobody ever believed by seeing him perform those miracles.
You know, if I could get up here and turn this water into wine
right before your eyes, you know how much that would help you
to believe? Not at all. Not at all. If I could create
matter that hadn't been before, or God used me to do that, I
wouldn't help you believe. If there was somebody in here
that was sick and God could use me to heal them instantly, miraculously,
that would not enable you to believe. That is not faith in Christ. The purpose of these miracles
are to teach us the gospel. Let me show you this in Matthew
chapter 11. Hold your finger there and ax and turn with me
in Matthew chapter 11. Verse one, and it came to pass
when Jesus had made an end of commanding his 12 disciples,
he departed them to teach and to preach in their cities. Now
when John had heard in the prison the works of Christ, he heard
about these miracles that he was doing, he sent two of his
disciples and said unto him, art thou He that should come,
or do we look for another? Now remember, John the Baptist
is the same one who said, behold the Lamb of God. And the Lord
told him, when you see the Spirit descending like a dove, you'll
know this is He. John the Baptist saw that the
Lord Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He said, He was before
me. He knew who the Lord Jesus Christ was. Now he's in prison. He'd been a burning and shining
light, and now he's in some kind of cell or pit without any communication
from anybody. And he starts thinking, is he? Was I wrong? How could John the Baptist think
something like that? Same way you can. Is he? Am I wrong? Am I deceived? Is he? Jesus answered and said unto
them, go and show John again. You know you gotta hear the gospel
again, don't you? Go and show John again those things which you do hear
and see. The blind receive their sight. Now that's a physical miracle,
but isn't that what takes place when God reveals himself to somebody?
The blind receive their sight. The lame walk. The walk of faith. Yes, that's
a physical miracle that took place a lot of times. The lepers
are cleansed. A physical miracle that surely
shows forth the power of the gospel. Sin cleansed. I'm made to be clean before God. Is that a miracle? Matter of
fact, that's a greater miracle than a leper being cleansed,
me being clean before God. I will, he said to the leper,
be thou clean. Oh, I want that, don't you? And he said, the deaf hear. That's a physical miracle. But
oh, what a miracle that takes place when someone hears the
gospel. The deaf hear. The dead are raised up. And literally, the dead were
raised up. We read of three men being dead
that Christ raised, and there were several people who were
dead in the Acts that were given life. But is not this what happens
when God saves a sinner? The dead are raised. You hath he quickened who were
dead in trespasses and sins. And the next miracle he mentions
is the poor have the gospel preached unto them. Well, that's not a
miracle. Yeah, it is. Yeah, it is. What a miracle. that the poor, those who have
nothing to recommend them to God, have the gospel preached
unto them. And blessed is he, here's a great
miracle, blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in me. Are you offended by being in
him? I'm not. I'm, I love simply being
found in him so that all God sees is Christ. Somebody says,
well, I'm offended by that. You're saying your works don't
count for anything. They don't. You heard good. I'm glad you
heard that. Blessed is he that is not offended
in me. And the Lord gave the apostles
and those that they laid hands on the power to perform miracles. And in the book of acts, there
are a lot of miracles at the book of acts. The narrative surrounds
those miracles. For instance, in acts chapter
three, when, uh, Peter. healed the man who was born lame,
and he jumped up, and then there was all kinds of dialogue around
that healing. That's when they said, in what
name have you done this? By whose name? Then in Acts chapter
8, Peter preaches the gospel, many
people are brought to a saving knowledge of Christ, and then
Peter and John hear about it, and they come to Samaria, and
they lay their hands on the people that were saved. And they began
to perform miracles. This was done in the early church,
this performing of miracles. But the scripture points out
that it was by the laying on of the apostles' hands. that the gift of the Holy Spirit
was transferred. When the last apostle died, no
one else could do that. And when someone claims to have
that gift right now, they're phonies, they're pretenders. They don't have that gift. If
they did have that gift, they could go into some foreign country
and speak in another language and everybody would hear and
be converted. You'd hear about this. They could walk into the
cancer ward and heal people, and they would be healed, and
they wouldn't say, if it didn't work, well, you just didn't have
faith. No, they just came in and healed them, and they would
be healed. These fellas that claim this
today are phonies, nothing more. They're charlatans, they're crooks,
they're dishonest. They don't really have this gift,
but they did then. And in Acts chapter nine, Peter,
Raise somebody from the dead. And then in Acts chapter 13,
Paul blinded a man. In Acts chapter 14, that's part
of that apostolic authority. I'm glad nobody here has apostolic
authority, aren't you? Might be a lot of blind people
in here. And in Acts chapter 14, the cripple
of Lystra was healed. And, uh, in Acts chapter 19,
we read where handkerchiefs or cloths were brought from Paul
to people who were sick. And as soon as they touched those
cloths, they were healed just by touching something that he
had touched. God blessing it. Uh, then in
Acts chapter 20, remember when that fellow fell out of the loft
dead and Paul came and gave him life. In the early church, this
is what was going on. In Acts chapter 28, we considered
this couple of weeks ago, where a viper, a poisonous snake bit
Paul, and they were waiting for him to drop dead. You remember
that. And he didn't. Remember, the Lord said, they
shall take up serpents and they shall not be harmed by them. They will drink deadly things.
That's in Mark chapter 16. And the next time, This is something
me and you ought to do. The next time somebody claims
to have the gifts of the Holy Spirit, hand them a can of Drano. Drink it. Show me, show me, show
me. You'd feel awful bad if they
did it, then they'd die. I don't want that to happen.
But the point is, all these things go together. And when these men
make these claims, they are lying. And if they are true, they could
drink a can of Drano and it would not affect them. That's what
the word of God says. Now, here in this passage of
scripture, we read of a Miracle look in verse 8 and it came to
pass and We know ahead of time that this is given to teach us
the gospel Not just to see this miraculous healing that took
place. This is given to teach us something of the gospel and
remember Every scripture is to be interpreted in this light. It's the gospel and It's not
just a historical narrative, something miraculous took place
to help us to believe. Nobody believed from a miracle.
Let me repeat that, nobody believed. You remember when that rich man
in hell said, send Abraham back to warn my brothers of this awful
place. And I love Abraham's, they got
Moses and the prophets, let them hear them. He said, nay, Father
Abraham, but if someone rose from the dead, they believe. He said, they will not believe,
they will not repent, though one rose from the dead. No one is made to believe by
seeing a miracle. These miracles are given to teach
us the gospel. May God cause that to take place
in looking at this particular passage of scripture. Now it
came to pass that the father of Publius, Publius, I don't
know how to pronounce it. I didn't look it up, so I might
be doing it wrong. So forgive me if I am, but let's just call
him Publius. He was the father of the man
who was the chief man in that island, the island of Malta.
You know, Malta is one-third the size of Fayette County. That
gives you some idea of the size of this. It's 83 square miles.
It's a small island in the Mediterranean. And there were these people there.
And Publius, who received us, lodged us three days courteously
and came to pass that the father of Publius, Lay sick of a fever
and of a bloody flux, a fever brought on by an infection within. Now, I realize that I'm not a
doctor, so forgive me if I say things wrong. I'm trying to make
a point. What he had was a disease within that manifested itself
with this fever. It was a bowel infection. This
is where dysentery comes from. The fever is the outward manifestation
of an inward problem. Now listen to this very carefully.
My problem's on the inside. And you know what that problem
is? An evil heart. Well, my boy's got a good heart.
No, he doesn't. No, he doesn't. Well, my daughter's good hearted.
No, she's not. Listen to the scriptural testimony. Genesis
chapter six, verse five, and God saw the wickedness of man
was great in the earth and that every imagination of the thoughts
of his heart was only evil nonstop. That's not a good heart. That's
a bad heart. And that is my problem. An evil
heart. And this is a congenital heart
disease. We are born that way. When Adam sinned, listen to this
scripture, Romans chapter five, verse 12. By one man, sin entered
the world. By what Adam did, by that one
man and his act of disobedience, sin entered the world. and death
by sin, so that death passed upon all men in that all sinned."
Now, when Adam sinned, it's not just that his sin was charged
to my account. I sinned. I sinned. I sinned just as much
as Adam did. And you sinned just as much as
Adam did. That was you that did that. Well,
I wasn't born. You would have done it, though.
You would have done it. Matter of fact, you did do it.
Because when Adam did it, you did it. And somebody may think,
well, how could that be right for Me doing something that somebody
else did. How could I be held responsible
and guilty and said I did it when somebody else did it? Well,
if you take that line of reasoning, you sure can't claim Christ's
righteousness because you didn't do it. YOU'RE CUTTING YOUR OWN
THROAT. THE ONLY HOPE YOU HAVE IS WHAT'S
TAUGHT HERE. WHEN ADAM SINNED, YOU SINNED,
BECAUSE THAT MEANS WHEN CHRIST OBEYED, YOU OBEYED IF YOU'RE IN HIM.
THAT'S THE GOSPEL. SO DON'T SAY THAT'S NOT RIGHT.
NO, THAT'S GOOD. THAT'S GOOD. EVERYTHING GOD DOES
IS GOOD. TURN WITH ME TO ROMANS CHAPTER
5 FOR JUST A MOMENT. I WANT YOU TO SEE THIS. We're talking about this man
being laid sick. Romans chapter five, verse 18. Therefore, as by the offense
of one judgment came upon all men to
condemnation, even so by the righteousness of one, THE FREE
GIFT CAME UPON ALL MEN UNTO JUSTIFICATION OF LIFE. NOW THAT'S OBVIOUSLY
NOT TALKING ABOUT ALL MEN WITHOUT EXCEPTION, BECAUSE THERE'S SOME
PEOPLE THAT AREN'T JUSTIFIED. BUT ALL MEN WHO ARE JUSTIFIED,
THE FREE GIFT CAME UPON ALL OF THOSE MEN TO JUSTIFICATION OF
LIFE. LOOK IN VERSE 19, FOR AS BY ONE
MAN'S DISOBEDIENCE, MANY WERE MADE SINNERS. So by the obedience of one shall
many be made righteous. Now I say this so quick, I'm
afraid that quite often we don't let it sink in. We're sinners
by nature, by birth, by choice, by practice. We're sinners by
birth. Think about that. We're sinners by nature. That's
your nature. We're sinners by choice. We sin
because we want to. We're sinners by practice. That
is our practice. This man had this awful disease,
dysentery, and the scripture points out that he lay sick with
the fever. He was completely disabled by
that fever. He lay, he lay. He wasn't up
walking around. He wasn't up running around.
He wasn't doing jumping jacks. He lay there sick of this horrible
dysentery, this fever that completely disabled him. So all he did was
lay there. And what that reminds me of is
the disabling nature of sin. It makes me unable, inability,
totally depraved, totally. You know, I think of that scripture
where the Lord said, no man can come to me except the Father
which has sent me, draw him. Do you know you haven't even
commenced coming to Christ until you find out you can't? It's
only when you find out you can't that you begin to come. When
you find out you're totally disabled, totally depraved, totally everything
about me, the wickedness of man is great in the earth and that
every imagination of the thoughts of his heart is only evil continually. Is that you? Is that you? Now, it's one thing to believe
that the Bible teaches the doctrine of total depravity. It's an altogether
different thing to think that you yourself are totally depraved
and totally unable. Now, that was the case of this
man Publius. He was lame, sick of a fever
and bloody flux, bloody diarrhea. I think that represents every
work that comes from us. The scripture says our righteousnesses
are as filthy rags. There's none righteous, no not
one. There's none that understands. There's none that seeks after
God. They've all together gone out of the way. They've together
become unprofitable. There's none that doeth good,
no not one. Now here he lays, sick, unable, We don't see where he's asking
anybody to heal him, but there he lays. There he lays. And Paul comes. Paul enters in. Paul entered in and prayed and
laid his hands on him and healed him. Now, when did things get
better for this man? When Paul entered in. Now, you
know that what that is referring to is not to put the emphasis
on Paul. It's giving us, when do things
get better for me? When Christ enters in. When Christ
comes to me. I'm like that man the good Samaritan
came to laying, scripture says, half dead. Half-dead. You know, I used to think, how
are you half-dead? Well, it's a good description
of it. He was spiritually dead. He was physically alive, but
he was spiritually dead. So I reckon you could say he's half-dead.
And the scripture says the good Samaritan came to him where he
was. And that is what I need. I need
Christ to come to me where I am. Laid. Feverish. from within, the infection coming
out, a bloody flux that describes the very best of my works, the
very best. And I'm talking about right now,
too. I'm not talking about the way I used to be before the Lord
saved me. I'm talking about anything that my flesh has anything to
do with it, that's what it is. That's what it is. And now Paul
enters. Aren't you thankful when grace
enters, when Christ enters, I think of that scripture, moreover the
law entered that the offense might abound, but where sin abounded,
grace enters in. Grace did much more abound. sins against God, runs from his
presence, hides in the garden. He wasn't looking for mercy.
He wasn't asking forgiveness, but somebody came after him.
Adam, where are you? Aren't you thankful the Lord
came after you? If you're saved, it's because
the Lord came after you. Isn't that amazing? And the scripture says at that
time Paul prayed. Paul prayed. He prayed to the only one who
could do anything for this man. You see, you pray about what
you cannot do and what only God can do. Isn't that what you pray
about? What you cannot do. and what
only God can do. And this also speaks of the use
of means. God always uses means. Now I've heard preachers say,
even recently I had somebody say, God can save with means
or without means. He's God. He's all-powerful. He can save with means or without
means. Well, let me ask you this. Could
you stand just before God without Jesus Christ bearing your sins
and putting them away and causing you to be justified? No. For you to be saved, Christ couldn't
save himself. You sang that in that song. I
was thinking about that in that line in the song. He had to come
and go to the cross for somebody like me or you to be saved. So
when somebody says God can save with means or without means,
it might sound good, but it's not good. It's not good. God,
when the Lord said, if it be possible, let this cup pass from
me, if it was possible for me or you to be saved and that cup
pass from him, don't you reckon God would have done it? No doubt
about it. The cross was absolutely essential. Christ had to come and die on
the cross, bearing my sins, suffering the wrath that I deserve and
giving me his righteousness so I stand before God without guilt. Prayer represents the use of
means. Could God save without the preaching
of the gospel? You know, that's a dumb question. I hate
using that kind of language, but the question is not can he,
does he? No, no. It pleased God by the
foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. God has manifested
his word through preaching. Now, if I'm saved, somebody prayed
for me. If you're saved, somebody prayed
for you. They prayed for your salvation. They prayed that the Lord would
do something for you. He's the only one who would do
anything for any of us. Somebody prayed, but did that prayer save
you? No. It was the blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ that put away your sins and made you stand righteous
before God. Paul prayed. And what's it say
next? It says Paul laid his hands on
him. He laid his hands on him. Now
I realize preachers lay their hands on people and they fall
backwards and all that foolishness that goes on. The laying on of hands is called in Hebrews 6.2, one
of the first principles of the oracles of God, of the gospel,
the doctrine of the laying on of hands. And what this has given
is to teach us that the reason our sin, our disease is healed
is through what Christ did. in the laying on of hands, when
the great high priest laid his hands on the head of that scapegoat,
the sin symbolically was transferred from the high priest and the
people of Israel to the scapegoat. The way I'm saved is for my sins
to be, I don't know what the word to use, But somehow God
took my sins off of me and put them in His Son. And He became guilty of the commission
of those sins. And that makes me To think that the Lord, the Lord
never sinned, you know, He never sinned even when He was made
sin, He never sinned. But all the shame and the filth
of my sin, He was made to bear. And that makes me so sad to think
of that. To think of, He took my sin and my sorrow
And he made it his very own. So that he said, my sins are
more than the hairs of my head. And you know what he did with
those sins? He purged them. He did what only
he could do. He put them away. But not only My sins transferred to Him. That's why I died. His perfect
righteousness becomes mine. So that I am the very righteousness
of God. While I tremble to think of Him
being made sin, And I realize I don't understand what all that
means. None of us do, we can't. But I sure am thankful he did
it. And I'm so thankful that he is my righteousness before God. THAT'S ALL SIGNIFIED IN THAT
LAYING ON OF HANDS. HEBREWS CHAPTER 6-2, THE DOCTRINE
OF BAPTISMS AND LAYING ON OF HANDS. THE RESURRECTION OF THE
DEAD, ETERNAL JUDGEMENT, THAT'S THE TEACHING OF THE LAYING ON
OF HANDS. IT'S NOT TALKING ABOUT SOMEBODY LAYING THEIR HANDS ON
THEM AND THEY FALL BACKWARDS AND ALL THAT STUFF, YOU KNOW.
OKAY. HE LAID HIS HANDS ON HIM AND
WHAT HAPPENED? He healed him. By his stripes,
we were healed, saved, justified, sanctified, glorified. He healed him. Now, you know what that reminds
me of? Lord Jesus Christ really does
save. He really does, He's the Savior.
And in Him, there is perfect healing. He healed that man. That's the gospel, isn't it?
He healed that man. By whose stripes you were healed. So what happened? Verse nine. So when this was done, others also which had diseases
in the island came and were healed. Who came? Folks who had diseases. All of the people who had diseases
came to him and were healed. Luke 9 and 11 says, he healed
them. that had need of healing. Everybody on that tiny island,
and you know that island now, 83 square miles, less than a
third the size of Fayette County, has over half a million people
on it. It's a densely populated, I don't know how densely populated
it was then, but at any rate, everybody that had a disease
came to him and he healed them. Everybody that is a sinner comes
to Him, and He heals them, always. Verse 10, now here's what happened.
Who also honored us with many honors. Now, if the Lord saves
you, you know what you're gonna do? You're gonna honor Him with
many honors, aren't you? Crown Him with many crowns, the
Lamb upon His throne, HEAVENLY ANTHEM DROWNS, O MUSIC BUT HIS
OWN, AWAKE MY SOUL AND SING OF HIM WHO DIED FOR THEE, AND HAIL
HIM AS THY MATCHLESS KING THROUGH ALL ETERNITY. THEY HONORED HIM,
AND THIS IS WHAT EVERY BELIEVER DOES. They honored him with many
honors. Now I realize at this time they
were honoring Paul just because they were so thankful they were
healed, but that's given to typify what a believer does. When God
saves you, you'll honor him with many honors. All the time. And what does it say next? It
says, They lighted us with such things as were necessary for
their journey. They, oh, they gave us everything
for that, their three months, and they just gave us all kinds
of stuff for our journey to Rome. Remember, he was on his way to
Rome. They lighted us with such things
as were necessary. And you know what a believer
does? He lightens Christ with such things as are necessary,
all the glory. He knows all the glory goes to
Christ. He gives him all the glory, and he's glad all the
glory goes to Christ, because if all the glory doesn't go to
Christ, that means salvation's about works in some way. I don't
wanna have anything to do with that. So we laden him with that
which is necessary. All the glory in salvation. So this, once again, is a brief narrative of a miracle
that took place, but can't you see the gospel so clearly in
this? And that's why the Lord gave
these miracles. It's not just to convince us to believe, well,
I've seen a miracle, I believe. No, nobody ever believed because
of a miracle. It's to teach us how he saves sinners. Let's pray. Lord, we ask that you would do for
us. That which we cannot do for ourselves. Lord, we ask that you would save
us by thy grace and Lord, give us the grace to honor you with
many honors. Laying on you that which is necessary. All the glory of salvation goes
to you. And we give thanks for thy dear
son. Bless this message for your glory.
Lord, as we face this coming week, we ask that you enable
us to walk with thy son by faith, glory in his cross. And we ask
that you would open up doors for us to preach your gospel. And we pray that according to
your will and for your glory, We might be privileged to see
many sinners saved by your grace. Bless us for Christ's sake. In
his name we pray. Amen.