Would you turn back to Acts chapter
8? This evening, I'm going to be preaching on the subject,
Imitators of God, from Ephesians chapter 5, verse 1, where Paul
says, be ye followers of God, literally be ye imitators of
God. I've entitled this message, Preaching
the Word. Verse one of chapter eight, and
Saul was consenting unto his death. Now this Saul would later
become Paul, the apostle, but right now he hates Jesus Christ
and he wants his name stamped out and he's doing what he can
to stamp out his name. Look in verse 58 of chapter seven, Speaking of Stephen, they cast
him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down
their clothes at a young man's feet, whose name was Saul. And Saul was consenting unto
his death. And at that time, during the
martyrdom of Stephen, when he was stoned to death, this was
a catalyst that began a great persecution against the church.
Was it Jerusalem? Now, I love the way the Lord
uses this. This great persecution is what
the Lord uses for the spread of the gospel and the preaching
of the word. This was all according to God's
purpose. And Saul was consenting unto
his death, and at that time, there was a great persecution
against the church, which was at Jerusalem. Foxe's Book of
Martyrs said there was probably about 2,000 people put to death.
profess Christ. And they were all scattered abroad
throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles.
And devout men carried Stephen to his barrel, and they made
great lamentation over him. They were so upset. As for Saul,
he made havoc of the church. He ravaged the church, entering
into every house and hailing men and women, arresting men
and women and committed them to prison. Therefore, because
this took place, they that were scattered abroad, they had to
escape for their lives. They that were scattered abroad
went everywhere preaching the word. Now Saul was in the process
of arresting men and arresting women. for preaching the gospel. And I thought about something
I heard a long time ago that's always stuck with me. If they
arrested people for being Christians, would they have enough evidence
to convict you? That's always been something
that's hit me. Well, these people had enough evidence, and they
threw them into prison, and through this persecution, the gospel
was spread. This is how the Lord had the
gospel spread through this persecution. People had to flee Jerusalem,
find someplace else to live. They lost their jobs. They lost
their homes. Some of them had to leave their
families. And while doing this, they went and preached the gospel. Look in verse five of chapter
eight. Then Philip went down to the
city of Samaria and preached Christ unto them. Through this,
Taking place, Philip goes down to Samaria and we will consider
next week what took place as a result of that, the spread
of the gospel in that place and people, men and women believed.
And then he went down into a desert to preach the gospel to one person.
You find that in Acts chapter eight, but the preaching of the
gospel spread through believers being persecuted, leaving Jerusalem,
and preaching the gospel to everybody they came into contact with.
Now, when the Lord Jesus opened up his public ministry in Luke
4, he begins by quoting Isaiah chapter 61, verse 1, when he
says, the spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he hath anointed
me to preach the gospel to the poor. Interestingly, after that,
message that he did preach in Luke chapter four, that was the
first murder attempt. They tried to throw him off the
cliff of the brow where the city was built, but he passed through. Now, they went everywhere, the scripture
says, preaching the word. Now, what is meant by preaching
the word? They went everywhere preaching the word. Now, the
Word is the Word from the Word that reveals the Word. That's
what is meant by the preaching of the Word. It's the Word. It's
spoken. It's the gospel message. It's
the Word. It's the message from the Word,
from the written Word of God. which reveals the living word
of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now that's what the preaching
of the gospel is. It's the word. You know, you can say things
from the written word, never preach the word. Did you know
that? You can say things that are true from the written word,
which speaks nothing of the living word. The preaching of the gospel
is always this. It's the word. It's a particular
message. It's got a definite content called the gospel. It's
the word from the written word of God. Any message that's not
from the written word of God is no good. I don't want to hear
it. I'm not interested in it. But a word from the word that
doesn't reveal the living word, the Lord Jesus Christ, I'm not
interested in hearing that either. The preaching of the word, the
word from the word that reveals the Word. They went everywhere
preaching the Word. Now, would you turn with me to
2 Timothy chapter 3. Paul says to Timothy in verse
15, from a child, 2 Timothy 3.15,
from a child, thou has known the holy scriptures, which are
able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith, which is in Christ
Jesus. All scripture is given by inspiration
of God. Now we got to begin here. All
scripture, Old Testament, New Testament, every single word
is literally God-breathed, given by inspiration of God. Somebody says, that's hard to
believe. No, it's not. It's not hard to believe that
God created the universe, is it? As a matter of fact, it's
the only rational thing to believe. Anything else is foolishness. God created the universe. He
did so as an act of his own will. He simply willed the universe
into existence. How glorious. He that can create
the universe can certainly inspire men to write a book that's totally
inspired without any error and preserve it through the centuries.
That's who God is. And we've got to have, we've
got to begin here because if we don't begin with this written
word that God has revealed, all we have is my opinion and your
opinion. And what good is that? Absolutely. worth nothing. We're totally dependent upon
this written revelation. So when they were preaching the
word, they were preaching the scriptures. Their words came
from the scripture to reveal the living word. And look what
Paul tells us about the scriptures. All scripture is given by inspiration
of God and is profitable. It's beneficial for four things,
doctrine, reproof, correction, instruction in righteousness. Now, what's the purpose of the
scripture? Well, it's profitable. It's beneficial, thank God for
the word of God. It's profitable for doctrine,
the doctrine of God, the doctrine of Christ. The doctrine which
is according to godliness. Everything in the Bible is doctrine.
Somebody says, I don't want to hear doctrine. Well, you're not
going to hear the scripture then because that's what the scripture, the
scripture tells us the character of God, who he is, what he's
like, how he saves sinners by his grace, the doctrine of Christ. Don't ever speak of doctrine
negatively. It's the doctrine of Christ. And it's profitable
for reproof. exposing false doctrine. Didn't
the Lord say, as soon as he said to enter in, the first thing
he said is beware of false prophets. First thing he said. And the
scripture exposes false doctrine. You set the truth out, it's going
to expose the false every single time. It's profitable for reproof,
for correction. Anybody here need corrected?
We constantly get corrected, don't we? Constantly. You know, when a plane is going
from one destination to another, it has a particular arc that's
going to bring it to that position, but the wind is always knocking
at it and it has to be brought back into that arc. You and I
need constant correction from the scriptures to cause us to
look to Christ only. And I love what he says, instruction
and righteousness. You know, the Bible is the only
book that tells you and me how a sinner can be righteous before
God. The righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ is my personal
righteousness before God. And this is its purpose, that
the man of God may be perfect, mature, throughly furnished unto
all good works. You see, we are his workmanship
created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before
ordained that we should walk in them. Chapter four, verse
one. I charge thee therefore before
God and the Lord Jesus Christ who shall judge the quick and
the dead, the living and the dead at his appearing and his
kingdom. Here's the charge. Preach the
word. That's the solemn charge. Preach
the word. Now this is to me and you as
well. Preach the word. The message from the Word that
revealed the living Word. Now, whatever the Word declares,
preach it. Don't apologize for it. Don't
water it down. Whatever the Word declares, preach
it. For instance, does the Word declare
inspiration? Does the Word declare of itself
that this is the inspired, infallible Word of God? Then preach it. Don't apologize for that. Don't
try to water that down in any way. We preached this book. Does the word declare the character
of the living God? You know, the only way we can
know what God's like is by his word. Does the Word declare that God
is God, that He absolutely reigns and rules, and His will is always
done? He doeth according to His will
in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth,
and none can stay His hand. You're saying, then what doest
thou? What do you do? Does the Word declare that He's absolutely
sovereign, that He's God? Then preach it. Does the Word
declare that He's holy? Holy, holy, holy, other, other,
other. The whole earth is full of His
glory. Preach it. Does the Word declare
His justice? How that not one sin will ever
go unpunished. Justice and judgment are the
habitation of His throne. Preach it. That's what Paul...
Whatever the Word declares of God is God gracious. Yes, he's merciful and gracious.
Preach it. Is God immutable? Does the Word
declare that? Yeah, I am the Lord. I change
not. You think of how much you change in one day. Think of how
much you change in 10 minutes. You might be up here and then
way back. Not him. He's always the same. Preach
his character as the Word reveals this. Does the Word reveal his
eternality? I was talking to a man, and the
man was an atheist. And I said, God made the world. He said, but who made God? I
said, nobody made God. He said, yeah, but who made him?
If you think he made the world, who made him? He's eternal. And
the Lord Jesus said regarding himself, I am that I am. Before Abraham was, I am. Does the Word declare that God
elected a people before time again, according as He hath chosen
us in Him before the foundation of the world? Does the Word declare
that? Preach it. Preach it. Glory in
it. Glory in who He is. Does the
Word declare Christ as a successful Savior? that when he said, it
is finished, the salvation of all the elect was accomplished.
Is this what the word teaches? Then preach it. It's that simple. They went everywhere preaching
the word. Does the word declare our death
in Adam and our fall in Adam and that we actually died when
he died? In Adam, the scripture says,
all die. Everybody Adam represented died. Does the word declare that? the
inability, the spiritual death of men in Adam, and we're bored,
then preach it. That's what Paul said to Timothy.
Preach the word. Does the word declare salvation
by grace? By grace can you save through
faith? Then preach it. We can just go on and on with
that. Now, here's a question I want to ask you, and I want
you to think about this. How much of the word has to be
preached? All of it. All of it. Paul said, I've not
shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God. The Lord
said in Matthew 28, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever
I have commanded you. How much of the word do I have
to believe? Everything God says. Paul said in Acts 24, 14, but
this I confess unto thee that after the way that they call
heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers, believing all
things which are written in the law and in the prophets. Now, I believe it to be an act
of sheer presumption and arrogant pride to sit in judgment on the
word of God and say, oh, I think this part's important and that
part's not important. Who do you think you are that
you can sit in judgment on God like that and make a supposition
like that? You're not qualified. I'm not
qualified. This is the word of God. It is all important. All scripture is given by inspiration
of God. And if I let any of it go, I'm
like that harlot who had no love for the baby and was willing,
in Solomon's day, was willing to have it divided And all you
have left is a dead baby, no life in it. The truth is the
whole truth. And if you leave out any aspect
of the truth, it's no longer the truth. Now they went everywhere
preaching the word and there's no true preaching the word without
the Holy Spirit. And this is so important. There's
no preaching of the word, there's no hearing of the word without
the Holy Spirit. God, the Holy Spirit, the third
person of the blessed Trinity. Peter said in 1 Peter 1.12, he
spoke of the preaching of the gospel with the Holy Ghost sent
down from heaven. The gospel cannot be preached,
the gospel cannot be heard without God, the Holy Spirit. If God,
the Holy Spirit is not blessing what I'm saying, these are empty
words to me and you. They're really meaningless. This
is a spiritual thing. And you can't hear. Somebody
says, well, the preacher isn't preaching very well. Well, maybe
you don't have ears to hear right now. Because the fact of the
matter is, you can't hear unless God, the Holy Spirit, gives us
ears to hear. I like what Paul said in 1 Thessalonians
1, 4, and 5. He said, knowing, brethren, your
beloved, your election of God. Well, how do you know that, Paul?
For our gospel came to you not in word only, but in the Holy
Ghost. in power and in much assurance,
you knew that what you were hearing was the very truth of God. There's no hearing of the gospel
without God, the Holy Spirit, blessing it to our souls. Listen to this scripture, 1 Corinthians
121. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. That's what's going on right
now. This is what God uses for the saving of his elect. The preaching of the gospel.
It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching. What's going on
right now? To save them that believe. Now somebody says, can't
God save without preaching? I'm sure he could. I'm sure he
could, but that's the wrong question. Does he? Does he? Well, the scripture says that
please God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that
believe. Now, if you look in the New Testament, you look at
all the examples of people who came to know Christ, with the
exception of one, John the Baptist. I don't understand how this happened,
but John the Baptist was filled with the Holy Spirit from his
mother's womb. When he came out of the womb, he was a saved man.
Now somebody says, explain that to me. How in the world am I
going to explain that to you? I can't, but the scripture says he was
filled with the Holy Ghost from his mother's womb. Remember when
he first heard of the Lord, the babe He leaped up in the womb
of his mother when he first heard of the birth of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now he didn't, he was saved before he heard the gospel.
I don't understand how that is, but nobody else is in the New
Testament. You can't find me one example of somebody who was
saved apart from the preaching of the gospel. It pleased God
by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. Titus
1.3, God has manifested his word through preaching, which is committed
to my trust. How shall they hear without a
preacher? How shall they preach except they be sent? I love what
Philip said later on in Acts chapter 8 to the Ethiopian eunuch. He was up there reading Isaiah
53, and he said, do you understand what you're reading? He said,
how can I except some man should guide me? Now, preaching has
taken a back seat in man-made religious institutions called
churches. The worship leaders are the song
leaders. And they have skits and plays instead of the preaching
of the gospel. You know what I say to that?
Foolishness, that's all it is. There's not a bit of truth to
it. And this is not an attempt to
exalt the preacher. I wouldn't in any way want to
do that because anybody that is a true preacher knows he's
nothing. He knows that about himself. And I'm not talking
about clergy lady. The emphasis is not the preacher
right now. The emphasis is on the preaching of the gospel. Turn with me to 1 Corinthians
1. Verse 17. For Christ sent me not to baptize,
but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, not trying
to dress it up to make it more attractive to the natural man,
not to try to package it, not to try to market it and make
it more appealing to the natural man or less offensive to the
natural man. I don't want to do that. Christ sent me not to baptize.
You know, there are people that use that to say baptism is no
longer a part of the church. It was over after that. That's
not what that means at all. What Paul is saying is I'm not
here for the attempt of trying to get people to see results.
I'm not trying to get baptisms. I'm not trying to make a church
grow. I'm not trying to, I'm here for
this one purpose, to preach the gospel. Now, is there anything
you want to hear other than that? The gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Christ sent me not to baptize,
but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the
cross of Christ should be made of none effect. I want you to
look at Acts chapter five for a moment. Acts chapter five.
Look at this. Verse 40, and to him they agreed. Acts chapter 5 verse 40, and
to him they agreed. And when they had called the
apostles and beaten them, they commanded that they should not
speak in the name of Jesus and let them go. And they departed
from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted
worthy to suffer shame for his name. And daily, daily, this
was the daily practice in the temple publicly and in every
house privately, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus
Christ. That was their message. If you look in verse 5 of Acts
chapter 8, when Philip went down, he preached Christ to them. Preaching
the Word is preaching Christ. And then when he was speaking
of the Ethiopian eunuch, he began with that same scripture and
preached unto him Jesus. Now, would you turn back to 1
Corinthians chapter 1. I think that this verse of Scripture
tells as much as any other Scripture as to what the preaching of the
Word is. Verse 21, For after that in the
wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God
by the foolishness of preaching, to save them that believe for. He's going to speak of this. The Jews require a sign. Show us a sign from heaven that'll
prove what you're saying is true. And the Greeks seek after wisdom,
the wisdom of this world, not the wisdom of God, but how to
do well in this world. But, Paul says, we preach Christ
crucified. unto the Jews a stumbling block,
unto the Greeks foolishness, but unto them which are called,
both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God, and the wisdom
of God." Now here is the preaching of the Word of God. We preach
Christ. That's who He is. He's God's
anointed Messiah. He's God's prophet. He's the
Word of God. He's God's priest. He's the one,
if He brings you into God's presence, you must be saved. He's God's
King. He's the one who's ruling and
reigning right now. Controlling everything. He's
the Son of God. He's the Creator. We preach Christ. That's His person. And we preach
His work. He was crucified. Why was he crucified? Because
the sins of God's elect became his sins. God can do that. He
made him to be sin. Remember, God is just. He must
punish sin. The reason He punished the Lord
Jesus Christ is because that's what He deserved when my sin
became His sin. It actually became His sin. You
see, God's just. But something about the Lord,
though, He did what only He could do. He put away that sin. He
put it away. I love Hebrews 1-3 when He had
by Himself purged our sins, he sat down at the right hand of
God. Now we preach Christ crucified. And I have no doubt that that's
the only message of scripture. Whatever you're dealing with,
that is the sum and substance of what that scripture means.
And if I don't get that from the scripture, I've missed it.
I've missed it. We preach Christ crucified. Now unto the Jews, this is a
stumbling block. When you tell somebody that everything
God requires of them, He looks to Christ for. That Christ accomplished
a full salvation. That when He said it is finished,
my salvation was finished. That I now stand just before
God without any sin, simply by what He has done. Somebody says, That's a stumbling
block. That'll lead people to sin. Why?
You're not giving anybody any motive for obedience. You're
not giving them any reason to obey if everything's already
finished. If you tell them that they're completing Christ and
there's nothing they can do to add to that, why? That'll encourage
people to sin. That's scandalous. That's a stumbling
block. A believer never responds to
the gospel like that. They just don't. And if a goat does, what
can you do about it? I mean, goats are going to do
what goats do. But the stumbling block. And to the Greeks, this
is foolishness. You expect me to believe that
the Bible's inspired word of God? You expect me to believe
that God became flesh? You expect me to believe that
I'm saved by somebody else's righteousness? Why, that's foolishness.
I can't believe anything like that. Verse 24, but I know this is
a stumbling block unto the Jews and foolishness to the Greeks,
but unto them which are called. Oh, that's so important. To them
which are called. If you believe the gospel, it's
because you have been called by invincible, irresistible grace
to believe the gospel. Isn't that amazing? I mean, think
about this. Do you believe right now? You've
been called by the grace of God to believe. You've been made
an object of His mercy. What? Why me? Why me? unto them which are called both
Jews and Greeks. You know, he calls Jews, he calls
religious people, he calls Greeks, he calls worldly people, unreligious
people. He's got a people out of every
kindred, tribe, tongue, and nation. That's who he is. To them which
are called both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and
Christ, the wisdom of God. Now, in Christ Crucified, and
that's his message, we preach Christ Crucified, the person
and work of God. The person of Christ, the work
of Christ, what he accomplished, we preach Christ Crucified. That's
the preaching of the word. When they went everywhere preaching
the word, that was their message, all the time. Paul said, I determined
not to know anything among you, said Jesus Christ, and him crucified. They went everywhere preaching
the word. Now, who are the ones who believed?
Those whom God called. When Peter was preaching on Pentecost,
he said, the word is to you and to your children and all who
are far off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call. That's who believes the gospel,
those God has called. And I know somebody will listen
to this and say, well, I just gotta wait for him to call. There's
nothing I can do. That's called fatalism. That's
what that's called, fatalism. If you sit there and say, well,
I can't do anything until he calls me. I'll just wait and not worry
about it. You're a fool. You're a fool. That's not the
way to respond to the gospel. Lord, call me. When you hear
this, Lord, call me. I'm calling on your name. Call
me. To them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ
the power of God and Christ the wisdom of God. Now, my great
need is to stand before God without guilt. My great need is to stand
before God in perfect righteousness and perfect holiness. God will
not accept anything short of that. That's who God is. Now, the big question is, how
can that be? How can that be? Christ the power
of God, and Christ, the wisdom of God. You see, God is so wise
that He has made a way to be perfectly just and justify somebody
like me. What wisdom to send His Son His
beloved Son, this is for the glory of His name. This is to
reveal who He is. He sent His Son. His Son in the flesh kept God's
holy law. What wisdom. Man can never come
up with anything like this. He kept God's holy law. God takes the sins of His people
and He makes them to be, makes His Son sin in their place. punishes
His Son, punishes all sin, and takes the very righteousness
of His Son, gives His righteousness to His people, so that I stand
before God, personally, right now, without guilt. Perfect. And, more than that, God, by
Almighty power, gives me spiritual life. He gives me a new heart. He gives me a new nature. It's
called the new birth. Those that Christ died for, God
the Holy Spirit gives them life, a new nature, a holy nature that
calls upon His name, that believes the gospel. And this is the power
of God. This is the wisdom of God. God's
so wise that He made a way to be just and justify somebody
like me. Every believer finds Christ to
be the power of God. And every believer finds Christ
to be the wisdom of God. Do you see Christ as the power
of God to your salvation? Do you see that? I'm not saying
you completely intellectually understand it. Of course you
don't. We don't completely grasp anything we believe. We just
believe it because it's revealed in the word. But Christ himself
is the very power of God into salvation. Christ is the wisdom
of God. Now, that's the gospel. That's the
preaching of the word, Christ and him crucified. Now, Paul said to the Galatians,
there'll be some that would trouble you and pervert the gospel of
Christ. or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto
you than that which we preach, let him be accursed. Accursed. Turn with me to 1 Corinthians
9. Paul said, for though I preach
the gospel, I have nothing to glory of. I
can't take credit, pat myself on the back, and think, well,
I'm better than other people, or I'm more faithful than other
people, or I'm different than other people. I'm smarter than other people,
for though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of. For
necessity is laid upon me, yea, woe is unto me if I preach not
the gospel. And woe unto me if I preach not
the gospel. And if I do preach the gospel,
woe unto you if you do not believe the gospel. If I'm preaching
the gospel, that's a solemn thing to think about, isn't it? Now
the Lord in his mercy, sent this great persecution to the church
at Jerusalem. Fox of Martyrs estimates that
2,000 people were put to death, executed, for believing and preaching
the gospel. And Saul, who would later become
Paul, he wanted the death of everybody who followed the Lord
Jesus Christ. And so he was hailing, arresting
men and women. They were scattered abroad preaching
the word. And as we're going to see, Lord
willing, next week as a result of that, a mighty work of grace
took place in the city of Samaria. And the scripture actually says
there was great joy in that city. And when the gospel is believed,
there is great joy. the joy and peace of believing. Let's pray together. Lord, how we thank you for the
gospel of thy son. How we thank you for your word. How we thank you for the gospel
message that reveals thy son, the living word, Lord, take what
was preached and bless it according to your will. Lord, we're so
utterly dependent upon you. We can't preach, we can't believe,
we can't worship apart from thy spirit. And we ask, we're calling
in Christ's name, we're asking that you would bless your word
for your glory and our good. Lord, may we be found in Christ
Lord, will you give us the grace to honor him in all we say, all
we think, and all we do by your grace. In his name we pray, amen.