Speaking for the help of the
Lord, I direct your prayerful attention to the Acts of the
Apostles and chapter 11, the chapter that we read, and verse
22. Verse 22, and the words that
I have upon my spirit, not the whole verse, but it's the words,
tidings of these things. Tidings of these things. The whole verse reads, Then tidings
of these things came unto the ears of the church which was
in Jerusalem, and they sent forth Barnabas, that he should go as
far as Antioch. So Acts 11 and part of verse
22. The meaning of the word tidings
is news or information, and especially the good news of the gospel,
but in this case it is the good news or tidings of the fruits
and effects of the gospel. We have the scattering abroad
because of the persecution which arose about Stephen, mentioned
in verse 19. And it seems then that not just
the apostles, in fact it was said that the apostles were still
remaining at Jerusalem at that time, But the believers, those
that had received the Lord, they were the ones that were scattered
abroad, and there they were bringing the Word of the Gospel. They were preaching the Word
to none but unto the Jews only. But we hear how the Word of the
Lord, the hand of the Lord, was with them. And they're speaking
to the Grecians, that's Greek-speaking Jews, preaching the Lord Jesus. And a great number believed and
turned unto the Lord. And it is these tidings that
came to the ears of the church. And wouldn't it be a blessed
thing that we would hear tidings like this today. Sometimes we
do, we hear of those, we believe that are to be baptised in some
of our churches, and those that have been blessed, those to whom
the Gospel has been the power of God. And I hope it does rejoice
our hearts. Sometimes we may have different
responses to that. Sometimes we might think, well,
others are being blessed. Why aren't we being blessed?
If we've been as a local church, longing for the blessing upon
the Word, and it seems that the Word is not being blessed, but
tidings come that it's being blessed somewhere else. Instead
of it being received as glad tidings, it's mixed with tinges
of jealousy, or envy, or maybe sadness, or even dejection, and
casting us down even more. We might have been praying that
we have those from the surrounding area coming into our churches,
our buildings, our gatherings, that there might be the Lord's
blessing at this time. And we don't see anything in
our church, in our congregation. Then we hear of one, a church
a few miles away, and they've had what we've been praying for,
and they've had people come in and come in from the town, and
while on one hand we would be glad, and we are glad, on the
other hand we think, why has the Lord bypassed us? And there's a sinking and a discouraging,
and I feel that there's this present time that we're going
through, We are hearing many tidings. We think of the tidings
of the dear brethren that are unwell, Timothy Parish and others,
that they come as sudden tidings, news, sad news. news that really casts us down
and causes us great concern, trials in the churches, troubles
here and trials there, afflictions and sicknesses, many of these
things, they come to us in the form and way of tidings, they
come as news, and how do we react to those tidings and this is
what is upon my spirit this evening How do we personally, and yes,
how do we as a church, because here in this case it was good
tidings, and the way they reacted was actually to send of their
number Barnabas, a good man, a godly man, and send him up
to Antioch, that is the Antioch in Syria, and to see and we read
he saw the grace of God what did he see how can you see grace
we can see grace in how men react how men speak how men walk You
know, the Apostle Paul, he speaks of his own ministry and his labors,
and he says concerning others that were laboring in the Lord,
that I labored more abundantly than them all, yet not I, but
the grace of God which was in me, and it's the grace of God
that says by grace you say through faith that not of yourselves
it is the gift of God and when we see grace then we we see the
effects of it it's it's like if someone were to say I've seen
electricity and you say well how can you see electricity you
might say I've seen the effect of a great big generator or electricity
source But what they would be saying is what it's being used
for, light and heat and power and movement, and they'd see
that effect. And they know where that source
of power was being traced back to. And the Apostles, they knew
God had chosen in the earlier part of this chapter, God had
chosen Peter to be the one that had first brought the Gospel
to the Gentiles ten years after Pentecost. called in a very,
very clear way, and it needed to be clear to be able to answer
the Apostles. They already did charge him that
he'd gone into the Gentiles, but he rehearsed the matter from
the beginning, and they could see it was the Lord's work that
he should go to the Gentiles. But the Gospel had been brought
to them and preached to them. They received these tidings of
the gospel and the church, when they heard those tidings of what
had happened, they asked Peter to rehearse the matter, which
he did. But they were able to see as
well as Peter and Peter of course had been used at Pentecost and
he was used in this case so he had a first-hand knowledge this
was the same spirit the same power the same effect of the
grace of God as was at the beginning so in that way grace was evidenced
by the power of God by those that have been brought to believe
received the word and the effect that it had upon them and so
Barnabas he saw this he saw this effect and may we have much of
this good news of the effect of the Gospel, the blessings
of the Gospel, in changing men, women, children's hearts and
lives, that answer to the power of God. You know, I think it
was William Gadsby in one of Mr. Ansbottom's books and he's
speaking of the power of God or God's work and William Gadsby
was walking down the road one day and someone called out and
they said, look, look at that drunk lying in the gutter. That's
your work, Mr. Gadsby. And he looked and he
said, yes, he said, that looks like my work. He said, if it
was God's work, he wouldn't be in the gutter. Man has not power
to change his soul, but God does. And it is that work that is the
good news, that the Spirit remaineth among us. The power of God is
there to bless, to convert, to change your heart, renew the
will and turn the feet to Zion's hill. And so the response here,
they went not as suspecting is it really right or not that they
went they sent a good man and when he saw that grace how glad
he was and we read there the disciples the followers of the
lord were first were called christians first in Antioch. So the context here is a very
important, very blessed time, a very blessed occasion where
many souls were brought to receive the word and to be blessed and
they remained there and assembling the church and preaching amongst
them for some time. But how do we react to tidings? When we receive news, when we
hear things, do we really register what is going on in our hearts? Does it sometimes trouble us
what we think and what we may even say? How do we react to
news? How do we react to those things
that we hear? And, you know, we think of Psalm
73 and Asaph there was greatly troubled when he saw or heard
the prosperity of the wicked and the afflictions of God's
people. And we can be like that with
tidings. We can receive two lots of tidings,
one from the Lord's people and it may be they are afflicted
and they are in illness and in trouble and we heard tidings
from the wicked and they've had illnesses and got over them very
quickly and out of hospital and and they're all right and these
two lots of tidings and And it may be that one of you is struggling
with this tonight. Things that you've heard, things
that you've had set before you, and you can't reconcile them. You're struggling with these
things. So this word before us, how do
we react to tidings? I wanted to look, with the Lord's
help, in three ways. Firstly, to take it on the negative
side, evil tidings. How do we react to those? And to look at some of the scriptural
examples of those tidings that we may say are evil, they're
not good tidings. and then secondly the promise
of good tidings and then lastly the glad tidings of the gospel
but firstly evil tidings The children of Israel, when they
went through the wilderness, they left Egypt and they came
to Mount Sinai. And it was there that they made
the golden calf and Moses cast down the tables of stone. They
were broken and he ground the calf to powder, strewed it on
the water and made them drink it. But he told them that the
Lord had said that he himself would not go with them, but he
would send an angel before them to the Promised Land. In effect,
it was said they would still get to Canaan, to the Promised
Land, but it would be an angel, a created angel, going with them,
rather than the Lord Himself. Now, of course, we know the Apostle
Paul, later on when he writes to the Corinthians, he says,
they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and
that rock was Christ, and the presence of the Lord was with
them. And, of course, it was in this
occasion that Moses said, accept thy presence. go not with me
carry us not up hence and they called it the people called it
evil tidings and there's a thing here how are we are we happy
to just have a prospect of heaven but not have the lord's presence
here below or do we call that would be evil tidings we want
the lord's presence here We want to know those sweet visits of
His face, the blessings of His grace. We want Him and our language
to be the same as what Moses was, except Thy presence go not
with me. We want the Lord's presence.
So with the children of Israel, those tidings, they called them
evil tidings. And it wasn't that they weren't
to have the prospect of Canaan, but it was the prospect of the
Lord's presence on the way to Canaan. And may our real desire
be that we have the visits of the Lord's face, we have the
fiery cloudy pillar to go before us, that we do know the way that
we are to go as following the Lord Jesus Christ. How do we
react when the Lord says, I'm going to withhold from you some
spiritual blessings, something of my presence, something of
those blessings for the soul? Or do we react differently if
it is the Lord says, I'm going to withhold health and strength
or wealth or your job or your freedoms. How do we react to
these things? What do we call as evil or bad
tidings? And does the withholding of spiritual
blessings touch us at all. That's something that the world
cannot be chastened with or touched with because it does not know
the blessing of spiritual blessings. It does not know sweet communion
with the Lord. So withholding of that communion
where the Lord says in Ezekiel, I'll go, I'll return into my
place until I acknowledge their transgressions, that wouldn't
have any effect with those who have never known the Lord. But
it should have effect with you and I, if we know the Lord. Well, later on, if we think of
the path of dear Jo, one that God said truly did fear the law
and hated evil and Job he had Satan stand up and accuse him
and say that he was just following the Lord because the Lord had
put a hedge about him and so that's why he served the Lord,
the Lord had blessed him and so the Lord gave Satan permission
to touch all that Job had and in that first chapter in Job
We have not one but many times, one after another, where there
are tidings brought to Job. He is not there, he's not there
with his sons, his daughters, but suddenly coming to Job there
comes a messenger and bringing tidings about what had happened
with the oxen, the asses, the Sabines came. They took them
all away. They slew the servants with the
edge of the sword. And you know the account. One
after another, he has these terrible tidings of these things that
are happening. And then at the last, with his
own sons and daughters as well, There comes a great wind from
the wilderness, smote the four corners of the house, and it
fell upon the young men and they are dead, and I only am escaped
alone to tell thee." What tidings to have this again and again. Poor Job, he must have wondered
where the scene was going to end, what he was going to hear
next. And yet how did Job react? Then Job arose, and rent his
mantle, shaved his head, fell down upon the ground, and worshipped. And said, Naked came I out of
my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither. The Lord gave,
and the Lord hath taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. And these things, they happen
suddenly, suddenly to Job. You know, we don't know, and
may the Lord spare us from it, but how suddenly we might have
tidings, and it may be there's some of you this evening, that
even today, that you've had tidings suddenly, and things have come
to your ears, news, information, and it has made you reel to and
fro, made you stagger. Dear Job, it was said in all
this, Job, sin not, nor charge God foolishly. But you know,
I know it has been many times that even though it might not
be and again later on I think with Job it says that in all
this is yes in in verse 9 to the 10 of the next chapter in
all this did not Job sin with his lips and there may be times
we we've been kept from sinning with our lips sometimes we we
haven't but we have but inwardly there's a lot of turmoil and
trouble and it may be with you tonight You feel that, the need
of God's grace and help. to bear with these tidings and
you say and Satan might say well you know this is not touching
you you've still got health and strength and things are all just
the same it's just tidings it's just things that you've heard
sometimes you know we can be stirred up by even things we
hear on the news things that we hear happening in the land
and it so churns us up that we can hardly turn to the Word of
God. It unfits us for worship, unfits
us to come before Him, and it's our reaction to tidings. And so we would think of Job
in that way. What about the case when the
Ark of God was taken in Eli's day, and the Philistines had
taken the Ark that had been wrongly taken into battle, almost as
a charm, as it were, to gain the battle, and God permitted
it to be taken. And there is Eli, and he's waiting. He's not in the battle. His sons
are. And God had told him through
Samuel that because of the wickedness of his sons, that they should,
both of them, die in one day. Well, then come the tidings. The tidings that his two sons,
Hophniah and Phinehas, are dead. And then the tidings of the Ark,
and the Ark of God is taken. And there is Eli, an old man
and heavy, and when they made mention of the Ark, then he fell
back off the seat, his neck broke and he died. And then Phinehas's
wife, heavy with child, When she hears that her husband is
dead, and the ark is taken, then a pain's come upon her, she's
delivered of the child, she calls him Ichabod, the glory of God
is departed from Israel, and she dies in childbirth. The effect
of those tidings, a profound effect, and here is Eliam, And no doubt, you know, his whole
heart was on the ark, on the Lord's blessing on Israel. And
to see the Lord chastening and dealing with them and permitting
these things to happen. The poor old man, you know, as
it were, died in sorrow. How would we react to such tidings
in the Church of God? How do we react? What about with David and Absalom? I often feel for dear David,
and I'm sure every one of you, especially as parents, would
feel very much for one whose son, though a wayward son, had
been slain. And we have the account in 2
Samuel chapter 18 of how that Absalom was slain
by Joab. And then there was the matter.
David is remaining at Mahanaim and he needs to know what has
happened. News has got to be sent to him. Tidings have got
to be sent to him. And we read first that Ahimaaz,
the son of Zadok, he says, let me run now and bear the king
tidings, how the Lord hath avenged him of his enemies. And Joab,
he says unto him, thou shalt not bear tidings this day. but
thou shalt bear tidings another day but this day thou shalt bear
no tidings and he gives him the reason because the king's son
is dead and then Joab sends Cushi and with him he just gives a
simple message to tell the king what he has seen that is his
tidings he's got to just tell him what he's seen that's all
and when they run then Oheima has he presses again he wants
to run he overruns Kushai and he gets to David and he brings
his tidings as well and the watchman who's watching over the wall
and he sees the man running and running alone and the king said
if he is running alone he bringeth good tidings and when he sees
the second one he also bringeth tidings the whole idea is that
there is tidings that are being brought. Well, they didn't know
whether it would be good tidings or what at that time. But the
idea was and what was said when it was Ahimaaz, he is a good
man and bringeth good tidings. Well, maybe what can be really
read here, dear Ahimaaz was a man that would find it very, very
hard to bring bad tidings. And he did. He couldn't tell
David directly that the king's son was dead. And yet Joab had
said to him that was the reason why he wasn't sent. When David
asked, is the young man safe? He said, I saw a great multitude,
a great tumult, but I knew not what it was. Well, he did. So
he had to turn aside. But when Cushi comes, and he
says so very clearly, the enemies of my lord, the king, and all
that rise against thee, to do thee hurt be as that young man
is." And it was terrible tidings because David knew Absalom was
not saved, he was dying under rebellion of God, and it was
his son, and yet really his reaction was as an overreaction, you know,
how that he cried and then he had to be reproved by Joab, but As I said, each of us that are
parents, we would feel for dear David. Oh my son, Absalom, my
son, my son, Absalom, would God I had died for thee. Oh Absalom,
my son, my son. You know, David had a good hope. He had a hope beyond the grave,
but Absalom had not. And you can understand his great
concern and great sorrow. But sometimes we need our sorrow
tempered, and Joab, he had to be in a way very severe with
dear David, and so may we be able to, as it were, especially
when we get the tidings that are evil tidings or tidings that
so cast us down, instead of at first being so overreacting and
especially of fighting against the Lord or thinking evil against
the Lord, which Satan will flare up, that we really consider the
cases that we've had here, the grace, the help that was given,
to dear Job and remember it wasn't with Job just one son he lost
all his sons and daughters and all of his goods as well and
so may you be helped and may you be held whatever tidings
you may receive, I receive, we tremble sometimes in preaching
in this way, we wonder what is before us, but we do need to
react rightly, because yes, there are sometimes we see with our
eyes things that happen that are terrible things, but many
times the way that we'll find out about things, whether it
is in the church, or our family, or our loved ones, our friends,
our brethren, it'll be by tidings, it'll be by news, it'll be by
a messenger, And we need to ask ourselves, how are we actually
reacting to these things? Now, I think of one of our hymns,
Nor are men willing to have the truth told, The sight is too
killing for pride to behold. One of those tidings, one of
the messages that comes right through the years, and comes
through the law of God, and must come through the ministry, and
comes by the power of the Holy Spirit. Is that what the Apostle
Paul says? I was alive without the law once,
but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. How do we react when we are brought
in guilty before God? How did David react? I have sinned. How did our Lord react? When
brought before the judgment hall, and yet he himself was spotless
and innocent, but he bore the sins of his people. As a lamb
before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. led as a sheep to its slaughter,
and the Lord knew what was laid on Him. He had laid on Him the
iniquity of us all. But how do we receive those tidings
of our own sin, those tidings through the Word of God through
the law of God. Do we bow before that? Or do
we rebel against it? How do we receive that which
comes with power from heaven of conviction? With the Apostle Paul The Lord
spoke to him directly from heaven as to what he was fighting against
the Lord, persecuting the people of God. But really, at Pentecost,
it was under the preaching by the power of the Spirit of the
Apostle Peter that pricked in the heart many when they were
charged with the crucifixion and death of the Lord. What tidings
that they had to receive that that one that they had crucified
as an imposter was actually the Christ, the Saviour, the Redeemer,
and they fell under it. They were blessed with repentance,
they were blessed with godly sorrow, they were blessed with
forgiveness. How do we react to tidings that
cut us down and bring us in guilty? So the first point then, thinking
of evil tidings, those things that come into our lives, And
then, under the preaching, the tidings of the law, that all
the world might be brought in guilty before God. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. But then, secondly, there is
the promise of good tidings. Now right at the very beginning
in Genesis 3.15 it's recorded the promise that the seed of
the woman should bruise the serpent's head, a promise of the Saviour. And right through the Old Testament
those promises were renewed, they were given to Abraham, in
thee and in thy seed shall all nations be blessed. Those promises
especially come in the form of promises of glad tidings yet
to come when we come to the prophets like Isaiah. And see in Isaiah
52 and verse 7, how beautiful, upon the mountains are the feet
of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace, that bringeth
good tidings of good, that publishes salvation, that saith unto Zion,
thy God reigneth. Thy watchmen shall lift up the
voice, with the voice together they shall sing. And it is then
the message of the watchman the messages of the servants of God
seeing eye to eye when the Lord shall bring again Zion and we
have it then later on in Isaiah in the 60th chapter the very
first verse and it is how the Lord began his ministry opening
this book the Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord
hath anointed me to preach good tidings. This is how the gospel
is promised, as good tidings, as good news unto the meek. He hath sent me to bind up the
brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening
of the prison to them that are bound. And it goes on to proclaim
the acceptable year of the Lord. The gospel is indeed good tidings. We have this as well in the prophet
Nahum at the end of the first chapter. Behold upon the mountains
the feet of him that bringeth good tidings that publisheth
peace. So we have those promises that
are throughout the Old Testament, the expectation that there should
come good tidings, and it would come in the bringing of the Lord
Jesus Christ, the promised seed. And the Apostle says regarding
the promise to Abraham, it is not unto seeds as to many, but
seed which is Christ. And when we read of the cloud
of witnesses, in Hebrews 11. One of the first evidences, or
general evidences, that are given of faith are that they beheld
the promises afar off and they embrace them. And I wonder how
many amongst us this evening are beholding the promises of
far off, the promises of good tidings, the promises in the
gospel, and you embrace those. Your hope is upon what God has
promised. Your hope is that those good
tidings will be brought to your soul, and you will hear them,
you will receive them, and you will believe them, and they will
be to you, those tidings that you've looked for, you've longed
for, and that they then are brought to you, and you're given faith
to receive them. and to believe them. So there's
the promise of good tidings, and may we know that as we gather
for worship, as we gather under the Word of God, and as the Lord's
servants bring the Gospel to remember the description of it
is good tidings. And when the Lord brings us into
affliction, into troubles, into trials, into difficult places,
then maybe that our expectation is how the Lord will meet this.
is to bring to us good tidings. Tidings that when we were in
health and in strength and everything was going well, wouldn't have
meant anything to us. We'd have thought, well, yes,
it's a good message, but I don't really need that. If someone
had a very good bank account and someone said, well, someone's
died and left you some money, you might think, well, I've got
all I need. is not such good tidings as it
might be as if you had no money whatsoever and you had been longing
and praying that the Lord would supply your needs and then you're
told news like that what a difference it would be and we think of one
of our hymns sinners can say and none but they how precious
is the saviour and the tidings of the gospel suited to the poor,
the needy, the sinners, those that have nothing, those that
need mercy. Mercy is good news indeed to
sinners deep in debt. So remember this description
of the gospel and description of the expectation of it, the
promise of it, And some of you might think, well, how will I
know if I have been blessed? How do I know if the Lord's answered
my prayer? How do I know if I'm truly one
of the Lord's? Have you received the Word as
good tidings for your soul? Has it been that Word that has
so glad your heart? When the Lord met with those
two on the way to Emmaus, they were sad, they were downcast. And yet, by the time they'd finished,
the Lord had revealed Himself to them. And the first tidings
that He brings ought not Christ to have suffered these things
and to enter into His glory. And He's taking them through
the Old Testament, showing how what had happened at Jerusalem
was in perfect accord with what had been set forth in all of
the types and the shadows and the sacrifices, the blood offering,
the sufferings, of Christ. And so, in your expectation in
mind of the blessings of the Gospel, and may this be a help
when you've had evil tidings, and if you're in them tonight,
as the Lord laid a foundation for the good news of the Gospel,
with the evil tidings of your sin, or of those things that
have come upon you, They fell down. There was none to help.
We read in Psalm 107. Then they cried unto the Lord,
and the Lord delivered them out of their distresses. I want to
look then thirdly, briefly, at the glad tidings of the Gospel
itself. You know, when the angels proclaimed
the birth of the Lord, it was of glad tidings. we have in Luke chapter 2 when
the angels appeared to the shepherds the angel said unto them fear
not for behold i bring you good tidings of great joy which shall
be to all people not just to jews but gentiles as well every
nation kindred and tongue And then we have it, when our Lord
began the ministry, when he sent forth the disciples, then he
sent forth the twelve that were with them, and he said it came
to pass afterward that he went throughout every city and village
preaching, and showing the glad tidings of the Kingdom of God
and the Twelve were with him. And this was the work what the
Lord was doing, the glad tidings of God. and is summarized really
very much in Acts 13. It's just a little while after
the passage that we read in Acts 11, where we have it described
by the Apostle in this way. If we turn to it,
it's in the latter part of verse 32 and it's Paul's sermon to
the people and he says this, we declare unto you. He speaks
about what had happened at Jerusalem and how our Lord had been condemned
to death though Pilate had found no cause of death in him, and
when they had fulfilled all that was written of him, they took
him down from the tree and laid him in the sepulcher, but God
raised him from the dead." And so he sets forth what had happened
at Jerusalem, He had before traced back to David, and that through
this man's seed, David's seed, he had raised up a Saviour. And the message of the Gospel
is that God hath fulfilled His promise, that His beloved Son
hath come, that the Lord Jesus Christ, God manifest in the flesh,
that this is the promised seed John in his gospel emphasizes
again and again that Jesus is the Son of God the provision
God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering That is
what Abraham said to Isaac, the great message of the Gospel God
has provided. Without the shedding of blood
there is no remission, but if our blood is shed then we are
lost, we are dead. But here is Christ instead of
us. Here is the substitute. Here
is that which is spoken of in Psalm 80. Let thy hand be upon
the man at thy right hand, the son of man, whom thou madest
strong for thyself. And so the good news of the Gospel,
when Christ was sending this forth, He was working miracles
and signs and wonders, proving His Godhead, proving His ability
to do these things. Those things that I do, He said,
they are witnesses of Me. My Father doeth them, and I witness
from My Father in Heaven. and the whole message was that
the Saviour was come and yet there were times like when he
had fed the multitudes and then they followed him and he said
you follow me not because you saw the miracles but because
you ate of the loaves and were filled and those dear people
yes it was a great blessing to get food and provision like that
But the Lord was in fact saying, that's but a small thing, compared
with the message of the actual miracles themselves, that I am
the Christ. Those miracles testified it. That actually God had the Saviour
before them, and providing them, but all they were looking for
was the bread that perisheth, and not that which endureth to
eternal life. And so the message of the gospel
points us away from temporal things. The apostle says to the
Corinthians, if in this life only we have hope in Christ,
we have all been most miserable. But the gospel points us to eternal
blessings. And then the apostle says before
his hearers, Not only the death, not only the blood-shedding,
the sacrifice, the fulfilling of all the types and the shadows,
the provision of that blood, the Passover, when I see the
blood, I will pass over you. He not only says that before
them, but that God raised him from the dead, the empty tomb. And that is the glad tidings.
We spoke about those two on the way to Emmaus. Well, what sad
tidings they saw Christ was dead. But what glad tidings when they
knew that He'd risen. They came to the disciples and
they were saying that Christ is risen indeed. Beyond all doubt,
He is risen. And when Paul writes to the Corinthians
in 1 Corinthians 15, He says He's appeared to over 500 brethren
at once. That whole chapter dwells with
this great blessed fact, the good news of the Gospel, that
death is received, is death below. One has entered into it and come
out of it, the Son of God. Here is the Saviour. Here is the seed of the woman.
Here is the one that has endured the wrath of God. who has quenched
that in his own precious blood, who has died to put away sin
by the sacrifice of himself, and risen again for our justification. And so the Apostle sets this
before his hearers there, his sermon to the people, and testifies
that it is he that has been raised from the dead and then he applies
the good news of the gospel in this way in verse 38 be it known
unto you therefore men and brethren that through this man is preached
unto you the forgiveness of sins and by him all that believe are
justified from all things from which he could not be justified
by the law of Moses. I always think it's a beautiful
word that the Lord Jesus is exalted to give repentance and remission
of sins unto Israel, that is, unto a spiritual Israel. For
all that feel the burden of their sin, all that feel they cannot
repent and that they need those sins forgiven, the Lord Jesus
Christ has both repentance and forgiveness to give john puts
it very beautifully if we confess our sins He is faithful and just
to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. We cannot promise future good
to bring, but the Lord promises that He will do the cleansing. The hymn writer says Christ has
holiness enough to sanctify us all. And how we do need that? We need those blessings that
flow from Him. It's not glad tidings to be told,
well, you supply the repentance, Christ will supply the forgiveness
of sins, or you supply sanctified life and God will give you heaven. No, the gospel is good news indeed
for sinners deep in debt. Those that feel that they cannot,
they cannot do one thing right, all their righteousness as filthy
rags may come before the Lord as a hell-deserving guilty sinner
and begging mercy. And there in the Lord Jesus Christ
is that provision. And the great token of sins forgiven
Is repentance being given? He has given repentance and that's,
you see that again and again at the good news of salvation
that the Lord gives that repentance. He said to the woman taken in
adultery, neither indeed do I condemn thee, go and sin no more. and
the blessing of repentance and a change of heart and turning. It is the Lord that does that.
Renews the heart and turns the feet to Zion's hill and washes
and cleanses from sin. And so this is the glad news
of the Gospel. May it be that it is so. Glad tidings tonight. for a poor
sinner amongst us glad tidings of the gospel to see God's plan
and to see the effect. Is it glad tidings to it? Do
we receive it in that way that it gladdens our heart, it gives
us a sweet hope and it takes away that condemnation Why, it
is Christ that died, yea, rather risen again, and we see all of
our hope in what Christ has done for us, not what we have done
for Him, but what He has done for us. That glad tidings of
the gospel, that is why Paul, determined to know nothing among
the Corinthian church, but Christ and Him crucified. That is the
glad tidings of the law fulfilled and of a righteousness, eternal
righteousness brought in, and it is that that we seek grace
and help to proclaim and set forth before sinners. The Lord
says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto
the Father but by me. So may the Lord bless us, bless
us with grace, bless us with faith in his name, bless us with
a heart that shall leap with joy at the glad tidings received. through the preaching of the
Word. May the Lord add his blessing.
Amen.