Thank you, Joy. Good morning.
Let's open this morning's service with hymn number 18 in your Spiral
Gospel Hymns hymn book, number 18. And let's all stand together. God gave his holy inspired word
for only one great end, the prophets and apostles to reveal the sinner's
friend. The Bible is a book of Christ,
it only speaks of Him. On every page it shows us Christ,
it only speaks of Him. The prophecies of old record
God's wondrous mighty deeds Those deeds of power and of grace Set
forth a woman's seed The Bible is a book of Christ It only speaks
of him on every page it shows us price it only speaks of him
the prophets all reveal our lord as prophet priest and king ?
The types of great redemption show ? ? Christ's blood and grace
now bring ? ? The Bible is a book of Christ ? ? It only speaks
of him ? ? On every page it shows us Christ ? ? It only speaks
of him ? Behold the Lamb, the Baptist said, the sin-atoning
One. As it was promised long before,
God's Son as man has come. The Bible is a book of Christ,
it only speaks of Him. On every page it shows us Christ,
it only speaks of Him. Our substitute obeyed the law,
then died and rose again. And in His word our Savior said,
Rejoice, I come again. The Bible is a book of Christ. It only speaks of Him. On every page it shows us Christ. It only speaks of Him. Please be seated. Good morning. Let's pray together. Our gracious Heavenly Father, we pray that your Holy Spirit
would make that truth that we just sang real to our hearts
this morning. That you would reveal the glory
of thy dear Son. Father, that you would cause
us to find all our hope and all our salvation in Christ. Lord, that you would open the scriptures to our understanding,
that you would cause us to rest in the accomplished work of thy
dear son, and that we might find him to be our savior. For it's in his name we pray.
Amen. Would you open your Bibles with
me to Acts chapter 20, Acts chapter 20. I titled this message watching
and waiting. The believer's life is a life
of watching and waiting. And the Lord has given us here
in this passage of scripture, an admonition to be on guard,
to watch for our souls and to wait for our redemption. And, um, And that's our life. That's the believer's life. And
that's why we're here this morning. We're not here for any other
reason. We are dying sinners in need
of a savior. And whatever other reason men
have for going to church is not sufficient to keep them and to
enable them to have hope in Christ. Let's read this passage together.
We'll begin in verse 27. Paul said, for I have not shunned
to declare unto you the whole counsel of God. I want to be
able to say that. I'm not shunned to declare unto
you the whole counsel of God. that we would be faithful in
season and out of season, that we wouldn't pick and choose passages
of scriptures that are convenient for us, but that we would find
Christ, as we just sang, in all the word of God. For truly, in
the volume of the book, it is written of him. Christ is who
you need. Christ is who I need. Verse 28, take heed. Take heed,
be on watch, be careful. Take heed therefore unto yourselves
and to all the flock over the which the Holy Ghost hath made
you overseers to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased
with his own blood. I've asked myself in preparation
for this message, why do I come here? And I would encourage you
to ask yourself the same question. Why do you come here? You know, if it's just to learn
some things from the Bible, someone said, well, I come because I
want to, I want to, I want to hear God's word. I want to, well,
there's a whole lot other places you can go and get better teaching
from scripture than here. You know, if it's not convenience,
I know for most of you, you drove hours to get here. And so we're
not here out of convenience. Someone said, well, you know,
people go to church for fellowship. Well, that'll fall apart. Somebody will offend you somewhere
along the way, and if fellowship is the reason you're here. I
tell you, if I hear one more person say, I don't have any
friends, I think I'm gonna scream. You know, the scriptures are
clear. If a man is to have friends, he must be found friendly. And,
you know, Stevie Wonder can see through that. You know, somebody
says, I don't have friends. Well, don't look beyond yourself,
you know. But, you know, people get offended
because they don't think they have friends in church. You know,
that's not why we're here. Okay, let's say that people aren't
friendly. Let's say that you don't have friends. What's that
have to do with it? Why are you here? Why am I here? And I'll answer that for myself.
I am a dying sinner in need of a savior. A successful savior. One that is able to pity me.
One who is able to save my soul. A sovereign savior. A savior that
won't give up on me. Period. Period. That is the reason why I'm here. This is the place where the Lord
has promised to save his people through the preaching of the
gospel. This is the place where he's promised to meet with us
and to manifest himself to us. You know, I was thinking about men and women who are brain surgeons
or heart surgeons and how critical and how important that is. And yet, nothing that happens
in this world is more important than what we're doing right now.
Nothing. You know, those things all have
temporal consequences. This has an eternal consequence.
I'm here because I need to be saved. I need to be saved. I need to be saved from myself.
I need to be saved from my sin. I need to be saved from Satan.
I need to be saved from this, from this God dishonoring world
that we live in. I need to be saved. Now that's
what the Lord is telling us here. I have not shunned to be faithful
and declaring unto you the whole counsel of God. Take heed therefore
unto yourselves. Be careful for yourself. This
is eternal life and eternal death. I need a savior that's able to
save me without my help. A savior that can save me without
looking to me to make a contribution to my salvation. Christ is not a possession. He
is my life. I need to know Him. I need to
love Him. I need to believe Him. I need
to find rest and hope in Him. Nothing else is more important.
Amen? Nothing else. Nothing else even
comes close to comparing. If we have a need, I mean a real
need, this will be the place we'll come. And our Lord is warning us in
his word, take heed therefore unto yourself. This is the place where our Lord
has promised to meet with us. Everything else in this world
is contrary to the gospel, to Christ, to
our salvation. Everything. Everything in this
world is contrary. It's not just indifferent, it's
contrary. Everything in my flesh is contrary
to the gospel. There are spiritual powers that
are constantly tempting us away from Christ. We get sick enough, we'll go
to the hospital, won't we? Notice that I didn't come for
the well. The well don't need a physician. Them that are sick,
those that are dying, those that have a sin problem are in need
of a savior. That's what our Lord is saying
to us here. Paul has gathered together the elders of the various
churches in this region around Ephesus, and he's giving them
his last words. Notice in verse 37 of the same
chapter, And they all wept sore and fell
on Paul's neck and kissed him, sorrowing most of all for the
words which he spake, that they should see his face no more.
And they accompanied him to the ship." This is his parting words
of encouragement and admonition to the elders, telling them,
the church of the living God, Paul said in 1 Timothy chapter
3, is the pillar and the ground of the truth. It is the pillar
and the ground of the truth. Where else are we going to go
to find truth? Where else are we going to go? I'm so thankful that the Lord
has given us this, this scripture. And it's not just for the elders.
Yes, God has given, according to Ephesians chapter four, verse
11, God has given to the church, some apostles and some prophets
and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers. For the
perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for
the edifying of the body of Christ. How are the saints going to be
perfected? They're going to be perfected by finding their life
in Christ, finding all their salvation in Christ. all their
forgiveness in Christ. The work of the ministry is the
preaching of Christ. The edifying of the body of Christ
is pointing believers to Christ. So this is what we do. We preach
Christ and Him crucified because we are dying sinners. We're dying sinners. Take heed, therefore, unto yourself. And to all the flock over the
which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseer." Now, this word
oversee is the word bishop. We also find the word elder and
we find the word pastor. used in the scriptures to describe
the same office. The word pastor is the word shepherd.
It has to do with caring for and feeding the sheep of God
and protecting them from the wolves. The word elder has to
do with wisdom and experience. Not that age always results in
that, but that's the word that God uses. And the word overseer
or bishop is the word overseer. It has to do with responsibility.
And Paul is, admonishing these elders, these pastors, these
bishops, to take their responsibilities serious. But it's an admonition
for all of us, because the pastor's responsibility is to point the
sheep to the Great Shepherd. The only one that can really
feed us is Christ. And so, and the word elder, who
is older than the ancient of days? The pastor's responsibility
is to point the sheep to the elder, to our elder brother,
the Lord Jesus Christ, an overseer. The scripture says that he is
the shepherd and bishop of our souls. And so everything we do
here, is to encourage and admonish and point one another to Christ,
to find our life and our hope and our salvation in Him. There's
no place else in your life or in my life that we can go in
this world to have that need met. And what a great, great
need it is. Feed, notice in verse 28, feed
the church of God. Oh, we lead the sheep to the
pasture and the place where the bread of life is. We're in need. The Lord has given to his church
these, and by the way, the word pastor is never used as a title. If there's one thing we've learned
from this COVID pandemic is that men love to have power over other
men, don't they? They love that. And once they
get it, it's hard for them to give it up. Well, the same thing's
true in religion. Priestcraft, and power, and titles,
and high seats, You know, those are so sought after. The Lord told the Pharisees,
you want to sit up on the seat of Moses. You know, you want
to be recognized and men do that. You know, pastors are servants,
God's people. And I was telling another pastor
this week, I said, I said, yeah, the Lord calls us to be a servant.
And then we get upset when people treat us like one. But it's true,
you know, we're, we're, we're men just like, just like everybody
else. And, but you know, that's, we're,
we're, we're like, we just sang that hymn about what John the
Baptist, behold, the Lamb of God was taken away the sins of
the world. We're pointing men to Christ. And that's what the
Lord's saying. Take heed therefore to yourselves
and to all the flock. Let me say this, that every single
thing that you and I do has an influence on other people. And it has an influence on this
church. So our Lord is admonishing us, take heed to yourself and
to the flock. You have a responsibility to
the flock. And, you know, oh, that the Lord,
what greater responsibility do we have? What greater responsibility
do we have than to take heed to ourselves and to the flock? And to feed the church of God,
which he hath purchased with his own blood. This is his church.
He bought it, he paid for it with a price. The precious blood
that he shed on Calvary's cross was the redemption price for
his bride. So we'll always remember that,
don't we? We're just, we're always reminded
that this is Christ's church. For I know this, Let me say this, Paul's writing
and speaking under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. This church
is the target of demonic attacks. You know, Satan doesn't care
about all those goat barns out there where, you know, where
they're preaching a false gospel and pointing men to free will
and work salvation. He doesn't care. He's already
got control of that. But the true church of God is
in the bullseye of his target. and he will do whatever he can
do to destroy it. And so the Lord's admonishing
us here, he's saying, I know, I know this, that after
my departing, look what he says, shall grievous wolves enter in
among you, not sparing the flock. That's something we need to be
on guard with, isn't it? For ourselves and for our church.
And you know, wolves don't announce their presence. Wolves are not
like other dogs. They don't bark. They come in
very stealth-like. Matter of fact, the Lord told
us that they would dress themselves up in sheep's clothing and present
themselves as ministers of righteousness and angels of light. But many
false prophets have gone out into the world. You know, people
often, over the years have gotten offended because they think that
my preaching is too, you know, don't, don't ever say anything
critical about other religions. And I can't tell you how many
times I've heard that. You know, we just need, we need
to have a positive message and don't, you know, don't criticize
other religions. That's not being very respectful.
Well, that's exactly what the Lord is doing here. These wolves
are gonna come in, they're gonna come in unannounced, they're
gonna come in and try to devour the sheep. Verse 30, also of your own selves
shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples
after themselves. There's the goal. You see, the
shepherd, the under-shepherd, the overseer, the elder that
God has sent, He's not trying to build a name for himself.
He's not trying to, he's not trying to get attention to himself
or get a following to himself. He's pointing men to Christ.
He's pointing sinners to the savior, the only one able to
save their souls. And, uh, but these false prophets,
they're, they're looking to gather a following unto themselves,
aren't they? The Lord said, beware of them. Therefore, watch. Watch and remember
that by the space of three years, I cease not to warn every one
night and day with tears. Part of preaching is warning.
Yes, it's pointing to Christ, and it's to warn the sheep of
the wolves, and don't wander away from the flock. A sheep
that's wandered away from the flock is vulnerable to attack,
and stay close to the shepherd. that's all the that's all the
the under shepherd is doing he's the under shepherd is really
more like a sheep dog you know a sheep dog is usually a little
more um uh discerning about that other dog that wolf that's coming
in before the sheep are so the sheep dog is herding up the sheep
to the shepherd to the shepherd that's what that's what That's
why we're here. And after all these warnings
and all these admonitions and all these encouragements, you know, Paul's saying, these
sheep need you to teach them and feed them. You know, it's not that the pastor has
a closer walk with God or that he's any more special than any
other sheep. But when God calls a man out,
he gives him a message. And the church supports him so
that he can devote all of his time to preparing those messages. And then he stands and declares
those message to the sheep. I love the story of the Ethiopian
eunuch when Philip came up to him and said, understand just
what thou readest? You remember what the Ethiopian said? Oh,
how can I accept a man should guide me? I need someone to tell
me what this means. What does this really mean? And
so the Lord gives. And beginning at that very passage
in Isaiah chapter 53, he preached unto him Jesus. He preached Christ
to him. Christ is who you need. Christ
Jesus the Lord is who I need. Why? Because we're dying sinners
and we have no hope outside of Christ. And it's not that Christ
is just an idea or a possession or a doctrine. He's our life. He's our life. And this is where He's promised
to meet with His people. He walks them on the candlestick. inhabits the praise of his people. Oh, where two or three are gathered
together, there I am in the midst of them. Where else is the Lord
Jesus Christ going to make himself known? Like he does here. Like he does here. This is where
we've been called by God to open his word and we've been called
to believe his word and to and to wait, to watch for our souls
and to watch for the church. Nothing more important, not a
single thing more important in your life than what's happening
right now. And I don't know anything about the details of your life,
but I can say that with absolute confidence. There's not one single
thing in your life or in my life that's more important than what
we're doing right now. This is to the salvation of our
souls. Could this passage be any more
clear? And now after all the admonitions and all the encouragements
and all the warnings to watch for your soul and watch for the
church and to beware of the wolves that are lurking at every corner. And they are many false prophets
have gone out into the world and we're to warn the sheep of
those false prophets. And here's, here's our, here's
our comfort. After all that's been said at
the end of the day, it's not really about you. And it's not
really about me. Look at this next verse. This
is, this is my comfort because I don't watch as I ought. I don't
pray for you. Like I should be praying for
you. I don't, preach or prepare to preach like I ought to be.
And if what happened here was determined by what we do, it
is doomed for failure. It's doomed for failure. But
here's our hope. We hear what God says and we
take it to heart. And then, and now brethren, I
commend you to God. and to the word of his grace. There's my comfort. After we've
said and done all that we should say and do, we are left in the
hands of God and to the grace of God and to the keeping of
his grace. The Lord doesn't keep us. No,
he doesn't. We won't be kept. We won't be
kept. I commend you to God and to the
word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you
an inheritance among all them that are sanctified. What are
we waiting for? We're waiting for our inheritance. We're waiting for our redemption
and it draweth nigh. It's closer than we think. few
more rolling suns, just a few more days. And you young people
are thinking, what's he talking about? What's he talking about? Oh, you have no idea how brief
your life really is. And this is at the end of the
day, at the end of life, I should say, nothing else is going to
matter, nothing. your successes in this world,
your accomplishments, your failures, your sins, your accumulations,
your children, your grandchildren, nothing, nothing, nothing will
matter in that day, in that hour when you draw your last breath.
Nothing else will matter. Now that's true. I'm telling
you the truth and you know it's true, don't you? give you an inheritance among
them that are sanctified. Notice when they are sanctified,
they are sanctified. He was offered up for our offenses
and raised again because of our justification, Romans 4.25, Romans
5.1. Therefore, being justified, being
justified by faith, we have peace with God through the Lord Jesus
Christ. When the Lord Jesus Christ died
on Calvary's cross, he accomplished everything necessary for us to
stand in the presence of God. I commend you. I can't do anything
more than what I've done. That's what Paul said. I've told
you the truth from the whole counsel of God. He goes on to say in this passage
that he's, look at verse 26. Wherefore, I take you to record
this day that I am pure from the blood of all men, for I have
not shunned to declare unto you the whole counsel of God. So
what he's saying is I've said and done everything I can say
and do. And now, I commend you unto God. And the word of His grace, the
word of His grace, not the word of His works, not the word of
your works, the word of His grace, it's all of grace. Salvation's all of grace. That
means God did it all, and He did it all by Himself. And he's
not looking to you and me for, you know, for us to do something
in order to make what he did work for us. It's the word of
his grace. It is all of grace from election
to glorification. It's all his work. I commend
you. I commend you to God and to the
word of his grace, which is able. I am confident that God is able. The older I get, the less and
less confidence I have in myself. We rejoice in Christ Jesus and
have no confidence in the flesh. Some of you young people, you
just think you got the... We start out as pioneers, don't
we? Thinking we're just going to conquer the world. Well, let
me tell you how you're going to end up. You're going to end up as
a survivor. That's how you're going to end up. That's how you're
going to leave this world. I just want to get through. I
just want to get out of this world alive. That's it. Forget conquering the world and
making great accomplishments. I just want to get out of this
world alive. And I'm confident. that he is
able to keep us and to present us faultless before his throne
with great joy. So we do our part. I hate to say it that way, but
we obey God in preaching the gospel and in praying and being
watchful and watchful for our souls and watchful for ourselves
and watchful for one another. Brethren, you're part of the
body of Christ. You know, when everything that
every member of the body of Christ does affects other members of
the body of Christ, be watchful for that. There's nothing else
more important going on here. He's able to build you up and
to give you an inheritance, to give you an inheritance. Oh,
that's what we're waiting for. waiting to be translated like
Enoch. Enoch walked with God and he
was no more and the Lord translated him he changed him and this corruptible
is going to be made incorruptible and this mortal is going to be
made immortal and we're going to see him as he is and be made
like him and in that day we're not going to have any memory
of anything in this world Paul's encouraging the elders
now. Let me say this, young people
especially, the way you guard your soul is
to never leave where the gospel is being preached. Never leave
it. It's the most important thing
in your life. We've watched our young people
taken away by unbelieving boyfriends and unbelieving girlfriends and
by jobs and by the cares of this world. Don't let that happen
to you. Now, I'm not suggesting this
is the only place of gospel to preach. Maybe the Lord puts you
somewhere else under the gospel, but don't leave the gospel. And
it's not preached in very many places. It's God's churches are
few and far between. And Paul is saying, I've coveted
verse 33, no man's silver or gold or apparel, you know, not,
not in this for, for anything other than the glory of God and
the salvation of our souls. Yea, you yourselves know that
these hands have ministered unto my necessities and to them that
were with me. And I have showed you all things,
how that so laboring you ought to support the weak and to remember
the words of the Lord Jesus Christ, how he said, it is more blessed
to give than to receive. You know, that statement is not
found in the gospels. Remember the words of our Lord
Jesus Christ when he said, it is more blessed to give than
to receive. Now that's a gospel truth. It is more blessed to give than
to receive. And the Lord proved that in laying
down his life. And as well known as that statement
is, you would think that it would be found two or three times in
the gospels. This is the only place where
it's found. Yet it's God's word, it is more blessed to give than
to receive. Show me somebody, people say,
well, I'm not happy. Somebody tells me that, I know
they're fixing to do something really stupid. You be a giver, you'll be happy.
But if you're on the taking end all the time, no, you're not
gonna be happy. I'll be happy. And when he had thus spoken,
he kneeled down and prayed with them all. We've not shunned to declare
the whole counsel of God. We've warned the brethren. We've
admonished them. We've encouraged them. We've
told them that their life is a life of watching and waiting,
and to remind them that their redemption draweth nigh, and
that their greatest need, their really only need, is to know
Christ, to have their sins forgiven, to have life eternal. Now, we
commend you to the grace of God, to the grace of His Word, which
is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance. That's the end, to give you an
inheritance. No other inheritance matters. No other possession matters. And now we're gonna pray. That's
what he did, he said, we'll pray together. And when they wept sore, they
fell on Paul's neck and kissed him, sorry most of all for the
words which he spake, that they should see his face no more.
And then he accompanied him to the ship. Departure of a believer is a
sad day, especially one who has been so faithful, one that's
been faithful. to declare the whole counsel
of God, and to warn us to be on watch for our souls. Our merciful heavenly Father, we pray that you would make this
word effectual to our very soul. We ask it in Christ's name. Thank you.