I love a hymn that is simply
a prayer. Not all hymns are written that
way, but that hymn was, and that was such a blessing. That is
our hope that the Lord will do for us on this Lord's Day what
he did for John on the Isle of Patmos when the Lord revealed
himself to John on the Lord's Day. That's our prayer this morning. For our first hour, we're going
to be looking at a passage of Scripture in Acts chapter 18. Acts chapter 18. And I've titled this message, The
Power and Proof of Scripture. The Power and the Proof of Scripture. God takes his word and makes
his people to believe every word of it. And it's the only proof
they need. And it is the means by which
the Lord exercises his power of grace in our hearts by his
word. And I hope that he'll do that
for us this morning. Let's bow together and ask the
Lord's blessings. Our merciful heavenly father,
we thank you for your word. We thank you that you have not
left us to our own opinions, our own devices. You have revealed
to us the truth of who you are and what you've done in the person
of thy dear son, our living word, to deliver us from our sin. and
to give us eternal life. We ask, Lord, that once again,
the written word would reveal our Lord and Savior and that
we would find our hope and all our salvation in him. For it's
in his name we ask it. Amen. We've been following the Apostle
Paul on his missionary journeys in the book of Acts. And now
he has left the city of Corinth after having been there, the
scripture says, for a year and a half. And he's taken Aquila,
or as the scripture says in our text, Priscilla is listed first. He's taken Priscilla and Aquila
with him to Ephesus. And while in Ephesus, he preaches
the gospel, and the Jews there want him to remain. They want
him to stay. And he said, no. He said, I've
taken a vow, and I've got to get back to Jerusalem in order
to worship on this feast day. Now, we know that Paul learned
later on that that vow was a mistake. that the Lord used that, I'm
certain, to clarify in his heart how that Christ truly is the
end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. And
yet, he left Priscilla and Aquila in Ephesus, and he goes on to
Jerusalem. And while Priscilla and Aquila
are there, a man by the name of Apollos comes up, the scripture
tells us, a Jew from Alexandria. And that's where we begin this
morning in verse 24 of Acts chapter 18. And a certain Jew named Apollos,
born at Alexandria, an eloquent man and mighty in the scriptures,
came to Ephesus. And we know from 1 Corinthians
chapter 1 that, by the way, Apollos is going to leave Ephesus and
go to Corinth and preach in Corinth at the end of our text this morning.
And so the Corinthians were so impressed with his preaching
skills or gifts, I should say, forgive me, and not skill, the
gifts. And when Paul writes to the church
at Corinth, In 1 Corinthians, he brings out this division that
was among the Corinthians. He said, some of you think that
Apollos is a better preacher than I am. And he corrects the
church for dividing themselves in favorites among preachers. He said, you know, some of you
say I'm of Paul, some of you say I'm of Apollos, some of you
say I'm of Cephas, and some of you who are real spiritual say
I am of Christ. And he goes on in that first
chapter of 1 Corinthians to say, was Paul crucified for you? Were
you baptized in the name of Apollos? Is Christ divided? This was such
a fleshly thing that they had done in choosing favorites among
preachers. And Paul goes on in that same
book to describe his own preaching, and I can particularly appreciate
Paul's preaching, I'm somewhat intimidated by what the scripture
says about Apollos being an eloquent man, mighty in the scriptures,
and very gifted in preaching. And then Paul says, when I came
to you, I came to you with much weakness and fear. And he goes
on to say, my speech was not with enticing words of man's
wisdom. It was not eloquent. My speech
was that of the Word of God, that your faith should not stand
in the wisdom of man, but in the power of God. And so, this
whole passage teaches us once again that our faith is not in
the eloquence of a man, or in the abilities of a man, or in
the gifts of a man. Our faith is founded in the revealed
truth of Christ given to us in the word of God. And when God
convinces you that this is his word, you've got no place else
to go. And you rest all the hope of
your immortal soul in the revealed truth of God's word. And that's
what we learn here from Apollos and Paul. And when Paul went
on to say in 1 Corinthians 1, he said, I planted, I was there
first. Paul went to Corinth first and preached the gospel. And
Apollos came along and watered that which I had planted. And
you remember what he says next? God gave the increase. God gave
the increase. The only thing a man can do is
scatter the seeds and water the seeds. But for those seeds to
germinate and for them to grow and produce life and fruit, we
are completely dependent upon God Almighty. And that's such
an important thing for us to be reminded of. Lord, if you
don't give us life, we won't have life. If you don't make
your word effectual, if you don't open the eyes of my understanding,
if you don't unstop my ears and give me ears to hear, what do
we read over and over again in the scriptures? Let him, particularly
in the book of Revelation, let him who has ears to hear, hear
what the spirit has to say unto the churches. Lord, I'm completely
dependent upon you. And men, the best men are men at best. And man, at his very best, the
scripture says, is altogether vanity. And that's all men. And
God-called gospel preachers are particularly aware of that. And
so our focus is not on a man, whether it be Paulos, who was
eloquent in speech, or whether it be the Apostle Paul, who stammered
and was weak full of fear, our hope is in what God has revealed
in his word. Alexandria was the intellectual
center of the world in the first century. Largest library in the
world was in Alexandria. The first translation that the
Bible ever went through happened in Alexandria. when the Jewish
scholars translated the Hebrew text into Greek. And the reason I bring that out
is because Apollos would have been familiar with that. The
scripture tells us, God's telling us, he was from Alexandria. So he was a part of this center
of great education and intellect, and he was very well-versed in
the Scriptures. Look at verse 25. Oh, one of the encouraging things that
I see in this relationship that Paul had with Apollos is in 1
Corinthians chapter 16, When Paul is writing to the church
at Corinth, he says to them, I strongly encouraged Apollos
to come back to you. And he refused. And we see the humility of both
of these men, that the Corinthians preferred Apollos over Paul,
and yet Paul humbled himself to say, you need to go back and
preach to them again. And Apollos, not wanting to stir
the flames of the controversy that was in Corinth, said, no,
it's not for me to go. Isn't that a blessing? That these
two men, their interest was in the furtherance of the gospel,
not in their own promotion or in making for themselves a name
or in, you know, being seen by men, but it was in the furtherance
of the gospel. And so nothing's really changed, has
it? We see these same things going on in the church today. And if the Lord If the Lord gives
us the right spirit, we'll have that spirit to say no. The only
concern here is the preaching of the word of God and the furtherance
of the gospel and the building up of the church of Christ through
this preaching. So verse 25 in our text says,
this man was instructed in the way of the Lord and being fervent
in the spirit, he spake and talked diligently the things of the
Lord, knowing only the baptism of John. So he was a very capable
preacher and well-versed in the scriptures. And the scripture
says that he knew only the baptism of John. Now, what was John's
baptism? John's message was Christ. John said, behold, the Lamb of
God was taken away the sins of the world. John was the last
Old Testament prophet. He was the forerunner of the
Lord Jesus Christ. He was the one that was prophesied
in the book of Malachi that would come and pave the way of the
Lord. And it was John's ministry that
said, I must decrease. And here's the spirit of men
that God has sent. We see it over and over again
with these men. John said, I must decrease, he
must increase. He's got to get all the glory.
And so, so Apollos obviously knew of the Lord Jesus Christ
from John's preaching. He knew of his death and of his
resurrection, but there were clearly some things that he didn't
know. And here we find Priscilla and
Aquila, humble tent makers, who had just spent a year and a half
with the Apostle Paul in Ephesus, is now going to take this man
who was very gifted and very well recognized, and they're
going to instruct him in the ways of the Lord. And they're
going to use scripture to do it. Look at what our text says. He knew only the baptism of John. What? You know, maybe perhaps he was not clear, as
even the disciples weren't clear, on the place of the Old Testament
law when it came to the gospel. And now the Lord was making that
clear that Christ truly was the end of the law. Perhaps he didn't
know about Pentecost. He didn't know about the outpouring
of the Holy Spirit and the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Perhaps he
didn't know that the gospel was for the Gentiles. It's not till
Acts chapter 15 that the apostles came to understand that after
Peter went to Cornelius and preached the gospel to Cornelius that
the Lord. So these things are, these revelations
are coming progressively to the disciples. And there were some
things, whatever they were, that Apollos had not yet been taught.
And so Aquila and Priscilla go to the synagogue, and they hear
this man preach, and again we see the humility of God's people
when they didn't correct him publicly. They waited till after
he was finished, and they took him aside privately, and they
explained to him the things that he had not yet been taught. And
he received their teaching. This is an evidence of grace. An evidence of grace in the heart
is teachability. You know, God's people are teachable. And they don't stand proud and
condemning. The Lord tells us that we're
to sanctify the Lord God in our hearts and be ready always to
give an answer to everyone that asketh us for the hope that's
within us, but to do it in a spirit of meekness and a spirit of fear. May God give us that grace. There's
the evidence of grace. Pride and humility and self-righteousness,
that's all born out of the law. But when the Holy Spirit teaches
you the gospel and you see yourself as a sinner in light of the glorious
person of the Lord Jesus Christ, and you see yourself as just
a member of the body of Christ, you're just a little finger,
you're just a toe, you just, you know, you fit together in
the body of Christ, These examples that we have in the scriptures
of these men and women become the evidence of faith. Turn with me to 2 Timothy. You
know what? Let's stay right here for just
a moment because I want to read the next couple of verses. Look
at verse 26. And he began to speak boldly in the synagogue.
whom when Aquila and Priscilla had heard, they took him unto
them and expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly." Now,
we're not told what that was, but here's the truth, brethren. Every time we come together and
every time we share the gospel with one another, are we not
expounding the word of God more perfectly? And that's, You know, and we do it from scripture.
I've had many experiences where people have asked me questions
about the gospel and I've tried to give them just scripture to
answer the question. And when a believer hears what
the scripture says about something, they just say, amen, amen. But when a non-believer hears
the scripture, they'll say, well, yeah, but. And the goats are
always budding the truth, and the sheep are just bowing to
the master. So we see that Apollos, with all
of his gifts and all of his abilities, humbled himself to be taught
by these humble tent makers. And look at verse 27, when he
was disposed to pass into Achaia. Now, Achaia is where Corinth
is. That's where Paul and Priscilla
and Quilla just left. And now, Apollos is going to
go behind the apostle Paul. And when he had disposed to pass
into Achaia, the brethren wrote, exhorting the disciples to receive
him, who, when he was come, helped them much, which had believed
through grace." Oh, that's the only way we're ever gonna believe,
is through grace. If the Lord is pleased to be
gracious to us, we will believe. We'll believe everything that
he has said. We won't hear God's word and
resist it. We'll bow to it. Look at verse 28. For he mightily
convinced the Jews, and that publicly, showing from the scriptures
that Jesus is the Christ. That's all God's people want
to know. You know, preacher, don't waste
my time with anything else. Just tell me what God says. Because
the Lord has been gracious to me, and he has given me a willing
spirit. He's made me willing. And he's
given me ears to hear. And he's caused me to bow to
whatever he says. Whatever he says. So just tell
me what God says. We're feeding the brethren the
bread of life. And all the preacher's doing
is taking the food and arranging it on the table in a way that,
you know, that can be taken and eaten and our sustenance can
come from. Always answering questions with
scripture. Nothing wrong with asking questions.
If you have a question, ask a question. Apollos obviously had some things
he needed to learn. But when he was taught from scripture,
he believed it. He was humbled enough to receive
it. Now, here's the main point that
I want us to see here this morning. There were some things that Apollos
didn't know. And the Lord was gracious to give him some teachers
that could instruct him in the way of the Lord more perfectly. But what Apollos did know, he
believed and he preached. And here's my point. If you believe
and you unapologetically stand for the truth that God has revealed
to you, he'll reveal more to you. He'll reveal more to you. You
know, it's kind of like our little children have to learn their
ABCs before they can learn to read. And then after they read,
after they learn to read and put the letters of the alphabet
together, they're still reading Dick and Jane and Spod books
for a while until they're able to, you know, to understand more. And that's, that's growing in
grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, my
point is that what we, what God has revealed, we believe and
we bow to. If we resist what he has revealed,
we'll never have anything else revealed to us. But if we bow
to what has been made clear in scripture, then the Lord will
be merciful and gracious to show us more. Let me show you that
from scripture. Turn with me to Matthew chapter
25. Matthew chapter 25. And this is really, this is really
the heart of the message this morning. Look with me at verse 14. For
the kingdom of heaven is as a man traveling into a far country,
who called his own servants and delivered unto them his goods.
Now the Lord's given us a parable to illustrate the point that
I just made. And unto one he gave five talents, to another
two, and to another one, to every man according to his several
ability, and straightway took his journey. Then, He that had
received the five talents went and traded the same and made
five more talents. And likewise, he that had received
two, he also gained another two. But he that had received the
one, went and digged in the earth and hid the Lord's money. And
after a long time, the Lord of those servants cometh and reckoneth
with them. And so he that received five
talents came and brought other five talents, saying, Lord, thou
deliverest unto me five talents. Behold, I have gained Besides
them, five talents more. And his Lord said unto him, Well
done, thou good and faithful servant. Thou has been faithful
over a few things. I will make thee ruler over many
things. Enter thou into the joy of thy
Lord. He also that had received two
talents came and said unto him, Lord, thou deliverest unto me
two talents. Behold, I have gained two other
talents besides them. And his Lord said unto him, well
done, good and faithful servant. Thou has been faithful over a
few things. I will make thee ruler over many things. Enter
thou into the joy of the Lord. And when he which had received
the one talent came and said, Lord, I knew thee that thou art
a hard man. Now notice the difference. Here's
the reason why this one who had received one talent hid his talent. He had, He had no reverential
fear of his Lord. He just, he was, he was afraid
of judgment. That's what he was afraid of. I knew thee that thou art a hard
man reaping where thou hast not sown and gathering where thou
hast not strown. And I was afraid and I went and
hid thy talent in the earth. Lo there thou hast that which
is thine and is Lord answered and said unto him, Thou wicked
and slothful servant, thou knowest that I reap where I sowed not,
and gathered where I have not strawed. Thou oughtest therefore
to have put my money to the exchangers, and then at my coming I should
have received mine own with usury. Take therefore the talent from
him and give it unto him which hath 10 talents. And here's the
point of the parable. For unto everyone that hath shall
be given and he shall have abundance. But from him that hath not shall
be taken away even that which he hath. And cast ye the unprofitable
servant into outer darkness where there should be weeping and the
gnashing of teeth. This is a very sobering parable,
but our Lord's saying to us, believe what you've heard. Bow
to what I have said. Yes, I know you have a lot of
questions. I know there's a lot of things
about scripture that you don't understand, but you're not going
to understand those things until you bow to the things that I've
already revealed to you. Let me ask you a question. Do you believe that the Bible
is the word of God? I can't convince you. I'm not
interested in convincing you of that. That's a work of grace
in the heart. But do you believe that this
book is the Inerrant, infallible, inspired word of God. You've got no place else to go
to hear from God than what he has said in this book. That holy
men of God wrote as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. That
this book is not by any private interpretation. It's not the
opinions of men. It's not mixed with error. It is the perfect infallible
word of God. Do you believe that? Bow to it. Do you understand that a sinner
is a person who has no claim on God? A sinner is a person
whose best deeds are filthy rags before God? That if you were to be judged
on your own merit, that you would go to hell? Do you fear the thought of standing
alone in the presence of a holy God and having to answer for
yourself? Do you believe that you're a
sinner? Thirdly, I've asked you two questions. Do you believe the Bible is the
word of God? Do you believe you're a sinner? That's pretty simple
stuff. Thirdly, do you believe that
Jesus Christ is the son of God? That he is the eternal, self-existent,
sovereign creator and sustainer of all life. That he is the successful
savior of sinners. That when he went to Calvary's
cross, he actually satisfied what God required for the salvation
of his people. That the only hope that you have
to stand in the presence of a holy God is that Christ would stand in
your stead. You believe that? If you believe that, confess
that. Confess that. Public it. What did we just read in our
text? When Apollos, he only understood the baptism of John. He had the
very basics of the gospel and he was preaching those things
which he knew to be true. But there were some things that
he didn't know. And the Lord, because he stood and publicly
preached those things which he knew and confessed those things
which were true, the Lord gave him more light. He took the talents
that he had and he invested them and God increased his talents.
He didn't hide them in the earth out of fear of the master. And then he went and he publicly
professed the truth that he had learned. Here's what the Lord's
saying to us. Believe the very ABCs of the
gospel. Believe the basics of the gospel. And confess them without apology.
Profess Him publicly in baptism. Confess Christ among your friends. And the Lord will give you more
light. He'll grow you in His grace. And He'll give you the
ability to understand more and more of the truths of Scriptures. That's pretty simple stuff, isn't
it? It really is. That parable is so clear, isn't
it? But there are those who will
hear and they'll say, Oh yeah, I believe that. But out of fear, they will not,
they will not confess him. And, and they'll hide that which
they've, which they've learned. They'll never talk about it.
They bury it in the earth and, and they're, and they'll never
learn anything else until, until they confess. what they have
learned and what they do believe. He mightily convinced the Jews,
publicly showing them from the scriptures that Jesus is the
Christ. That's our only message. Everything
we preach comes back to that. All the details of scripture
ultimately point to Christ. That Jesus is the successful
sovereign savior of sinners. That he's the anointed one. He's
the one sent of God to accomplish the salvation of his people by
the sacrifice of himself. And he did it all by himself. In the Old Testament, when Aaron
went into the holies of holies and put that sacrificial blood
on the mercy seat and he went through that veil, the Lord was
very clear he had to go in all by himself. All by himself. No one could go in with him.
No one could help him. And that is a picture of what
the Lord Jesus Christ did when he went to Calvary's cross And
he bore all the sins of all of his people, all by himself, that
he was forsaken of his father, that he was forsaken of his friends.
No one could help him. He could only accomplish that
work by himself. And the same thing's true now.
Just as he needed no help, to accomplish the salvation of his
people. He needs no help in saving his people. We don't add to what
he's done. We don't say, well, you know,
I've got to make sure that I'm doing this and that. No, no. We're confessing what we believe
is confessing that he has done the work himself and that he
You know, we read in the book of Isaiah this morning, I'll
not share my glory with another. He gets all the glory. He gets
all the glory. What a glory. This is the gospel
that Apollos preached. This is what he preached in Ephesus.
This is what he went to Corinth and preached. And he did it publicly
and he convinced them. And as he did, the Lord gave
him more and more light. from his word. It's called growing
in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Our merciful Heavenly Father,
thank you for your word. Teach us, Lord, and have mercy
on us. We ask it for Christ's sake.
Amen. Okay.