Good morning. I love that hymn. And we cannot sing that hymn
without thinking about that passage of scripture in Isaiah chapter
six. And I was just thinking about
how Isaiah in the first five chapters of the book of Isaiah
declares six times to Israel, woe unto you, woe unto you, woe
unto you. And then in chapter six, in the
year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord high and lifted up.
And the first words out of his mouth was woe unto me. I'm a
man of unclean lips. I live among a people of unclean
lips. My eyes have seen the Lord. And then the Lord showed mercy
toward him. He sent the seraphim to get a coal from off the altar
and touched his lips. And he says, your sins have been
taken away. Now go and speak a word of comfort and hope to
my people. I hope the Lord will do that
for us this morning, that he will comfort us and give us hope
in Christ. Because outside of Christ, we
have nothing but woe is me. I'm undone. We're going to be looking at
the first several verses of Acts chapter 17 this morning. If you'd
like to turn with me there in your Bibles, Acts 17. Let's bow together in prayer
and ask our Lord's blessings. Our heavenly Father, we come into thy holy presence. thanking you that the Holy One
of Israel, the Lord Jesus Christ, our sin bearer, our advocate,
our substitute, all our satisfaction, stands in our stead before thee,
presents himself for all our righteousness. Lord, we pray
that you would send your spirit and power and that you would
Cause your word to be alive and effectual in our hearts and that
you would mix it with faith and that we would be brought by your
power to believe all that you've declared and to rest all our
hope and all our salvation on the Lord Jesus Christ. That you'd
be pleased to lift him up in this place this morning. and
that we might find ourselves like the prophet Isaiah, saying,
Lord, here am I, here am I, send me. Lord, is there any hope that
you could use sinners like us to serve thee and to worship
thee? Lord, we pray that you would
make it so. We ask it in Christ's name, amen. Perhaps in the next day or so
you could turn in your Bibles to 1st and 2nd Thessalonians. It's a very quick read. 1st Thessalonians is only five
chapters and 2nd Thessalonians is only three chapters. and you
will be impressed with the affection that the Apostle Paul has in
speaking to the church at Thessalonica. Many of the churches he wrote
epistles to, he had to rebuke them for things that they were
doing, and there's very soft rebukes, if you will, in the
letters that he wrote to Thessalonica. Most of it is words of encouragement. because of the persecution that
they're suffering as a result of the gospel, he encourages
them to remain faithful in looking to Christ in spite of the harsh,
life-threatening persecutions that they were suffering. And
then it's the book of 1 and 2 Thessalonians where he reminds us of the imminent
return of the Lord Jesus Christ. and comforts them and tells us
to comfort ye one another with these words. When the Lord spoke
through this penman of scripture 2,000 years ago to encourage
those believers that the return of Christ would be soon, how
much more encouragement we have to believe that the return of
the Lord Jesus Christ will be soon. I wanted to just introduce
you to this church, because that's where the apostle
is now going to, to preach the gospel. The Lord is sending him
from Philippi, which we saw in chapter 16, to the city of Thessalonica. And in going to the city of Thessalonica,
notice in verse one that he passed through Amphibolus and Apollonia,
and they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of
the Jews. He passed through some cities
in order to bring the gospel to the place where God had purposed
for it to be preached, and where God had a group of lost sheep
to be saved. And I'm reminded of how the Lord,
25 years ago, Don and Delphus and Joy sent your pastor all
the way from Lexington, Kentucky to bring the gospel here to our
to our city and how many cities the Lord passed by in bringing
the gospel here. And so I've titled this message,
When the Lord Passes By. because for the last 25 years,
the Lord has been pleased to pass by here and to bring us,
to pass by, if you will, other places to bring the gospel to
this place. And how blessed we are that the
Lord would be so pleased to do that. The word the name of the
city Thessalonica translated means victory over falsity. That's what the word Thessalonica
means, victory over falsity. All other Gospels are false Gospels. The only victory that we have
is in the glorious person and the accomplished work of God's
free grace through the death, burial, and resurrection of the
Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus himself is our
victory. And so we have a little Thessalonica
city here in Apopka, Florida. And I'm so very, very thankful
that the Lord is pleased to visit us and to not pass by us. Notice in verse one that Amphipolis
and Apollonia, this is the only two places in God's word where
these two cities are mentioned. And the word amphipolis means
to be surrounded by the sea. There was this little island
city, if you will, was on the coast and completely surrounded
by the sea of this world. The scripture in the book of
Revelation particularly refers to the sea as the world and how
this city was was passed by because they were completely surrounded
by nothing but the world. One of the evidences of grace
in the heart of God's people is when they cannot be content
and they cannot be satisfied with anything that the world
has to offer them. They've got to have more. They've
got to have hope. They've got to have peace. And
all that this world has to offer is nothing but empty promises
to them. And you know that you found grace
in the eyes of the Lord when the Lord causes you to realize,
I've got to have victory. I've got to have victory over
the falsity of my own sin and over the lies that are promoted
in this world. How attached we are as natural
men to the things of this world. We take large swaths of land
and we give them names. And we put them under the authority
of kings and presidents. And then we break those swaths
of land into cities and territories and give them names under constitutions and bylaws. and then we take those swaths
of land and we divide them up into private property and we
carry around deeds and we call this property my property and
my land and we sing together, this land is your land, this
land is my land, no it's not. No, it's not. The scripture says
in Psalm 24 verse 1, the earth is the Lord's and the fullness
thereof is his. It all belongs to him, doesn't
he? We're but tenants. That's all we are. We don't own
anything. We're just tenants. We're here
on borrowed time. and all that we have in our possession
belongs to the Lord. And as tenants, we have no rights
with our landlord. You know, if you've ever been
a landlord, you know that your tenants have certain rights and
you have to be careful. And you know, those are fine,
but you can't just evict a tenant anytime you want. You have to
go through the proper channels, don't you? Well, that's not true
in our relationship with the owner of this world. He can evict
us anytime he wants. And he will. He will. Our days are numbered. And yet
this city that was passed by was completely, completely surrounded
by the sea. There was I think about Moses and how the
Lord told the children of Israel that he would raise up another
prophet like unto him, speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
what did that, what did Moses do? He took the staff of the
rod of justice, and not only did he smite the rock from which
flowed rivers of living water, but he touched the sea, and he
separated the sea, and he made dry land for the children of
God to be able to go across the sea. If the Lord doesn't take
the rod of his justice for us and smite the Lord Jesus Christ
for our sin and then touch the sea of this world and divide
it, we'll never make it to the promised land. We'll never make
it. The Lord passed by Amphipolis
because they were completely surrounded by the sea and were
content, were content with all that they had, as are most people
in this world. You know that you found grace
in the eyes of the Lord when you have to have. You have to
have more. You have to have Christ. You
have to have life. You have to have forgiveness
of sin. And notice the next city that he passed by, Apollonia. Now you see the name Apollos,
Apollo, that Greek god of the sun and of light. This is a city that belonged
to Apollo. And I'm reminded of what our
Lord said to those Pharisees when they asked him, are you
suggesting that we're blind? And what did the Lord say? If
you were, your sins would be forgiven you. But since you say
that you can see, therefore your sins remain. You see, this city
represents all the religious people of this world. who think
they have the light when they don't. There's no one so blind
as the one who thinks he can see when he can't. And the Lord
passed by them. passed by those who had no interest
for their soul, no interest for anything beyond the temporal
pleasures and possessions and power and popularity of this
world, surrounded by a sea. And he passed by those who thought
they had the light, and the only light they had was that of a
mythological Greek god. And so it is with the light of
most people's hope. It's nothing but mythology. It's
nothing but a figment of one's imagination. The Lord Jesus Christ
said, I am the light of the world. Light has come into the world,
but men love darkness rather than light. The Lord Jesus Christ
is our life and he is the light. And if he doesn't shine the light
of the gospel in our hearts and reveal to us his glory and his
accomplished work of redemption, we will walk in darkness and
we'll be like those of Apollonia who did not even know that the
gospel had passed by them, had passed by them. Oh, Fanny Crosby got it right
when she said, Pass me not, O gentle Savior. Hear my humble cry while
on others thou art calling. Do not pass me by. Lord, don't
pass me by. Trusting only in thy merit would
I seek thy face. Heal my wounded, broken spirit. and save me by thy grace." That's
our hope. That's our hope. Look here, when
they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, these two cities
had no idea that the gospel had just passed them by. How many people in our fair city
have no idea that their only hope of salvation is here to
hear. We've got over 50,000 people
just in this little town of Apopka. The population of Orange and
Seminole County is over 2 million. And here the Lord has graced
us with an opportunity to come and to hear the truth. How many
he passes by. How many Saul of Tarsus's are
there on their road to destruction and on their road of enmity against
God and against the gospel, and they're arrested. They're arrested. I love what Paul said. I've not
yet apprehended that which has apprehended me. Lord, arrest
me. apprehend me. And Paul went on to say, when
it pleased God who separated me from my mother's womb, when
it pleased him to call me by his grace and to reveal Christ
in me. What a difference the Lord makes.
And the Lord does make the difference. We have no reason to be proud. Who maketh thee to differ? Who
maketh thee to differ? What do you have that you've
not received? And if you've received it, then
why do you boast as if you, we have nothing to boast in, do
we? It is God who made a difference between the Egyptians and the
Israelites. It is God who makes the difference
between his elect and the reprobate that he just simply passes by. You see, the truth is that God
doesn't have to do anything for anyone to go to hell other than
just leave them alone. Just leave them to themselves.
We're born into this world sinners. We're born into this world at
enmity with God. And if God doesn't stop us and
arrest us and shine the light of the gospel from heaven in
our hearts, he'll pass by us just like he did Apollonia and
Amphipolis. Blind Bartimaeus. Don't you love
the story of Blind Bartimaeus in Mark chapter 10? When the
scripture says the Lord was on his way out of Jericho, he was
leaving the city of Jericho. And Bartimaeus heard that Jesus
of Nazareth was coming by that way. He had heard the gospel. And he began pleading because
he knew that this was his only opportunity. There would be no
other time when the Lord would pass by his way. And so he cried
in desperation, Jesus, son of David. He believed that the Lord
Jesus Christ was the promised Messiah. Have mercy on me. Have mercy on me. Oh, no one's
ever asked for God's mercy that's been forsaken. No one's ever
done it. Mercy for the forgiveness of
sin. Our Lord delights in showing mercy and he's full of mercy.
But we have to become mercy beggars, don't we? And that's part of
his mercy. Part of his mercy is to bring
us to the end of ourselves. Part of his mercy is to know
that all the Lord has to do is leave us alone. Just leave us
to ourselves and we'll go to hell. And so we become like blind
Bartimaeus. Oh, Bartimaeus, what would you
have me to do for you? Oh Lord, that I might see. Just
open the eyes of my understanding. I'm in darkness, I'm blind, I'm
lost. Lord, open my eyes. Enable me to set my affections
on things above where the Lord Jesus Christ is seated at the
right hand of God, having sat down, finished his work of redemption. Oh Lord, let me hang my hopes
and all my affections on him. Save me. How many women at the well are
there? Lonely? In despair? Aren't you glad the Lord said
to those disciples who wanted to go around Samaria, I must
needs go through Samaria. Oh, there's a poor woman there
who's ruined her life in sin. And I'm going to have mercy on
her. I'm going to meet with her. I'm
going to give her water so that she'll never thirst for water
again. And that's what our Lord did. How many How many Jews lived
in Jerusalem in the days of Solomon who did not know the Lord Jesus
Christ? And yet God put on the heart
of a queen from Sheba down in the Southern regions of the Sinai
Peninsula to travel all the way to Jerusalem to see if what she
heard was true. And when the Lord revealed Christ
to her, what did she say? Oh, she said, not half the story
has been told me. Yeah, this is so much more glorious
than I ever dreamed could be true. There's people that could walk
here to this place, and yet they have no need, no interest. Many of you drove hours to be
here this morning. Why? Why? Oh, he doesn't pass by his children.
No, he doesn't. He brings them unto the sound
of the gospel. He causes them to say, with that man at the pool of Bethesda,
you remember, that our Lord went to that pool. And the scripture
says, and there were a multitude of people there that were blind
and crippled and lame and halt. And yet there was a certain man,
a certain man that had been there for 38 years. And our Lord said to him, would
you be made whole? Would you be made whole? Oh Lord, I've tried getting in
the water and it hasn't worked. It hasn't worked. Now the Lord
spoke and said, take up that bed and walk. Take up that bed. Oh. Our Lord shows mercy towards
certain. He passed by. He passed by Amphipolis. He passed by Apollonia. He passes
by those who have no need outside of the things that they can achieve
in the flesh. They that do mind the things
of the flesh are only after the flesh. The flesh profiteth nothing. There's the people of Amphipolis. The people of Apollonia, well,
I already know the truth. I've already got, I've already
been saved is usually what they say, or I got saved a long time
ago. And God's people saying, oh Lord,
Lord, give me victory over the error of my own sin. Give me
victory over the error of my, of the lies of this world and
give me hope in Christ. And the Lord sends his preacher,
Thessalonica. Yes, as did the Thessalonians,
with the gospel will come persecution, but also with the gospel comes
the hope of eternal life, the hope of knowing that one day
the trump of God will sound the dead in Christ will be raised. Those of us which are alive will
be caught up together with them in the air. And so shall we ever
be with the Lord, seeing him as he is and being made like
him. And the Lord said, what comfort
ye want another with these words. What great comfort. What great,
what? There is no other comfort. There's
no other hope. There's no other salvation. Now,
when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they
came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. Where does the Lord bring the
gospel? This word synagogue means a gathering
together. That's exactly what it means.
And it also is exactly the same definition of the word church,
a calling out and gathering together. This is the place where the Lord
is pleased to manifest his grace and his glory. And it's the only
place where he's promised to do that in power. And sinners
are always in need of grace. And God's saints are always longing
for His glory. And so they want to be where
the Lord has promised to show forth. He inhabits the praise
of His people. That's what He said. That's His
promise. When John saw the Lord Jesus Christ in the book of Revelation,
where did he see Him? You remember there were seven
candlesticks? And those seven candlesticks were the seven churches
of Asia Minor, but they represent the whole church of God, the
number seven being the number of rest and perfection. And where
did John see the Lord Jesus? He saw him walking among the
candlesticks. You see, where God's people come
together, where God's people join their hearts together in
worship and in praise, and where God's gospel is preached, which
is what's happening right now. Christ is being lifted up. We're
believing and seeing from the very truth of God's word that
the Lord Jesus Christ is the only hope of salvation that we
have. And oh, what great hope he is. A called out assembly. where
two or three are gathered together, there I am in the midst of them."
What a blessing it is to have a place. And we look at all the
people of Amphipolis, all the people of Apollonia, who have
no need and no interest in the gospel. Lord, why would you have
mercy upon me? When we tell people about our
God being sovereign, electing a particular people in the covenant
of grace before the foundation of the world, and how Christ
stood as their surety as the Lamb slain before the foundation
of the world, and that that only God's elect will be saved. What do they say? Well, that's
not fair. Everybody deserves a chance. Gospel's not a chance. Salvation is not a chance. Salvation's
a work of grace that God must do in the hearts of His elect.
And God's elect don't talk like that. What do they say? When
they see the Lord Jesus Christ high and lifted up, and they're
able by the grace of God to believe that He alone is holy, holy,
holy. The Lord God Almighty. Heaven and earth is filled with
His glory. What are they brought to say?
Lord, why would you have mercy upon anybody? And most particularly,
why would you have mercy on a sinner like me? They're humbled. They're brought to bow and to
worship, to kiss the hand of the son. Kiss his hand. Isn't that what the Lord tells
us? Oh, what delight we have in doing that. Turn to me back
to Psalm 148. Psalm 148. Look with me at verse 12. Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem. This is the city of peace. That's what Jerusalem means.
The city of peace. We have peace with God. We have
peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ. Psalm 148 at verse
12. Both, I just read verse 12 of
Psalm 147. That's why you're looking over
each other's shoulders trying to figure out where I am. But
look with me at verse 12 of Psalm 148. Both young men and maidens, old
men and children. Here's the beauty of the gospel.
You know, pretty much everything else in our lives is either there's
cultural differences or there's generation differences, is there
not? I mean, you know, and yet, The
hearts of the fathers have turned towards their children and the
children towards their fathers. The gospel shows no difference
between young and old, between one culture to another culture. It's the same message. It's the
same message. We don't have to try to adapt
the message to a particular demographic. We just preach Christ and the
Lord applies it because the problem for all of us, regardless of
our age or regardless of our culture, is the same. It's a sin problem. Let them, let all them, young
and old, maidens, old men, and children, let them all praise
the name of the Lord, for his name alone is excellent. His
glory is above the earth and heaven. Oh, his name is above
every name. Then there's no other name given
under heaven whereby we must be saved. The name of the Lord
Jesus Christ, Jehovah saves. That's what his name means. People
call him Jesus, but they do not believe that he actually saved
anybody. He just made salvation available. That's what most people believe
about Jesus of Nazareth that died on a Roman cross 2,000 years
ago, that he died in order to make salvation available, but
you have to accept it or reject it to make it effectual. No.
No, he made himself not an offering, he made not an offer of himself
to us, he made himself an offering to his father. And his father
saw the travail of his soul and his father was satisfied. And
when he bowed his mighty head on Calvary's cross and said,
it is finished, everyone that he died for was justified in
time before God. Oh, what hope. What hope? And so God's people just raised
their voices in praise. Look what he says in verse, what
an excellent name he has. Oh, it's a name that is above
every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow
and every tongue confess that he is Lord to the glory of God
the Father. And that's what we confess. I
hope and pray right now that you're in your heart saying amen.
Amen. That's my confession. Christ
is my hope. I've got no place else to go.
He has shut me up to himself and he didn't pass by me. He
brought me to a place where I could hear about him. Look at verse
14. He also exalteth the horn of
his people. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
horn of salvation. And he exalts the horn of his
people. Christ is our horn. The praise of all his saints,
even of the children of Israel, a people near unto him, praise
ye the Lord. This is the people of Jerusalem. This is where our Lord has promised
to pass by. Now go back with me to our text.
I want to make one more point. Where did he send the gospel?
To a synagogue. This is the New Testament synagogue. This is the gathering out of
God's elect and the gathering together of God's people to hear
the gospel and to worship Him. And who comes to the synagogue? Who comes? The Jews, the Jews. The name Jew comes from Judah,
the fourth son of Leah, of the sons of Jacob. And the Lord Jesus
Christ came into this world through the descendants of Judah. Judah, you remember, was the
southern kingdom. When the kingdoms were divided
between Israel and Judah, Judah was the kingdom by which the
king remained faithful to the lineage of David. And Christ
came into this world, he's called the Lion of the tribe of Judah. You remember when John had the
revelation of heaven and the angel was holding a book that
was sealed and no man was found worthy to open the book and the
angel said, weep not John, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, he
hath prevailed. And he is able, he's got the
authority to open the book. And so we're not talking about
Jews that have been born in the lineage of physical Abraham. Turn with me to Romans chapter
two, Romans chapter two. Verse 28. This is so crystal
clear. My question is, are you a Jew?
Are you of the Lion? Are you of the tribe of Judah?
Have you been separated from the rest of Israel to to remain faithful to the tribe
of, not only the tribe of Judah, but to the lineage of King David,
who the Lord promised there would be a king on his throne forever.
And that's the son of David, the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at
verse 28 of Romans chapter two. For he is not a Jew, which is
one outwardly, neither is that circumcision, which is outward
in the flesh. Don't look to something that
you've cut out of your life. Some fleshly sin or some fleshly
habit that you've cut out. There's fleshly sins and fleshly
habits that need to be cut out of our lives. But if we're looking
to those things as the hope of our salvation, then we're just
Jews after the flesh. But he is a Jew which is one
inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart in the spirit,
and not in the letter, whose praise is not of men, but of
God." Yeah, the world's full of men
and women from Apollonia and Amphipolis that cut things out
of their lives and become religious and think they have the light.
And they get the praise of men, don't they? Oh, look at there.
And here, wonderful. God does a heart transplant. He takes out the heart of stone
and puts in a heart of flesh. That cold, lifeless, hard heart
of unbelief, and He causes it to beat in faith and in love
for Christ. That's a work of the Spirit of
God. That's a work of grace. Those are the Jews of the synagogue
of Thessalonica that have been given ears to hear the gospel
and caused to believe on Christ so that their praise is from
God because God glories in his Son. What hope do we have for
praise from God? Are we gonna do something that's
going to earn His praise or His favor? No, if we have Christ,
we have Christ, we have His praise, we have His favor. Oh, I pray,
you see, nothing's really changed, has it? We understand the words
of God's word in light of the gospel. We see that the Lord
is still passing by some and still visiting others. And what
great, what a great blessing it is for us not to have been
passed by, for the Lord to visit us and reveal Christ to us. Our merciful heavenly father,
bless your word to our hearts. Forgive us for Christ's sake,
for it's in his name we pray. Amen.