Everywhere you look, everywhere you turn, everywhere
you hear anyone talking religiously, everybody claims to be a Christian. But what is a Christian? Now the scripture says in Acts
11.26, and the disciples were called
Christians first in Antioch. The title Christian means a follower
of Christ, a follower of Christ. If the Scripture declares that
those that believed, and they did, verse 21 says, the hand
of the Lord was with them, a great number believed and turned unto
the Lord. And they were referred to as
Christians. So the place to look, to find
out, is the Scriptures. What does the Scriptures have
to say about a Christian? If I fit the character of what
the Scripture declares to be a Christian, then that's what
I am. If I fit that character. Now,
the Lord had declared in John 10.27 that there would be Christians
This is the way he said it. My sheep hear my voice and I
know them and they follow me. That's the Lord just described
a Christian. Well, in this book, in this chapter
right here, an apostle named Peter had been summoned It had been voiced that the Lord
had sent the gospel to some Gentiles. It was rumored that the Lord
had sent some preachers to these Gentiles, these Grecians, and
what had happened was Peter saw a vision, had a trance, and this
sheet lowered down by four corners, and you know the story we just
read. And the voice spoke to him, said,
Peter, take those four-footed beasts and those unclean animals
and slay them and eat them. And he said, oh no, I've never,
you know, I've never. Don't call unclean what I've
said is clean. He said, now, the voice said,
you're going to have some visitors, and they're going to be looking
for you. You go with them. He went with them. Went over
to Cornelius is where he went. And he preached to them, and
when he preached to them, the Spirit of God fell on them, and
the gift that had been manifest there on Pentecost, the speaking
in tongues is what happened, and they said, the Lord has blessed
them with the same gifts that he had blessed us with on the
day of Pentecost. And so that being said, they
sent a man named Barnabas to Antioch to find out Go find out
what is going on over there. Is it true that the Lord has
sent the gospel to Gentiles and has given them Gentiles the same
gift that He had given the Jews? Well, they did. They went and they were preaching
and the scripture says a great number believe they heard the
gospel of God's grace, it was preached in the power of the
Holy Spirit, and the Spirit of God granted them faith. And it says the hand of the Lord,
the power of the Lord was with them. God's preachers preached,
and the hearers believed in Christ because life had been imparted
to them. And the evidence of them believing
was They turned. They turned to the Lord. They
possessed a heart of dedication and surrender, and they turned
from trusting self to trusting the Lord. That's the difference. There's only two ones to trust. It's either trust the Lord or
trust yourself. That's the two religions, grace
or works. That's what it is. So having
heard these marvelous things, Barnabas goes to Antioch, and
the scripture declares when he went to Antioch, verse 23, when
he came and had seen the grace of God. Now, how does one see
something that is communicated to the heart by God? Now the
scripture says, he saw the grace of God. How does someone see
something that is internal? I mean, faith is granted to a
believer, right? That's right. How do you see
that grace? How is that manifested? One way, there's only one way
that it's manifested. By its effects. by the way it
affects that person. That's what, you know, James
2.17 says, Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being
alone. Not works for salvation, but
works because of salvation. There's a big, big difference.
One of them is grace and the other one is works. So he saw
the grace of God. Now, it's not recorded exactly. what he saw them do. But there
were some things that were obvious. There were some things that he
beheld that obviously gave him a sound understanding of what
was going on. Obviously he saw a group of people
that believed the gospel. Scripture says they believed.
And they turned to Christ. They loved the message that was
being preached. They loved salvation by the grace
of God. Now let me ask you this. You
that believe, don't you love salvation by grace? All of grace. Just tell me again. Preach to me one more time and
tell me about the grace of God. that's been bestowed upon a needy
sinner. Tell me about the miracle of
God's electing and redeeming and regenerating and keeping
and teaching grace. Tell me. He saw the manifestation
of their love that they had for the Lord and for each other.
It was a group of people that they loved for one another. They
ministered. They wanted fellowship. They were there. They were there.
He saw them when He came. He had seen the grace of God.
He exhorted them all. They were there. But the greatest
evidence of seeing the grace of God, and that's something
I've made statement to that effect before here and other places. You evidence the grace of God. Here's the evidence of grace
of God. Now you're all looking at me
and I'm looking back. And you're listening, but here's
the miracle of God's grace. We're here. We're here. We're here assembling ourselves
together to hear the message again of life in Christ. So he witnessed something. They were there, men and women,
there to hear the Word of the Lord. So Barnabas, he saw with
the eye of faith the powerful, efficacious grace. Grace, as
Brother Scott says, gets the job done. That's what it means.
Efficacious. What does that mean? It gets
it done. Almighty God, He calls some people out of darkness And
they believed. But then the scripture says,
not only did he see something, he felt something. Look at verse
23. When he came and had seen the
grace of God, and look at this, he was glad. He was glad. The Lord had been pleased to
save a people that he had everlastingly loved. Barnabas rejoiced in heart
unto the Lord for His mercy to sinners. God's people are glad
when they behold the grace of God. They're glad to behold what
the Lord has done in His people. Believers, they rejoice. Don't we rejoice whenever the
Lord is pleased to reveal Himself to someone? Now you think about
this, and I know you that believe think this. You have someone
and they've come for years and they've sat, they've made no
confession of faith, and here's what you desire. I pray God have
mercy on them. Or somebody's visiting for the
first time, his first thing I think. I hope they come back. I hope
the Lord gives them a heart to want to come back and sit and
listen. Who knows? Maybe they're one
of the Lords. But he had seen the grace of
God and he was glad. David said in Psalm 32, 11, Be
glad in the Lord, ye righteous, and shout for joy, all ye that
are upright in heart. Be glad. Be glad in the Word
of God Himself. the Word that was made flesh.
Be glad in Him who is our righteousness. Be glad because His righteousness
is imputed, is charged to us, is revealed to be ours because
it really is ours. He truly has robed us in His
righteousness. Be glad that He is the Redeemer. and has wrought out our salvation. Listen to what Isaiah says, Isaiah
61, 10. I will greatly rejoice in the Lord. My soul shall be
joyful in my God, for he hath clothed me with the garments
of salvation, he's covered me with the robe of righteousness,
as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride
adorneth herself with her jewels. So believers, They see the grace
of God. You behold it. You see it. You
can recognize it. It has a good revelation of itself. You see God's grace. You see
it in sinners who see themselves as being no good thing in their
flesh. But I tell you what you see.
You see the grace of God and you're glad. David said, I was
glad. when they said unto me, let's
go into the house of the Lord. I was glad. David said, I was
so glad when I heard somebody say that. Let's go worship God
together. You want to? Why don't we go?
Let's go to the house of the Lord. Let's hear what God has
to say today. I'm glad to be where he is. He said we're two or three are
gathered together in my name. I'm in the midst of you. I think
we've come tonight and so has the Lord. The Lord's here. And He's where everyone that
has gathered together in His name, He said, I am in the midst
of you. I'm glad to be where the Spirit
of God blesses the Word of the Lord unto the salvation of sinners. I'm glad to be where I can have
some comfort and I can have some peace and some assurance and
be encouraged in the Lord, to be refreshed by the hearing of
the gospel once again. I'm glad to be with you. I'm
glad to be here with you. You're my family and I'm glad
to see you. I miss seeing you and it's good
to see you again. You can tell something about
a man by what makes him glad, what rejoices his heart. A believer
loves to know and see the evidence. of the pleasure of the Lord to
save sinners like me, save sinners like you. This gladness is not
limited to this world. Now listen to what this says,
Luke 15 10. Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence
of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth. I know this, angels look into
this marvelous thing of regeneration through the preaching of the
gospel. That's a marvelous thing to them. So obviously there are
some things that the Lord has not revealed to them and they
don't know. They see it. They see it when
we see it. And they rejoice in it. They
rejoice over one sinner. They behold the preciousness
of the Lord to recover from the darkness, sin, unbelief, one
of His elect. Now, shouldn't that encourage
us? to pray, Lord, bless your word
to the salvation of your people. And then having seen the grace
of God, having been made glad to behold the miracle of that
grace in the lives of those at Antioch, this is what he did.
Again in verse 23, he exhorted them all with purpose of heart,
they would cleave unto the Lord. He saw the grace of God, he was
glad to see the grace of God, and he exhorted them all. Now,
here's one thing I know. Now these were believers. The scriptures say that they
were believers. The scriptures say that the hand
of the Lord was upon them. The scriptures say that they
all turned unto the Lord. So these were men and women that
knew God. And here's what Peter did. He exhorted them all. He exhorted
them all. We all need to be exhorted. Exhorted to faithfulness. There's an old man in every one
of us. An old man that desires one thing. Alienation from God. Now look, let's just be honest. There's an old man that cares
nothing for the things of God. It's dead, dead to God. Doesn't love Him. Doesn't desire
Him. Well, the scripture says it's
enmity. It's hatred and resentment to
the Lord. Now that's just the way it is.
And you that know Him, you feel it. You know it. You know I'm
telling you the truth now. So here's, you know, no believer
walks in this world without the need of being cautioned, without
being warned, without being taught. So according to the leadership
of God's Spirit, Barnabas that had seen the grace was glad,
he exhorted all the people, he implored them, hold to his person. I tell us all tonight, abide
in Him. Abide in truth. Endure to the
end. But let me ask you something.
How is that done? I hear what he's saying. Well, let me ask you this. How did Jacob wrestle, hold on
to. You know it's the Lord, says
the man. How did he hold on? Here's how
I'll tell you how he held on. With purpose of heart. Purpose
of heart that the Lord gave him. The Lord granted. Faithful is
he who calleth you, who will also do it. And that which he
commands, he supplies. Isn't that gracious? Isn't that
wonderful to know that what the Lord commands, they that endure
to the end will be saved? Aren't you glad that it's written
in there that are kept by the power of God through faith? Aren't you glad that it's not
left up to us? Those that cleave to Him are
being kept by the power of God through faith. And it's given
unto us as we did it. I've told you before. That woman
that came that had the issue of blood, that looked and saw
the Lord and said, if I touch the hem of His garment, I'll
be made whole. And she came and touched the
hem of His garment, and He said, Woman, thy faith hath made thee
whole. The object of your faith, the
one that you're looking to, that gave you the faith to look to
Him, has made you whole. He has made you whole. And told
her thy faith. So here's what we're saying.
The feeling and the tendency of the carnal heart to leave
is there. It's there. Therefore, the scripture
declares with purpose of heart, with a resolve of a heart, cleave
unto the Lord. And believers remain. They continue
with, they hold fast and tarry because they want to. But why do they want to? Because
they've been made willing in the day of God's power. Let me
ask you this, you that know Him, You that have been saved by the
grace of God, are being kept by the power of God. Do you want
to cleave to Him? Do you want to? Let me ask you
this, do you need to? Do you need to cleave? If you
don't cleave to the Lord, do you know in your heart you're
going to die? You know that? Then cleave. Cleave unto the
Lord. This is accomplished by God's
grace and God's power, accomplished by God's good pleasure to hold
on to us. I've told you about me swinging
my kids. I'm sure it was dangerous. I'm sure I'd get in trouble now
if I did it. Now, somehow I'd get in trouble.
I'd take them and of course they, you know, Well, I'd grab on to
their arms about up to here on them. I'd grab them and I'm holding
up just about their elbows. So I got them, okay? And of course
their little old hand is about holding on to about me right
there, just kind of laying on me. And I'm swinging them around
straight out, you know. And I'd tell them, I said, you
better hold on. You better hold on. If you don't,
you're going to fall. You better hold on. Of course,
they're scared to death and laughing. And I'm telling you, those little
fingernails, they're just digging in, just thinking. And why were
they holding on? Because I had them. I was holding
on to them, telling them, you hold a cleave unto the Lord. Whenever many left, the Lord
would follow him no more, and the Lord asked his disciples,
will you go away also? Let me ask. I'll ask us all. Will we leave
tonight and go and find someplace else here in Fairmont? Will we leave also and go away? And here's the answer. Where
are we going to go? Where are we going to go? Peter
said, Lord, thou hast the words of eternal life. Are you going
to go and hear another Jesus? There's another Jesus being preached. There's another God being preached,
a little g God. There's another God being preached.
Where are we going to go? We believe and are sure that
thou art that Christ. This is what we believe. We believe
that the God of this Bible is God. We believe that the Lord
Jesus Christ of these scriptures, the report that God has given
of Him is the Son of the living God. That's what we believe. Where are we going to go? We
have no other place to go. This is it. A Christian is one
who has no place else to go. The Lord. He cleaves because
he has to cleave. But there was something else
in closing said about Barnabas that gives us some light concerning
him being able to see the grace of God. Now every believer sees
that. Every believer recognizes grace. They see it. And every believer
is glad. And every believer exhorts not
only himself but others. Cleave to the Lord. Don't, don't,
don't go. Don't go. Don't leave. Cleave to Him. But there's a,
there's a, there's a reason There was a reason for him exhorting
them all that with purpose of heart, they would cleave to the
Lord. And here's where it is. Here's
the reason, verse 24. For, or because, he was a good
man. Verse 23, when he came, had seen
the grace of God, he was glad, he exhorted them all that with
purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord, because, this
is why he did that, because he was a good man. Now that word good right there
means upright and honorable. And nothing short of that quality,
that character, caused him to be able to see the grace of God
and be glad. Nothing else but that. Now that
word good right there, that's a title that this world uses
real loosely. The world thinks that there's
a little good in all men and you know that's not right. You
know that the scripture declares concerning man as he is born
in Adam. This is what scripture says.
They're all gone aside, they're all together become filthy, This
is revealing. There is none that doeth good,
no, not one, in themselves. In themselves. But here, the
Holy Spirit commends and declares Barnabas and every believer to
have been this type of man. He was a good man. One like the
Lord spoke of in Matthew 12, 34, 35. Old generation of vipers,
how can ye being evil speak good things? For out of the abundance
of the heart, the mouth speaketh. A good man out of the good treasure
of the heart bringeth forth good things. So just What is a good
man? Barnabas was one. Now he was
a sinner. There was a man that was a sinner
just like all of us. Saved by the grace of God. A
good man is one made so by God's good pleasure. I know that. He's
a man, a woman born from above. and made to be sold before God
totally by having the guilt of his sin put away. The guilt of his sin, the presence
of that sin is still here. But the guilt of it, now that's
a marvelous, there's no condemnation. Right now, right now, there is
therefore now no condemnation. Them that be in Christ Jesus,
who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. So a good
man is one that has had the guilt of his sin put away, expiated
by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's a good man. And that man sees no good thing
in himself. That's a good man. He's one made
so by the grace of God, his sin's been put away, and he looks at
himself and he sees nothing in his flesh that's good. He's one that the scripture declares
to be complete in Christ, robed in his righteousness, and he
sees his own righteousness to be nothing more than filthy rags.
That's a good man. He sees the truth of the Word
as God declares him to be an Adam, and who the Lord is, that's
a good man. That's what God says. One who
is holy, without blame before God in Christ, in love. And he sees himself as totally
to blame, being born in Adam. Who do I have to blame for what
I do? Glenda didn't make me do it.
I did it. You didn't make me do it. I did
it. And before Him, no blame. He's one who is faithful to God's
call, possessing a heart of obedience to the Master, and declaring
that he sees in himself nothing but unfaithfulness. And he's
the first to admit that he is what he is totally by the grace
of God. A good man is one who is a sinner
by nature. One given a heart, a new heart
to believe God and set forth in the Scriptures, now listen
to this, full of the Holy Ghost and faith. Stephen was described to be like
Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost. A good
man, one who by the grace of God has been made partakers of
the divine nature, qualified and directed by the Holy Spirit
for their calling. With a heart of love for Christ,
And they follow God fully, or that is, constantly. That's what
God said about Caleb. He followed me fully, constantly. Because again, they're kept. Why do you keep coming back? Why do you continue to love the
hearing of the gospel? Why do you continue to want to
be with these people right here. Why do you want to be where the
Lord is? Why? Because the scripture says
that God makes them in Christ to be good men, honorable, with
a new spirit, a new attitude. In themselves? No! Paul said,
I see in me that to will is present with me. I want to do the right
thing. But to do that which is good, I don't find it. But Lord, I do want to be here. I'm like Peter, Lord, you know
I love you. And I do remember what I just
did yesterday when I said I'm going fishing, going back. Lord,
I remember when you told me that I was going to deny you three
times before the cock crowed twice. You told me, and I did.
And I remember when you looked at me, and I knew I had broke
my heart. And I remember, I remember the
failings. I remember the waywardness of
my thoughts. I remember how I can't pray.
But Lord, you know I love you. I do love you. And Lord, concerning
what you say, a good man is a Christian. That's a good man. A follower
of Christ. That's a good man. One that follows
after, one who possesses an eye to behold something of the grace
of God. One who is glad to see that grace
and who encourages others We cleave to the Lord. We don't
have any other place to go. That's a good man. He doesn't boast in himself.
He says, Lord, as you say it is, it is. He bows to the good
pleasure of God to show mercy and compassion to whomsoever
he will. He bows to God's sovereignty.
That's a good man. He bows to the grace of God and
he suffers persecution from others for the Lord's sake. When they
ridicule you and laugh you to scorn and tell you, you're wrong,
you're wrong, you're wrong. You say, I don't have any other
place to go. I'm not leaving. I'm not leaving. I'm going to
be like Jacob by the grace of God. I ain't going. That's a
good man. One that has been found faithful
to Christ. Faithful. Because as I said,
he's been kept by the power of God. That's a good man. That's a good woman. Full of
the Holy Ghost and faith. And one day, by the grace of
God, this body of flesh is going to be put aside. And that which
is left will be revealed to be. that good man glorified in Christ. Lord, come quickly. All right,
here you come.