I've got a lot of memories. I
was sitting there looking up front, thinking back some 30
years ago, remembering Brother Henry and
Brother Scott, Brother Don, some of the other ones who came here
to preach. I was just a young man then in my 20s. And remember
going down to Polka Dots after the services, we'd all go down
there and talk and fellowship. What sweet memories from those
days. I invite you this evening to
turn with me in your Bibles back to Acts chapter 13. I titled the message this evening,
Music to Their Ears. And this is what the gospel is
to every man who has ears to hear. If God gives him ears to
hear, the same gospel that is so hated and despised by this
world is music to his ears. Most of Acts chapter 13 deals
with Paul and Barnabas and their missionary journey to the city
of Antioch. Now Antioch is located across
the bay from Paul's hometown of Tarsus. If you look in the
back of your Bibles, you'll find a map back there and if you look
over on the right hand side of that map, you'll see the Mediterranean
Sea comes up and then there's a little bay that goes back in
and the island of Cyprus sits out from it. So it's kind of
a protected area in there and probably a good place for ships
to come in and a port. And Paul lived in Tarsus, and
this was directly across the bay, ever how wide that bay was,
is the city of Antioch. Now, to the eye, to the natural
eye, I don't think there was anything special about Antioch.
I think Antioch was just like every other seaport town up and
down the Mediterranean. just another town. It had its
share of religion, Jewish and otherwise. Probably had its share
of idols and memorials and a little synagogue where the Jews gathered
on the Sabbath day. And they resided there and met
there with the Gentile proselytes that they'd made. And from a
natural standpoint, it did not outwardly appear to be a mission
field. Now, if you go back to the beginning
of chapter 13 in Acts, you'll see there where the Holy Ghost
separated Paul and Barnabas as missionaries to go out. They
were evangelists. They were to go out into these
Gentile cities and go out all over that area and preach the
gospel. They weren't going out to establish churches that were
already there. They were just going out into
a land full of idolatry. And if you look at Antioch, here's
what I was thinking. I always try to project myself
back, Brother Mahan taught me to do that, into what he's talking
about and just kind of get in the Apostle's shoes and think
what they were looking at when they walked in that city. And
I tried to do that and I just don't think Antioch was anything
other than what any other city was. It's just like Fairmont.
Just like Fairmont. It didn't appear to be a mission
field. And you probably wonder as you
drive around this area or perhaps you live here and you look around
and it just doesn't fit our idea of what we think a mission field
ought to be. I grew up in religion and when
I picture a mission field, I picture a jungle. a jungle with people
half naked and bones in their noses and earrings and saucers
in their lips and dancing around a pole and in a firelight and
worshipping idols and people living in thatched huts and sleeping
on the ground. That's a mission field, right? Not to the man called of God.
Not to a man whose eyes has been opened by the Spirit of God.
Listen to what John said. He was another apostle when out
preaching. John said, and we know that we
are of God. We know that. The Son of God
has taught us and called us. We've been regenerated by His
Spirit. We know that we are of God. We know the truth. We understand
the truth. He's given us an understanding
that we might know Him that's true. And that we're in Him that's
true, even in His Son, Jesus Christ. We know we are of God. Now listen to this. And the whole
world, life in wickedness. What does? The whole world. The whole world. Now I'm not
in any way trying to belittle or take anything away from God's
servants who are missionaries in foreign lands. I've been down
to Mexico. I've been out into the jungles.
Went out there with Walter years ago, preached to the Mayans and
the Mexicans. Granny was with me. She was there. I'm simply saying that we live
in one of the biggest mission fields in the world. Right here. Right here. Paul didn't go halfway
around the world to begin his ministry. They sent him out. He had the church's approval.
He had the approval of the Holy Ghost. He'd been separated. He had been confirmed. He was
sent out to preach. He didn't sit there and say,
well, I think I'll go over here in Russia. No. You know what he did? He got
on a ship and went across the bay. Went across the bay to Antioch. Actually made stops in Cyprus
and he made two or three stops, but there were no effectual doors
open there. He didn't get that effectual
door open until he got to Antioch. Now let me tell you something.
How many churches and synagogues you have in a town has no bearing
on their state before God. I thought I lived in a Bible
Belt down in Kentucky. Boy did my eyes get open when
I went to Louisiana. In Arkansas, my soul, that's
Bible baptism. I live in a town of 600 people. 600 people. We have 3 churches. 600 people, we got 3 churches.
The whole town, that's the only big building in the town is churches.
But how many churches and synagogues you have in a town has no bearing
on their state before God. How normal and how sophisticated
they are has no bearing whatsoever on their relationship with God.
We think we have to go into a foreign land where people are uneducated
and ignorant. They're no more ignorant than
we are. No more ignorant than we are. What the preacher knows
that this world is ignorant of is that men and women everywhere
are fallen, depraved, ignorant, and deceived. They're lost. They're lost. I look around and
I see these sleepy little towns and they look like something
Norman Rockwell would have painted and put in his magazine. That's
as clean as a pen. They have schools and churches
and they have civic organizations. They've got grocery stores. Nobody's
hunting food with a bow gun or a spear. They go down Kroger's
and fill up a bag of groceries. They're civilized. They're educated.
They're sophisticated. But they don't know God. See
that's the problem. They don't know God. And I grew
up in religion and we were taught to live moral lives, not to steal
or curse or be brawlers or drunks. We went to church, we sang hymns
just like we did here tonight. They stood up and preached just
like I'm doing here tonight and they prayed, but we didn't know
God. We didn't know God. We carried
Bibles, we had revivals, we sent out missionaries, but we didn't
know God. We were civilized as you could
get, but we didn't know God. And my friend, to attempt to
worship God in any other fashion other than through his son, through
the preaching of the gospel, and through an understanding
given by the Holy Spirit of God is idolatry. It's idolatry. Antioch had no outward appearance
of a mission field, but it did to Paul and Barnabas. Fairmont, West Virginia has no
appearance of a mission field, but it does to me. It does to
me. And so does Cottageville. And
so does Danville. And so does Taylor, Arkansas. What they saw was a church full
of blinded hypocrites making those who believed like they
did two-fold more the child of hell than they were. They saw
a city full of lost sinners, and I live in the heart of the
Bible building. Like I said, we've got three
churches in that little town. Paul didn't go to the jungle
to be a missionary, he went to a synagogue. And I'm going to tell you something.
We look around and we see these churches. And a man told me this
one time, a man who should have known better. He was talking
about his kids who went off to school. And I said, is there
anywhere down there for them to worship? Well, they go to
a little Southern Baptist church down there. And I said, a Southern
Baptist? Yeah, he said, I know. But you
know, it's better than not going anywhere. Oh, no, it ain't. Oh, no, it ain't. I'm going to
tell you something, religion is not a step up, it's a step
down. You read Romans chapter 1, it's
a step down. Somebody was telling me these
things and I said, I beg your pardon, I'd rather my children
go to a bar than participate in false religion. You know false
religion is likened in the scripture to prostitution? That's the words
he uses to describe it. False worship is called fornication
in the scripture. And their churches are like none
to houses of ill repute. In the book of Revelation he
calls them synagogues of Satan. That sounds like it might be
better than nowhere at all. Not to me it don't. Paul saw
a great opportunity when he looked at Antioch. And God opened for
him an effectual door. This whole world is a mission
field. I know you think, well, Brother
Scott was here for all them years, and Brother Henry preached here,
and Brother Don preached here, and I guess this place is about
preached out, and I'll just take the souls that are here, and
I'll try to feed them. My soul, you're living right
in the middle of the biggest mission field in this world,
right here in this country. Right here in this country. Don't
you ever fret about standing up here and preaching the gospel.
This whole world is a mission field. One of our elders invited his
40-year-old son to come and hear the gospel when I first went
down to Arkansas. And on his way home he said,
well, he said, what did you think? He said, just glum and dumb. Just gloom and doom. I want to
tell you something. Outside of Christ, that's all
there is. That's all there is. And this
world is not aware of that. They're not aware of that. This
world is not living in a vacuum. This world has been and is right
now condemned of God. People believe they live out
their lives and somewhere way out in the future there's going
to be a judgment. And then it will be determined
Who's good and who's evil? But the scripture said, by one
man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death
passed upon all men. That judgment, I'm not saying
there's not a future judgment, but I'm saying the condemnation
of God abides on this world right now. Right now. He said by the offense of one,
judgment came. It came. Who did it come upon?
Upon all men to condemnation. And Christ said in John chapter
3 verse 18, He that believeth not is condemned already. He's
condemned already. And of those quickened out of
spiritual death and depravity in Ephesians chapter 2, it said,
And you were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. Now
here's the first thing I want you to see in our text, a vision
for the lost. You can't preach without a vision
to the lost. You have to know and understand
in your heart that men and women are lost. Oh, I used to remember
Scott hammering on this thing of sin and depravity. You're
lost. Men and women don't know. I know
they're religious, but they don't know God. They don't know God,
they need to hear. They need to hear. And if they
ever hear, they're going to have to hear from a man that God sent
to them. They're going to have to hear.
He stresses that in the beginning of this chapter. The church separated
Paul and Barnabas, and then the Holy Ghost separated Paul and
Barnabas. Lots of times churches separate men and the Holy Ghost
don't. You've got to have a vision for
the lost. And then secondly, I want you to see in this text
God's means to save lost sinners. Here's His means. Acts 13.2,
the Holy Ghost laid it upon the hearts of the church to separate
Barnabas and Saul as His ambassadors. Do you believe that? Do you believe
that God separates, ordains, prepares and sends men to call
out His elect? I tell you, I hear so many stories
from people. One fella told me, it had been
about two years ago, I went up and held a meeting in Van Buren,
Arkansas. And one of those preachers up
there was supposed to believe grace. And he said from the pulpit,
when I was eight years old, I wasn't reading my Bible, I wasn't thinking
about God, I wasn't doing anything, and God saved me. And then when
I was 12, he called me to preach. And I went back and I preached
on the necessity of gospel preaching and they run me off. Antioch was filled with seminary
graduates, Pharisees, seminary graduates, masters of theology. Doctors of the law put a comma
out of place, they knew it. Any little thing in the scripture,
they knew it. You read it, nah, that's not
what it says now. Here's what it says, they could
correct you. But none of them knew God. And our Lord said to
them, The only master of theology who has ever walked on this earth,
our Lord. And he said to those Pharisees
and doctors of the law, he said, you search the scriptures. I
know you do. And the reason you search them
is because in them you think you have eternal life. They looked
in there and they saw their Jewish heritage, and they saw those
promises to Israel, and they saw all those things, and they
thought they had eternal life, and they thought the word of
God stood testimony to that. Our Lord said, you search the
scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life. But, he
said, you will not come to me that you might have life. You
missed the message of the book. Listen to what Paul has to say
over in 1 Corinthians 1.21. For after that in the wisdom
of God, the world by wisdom knew not God. It pleased God by the
foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. And I don't
care how prestigious the name, how much it's endorsed, no member
of Adam's fallen race can know God or ever will know God unless
God sends him a preacher. The Holy Ghost, who inspired
the writer to write the book of Romans, he asked a question,
how shall you hear without a preacher? I didn't ask that question, he
did. He did. And Paul said, we speak not in
words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth,
comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man
receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God. Do you ever stop
to think what things he's talking about? What are the things of
the Spirit of God? One of them is this book. One of them is
this book. I had a fellow who came for a
while and I said something about the the doctrines of Christ and
read that over there in 2 John, what it had to say about that,
and boy, he was angry. He went home and he's saying,
he went over to one of the members' houses and he said, that man's
saying my grandmother's not safe. And he said, he didn't say anything
about your grandmother, he don't even know your grandmother. He's
just telling you what it says in the Word of God. Well, he
said, I don't care what the Word of God says, my grandmother was
a You get to a place where you don't care what this book says,
you're still out there in that lot that's lost. Lost and don't
know God. The world by wisdom knew not
God. And then Paul said, we speak
not in words which man's wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Ghost
teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual things.
The preaching of the gospel is one of the things of the Spirit
of God. He works in conjunction with the preaching of the gospel. So much did Paul believe this
that he said to the Thessalonians, he wrote them a letter and he
said, I know your election of God. You know what one of the
things was he said that he knew that? He said, because my gospel
came not unto you in word only, but it came in power. It came
with the presence of the Holy Ghost who gave you an understanding.
And you know what else he said? You become followers of us and
the Lord. And I tell you, you that know
God know exactly what I'm talking about. You knew when Scott took
this pulpit here and when God saved your soul, you knew God
put an authority in him over you. You knew that God was going
to feed you through him. And the same thing goes for this
man right here. John said, He that knoweth God,
heareth us. That's what he said. He that
knoweth not God, heareth not us. The natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him,
neither can he know them. And the rest of this doomed race
is just a hodgepodge of means and methods and manners, but
God saves His elect through the preaching of the Gospel. Paul
said in Romans chapter 1 verse 16, this gospel, this is the
power of God unto salvation. That synagogue at Antioch, they
had the word of God and the word was read to the people all the
time, smart people, religious people, prudent people, but nobody
came to any saving knowledge of Christ until Paul and Barnabas
came on the scene. A mission field can be anywhere
in the world, but what makes it a true mission field is when
God leaves his minister there to preach and opens an effectual
door. And it's a good evidence. I'm
trying to say these things to you tonight to encourage you.
It's good evidence when God raises up a church there and sends them
a pastor that he intends to save some more. Because if God's going
to save somebody, this is how he's going to do it. The church
is the pillar and ground of the truth. That's why the church
is here. There's no other reason for it to be here. We're already,
if we're saved men and women, we're already in fit for heaven.
We're not getting more and more fit. The older we get in the
gospel, the more problems we see with ourselves. I feel like
I'm getting worse and worse, don't you? We're all fit. We're fit through
the redemption of Christ. We're fit. We're ready to go. Ready to go. His redemption is
complete. But why are we still here? Because
He still has some elect and His purpose is to save His elect
through the church and through the preaching of the gospel.
So I'd encourage every sitting pastor in this world to know
that God doesn't raise up churches in vain. If he raises one up,
he's got a purpose behind it. If he maintains one, he has a
purpose behind it. And when he establishes a work,
it's for the welfare of that assembly and the calling out
of his people. And it's one of the greatest
blessings God can bestow upon an assembly is to give them a
faithful pastor. All right, thirdly, the apostle
preached to a divided congregation, Jews and Gentiles. Jews, a term
used in the Bible, sometimes it stands for this world's false
religion. It's used to symbolize a people
who have family ties, raised in religion, communities, people
who believe themselves to be saved because they made professions
of faith and observed ceremonies and do the best they can to keep
the law of God, hoping that in doing these things they can win
God's favor and earn his blessings. And then the term Greek symbolizes
the wise men of this world, the prudent man who thinks he can
figure things out, self-taught. Self-called and self-enlightened. I got done preaching to one of
the pastors there at Van Buren on Sunday evening. He had me
drive around the thing over to his church and I went over there
to preach and after the meeting, I touched on the same thing that
I preached over at the other meeting, and after the meeting
he said, you know, if what you're saying is so, he said, how do
you justify my profession? And I said, it's your profession,
you justify it. I'm just here to tell you the
truth. You justify it. Every time we preach, we preach
to a mixed congregation. We preach to the religious lost
and the worldly lost. The religious lost, Paul tells
us in 2 Corinthians 4, 4, are those in whom the God of this
world has blinded their minds. He's deceived them through lies,
he's deceived them through tears, he's deceived them through professions
of faith by their loved ones, he deceives them in a hundred
ways. They're deceived, they've been
lied to, they've been raised in it. Oh my. The religious lost. They had
no knowledge. They professed religion but had
no knowledge of God, of Christ, or of redemption. Salvation to
them is in a pool. It's in the sprinkling of the
water, it's in the decisions that they made, in their professions,
in their experiences. But they know nothing about the
justice of God. Do you understand that before
God can save a sinner, his justice must be satisfied? Your sins
must be paid for. God doesn't... Years ago I went
to a Nazarene church. I don't like to use church names,
but I will because I was raised in that one and I know what it
is. And they had a blackboard up front. We had an evangelist
in there. Boy, he was something else. And
he went up there and he said, you want to know what forgiveness
is? Here's forgiveness. You're guilty of stealing. He put a mark on the black boy.
He said, you're guilty of adultery. And he put a mark on the black
boy. He said, here's forgiveness. He took out an eraser and erased
him. That's not forgiveness. Those sins have to be paid for.
And a perfect God, who's perfectly just, must be satisfied. And that eraser ain't going to
get it done. And your knees ain't going to get it done. and your
tears ain't gonna get it done. There's only one man who could
put away sin and that's Christ. And he put away sin by the sacrifice
of himself. And then you got the worldly
lost. They think The things of the spirit of foolishness to
them, nothing so far beneath a wise man as having to listen
to, submit to, and believe the message of a man. I believe that's
why God chose men as the means to save his life. Because it's
going to manifest if you've been brought down. If God reveals
to you what you are and who you are and your true condition before
God, you won't care if God preaches to you through a frog. You'll
sit there and listen to Him. Because you know you don't know
anything. But nothing so far beneath a
white... You mean I haven't listened to
a preacher? I ain't going down there. I ain't
going down there. No, but I can tell you where
you are going. You'll go down there if you want to be saved. Everything the Bible says in
the way of covenants, promises, blessings are to the Jews. Abraham see God's covenant people. And the religious of this world
identify themselves with Israel. But in this little assembly,
here's the Jews and here's the wise men. The Jews are all saying,
here's all these covenants that's talking to us. And here's these
wise men. Well, we don't believe in all
that foolishness. In this assembly there were certain
men, some Jews and some Gentiles. People who had heard of the promises
of God in Christ, but the more they heard Paul preach, the less
they could identify themselves with the ones he was talking
about. You know, you go through the first part of that chapter
and you might think that's all just a lot of repetition, where
he's going through there and he's talking about the promises
of the fathers and this and that. He's establishing something here.
God has made covenants with Israel, and God has appointed a Savior
for Israel, and our fathers did. He's establishing who Christ
is. And through the preaching of
Paul and Barnabas, they came to realize what sinners they
really were. Gentile dogs, idolaters, no hope
without God in the world. Yet in their preaching was something
nobody else was saying anything about. Something that enabled
God to be just and justify the heathen. rank sinners and idolaters. Something that took into consideration
the uncompromising character of God. Something that appealed
to fallen sinners. Yet it seemed to make the religious
folks mad. And even though the Jews spoke
against these things, they preached, yet these Gentiles still had
an appetite to hear. These Gentiles were stirring
up the devout women. Boy, you want to blow up a church.
Get some hottie-tottie women that think they're Queen of Sheba,
and this one and that one, and you stir them up, and they'll
tear that church upside down. And that's exactly what those
Jews did. They got these women of high
repute, And they turned them against these preachers and they
went out and stirred up the men folk. But still, still, these
Gentiles still had an appetite to hear these men pray. And finally
Paul turns to the Jews and he said, seeing you judged yourselves
unworthy of everlasting life. Now I'm going to tell you something.
When you won't receive the gospel that God sends through His preacher,
you judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life. That's what
Paul told them. And he said, Lo, I turn to the
Gentiles. And don't you know those Gentiles?
Sinners, man, they was looking at the floor. None of these things
are for us. None of these promises are for
us. And Paul quoted that scripture. He said, He sent us. He sent
us. He said, For so hath the Lord
commanded us, saying, I have sent thee to be a light of the
Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation to the ends
of the earth. And oh, when them Gentiles heard
that, it was music to their ears. I tell you, I still remember
sitting there in the pew thinking to myself, these are truly God-delighted
people. They truly are. They truly are. And I see how God can save them. But boy, it's not for me. It's
not for me. They're nothing for me. Nothing's
going to save me. And one day that preacher got
up and told me exactly what these men heard. And I tell you, it's
music to my ears. Wasn't it yours? Music to my
ears. When they heard this, they were
glad and they glorified the word of the Lord and as many was ordained
to eternal life, believed. And the word of the Lord, the
gospel of God's sovereign grace in Christ, was published throughout
the region. That word published, not talking
about Bibles being written and passed out. It means a public
proclamation made known to the community. That's what he's talking
about. And I don't know, but it looks to me like maybe the
Lord might be doing the same thing right here in Fairmont. What do you think? What do you think? This is a
Thursday night, work day. And I'm looking in here and half
this church is filled. You got a pastor up here. God
giving him an understanding of the Word. Might be the very same
thing that happened in Antioch getting ready to happen right
here. I tell you, I went down to Arkansas and somebody filled
in for me to preach down there where our old church is. They
asked him when he got back, says, is it way out in the middle of
nowhere? He said, it's so far out in the middle of nowhere
you have to go to town to hunt. But I'm telling you the Lord
is blessing that little congregation like he ain't blessing anybody
else in the world. And that's how God works. That's
how he works. And if he's pleased to, he can
turn Paramount upside down. Turn it upside down. My soul. I don't know what kind of God
this world got. They think he's up there wringing
his hands, scared to death, he's going to be frustrated. He's
already paid the price. And I don't know if you ever
thought about it, but that sitting Lord who's seated on the throne
of God, this is the Savior of the church. He's the head of
the church. The same one who spoke this universe
into existence is seated on that throne and he's up there as our
surety and he's up there to ensure that everyone for which he shed
his blood is going to hear this gospel. His preacher is going
to address him face to face, and he's going to call him out,
and the Spirit of God is going to turn his heart inside out,
and he's going to call it, and he's going to know what it is
to be called, and God will save him. That's what these churches
are all about. I wish I had known this 30 years
ago. May the Lord bless that message to your heart. Thank
you.