We have in Acts chapter 20 this
remarkable description of Paul's dying testimony to these people
that he had ministered to for a number of years. He'd been
three years in Ephesus, three years in Corinth, and now he
was on his journey knowing that he was a dying man. Richard Baxter said, isn't it,
that we preach as dying men to dying sinners. Well, we don't
know when we're dying and Paul didn't either, but he knew that
this was the last time he was going to see these people. in
Ephesus last time. And one of the things, the overriding
themes that seems to strike me so often is the deep and abiding
affection that Paul had for these people and how it resonated in
how they met each other and greeted each other and how they gathered
together. and how the Lord had knitted
their hearts together. It is a work of God, it is a
work of God, the great promise of our Lord Jesus Christ. He
said, I will build my church, I will build my church, and the
gates of Hades will not prevail against it. And one of the great
hopes for the Lord's people is in that verse in Philippians
1.6 that we love to quote so often is, If God begins a work,
then we believe that God has begun a work in our midst and
we are have every reason and every cause
to be rejoicing in what he has done. But also we will see in
the Scriptures and we'll see in the lives of God's people
that there is a pattern. Paul describes himself as a pattern. And here we have a pattern and
a foundation laid. So I was just going to read his
sermon to the church in Ephesus again. Turn with me in your Bibles
to Acts chapter 20. In verse 17, he sent to Ephesus
and called the elders of the church. And when they were come to him,
he said unto them, you know from the first day that I came into
Asia after what manner I have been with you at all seasons,
serving the Lord with all humility of mind and with many tears and
temptations, trials, which befell me by the lying in wait of the
Jews. and how I kept back nothing that
was profitable unto you, but have shown you and have taught
you publicly and from house to house, testifying both to the
Jews and also to the Greeks, repentance towards God and faith
toward our Lord Jesus Christ. And now behold, I go bound in
the Spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall
befall me there, save that the Holy Ghost witnesses in every
city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide me. But none of these things
move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might
finish my course with joy. and the ministry which I have
received of the Lord Jesus Christ, to testify the gospel of the
grace of God. And now behold, I know that you
all, among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God, shall see
my face no more. Wherefore I take you to record
this day that I am pure from the blood of all men, for I have
not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God. Take
heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock over which
the Holy Ghost has made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which
he hath purchased with his own blood. For I know this, that
after my departing shall greedless wolves enter in among you, not
sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall
men arise speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after
them. Therefore watch and remember that by the space of three years
I cease not to warn everyone, night and day with tears. And now, brethren, I commend
you to God and to the Word of His grace, which is able, powerful,
to build you up and to give you an inheritance among them which
are sanctified. I have coveted no man's silver,
gold or apparel. You yourselves know that these
hands have ministered unto my necessities and to them that
were with me. I have showed you all things.
so labouring you all to support the weak and to remember the
words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, it is more blessed to
give than to receive. When he had thus spoken, he kneeled
down and prayed with them all. And they all wept sore and fell
on Paul's neck and kissed him. Sorrowing most of all for the
words which he spake, that they should see his face no more,
and they accompanied him to the ship. We're going to sing again. We're going to sing number, is
it 62? Oh, what majestic condescension
the Eternal God displays, paying our supreme attention to His
founders. In the person of the Savior,
all His majesty is seen. Oh, angels, let us shine for
ever, and without a veil between. Worlds approach me, worlds approach
me, and rejoice in me. Would we hear His brightest glory? Here it shines in Jesus' face. Sing and tell the pleasing story
of all these sinners. Sing His highest word, redemption. Sing His glory in our days. No
heavenly angels ever mention the man born out of His grace. Paul. Paul was commissioned by the
Lord, and I've given you some sheets there with these verses
from Acts that talk about Paul's commissioning. Paul's fulfilled
a commission, and he laid a foundation. He has, as he describes himself
in 1 Timothy 1.16, he's a pattern. Paul is a pattern. So we can
trace, you can trace around the outside of this pattern. He's a pattern, for a pattern
to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting. Paul was commissioned by our
Lord Jesus Christ. He was specifically and directly
commissioned. He was the last of them to see
him alive. He had been left by the grace
of God and the providence of God to be as self-righteous as
he could possibly be, as legalistic as he could possibly be, as the
greatest enemy of the Church of God that he could possibly
be in his flesh. And he's a pattern, isn't he?
He's a pattern to show us how God saves by sovereign grace,
how God doesn't save by works, how God has a people that he's
put into the Lord Jesus Christ for all eternity. And those people,
despite all of the vagaries of this world and all the frailties
of their flesh and all the sin that they will see and others
will see in them, They're always, they're always the object of
the delight of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why he can commend
these people to the grace of God. He can commend them to the
word of the grace of God. And he is, in that verse that
I quoted earlier in Acts 20, 28, he says, he talks about this
flock. We are a flock. We follow and
we are led. And that is just human nature. This world is following a course
and the people of this world gather themselves into all sorts
of flocks and they follow. And that flock might be a flock
about their sport or about their profession or about their race,
about their place in that race. But nevertheless, people are
sheep. But he says, This is the flock
over which the Holy Ghost has made you overseas. And he says,
feed the church of God. See, it's God's church. It's
the church of God. Feed the flock of God. You feed
them with heavenly manner. God's flock need food from heaven. Earthly morsels will not feed
them at all. But it's a lovely description,
isn't it? Feed the church of God, which he has purchased. He has purchased. And that word
purchased means to reserve or to preserve. They're a particular
people, says Peter. In 1 Peter 2.9, there's a particular
people and they have a particular purpose on this earth. And I
love how Peter describes that. In 1 Peter 2.9, but you are a
chosen generation. You are a royal priesthood. You're
a holy nation. A peculiar people. And this is
the purpose, this is the purpose of God making this holy nation,
this particular people, that you should show forth the praises
of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvellous
light. Out of darkness into His marvellous
light. You can think of Peter in the
darkness of that night when the Lord Jesus Christ was crucified
and he swore and cussed to show that he had no association with
him. Three times he denied him before servants. What darkness
Peter had and what darkness he had the next day and the next
day. And what was Mary Magdalene's instructions? You go and tell
the disciples and Peter. You go and tell Peter. All of
Peter's sins, all of what held him in the chains and bonds of
darkness, all of that was gone and forgiven. All of his sins. God and forgiven. And all that remains, all that
remains between God and His child is love and grace and mercy. The sins are gone. We call forth,
we are a people, aren't we, to show forth the praises of Him
who hath called you out of darkness. And this This purchase, this
reserving, this preserving is an expensive preserving, isn't
it? He says, feed the church of God which he has purchased with his own blood. So here is
another simple, plain, unequivocal declaration from our blessed
Holy Spirit that Jesus Christ is God. Again and again and again
in the New Testament Scriptures we have this declaration that
Jesus Christ is God. The cost! We can speak about
that cost, can't we? And we have no understanding
of what it really means. We cannot enter into what it
must have been for the Lord Jesus Christ. to be made sin for us,
to bear in His body the wrath of God for a broken law, to bear
all of the sins, all of the wickedness and the vileness and the putridness
of all of the sins of all of God's people were gathered as
one bundle, and they were placed upon the
Lord Jesus Christ. And only deity could bear the
weight of them. And only humanity, perfect
humanity, could bleed and die for them. And only one who knows
everything and who is omniscient could understand what was going
on. and only one who lived in the joy and the presence of his
Father for all eternity, with nothing but love between them. Only one in that state, like
him, could understand what it was to be made sin, to be made
sin and to be made a curse. He purchased this church with
his own blood. That purchase is a purchase with
considerable effort. It says, Jude begins his letter,
he says, you're preserved in Christ Jesus. It means that not
only are you kept in Christ Jesus, but you're guarded over. He watches
over his church, he's jealous, and he gathers his church together.
I love what Genesis 49, Jacob said of Jude, he said, Jude,
unto him shall the gathering of the people be. And he identifies
himself always as one with his people, which is why when Moses
went back to Pharaoh, he said, you let my people go. Israel
is my son, even my firstborn. Let my son go. Let my son go. That he may serve me. There is
a people in this world. Isaiah 43, 21 describes, and
this people I have formed for myself. They shall show forth
my praise. They'll come to Him. They'll
come to Him. They'll be gathered together.
So at the beginning of this chapter in Acts, in verse 7, when he
comes back from Macedonia, the first day of the week, the church
was gathered together. They were gathered as the shepherd
gathers his sheep. The disciples came together on
the first day of the week. They came together, they came
together and they broke bread and Paul preached unto them. Paul preached unto them as he
had preached for all of those years that he'd been serving.
He had one message. He had one string to his guitar
and he played it over and over and over again. He just had one
message all the time. Jesus Christ and him crucified. He laid that foundation and he
kept going back. And what did he do the next time
he went back to them? He laid the foundation again. And if
he was talking till midnight or talking with them till the
early hours of the next morning, he was just going to talk about
the same thing. I've given you some sheets there
with these verses. I'd just like to look at Paul's
commission. It's a commission fulfilled for
these people. He will write letters to them
and no doubt he prays for them and he's anxious to hear what's
going on there, but he won't see these people ever again.
And so his foundation in Asia is laid. His foundation is laid
and his commission is fulfilled. And I'd just like to look at
these verses, thinking about the fact that this is how you
feed the Church of God. This is what God has ordained
for the feeding of the Church of God. In Paul's day, and in
our day, is to take someone like Paul, a nobody and a nothing
in the Christian world, an enemy of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ, and reveal in this man the most extraordinary grace. He is the apostle to the Gentiles. The pattern that he has laid
is a pattern which has continued and will continue until the Lord
Jesus Christ returns. So let's read Paul's commissioning.
And as we think about Paul saying goodbye to these people, it's
good to think about the commission that the Lord gave him. And he
can say at the end of his life, I have finished my course. That's
what he said, isn't it? He wants to finish his course
with joy, the course that the Lord has laid out for him. So in Acts 15, Ananias in Damascus
said, Go thy way, Ananias is fearful
of him. All he'd ever heard about Paul
was he was coming to Damascus to arrest people and take them
back to Jerusalem and have them put to death. That's his intent. And God had another purpose for
him. He says, go thy way, Ananias, you go and see him, for he is
a chosen vessel unto me. All of God's children are a chosen
vessel unto him. to bear my name, we carry the
name of the Lord Jesus Christ. There's a great story told of
Alexander the Great and a young man, a young boy in his army
had had mutinied in some way and
he was arrested this young man, I think he was only 16 or 17
years old, and he was arrested and he was brought before Alexander
the Great and you know the punishment, death instantly, no need for
a court. And Alexander asked the young
man, he said, what's your name? What's your name? And the young
man said, Alexander. Alexander showed mercy to him. Not often he did, and he says,
you either change your life or change your name. We have the
extraordinary privilege, brothers and sisters, like the Apostle
Paul did. We do it in our way, in our time. He's no longer here and the Church
now has been left, as the Church in Ephesus was, has been left
to carry the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's the most extraordinary
privilege on this earth, isn't it, to carry the name of the
Lord Jesus Christ. But Ananias is told, and Paul
has it repeated, and it's repeated again, and Paul relays these
things in Acts chapter 22, down a little bit on your page there.
He says, he's a chosen vessel. God is not embarrassed about
election. Election is a doctrine that God's
people find delightful. They find it delightful because
it pictures a God who is absolutely sovereign, and they find it particularly
delightful. Not because of a doctrine, but
because it's a description of the Lord Jesus Christ. Isaiah
42 says, This is my servant whom I uphold, mine elect. Mine elect, says God of His Son, mine elect, my servant, whom
I uphold, mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth. I have put
my spirit upon him, and he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. Paul begins, as all of God's
people do in this world, with a God who chooses. A God in absolute
sovereignty chooses. A God who put these people in
the Lord Jesus Christ and made them as one with him before all
eternity. Election is foundational. Let's
not be embarrassed about election. You cannot preach the gospel
without preaching the electing love and purposes of God. To
bear his name is to bear his name as the elect one. He's going
to bear his name. He's a chosen vessel unto me. All of God's servants live, live
unto him. It matters what he thinks, and
he says, and it matters what he does, and it doesn't matter
what the world does or says about us. We live unto him. is a chosen vessel unto me to
bear thy name. Election is foundational to Paul's
commission. Verse 16 of chapter 9, for I
will show him how great things he must suffer for my name's
sake. The suffering that comes to God's
people in this world is a suffering that's unique to them in many
ways. They have all the sufferings
of the rest of the world. We have the infirmities of our
flesh and we have the trials of living in this fallen and
broken world. But the children of God suffer in ways that the
world will never have any understanding of. We grieve over sin. We agonise and are anxious. Paul talked three times in that
chapter about the tears that he shed. And they wept tears
together. And he was looking at these people
in Ephesus that he loved and he knew that the walls would
come and would tear them apart and break up that flock in all
sorts of ways. He knew that they would forsake
their first love, despite all the good things that are said
about them. You can read about the Lord's letter to them in
Revelation chapter 2. He must suffer. Suffering is
foreordained. The Lord Jesus Christ told his
disciples on that night before he was crucified. He says, don't
be troubled when the world hates you. If the world hates you,
John 15, 18, if the world hates you, you know that it hated me
before it hated you. If you were of the world, the
world would love his own. But because you're not of the
world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore,
because of his choosing, he says, therefore the world hateth you. We're not going to get the smiles
of this world for proclaiming the Lord Jesus Christ. Don't
expect it. Don't be troubled when it comes
along. All of these warnings and all
of this is to give us faith in the fact that when these things
do come along, as they will and they are must, it's a must that
Paul is told, he must suffer. When these must sufferings come,
remember that our God is faithful. Remember that our God is faithful.
He said, remember, that's what he said to his disciples. Remember
verse 20 of John 15. Remember the word that I said
unto you, the servant is not greater than his Lord. If they
have persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they have
kept my saying, they will keep yours also. But these things
will I do unto you for my name's sake, because they know not him
that sent me. Paul is chosen. He has, as we
do, brothers and sisters, in Christ, we have the extraordinary
privilege of bearing his name in this world. We know that this
world will reject it. We know that that's what's happening.
It happened in Paul's day. It happened to the Lord Jesus.
It happened to Abel just outside of the garden. Don't expect it
to be any different. Acts 22 verse 10, and I said,
what shall I do, Lord? And the Lord said unto me, arise
and go into Damascus, and there it shall be told thee all things
which are appointed for thee to do. We love a sovereign God. We love
an electing God. We love a God who makes promises
and then keeps them that we might have faith in the faithfulness
of his word of promise. And we love the fact that our
God predestinates and predetermines all things. And it's not something
that God's children shy away from. That baby church in Jerusalem. That baby church in Jerusalem
with these brand new believers. They came together after that
first whiff of persecution. They came together to pray, didn't
they? And they speak. They speak about
the kings of this earth, and they stood up and the rulers
gathered together, Acts 4.26, against the Lord and against
his Christ, for of a truth against thy holy child Jesus whom thou
hast anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate and the Gentiles
and the people of Israel were gathered together for to do for
to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before
to be done." We live in a world which is God's
world, brothers and sisters, and the circumstances in this
world are God's circumstances. And it's very easy for us to
declare the wonders of the Sovereign God, and then the littlest, tiniest
thing goes wrong, and we start whinging and complaining and
being angry, don't we? Dear, oh dear, our flesh is such
an enemy to faith, isn't it? But we love... We love... and electing God. We love a promise
making and promise keeping God and we love a predestinating
God. He determines the times beforehand
appointed. And that's 22 in that verse 13
which follows on. They came unto me and stood and
said unto me, Brother Saul, receive thy sight. This is Ananias in
Damascus. In the same hour I looked up
upon him and he said, the God of our fathers has chosen thee. If you're a chosen one, these
things are going to follow, aren't they? That you should know his
will, see that just one, and should hear the voice of his
mouth. Now Paul did those things in
the flesh. As it were, he was the last of
the apostles to see the Lord Jesus Christ. As one abnormally
born, the others had been with him for three years and longer. But Paul was a chosen instrument. You should know his will. What's
the will of God? What's the will of God? It's
not complicated, the will of God. Let me give you it as simply
as our Lord Jesus Christ did. What's the will of God? What's
God doing in this world? John 6.39. I'll go back to 6.38. For I came down, this is the
Lord Jesus, I came down from heaven not to do my own will,
but the will of Him that sent me. And what's the Father's will?
And this is the Father's will which has sent me, that all of
which He has given me I should lose nothing, but should raise
it up again at the last day. That's the will of God. That
is the will of God. And that will of God is being
exercised in this day as it was in Paul's day. That's the will
of God. Matthew gives it in the negative,
doesn't he, in Matthew 18. He says, excuse me, Matthew 18,
the Lord Jesus said very similar things. He talks about the sheep,
the hundred sheep, and if one's gone astray, he'd leave the 99
and he goes to the mountains and seeks that which has gone
astray. But even so, when he finds it, he verily, I say unto
you, he rejoices more that that sheep than the ninety-nine which
were not astray. He's talking about the religious
people who never thought they ever went astray. We're straying
sheep, brothers and sisters. Even so, it is not the will of
your Father which is in heaven that one of these little ones
should perish. That's the will of God. That's
the will of God. All that the Father gave Him
will come to Him, and He's not ever going to cast them out.
And all that are taught of God will come to Him, and they'll
never be cast out. And not one of these little ones
would perish. Paul was sent out, commissioned by God, as an electing
God, to know the will of God. That doesn't mean that Paul knew
exactly what was happening to him all the time. He just knew
the will of God. And the will of God is the same today, brothers
and sisters. There are an elect church in
this world, scattered, scattered in this world. We don't know
what they look like, and we don't know where they are. All we know
is that God has made a promise. They're going to come to him.
They'll be taught of God, and they'll come. And when they come,
they're held by him. They're kept and preserved. And
they can't ever, they can't ever be plucked out of his hand. Not
your sins can pluck you out of his hand. Not the wiles of the
devil can pluck you out of his hand. Not the enticements of
this world can pluck you out. Nothing, nothing can pluck you
out of his hand. And I love what he says next. To see the just one. to see the Just One. It's one of the most glorious
descriptions of our God and one of the greatest comforts of God's
people, that we have a God who is unfailingly just in all that
He does. He is perfectly righteous. That's
why the Good Lord's people will sing of His righteousness and
His only. He's just. He's the just one. That term is used on several
occasions in Acts 3.14 that speaks You've denied the Holy One and
just, speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ, and desired a murderer
to be granted unto you. You've denied the Holy One and
just. But these are the foundational
commissioning statements of the Apostle Paul, and they're the
foundational commissioning statements of all of his servants through
time. you'll see the just one. Paul
saw him through the eyes of flesh, and God's children see him through
the eyes of faith. He says, Paul was praying for
these Ephesians when he wrote that letter, isn't he? The God
of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto
you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of
him. The eyes of your understanding
being enlightened that you may know the hope, what is the hope
of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance
in the same. And what is the exceeding greatness
of His power to us-ward who believe? And how do we believe according
to Paul? According to the working of His mighty power. The same
mighty power that caused the Lord Jesus Christ to be risen
from the dead is the mighty power that works in the hearts of God's
people to believe. Isn't it wonderful? That faith
comes from God and is a gift. And what He gives, He nurtures,
and what He gives and nurtures, He grows. And He sustains. And we are kept by the power
of God through faith. But we'll see a just one. We'll
see God as righteous. We'll see Him as just. If you're going to see Him, you'll
see Him as just. Everything He did and everything
He does is just. We live in this religious age
where the greatest denial of the justice of God is paraded
before people over and over again all of the time. the greatest
denial of the justice of God. The notion that the Lord Jesus
Christ, the Holy One and the Just One, could be put to death
by His Father in justice. and that justice not secure the
salvation of all of those people. The notion that the Lord Jesus
Christ could die for the sins of the whole world, as they tell
people, and then the Lord God turn around and punish those
same sins in hell forever, is a denial of the justice of God. The glory of the Gospel, isn't
it, is that God made Him sin. made Him to be sin, who knew
no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.
It was an act of justice. It was an act of justice because
of God's surety arrangements, because of the covenant arrangements
the Lord Jesus Christ was. He and His people were united
as one. And they have been from all eternity. And so when they sinned, The
Lord Jesus Christ claimed those sins as his own, before the justice
and the holiness of God. And when he was hung on that
cursed tree, the justice of God, a just God, slew his son. And now the very justice of God,
the very law of God that demands righteous judgement in all ways
is the greatest comfort to God's people. It is a just God and
a saviour. He won't save without being just. See, Paul saw the just one. You'll
know His will and you'll see that Just One. You'll see God
in perfect justice. Paul could see no justice in
the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. When he marched on his way up
to Damascus, all he could see was a travesty of the glory of
God. And when he saw the Lord Jesus
Christ, he knew His will and he saw the Just One. And when God saves sinners, when
God saves sinners, they know his will, they see that just
one, and what else? They should hear the voice of
his mouth. Hear the voice of his mouth.
You can't help but turn to John 10 when you hear That voice,
don't you? You hear that word, the voice
of his mouth. He says, I am the Good Shepherd. I am the Good Shepherd. And the
Good Shepherd gives us his life for the sheep. My sheep, John 6, 10, 27, my
sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow
me. And I give unto them eternal
life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them
out of my hand. That's to hear his voice. To
hear his voice. To hear a particular voice. the very voice of God. You hear
a man like Paul preaching and he says his speech was contemptible.
Men in the flesh heard nothing that was attractive or appealing
from Paul and saw nothing in his flesh that was attractive
or appealing. But chosen people heard God speak. They heard another voice. They
heard the voice of the shepherd. They heard that particular shepherd's
voice calling them. And when they hear his voice,
they'll come. Paul's preaching was all about
Jesus Christ and him crucified. And it was nothing about himself.
All he wanted to do was quote the words and declare the glory
of the Lord Jesus Christ. He wanted people to hear the
Shepherd's voice. And when we are witnessing to
people, we just want them to hear the Shepherd's voice. If
you go away from here having heard from the Lord Jesus Christ,
you will really hear from God Almighty. May God grant that
to be our testimony. Acts 22 verse 15, the next verse. So all of God's children are
witnesses. We all bear in witness You can only bear witness to
that which you have seen. You can only bear witness to
that which you have heard. That's why Paul declares himself
in 2 Corinthians 5, he's an ambassador. The king has delivered a message.
All of the fathers given me will come to me. The Lord Jesus Christ
and him crucified save sinners. He has a message from the king.
and he has no right to change the King's message, he has no
right to be embarrassed about the King's message, and the King
takes full responsibility for where the message goes, and the
King takes full responsibility for people's response to the
message. He'll bear all the fruit that
comes. God's children love an electing God. They love
a promise predestinating God. They love the fact that God in
the Gospel reveals his will, brings his people to see the
justice of God, a just God in the shelter, and they hear from
his voice and they are sent out into this world as we are. He
says, Depart, for I will send thee far hence unto the Gentiles. They won't receive your testimony
in Jerusalem, but I'm going to send you far hence to the Gentiles. That word sent is the word apostolos. It's the word from which we get
our word apostles. It's just a transliteration.
They are sent. God has raised up. his churches
in this world, and he's caused them to be his witness. And that
witness is sent forth into this world. And I love those verses that
we looked at some time ago in Acts 18. The Lord spoke to Paul,
Acts 18 9, in the night by a vision, Be not afraid to speak, and hold
not thy peace, for I am with thee. No man shall set upon thee
to hurt thee, for I have much people in this city. So you preach
on, brother Paul, and I have much people in this city. But
there's a glorious statement in there, isn't it? The Lord
stood by him. The Lord stood by him. At the
end of Paul's life, he has to bear that sad testimony that
at his first answer, that's 2 Timothy 4.16, at his first answer, no
man stood with me, but all men forsook me. It's hard to believe
the truth of those words. It's hard to countenance the
pain that the Apostle Paul might have felt. And then he says,
I pray that it may not be laid
to their charge. He prays that the Lord would
forgive them this. And he said, notwithstanding,
the Lord stood with me. The Lord stood with me, that
by me the preaching might be fully known. The Lord Jesus Christ is alive. The Lord Jesus Christ is God.
For therefore he is omniscient, he knows all things. He's omnipotent,
he has all power. And he's omnipresent. He's with his people. He's with them as they gather
together. He's with them in every tiny
moment of your lives. And we don't base our religion
or our faith on the things that we feel and experience, that
we have every right to base it on the promises of God. And he
makes the most remarkable promises. You remember the Lord Jesus Christ
when he was about to be taken up. He says, All power, in Matthew
28, all power is given unto me in heaven and earth. Go ye therefore
and teach all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father
and the Son and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all
things whatsoever I have commanded you. And I am with you always,
even unto the end of the world. The young pastor went to see
an old man and get some advice about his future ministry. The old man gave him one word
of advice to the young man. He said, never lose your sweetheart
love for the Lord Jesus Christ. Never lose your sweetheart love
for him. to be loved by Him and to be
in love with Him is to want to be in His company, is to want
to hear His voice, is to want to be, as Paul said of that family
in 1 Corinthians 15, to be addicted to the ministry of the saints. If the Lord stands by you, If
the Lord stands by you, the rest of the world can do as it likes
and we'll be at peace. And the Lord makes a promise, doesn't
he? in Acts 23 verse 11, Be of good cheer, Paul, for as thou
hast testified of me in Jerusalem, thou must also bear witness also
at Rome. There was a course appointed
and ordained for Paul, and he wants to finish his course with
joy, which is what he says. There is a joy There is a joy
in the midst of all of the persecution and in the midst of all of the
tears. There's a joy in the presence of God. There's a joy in the
character of God. There's a rest and a peace in
who He is and what He's done. And just briefly I'd like us
to finish by looking at Acts chapter 26. It's lovely that
we are given three a repetition of these events and each time
there is an unfolding and a more clarity and more light on it. This remarkable event on the
road to Damascus. He begins in verse 12, Acts 26,
whereupon as I went to Damascus with authority and commission
from the three priests, there he was with all his religious
authority and all of his letters under his belt and all of his
credentials and all of his law-keeping and all of the esteem that he
had amongst all the religious people of the world. And at midday,
O King, I saw in the way a light from heaven. A light from heaven. above the brightness of the sun.
This is a light from heaven. It's not an ordinary light, is
it? When the Lord God shines a light on his son and when he
shines in the hearts of his people to see the glory of God in the
face of Jesus Christ, we see in another light altogether.
We see the Lord Jesus Christ in a different light altogether.
He becomes far more glorious. He becomes far bigger, far more
amazing, far more glorious than we can possibly imagine. above
the brightness of the sun that was shining round about me and
them which journeyed with me. And when you see a light from
heaven, and when the Lord Jesus Christ is revealed, what happens? Acts 26.14. And when we're all
fallen to the earth, when Proud, self-righteous, religious
sons of Adam, meet the Lord God. There is a humbling, isn't there? That oft-quoted verse in the
New Testament from Bacchus says, Behold, his soul which is lifted
up is not upright in him. Souls that are lifted up with
their own abilities and their own doings and their own might
do and will do in the future. The soul that is lifted up is
not upright. It's not just. But the just,
the righteous, declared righteous by God, they'll live by His faith. They'll live by the faithfulness
of the Son of God. They'll live by His faith. As
Paul said, I no longer live but Christ liveth in me. In the life
I live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who
loved me and gave himself for me. You'll be humbled. The great,
great blessing is to see light from heaven and to be humbled.
to fall to the earth, and I heard a voice speaking unto me. He
heard the shepherd's voice, and the shepherd's voice says, Saul,
Saul. When the shepherd voice speaks
to people, it speaks in a familiar language, and it speaks personally. God speaks personally to his
people. Why persecutest thou me? It's hard for thee to kick against
a prince. You can kick against the Lord
Jesus Christ and he remains God. You can kick against a rock all
day long and the rock will stand there. Bow. Bow. Come and bow. Come and bow. And I said, who art thou, Lord? This religious man had absolutely
no clue who the Lord Jesus Christ is. And he said, I am Jesus whom
thou persecutest. When you meet the Lord Jesus
Christ, you'll be fallen to the earth. He'll hear a voice speaking
personally to you. He'll acknowledge that you're
ignorant of him altogether. And then he'll say, but rise.
But rise and stand on your feet. Stand on your feet as a new creation. Stand on your feet in my presence. For I have appeared unto thee
for this purpose. When God appears to people in
the preaching of the gospel, he appears with a purpose. And
Paul's purpose was particular, that the Church of God is a church
which is ordained of God to show forth the praises of Him until
He returns. I have appeared to thee for this
purpose, to make thee a minister, a witness both of these things
which thou hast seen and those things in which I will appear
unto you, delivering thee from the people and from the Gentiles
unto whom I now send thee. The poor was being sent. He was
always sent by God. This is what happens, isn't it?
when they are sent by God to open their eyes. I love the story
of Bartimaeus. Bartimaeus was begging and the
world told him and the apostles told him to be quiet, you're
an embarrassment to us, Bartimaeus. And the more they said, the more
he cried, son of David, have mercy upon him. Son of David. God Almighty stopped. at the
cries of the blind man sitting in rags outside Jericho. He opened his eyes. You can go
and read the story in the Gospels, it's a glorious story. But the
Lord opened his eyes and then he said, you can go your way,
Bartimaeus, you can go your way. And what was Bartimaeus' way
when his eyes had been opened? What was his way? He followed
him to Jerusalem. You go your way. To go your way
is to have that glorious freedom to follow the Lord Jesus Christ. To turn them from darkness to
light. And from the power of Satan unto
God. To turn them from religion. To
turn them from the power of Satan in religious deception. unto
God. And we close with these glorious
words, that they may receive the forgiveness of sins. Forgiveness
of sins is not earned, brothers and sisters. It's a gift that
we receive. It's given to us. All the forgiveness
of our sins is all tied up in the perfect finished work of
the Lord Jesus Christ. That's where our sins were exposed
for what they really are before a holy God and before His law.
It's the only place where they're ever really exposed. And remarkably,
in the one place where they're exposed is the one place where
they're put away and God says, I don't remember them anymore.
They're gone. They are gone. That's what it
is to be justified. Sins are gone, brothers and sisters. If the Lord Jesus Christ died
for you, your sins are no more before God. And what do you receive
when your sins are forgiven? You receive an inheritance. I'm
looking out on some people whose inheritance is a universe. And not only is the inheritance
of God's people a universe, but the greatest part of that inheritance
is that we actually get to be in His presence and in His company
and magnifying and delighting and resting in His glory forever
and ever. He's not poor, brothers and sisters. He's not poor. It's the inheritance, and I love
these words. I pray the Lord might write this
phrase onto your hearts, because religion speaks of progressive
sanctification all the time, and it's a cooperative effort,
and God's done his best, and now his hands are tied, and he's
waiting for you to do something. Look at this. Among men which
are sanctified, the one that sanctifies and those who are
sanctified are all one. Are sanctified. by the faith
that is in me. His faithfulness, His faithfulness
to His Father is our faithfulness to the Father.
His love for the Father is our love for the Father. His obedience
to the law of God is our obedience to the law of God. And His sin
bearing, His sin bearing And His crucifixion is our crucifixion
before Him. We began with those words of
Peter, that we would show forth the praises of Him who called
us out of darkness into His marvelous light. We have praises to show
forth, brothers and sisters. I want to finish with a couple
of verses in Isaiah, the end of Isaiah 25. It says in verse 8, he will swallow
up death in victory. The Lord God will wipe away tears
from off all faces and the rebuke of his people shall be taken
away from off all the earth. Why? Because the Lord has spoken. All he has to do is say a word
and it's done. When our God speaks, I just love
the authority that this Lord Jesus hears I say unto you. When
He speaks, it is done. And it shall be said in that
day, Lo, this is our God. We have waited for Him, and He
will save us. This is the Lord. We have waited
for Him. We will be glad and rejoice in
His salvation. had conducted his ministry and
now he wants to finish it with joy. What great joy and what
great delight there is in proclaiming a saviour who saves. A saviour
who sovereignly saves, a saviour who is united to his people,
a saviour who shed blood of the eternal covenant. And that's
why Isaiah in verse 26, chapter 26, begins, in that day shall
this song be sung in the land of Judah. We have a strong city. This is the church of God. We
have a strong city. Salvation will God appoint for
walls and bulwarks. That's the Lord Jesus Christ
in salvation. God surrounds his people with
walls and bulwarks. I open you the gates that the
righteous nation which keepeth the truth may enter in. You open
these gates and you'll come in. Thou wilt. God will keep. This is his church. I will build
my church, he says. Thou will keep him in perfect
peace, whose mind is stayed on thee, because he trusts in thee. Trust ye in the Lord forever,
for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength. Perfect peace. Perfect peace. He keeps them. He keeps them. He trusted his father. He keeps
his people in perfect peace. May God grant us the simple faith
to trust a just and sovereign, electing, gracious God. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father,
we pray that you would cause us to be a people that shine
forth and show forth the praises of the glory of the grace that
you have shown us in your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. We thank
you, Heavenly Father, for opening blind eyes, for causing your
people to hear the voice of the Shepherd, the Good Shepherd,
to be gathered to Him. to be reassured, Heavenly Father,
that your will is that all that the Father has given the Lord
Jesus Christ and none shall perish and none can be plucked from
his hand. Make us to hear his voice and make us, Heavenly Father,
to simply have the faith to hold his word of promise that's sealed
and signed by precious blood and a broken body. We praise
you, Heavenly Father, for the promise of your presence with
us. We praise you for the promise of your guiding hand upon us,
and we praise you especially, Heavenly Father, that this testimony
of your dear and glorious Son will be maintained in this world amongst your people until the
blessed return of our dear Saviour. Make us to long for His appearing,
our Father. Make us to long for His presence. Keep us safe in a simple trust
in who He is and what He's done, the Lord Jesus Christ and Him
crucified. We pray in His name and to His
glory, Heavenly Father, amongst us and in us. And if it's your
will, Heavenly Father, through us into this world, this dark
world in which we live. You've put us here, Heavenly
Father, make us to rejoice in these days that you've given
us to bear testimony to your Son. We pray in Jesus' name,
His glory.