If you turn in your scriptures
to Acts chapter 19, the end of Acts 19 is a remarkable picture
of the Lord's work in the lives of his people
in the midst of chaos all around. So as you recall from our last
visit to Acts chapter 19, there was these vagabond Jews in verse
13, the exorcists, and it took upon them to call over them which
had evil spirits, the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, we adjure
you by the Jesus whom Paul preaches. And there were seven sons of
one Sceva, a Jew, chief of the priests, which did so. And the
evil spirit answered and said, Jesus I know and Paul I know,
but who are you? And the man in whom the evil
spirit was leapt on them and overcame them and prevailed against
them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. And this was known to all the
Jews and Greeks also dwelling in Ephesus. And fear fell on
them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified. and
many that believed came and confessed and showed their deeds. Many
of them also which used curious arts brought their books together
and burned them before all men and they counted the price of
them and it was found 50,000 pieces of silver. So mightily so mightily grew
the word of God. And these are the verses I'd
like us to think about this morning. And after these things were ended,
Paul purposed in spirit, and when he had passed through Macedonia
and Achaia to go to Jerusalem, saying, after I've been there,
I must also see Rome. And so he sent into Macedonia
two of them that ministered unto him, Timotheus and Erastus, but
he himself stayed in Asia. for a season. And at the same
time there arose no small stir about that way. And you can read
on, you'll find that there's a public riot in Ephesus. to the end of the chapter, there's
a public riot. And so in the midst of this demonic
activity that we saw read about earlier, looked at earlier, and
this public uproar in Ephesus, we have in the midst of that
Paul having a purpose, doesn't he? So mightily grew the word
of God and prevailed. And after these things, Paul
purposed in spirit. And so in the midst of all of
this chaos, there is the man of God, and he has a purpose
in spirit. And I wanted us to think about
those things. We see that the Lord had grown
the church of Ephesus, and we see from the next chapter that
when Paul is on his way to Jerusalem and then on to Rome and to spend
the rest of his days effectively in jail, that he meets with the
elders of the church in Ephesus. So the word of God grew mightily
in Ephesus and it was a remarkable church there. But this This is
coming to the end in many ways of Paul's public ministry in
the churches. He goes from here and he visits
Corinth and he comes back and goes and spends that time with
the Ephesian elders and he goes to Jerusalem, he's arrested and
he really spends most of the rest of his life incarcerated
in one way or another. He has great freedom in Rome
but he's still under house arrest. But the word of God mightily
grew. That word mightily says with
great power, with great power, with great strength, with great
dominion. It also means to perfect or complete. So these people, like all believers,
these ones that burnt their scrolls, they believed on the Lord Jesus
Christ. They believed in his righteousness,
in his redemption. They believed the law that we
see Paul describing so gloriously in those opening verses of Ephesians,
a God who loves particularly, who loves effectively, a God
who predestinates people, a God who redeems purposefully and
effectually, a God of all grace, a God who operates in such a
way that people would live to the praise of the glory of His
grace. These people believed on that
Lord Jesus Christ. They publicly confessed their
faith in Him, in believers' baptism and in joining with the Church,
and they publicly denounced the old religion, and they burnt
their bondage, as it were. You might recall that story of
that remarkable Spanish adventurer into Mexico in those early days
called Cortes. He sailed his army over there
to the shores of Mexico, and when they reached there, he then
burnt their boats. Burnt their boats. And the first
person that said to him, you are silly for burning your boats,
He slew him through his heart with his spear, and they went
off and they burnt the boats and conquered Mexico. There is
a real sense, isn't it, in which the Lord calls these people out,
and these people were called out, and we see the result of
it is that the word of God grew mightily, and the opposition
from the religious world, including the Jews, as we might see, Lord
Willie, next week, grew and grew and grew. And in Ephesus there
is this word that's used again and again, that they were confused. They brought this crowd together,
this enormous crowd, and they were chanting and screaming,
great is Diana, great is Diana, as if Diana couldn't defend herself
and protect herself. But the picture I want you to
see is the picture of Paul in the midst of all of this chaos.
He's there is there saying, I have a purpose in spirit. The Word
of God, the Word of God grows. And those words, to grow and
prevail, those means that it keeps growing and it keeps prevailing,
because the Word of God cannot be separated from the Word, who
is God. You see, just as easily could
Luke, the inspired writer, have said, the Lord Jesus Christ prevailed
and his name grew. Or he could have said the Holy
Spirit prevailed and his influence grew. He could have said the
Father of Glory, the Father of Promise prevailed and his influence
grew. But he said the Word of God. And it's a constant theme, isn't
it, throughout the Scriptures, that you cannot separate the
God of glory from the Word of glory. All we ever know about
God is going to be revealed in His Word, made spirit and life
to us. So Luke says in Acts 6-7, isn't
it, the Word of God increased and the number of disciples multiplied
in Jerusalem greatly. In Acts 12-24, but the Word of
God grew and multiplied. The Word of God testifies to
the glory of our God, and God's people rejoice in the Word of
God. You want a measure of your comfort
in the Lord? and a measure of your relationship
with Him. You can measure it by your relationship
with this Word. It grows and it prevails. You cannot separate the Word
of God from the Word of promise. But Paul purposed in spirit. What a great description. Paul
purposed in spirit, it says in verse 21. He purposed in spirit. See, he had a purpose. If you
turn to Acts 1 Corinthians 9, I love the description of Paul's
purpose. The people of this world wander
aimlessly. You'll see in that crowd in Ephesus
there is confusion. A whole bunch of them there don't
even know what they're there for. They're just joined with
the crowd and screaming, and the religious people of all sorts,
even the Jews are joined there in opposition to the Gospel.
But Paul has a purpose. He says he doesn't run not as
uncertainty, so I fight I, not as one that beats the air. Let's
go back and read about this man and his purpose. He says in verse
19, for though I be free of all men, yet I have made myself a
servant unto all, that I might gain them all. And unto the Jews
I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews. To them that are
under the law is under the law, that I might gain them that are
under the law. He wasn't putting himself or anyone else under
the law. He wasn't operating in such a way that he would offend
those. who were under the law, he wanted to preach the gospel
to them. To them that were without the law as without the law, but
not being without law to God. He wasn't aimless, but under
the law of Christ. The law of Christ is the gospel.
That I might gain them that are without the law. To the weak
I became, became I as weak, that I might gain the weak. I am made
all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. And this
I do for the gospel sake, that I might be a partaker thereof
with you. You know, know ye not, that they
which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize,
so run that you may obtain. And every man that striveth for
mastery is temperate in all things, Now they do it to obtain a corruptible
crown, but we an incorruptible. Therefore, I therefore so run,
not as uncertainty, so fight I, not as one that beateth the
air. But I keep it under my body and
bring it into subjection, lest that by any means, when I have
preached to others, I myself should be a castaway." Paul had
a purpose, and Paul didn't have a presumption. Paul had purposed
in spirit. He had in his heart, as he says
in 2 Corinthians 11, he says, when he lists all of the trials
and all the troubles he's been through, at the end of it and
at the top of it, at the pinnacle, he has the care of all the churches. See, God gives, as he promises
in Jeremiah 3, he says, I'll give you pastors after my own
heart, who shall feed them with knowledge and wisdom. He has
dispersed. He has given to the poor, his
righteousness endureth forever. See, he's a giver, our great
God. And his horn shall be exalted
with power, Psalm 112 verse 9. So he had a care in his heart,
didn't he? But there he was in Ephesus in
the midst of what was an extraordinary time. There was amazing growth
in the church. There was remarkable things happening.
There were remarkable things happening outside in the sense
of his control. He wasn't there when the demons
did their work. in those seven slums of Skiva.
He wasn't even there when the riot came. But there he was in
Ephesus, and while he was there, he was thinking about other people.
He was thinking about the churches. He was thinking about Jerusalem
and their poverty. He was thinking about Rome and
the need of their ministry. He was thinking selfishly, in
a sense. He says, if I can go to Rome, I'm going to be encouraged
by you. Wherever I find faith, I'm going to be encouraged. And
wherever I'm encouraged and I find faith, I'll try and preach the
faithful one, and we're going to be encouraged together. And
he wanted to go to Spain. He was on his way to Spain. You
can read about it in Romans 15. He wanted to go to unreached
areas. And he had a concern for the churches in Macedonia. He
wanted to go back and see how Lydia was doing in Philippi.
He wanted to see the jailer. He wanted to go to Berea and
see his friends there. He wanted to go to those people
in Thessalonica. He was anxious for them. He wanted
to go to Achaia. He wanted to go to Corinth where
the Lord had his people and he'd been there for that few, three
years. He wanted to go back to Galatia. He wanted to be, he
was concerned about those people and their legalism. So he purposed
in spirit. He purposed in spirit. He prayed
and he acted. And he acted knowing that at
the end of the day, he was going to be directed by the Lord. I
love that verse in Proverbs 16, verse nine, and I can't quote
it as accurately as I ought to, but it says that in your heart,
you plan your path. And we've been planning and planning
and planning, and it says, God determines where your feet land. I like that sort of a God, because
if any of my planning and any of my purposes had come to pass,
it would be an awful mess all the time, but the Lord determines.
But it doesn't mean that God's people are aimless as we begin
this new year. It's good to think about, isn't
it, Paul's purpose and to think about the fact that life is short. And there is just this time,
there is just this one time in all of our existence, there is
this one brief time where we have the opportunity to live
lives of faith. There's no need for faith in
heaven. Faith becomes sight in heaven. There is just this one
time we are here, like Esther, in that court where destruction
is seen all around, for such a time as this. God is not aimless. Our God is a God of purpose.
We are here by His. Sovereign Purpose. Paul had a
purpose. If you turn over to page 19-20,
you'll see his purpose. As he spoke to those Ephesian
elders in verse 22, he says, Now behold, I go bound in the
Spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that befall me. Now I kept back nothing that
was profitable unto you, but have showed you and taught you
publicly and from house to house, testifying both to the Jews and
also to the Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our
Lord Jesus Christ. And then he says, 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 can 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 to the gospel of the
grace of God. To testify to the grace of God. We testify to the God of all
grace. We testify that salvation is entirely by grace. It comes
to the undeserving and the ill-deserving, those who have no merits and
rights within themselves whatsoever. He says to those Ephesians in
verse 32 of that same chapter, And now, brethren, I commend
you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build
you up and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified. We have a glorious gospel for
sinners. We have a glorious gospel of
mercy for the miserable, of deliverance for the captive, of giving sight
to the blind, of setting prisoners free. He had a purpose. He had to have
had a purpose, our servant Paul. He had a purpose. He was going
to Macedonia and Achaia, and he was going to Jerusalem, and
then he was going on to Rome. There he was in the midst of
this situation in Ephesus, and probably the uproar that we see
later in this chapter was already brewing. No doubt Demetrius had
been whinging for a long time about the fact that his silver
merchandise was no longer as saleable and all the Gospel had
gone over Asia and people were burning their books, burning
their scrolls. And what's he do in the midst
of all that? Verse 22, so he sent into Macedonia the two of
them that ministered unto him. In the midst of all this, when
you would think that he'd be wanting to be ministered to, he sends
them away. He sends them on. Timotheus at Erastus, and he
himself stayed in Asia for a season. So in the midst of all of this,
Paul sends his people to Corinth. He sends his dearest companions
away. because he wanted to go to Rome.
He had a purpose, didn't he? He had a purpose to go to the
saints in Rome. He had a purpose to take the
gifts that were needed to the poor people who were suffering
in Jerusalem. The churches in Macedonia had,
by the grace of God, gathered for the people in Jerusalem out
of their fullness they had gathered to help the poor people in 2
Corinthians chapter 8, the grace of God bestowed in the churches
of Macedonia. And the reason they were giving
people in Corinth is in verse chapter 8, verse 9 in 2 Corinthians. It's a lovely description of
our Lord Jesus Christ. It's a lovely description of
what we have been given and why those who have been given become
givers. For you know, you know the grace
of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, imagine the
riches of the Lord Jesus Christ. He owned a universe, brothers
and sisters. He was rich, wasn't he? He was
full. He was rich in holiness. He was
perfectly holy. He was rich in righteousness. He was rich In the presence of
God, imagine being in the very presence of your father and living
as he did in that glory. He was rich in the praises of
the angels and the saints in heaven. He was rich in love and
he was rich in mercy. Yet for your sakes he became
poor, that ye through his poverty must, might be rich. No one was impoverished like
the Lord Jesus Christ. No one has ever suffered like
the Lord Jesus Christ. No one, no one has known sin
as sin as the Lord Jesus Christ. No man ever knew the holiness
of God as the Lord Jesus Christ did. He was rich in all of those
things. He became poor that through his
poverty, through all that he suffered, through all the degradation
that he suffered, all that life he lived on this earth and all
those three years of ministry, being rejected of men, that we
might become rich. Rich, how rich are we? Children
of God, how rich are you? What are we going to do when
we finish it? We inherit a universe. We have everlasting life. We have eternity before us. It's a real physical eternity. We have the very smile of God
upon us, brothers and sisters. See, we're as full as he is full.
He's full of holiness. How full are all of his people?
See, we're as full as He is. Everything that He has and everything
that He is is for an us. We have as much holiness as He
has. We're as holy as He is. We are loved of the Father as
He is loved of the Father. We are justified, which means
we have never sinned, brothers and sisters, because all of the
sins of all of God's people were always on his account from before
the foundation of the world, which is why a holy and just
God had to and must and his justice demands that his son be punished. And we can't be punished. There
is no wrath. any longer for the children of
God. There is nothing between us and
Him except love and glory. We're justified, we're sanctified,
we're washed, we're regenerated, we're accepted before God. In His sight, it says, His job
is to present us holy and spotless, unblameable, unreprovable in
His sight. Let us remember, brothers and
sisters, we never see clearly, but God never ever sees unclearly. He always sees everything perfectly. So God's people have been givers,
have been given, and we become givers. God was faithful in sending
his gospel to his people. He's faithful in sending his
servants. He's faithful in giving his ministers. Paul's heart was
burdened by people that he loved. He prayed for them. He loved
them. And he loved them, as we'll see
with the Corinthians, he loved them with a freedom because he
received very little love in return from the Corinthians. They condemned his very presence. They condemned his motives. They condemned his gospel, and
he wanted to go back and be with them. See, Paul purposed in spirit,
I love what he says of the Galatians. He says, my little children,
of whom I am in travail in birth again. He felt the pains of childbirth
because he loved those people in Galatia so much. He says to
the people, to Caesar of the Jews in Romans 9, he says, I
have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart for them. You see, the children of God
and the servants of God are burdened again and again and again by
their heart's desire that their brothers and sisters would live
in ways that glorify God and that God might be pleased to
save those that despise him and hate him. You might remember
back in Exodus when the children of Israel were unbelievably wicked.
That extraordinary wickedness at the foot of Mount Sinai when
they made that calf, and they had an orgy. They had an orgy,
a drunken, naked orgy at the bottom of the mountain, and they
danced around that calf. And God says, get out of my road,
Moses. I'm going to destroy them. I'm going to destroy them. I'm
going to start again with you. I'm going to start again. I'm going to
make you a great nation, Moses. That would have been good, wouldn't
it? Moses would have been the beginning of a whole new nation.
And what did Moses say? He says, they're your people. They're your people, so you can't
turn away from your people. He stands, as the Lord Jesus
Christ does, between sinners and a holy God, and he pleads
for them. See, Christ's presence in people
brings Christ's likeness in heart and deed. Paul loved the Corinthian brethren. He loved the brethren in Rome.
You can read how personal his love for them in that last chapter
of Romans. I think he lists 42 different people there that he
knows, and he remembers them in Rome, and he has never been
to Rome. He loves them. He purposed in
spirit to go to them. As I've said, the Corinthians
would cause so many of us, when we meet with people who treat
us with such contempt, to turn from them and say, well, I've
got all these green pastures here in Ephesus, I've got a lot
of people that respect me. What do the Corinthians say?
They say for his letters, 2 Corinthians 10.10, his letters are weighty
and powerful, but his bodily presence is weak and his speech
contemptible. What an extraordinary thing to
say. Paul was not moved by fleshly
judgments and wisdom, and he was not moved by activities of
his flesh against the flesh of others. He was moved with the compassion
that the Lord Jesus Christ brings to his people, to have compassion
on them. And he was moved with one desire,
wasn't he? What do these people need in
Corinth? What do those people need in Galatia? What do the
people need in Jerusalem? What do the people need in Achaia
and Macedonia? What do the people need in Galatia?
What do the people need in Spain? They need to hear the gospel
again. They just need to hear about the Lord Jesus Christ.
To the called, the Jews and the Greeks, Christ, the power of
God. If this fleshly activity is going
to be broken down, God is going to do it by the preaching of
the gospel, by the power of God. To the Jews and the Greeks, Christ,
the power of God and the wisdom of God. See, the kingdom of God
is not meat and drink, he says to those Romans. He says it's
righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. That's what
the Kingdom of God's about. It's not about your fleshly activities. The more we can be turned by
God away from the fleshly activities of men around us and our own
fleshly activities, the more we'll have, what Paul says, the
peace and the righteousness and the joy of the Holy Ghost. It's
fleshly activities. That was the problem in Corinth,
wasn't it? The people were puffed up and proud of their activities. Wherever the flesh rises up,
as we'll see in the last part of Acts chapter 9, wherever the
flesh rises up, there is confusion and all that nonsense that goes
on. The Kingdom of God is not meat
and drink and human activity, but righteousness, the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. His alone righteousness, His
complete righteousness before God, His satisfying righteousness,
His justifying righteousness, His righteousness which is given
to His people. The robes that they wear in heaven
are that robe of the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. That
linen is pure and white. It's imputed to us freely, and
it's imparted to us, and he puts it on his people. And therefore
we have peace with God, don't we? See, Christ is our peace. He is our peace. In the midst
of that confusion, in the midst of this confusing world, in the
midst of all of these trials, and all of this uncertainty around
us, there is, for the children of God, peace. And the peace
the children of God have is a person. See, it's not a circumstance,
it's a person. You can put Paul in jail and
beat him with sticks. What did they do? What did they
do that night? I sang praises to God. would that he'd give us that
peace in the midst of the trials that are around us all the time.
And it's joy in the Holy Ghost. It's that new man, I love that
verse in Ephesians 4, it's that new man created in righteousness
and true holiness. And the new man in you, it rejoices
in who God is. It rejoices in the word of God.
It rejoices With that joy of the Holy Spirit, it rejoices
in his word of promise. It rejoices in the character
of God that's revealed in the scriptures. It rejoices in the
fact that God says the truth about us and we can say amen.
It rejoices in the fact, the wonderful facts of our Lord Jesus'
incarnation. It rejoices in the fact that
right now, You are represented in heaven perfectly, before the
throne of God. It rejoices right now in the
fact that that same Lord Jesus Christ who represents you rules
over everything. There wasn't a tiny particle
of smoke, or a tiny bit of flame, or a movement of even the thoughts
of people yesterday, and he wasn't in control of all of it. All
of it, all the time. and he is working it for good.
So this gospel that Paul was going to bring back to these
Corinthians again, it comes with power. Our gospel comes with
power, not in word only, but in power in the Holy Ghost and
in much assurance, much assurance. This is the truth of God. I rest
my eternal soul in the Saviour, and I hide in Him, and I hide
under that blood." And when God sees the blood, He passes over. They accused Paul of all of these
things. They accused him of taking advantage
of the saints. They accused him of taking advantage
of the churches. And then they denigrated his
gospel. which is why he was anxious for
the Muslim in 2 Corinthians chapter 11. He says, I'm jealous over
you, those two, I'm jealous over you with a godly jealousy, for
I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste
virgin to Christ. But I fear, lest by any means,
as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should
be corrupted from the simplicity that's in Christ. Ephesus was
a place of confusion. The religious world is a place
of confusion. Our gospel is a simple gospel,
brothers and sisters. It declares the glory of a great
God. It declares the finished work
of a remarkable Redeemer. He says that it was finished
from the foundation of the world. Religion complicates the gospel
because it complicates the character of God because they haven't met
him. But our God, when you meet him, it's simple. It has a depth
to it. But there is a beauty in the
simplicity of his character and the singleness is what that word
means. The singleness of his work. He's
singly done it for all, the oneness of the Lord Jesus Christ. You
don't look anywhere else. If you have Him, you have everything. The flesh puffs people up, but
in the midst of that, there is just one, one solution. Paul purposed in spirit. he purposed
in spirit because of his love for them. And he sends his closest
companions and he plans to come himself." God's love for his
own in the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul sent Timotheus, my beloved
son and faithful in the Lord, our great God, in 1 John 4.9
says, he sent his only begotten son into the world that we might
live through him. Paul sent Timothy. He says in
2 Corinthians 2.4, for out of much affliction and anguish in
heart I wrote unto you with many tears that you might know the
love that I have Mark Rexworth's remarkable people that denigrated
even his very presence in his speech. He says, that you might
know the love I have more abundantly unto you. So where does this
spirit come from? Where does this heart come from? It's not a natural creation,
brothers and sisters. 1 John, let's just turn to 1
John and have a briefly close with these remarkable words.
1 John 4. Hereby, verse 13, hereby know
we that we dwell in him and he in us because he has given us
of his spirit. This is love, isn't it, verse
10? Here in His love, not that we love God, but He loved us
and sent His Son to be the propitiation, the covering, the wrath-absorbing
covering for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us,
we also ought to love one another. No man has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth
in us, and His love is perfected in us. Hereby know we that we
dwell in him and he in us, because he has given us of his spirit."
There are two loves, aren't there? There's a love for God and a
love for his people. Paul had a purpose. Paul set
out on a journey with a purpose. When we begin this new year,
I pray that it's our purpose that we might say with joy in
our hearts in verse 14 of chapter 3 of 1 John, we know that we
have passed from death unto life because we love the brethren. We love the brethren. He that
loves not his brother abideth in death. To love God is to love
his people. To love God is to love his people,
regardless of the activities of their flesh, which offends
us so much, so often. Paul was purposed to go to people
that he loved in the Lord Jesus Christ. God, make us, make us
to have a purpose. like that. May Spirit make us
to live and to act like the Apostle Paul in this world toward our
brothers and sisters. Wouldn't it be wonderful if we
were famous for love. Let's pray. Heavenly Father we
do pray for your Spirit's work in our lives and we thank you
Heavenly Father that You have promised, that You have given
us Your people, the Lord Jesus Christ, and along with Him You
freely give us all things. We praise You, Heavenly Father,
that the cause of Your love for us is not found in what we are
and what we do, but the cause of Your love for us is found
in Yourself. And we praise you for that, Heavenly
Father, and we pray that we might be people who rejoice in the
glory of our Saviour. Rejoice in His precious blood,
which has washed away our sins. Rejoice in the precious promises
and the presence of our Saviour, representing us in heaven and
guiding and directing everything for our glory here. Father, make
His blood to be precious and make His blood-bought brothers
and sisters of ours to be precious for us, Heavenly Father. We thank
you for the gathering of your people throughout this world
and we pray, Heavenly Father, you bless them with the preaching
of the Gospel. May they hear The Lord Jesus
Christ raised up in His glory with simplicity and with conviction,
but most of all, Heavenly Father, with a power that comes from
on high to illuminate your Son, to illuminate the Word made flesh,
that we might find our peace and our joy and our righteousness
alone in Him. Help us, Heavenly Father, to
worship Him in spirit and in truth. Help us to take these
emblems and remembrances of His broken body and His shed blood
and make them precious and meaningful to us, Heavenly Father. We thank
you. We thank you for salvation, our
Father, for free, full, and effective salvation in our hearts. We pray
you cause your son to be glorified in us this day, this week, this
month, this year, until we meet him in glory, our Father. We
pray in his name and for his glory. Amen.