There's a lovely verse in Jeremiah
chapter 6 where it says, stand in the ways and ask for the old
path. Ask for the old path. The old
path is the path of the eternal covenant. The old path, that
word old means a path that has no beginning. Its beginning disappears
over the horizon. It's the beginning that began
in God from before the foundation of the world of course. If you
read on in Jeremiah 6, you'll hear the response of people who
aren't recipients of grace to the kind words of the Saviour. You'll find rest for your souls.
We rest our souls in the purpose and the providence and the will
of God. We rest our souls in the Lord
Jesus Christ who brings all these things about. He is able. He
is able. And then in these journeys we
see him able, we see him able to bring his people together,
we see him able to create these churches that are the glory of
his name. Let's read Acts chapter 18 verse
24. And a certain Jew named Apollos,
we want to follow the journey of Apollos a little for the rest
of our time this morning. Certain Jew named Apollos, born
at Alexandria, An eloquent man and mighty in the Scriptures
came to Ephesus, and this man was instructed in the way of
the Lord, being fervent in spirit. And he spoke and taught diligently
the things of the Lord, knowing only the baptism of John. And
he began to speak boldly in the synagogue. And when Aquila and
Priscilla had heard, they took him unto them and expounded unto
him the way of God more perfectly. We have seen in our previous
time the power and the will of God and the exercise of grace
and the powerful exercise of grace. There is just one means
of grace, of course, in all of the scriptures and the means
of grace is faith. But there are some measures and
markers of grace, for want of better words. There is, as we
saw earlier, there is in the Lord's providence, He works all
things for the good. So He moves everyone and everything
in this universe so that His people will hear the gospel and
his people will be gathered together. As I've so often said, we are
just following the journey of the Lord Jesus Christ as he gathers
his people to himself and he reveals the glories of what he
achieved on the cross of Calvary. Those ascension gifts that he
bought with his own blood he's now distributing to his church
and the gifts to the church are the apostles and prophets and
here we are in this day of the apostles and the prophets in
Acts. the days of those apostles finished
when John died and therefore the gifts that they had, those
particular gifts, but he left behind these other gifts. And
in Apollos we actually have the first third generation preacher
in the New Testament. What I mean by that is that the
apostles and those that were Lord Jesus Christ sent out, the
72 and others that were sent out, were all taught directly
by him. The apostles were all taught
directly by him. But here is Apollos, a man who's
not taught by Paul, but taught by Priscilla and Aquila. And Apollos has quite a prominent
place in the book of of 1st Corinthians, you can read all about him. Apollos
was the one who was involved in what Paul called, Paul says,
an eye-planting, and Apollos watered the church in Corinth. So he had a significant place
But as we said earlier, there are two, there is one means of
grace but there are other ways and measures of grace or markers
of grace and one of them of course is the providence. We just need
to be very careful that we don't use such words as luck. The scriptures say it came to
pass. The scriptures say everywhere
God did it. So here was this man Apollos, he was a Jew, he
was in North Africa in that city of Alexandria and he was brought. He was brought to Ephesus, and
we're not told how he was brought to Ephesus, but he was brought
to Ephesus, and he was brought to Ephesus at a particular time
when there was no church there. When Paul comes back, there are
some disciples there, but there's no mention of a church in Ephesus.
That church began when Paul came back there, but Priscilla and
Aquila were there for a time, and there they were in this synagogue.
There they were in this synagogue of the Jews, listening to this
man. Listen to the description of
the Holy Spirit because of him in Acts 18.24. He's an eloquent
man, mighty in the Scriptures. Verse 25. He was instructed in
the way of the Lord, being fervent in spirit, and he spake and taught
diligently the things of the Lord, and he knew only the baptism of John. Now there
are several things that are quite remarkable about it. We live
in an age where we like to sort of see things ordered and I'm
sure our forebears did as well. But one of the remarkable things
about the early church is that it didn't seem to have the sort
of structures that you would think. How is it that a man called
Apollos he's in Alexandria, not very far away from Israel, has
been now 20 years and hasn't heard about the resurrection
of the Lord Jesus Christ and all those extraordinary Ascension
gifts that we've been reading about and studying. It is remarkable, isn't it, when
we think of that early church. In the next chapter, we'll meet
a group of people who hadn't heard They hadn't heard of the
Holy Spirit. And Paul comes to Ephesus and
meets those people. And so there are several things
about it. One, of course, is that John the Baptist was a remarkable
man. John the Baptist had a remarkable
ministry. And John the Baptist had followers
in Israel and beyond Israel. He was, as the Lord Jesus Christ
said, the greatest man born of a woman. Greater than Moses. Greater than
Isaiah? Greater than Jeremiah? What was great about John the
Baptist? What made John the Baptist greater than all those others?
Moses could say this is what he looks like and this is what
he's going to do. Isaiah could preach remarkable
messages about this is what he's coming to do these things. And
so certain this is coming that when I speak of them I'm going
to put them in the past tense. Almost all the promises of God
are past tense promises in the Old Testament. All of them, all
of those prophets, from Moses right through to Malachi, could
say, he's coming, he's coming, he's coming, and he's going to
look like this, and he's going to do these things, and he'll have
these gifts. He'll receive these gifts because
of his remarkable activities. John the Baptist comes along.
What's John the Baptist's message? He says, there he is. All the
others could say, he's like this and he's like that, and he's
going to do these things. And they could describe him in
remarkable ways. And John the Baptist says, behold,
the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He was
a remarkable man, John the Baptist. We might have a look at him a
bit later on. But there are, I want us to think
about the providence of God in bringing Apollos to Ephesus at
this particular time when Paul wasn't there. And one of the
other things that I want us to see is that the Lord Jesus Christ
says, I will build my church. I will build my church and the
gates of Hades will not prevail against it. The gates are defensive
weapons, not attacking weapons. He goes to the gates of Satan
and says, I'll have them. They're all mine. I bought them. You think you own them, but I
bought them with my blood, and I'll have every single one of
them. And nothing is going to stand in his way. And therefore, he uses people
He uses men to preach to men to humble humanity, but also
to remind the men that he uses that he will build his church
and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. You might
recall that Paul spends his next missionary journey, he goes to
Ephesus and spends some considerable time in Ephesus, and he goes
back to Jerusalem and he does another vow which Lord William
might look at next week. Where does he spend the most
of the rest of his time? In all of the Book of Acts he
spends some time in Antioch, he spends some time in Corinth,
he spends some significant time in Ephesus. Where does he spend
the rest of his time? In jail. God is reminding all
of us that he will build his church. He will use us by his
grace. He will use us. And he'll only do it in such
a way where he gets all the glory and men are humbled. That's the
other marker of grace I'd like us to consider here. There is
the providence of God in bringing Apollos with all of these gifts
to Ephesus. He was powerful in knowledge,
he was an eloquent man, He had a powerful mind. He had an appeal
and a presence. In fact, when he gets to Corinth,
he is so impressive that some of the people in Corinth who
had been taught by Paul for at least 18 months said, I'm now
following Apollos. There were divisions in that
church because he was so impressive. So he was a remarkable man, wasn't
he? He was mighty in the scriptures.
He was fervent in spirit and he taught diligently. He was
an eloquent man. But the other great marker of grace in the
lives of God's people is that he was humbled. God resists the
proud and he gives grace to the humble. So there was this man
with all of these remarkable gifts. And yet what does it say? He was deficient in his knowledge,
isn't he? He was instructed in the way
of the Lord, but it says he knew only the baptism of John. He
didn't know about the church being baptised into the Lord
Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit coming upon them, upon him and
upon the church. He didn't know about those things.
I'm not saying he was ignorant. He certainly knew who the Lord
Jesus Christ was and he preached him wonderfully and powerfully
and he said to this world, behold the Lamb of God. But nevertheless,
there were things that he didn't know. But I love the grace. I love the grace in his life.
See, Apollos was a great man in so many ways, but he was also
a baby. And I love how the Lord brought
him to be taught. This man with all of these great
gifts, who teaches him? A pair of tent makers. And in
fact, As you look at it, you'll see in verse 18, it was Priscilla
and Aquila. And then in verse 26, it's Aquila
and Priscilla. It seems very, very evident that
they took him aside. They took him aside not to shame
him in any way. They took him aside and took
him into their house. They took him, it says in verse
26, they took him unto them. They brought him close into their
company. And in that private place, they
taught him. They expounded unto him the way
of God more humbly, more perfectly, sorry. It is one of the markers of God's
work in the lives of his people that they become teachable. We
read that psalm earlier, didn't we? Lead me in thy truth and
teach me, for thou art the God of my salvation, on thee do I
wait all day. Psalm 8611, teach me thy way,
O Lord, and I'll walk in thy truth. Unite my heart to fear
thy name. There is a people in this world
who are going to be taught of God. And if they have met God
and they're taught of God, they're going to be humbled. Apollos
was humbled. You might remember that the Lord's
way of bringing his people to himself and the Lord's way of
grace is a way of humbling, isn't it? Naaman the Syrian was a great
man, wasn't he? A great general, a mighty, powerful
man in an army. Who taught him? Who told him
about the God of Israel? A little girl, probably more
the age of Emily than anyone else here. God teaches His people. It's the way of grace, isn't
it? His providence brings His people to hear of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And His work humbles them in
His sight. Lord, teach me. Lord, teach me. We are by nature and by practice,
proud. By nature and by practice, we
want to be taught, and we want to teach, and we want people
to esteem us. But God's people, before they
become teachers, are going to be humbled, like Apollos was
humbled. There was all of the hand of
the Lord, in all of this, wasn't it? The hand of the Lord in bringing
Priscilla and Aquila to act in grace towards this man who they
saw, knew so much, but had things that he didn't know about. And there's grace in his life. So he was going to be sent, it
says in verse 27, he was going to be sent to Corinth. He had
a desire to go there, it says. He was disposed, verse 27, to
pass into a car, and the brethren rode, exhorting the disciples
to receive him, who, when he was come, he helped them much
which believed through grace. Grace is going to make believers,
but those who are going to teach those believers and help those
believers are going to be people who are humbled by the grace
of God. to teach a way more perfectly. They took him unto Him. God's
way. It's interesting, isn't it? In
18 verse 25 it says, this man was instructed in the way of
the Lord, but he only knew the baptism of John. And it says
in verse 26, they expounded unto him the way of God. The way of
the Lord and the way of God are still the same way, aren't they?
The Lord Jesus ordains and creates and controls and determines the
peoples and places and meetings and determines the state of their
hearts. If you're going to be a believer and you're going to
be humbled before God, you're going to be taught of Him and
you'll be taught of Him at a time and in a way where He gets all
the glory and you are humbled before Him. As I began our service,
the great promise of God is that he will teach, he says, they'll
be all taught of God. And everyone that's learned of
the Father and everyone that's taught of God, they're gonna
come to the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what the teaching of God
is about, is that God's children will come to him. He will gather
them all together. He will gather them in his way. I love those words, don't they? The way of the Lord. He knew
the way of the Lord. the way of the Lord and the way
of God. There is, as we read in Ephesians
chapter four, there is a measure of the spirit given. And because
there is a measure of the spirit given, all of God's people are
always in a state of being prepared to be taught by God. The moment
we think we stand, we need to be very careful that we don't
fall. There is the way of God. There is the way of God more
perfectly. Apollos reminds me very much
of myself. I hate talking about myself, as you know, but anyway,
I went to India a bit like Apollos, and I was fervent and I was zealous. And I had all of the religion
that this world could probably bestow upon you in all sorts
of measures. And I had five years of zealous
activity here in Nauru and in Sydney and in elsewhere
and got to witness to all sorts of things and speak in all sorts
of places. And I went to India. I went to India. You know who
taught me, I had friends who opened the
scriptures to me in remarkable ways. The people who taught me
the most in India were the girls in my dorm. They were 12 years
old. God's way of teaching his people
is to humble them. The Lord used men who preached
the gospel to me, but he used those girls as powerfully as
anyone else in my life. As much as I loved them, I was
horrified by the fact that when I realized that the religion
that I went over there with was not the truth of God, I had to
go back again and again to them and say, I'm really sorry. This
is the truth. But they taught me. They taught
me because the Lord had humbled me before them. He humbles his
people before him. He has, in his way of providence,
I talked about markers of providence and markers of grace, and one
of those is humility. And you think of the people that
came to the Lord Jesus Christ, there is not a single recorded
instance of one person coming to the Lord Jesus Christ in humility
and being turned away. Can you think of one? I can't
think of one anywhere. He says, look unto me and be
ye saved, all the ends of the earth. How did they come? What
did the leper do in Mark chapter two? He said, Lord, if you are
willing, you can make me clean. If you are willing. He was humbled
by a disease which was a marker of sin. He was humbled of all
of that life, whatever that life was. He had to walk around every
time he met anyone else, he had to say, unclean, unclean, and
not even breathe upon them and be cast aside from their society. That woman with the issue of
blood for 12 years, she was cast aside. She was unable to worship
God with those other people. She crawled through that crowd
and she said, if I could just touch We've already heard of Naaman
the Syrian. Naaman the Syrian had to be told
of a little girl that there is a God, there is a prophet in
Israel. The Lord's ways of bringing his
people to himself are so many and varied in the scriptures,
but they all have one marker, don't they? That these people
are humbled in this world. The proud are sent away until
they are humbled. The rich young man comes to the
Lord Jesus Christ and he says, good master, what must I do to
inherit eternal life? And the Lord says to him, well
these are your commandments, you keep the commandments of God.
And he rattles off, he tells him the last four commandments,
the ones that relate to man's activities of man. He says, I've
done all those, piece of cake, I can do them all. Sell all you've got. Sell all
you've got and give it to the poor and you come and follow
me. The Lord loved that rich young ruler and the rich young
ruler came back. But he didn't come back bragging
about what he could do and bragging about what he had done. The man
at the pool and the blind man in Jerusalem Everywhere where
the Lord comes, he comes as someone who is humbling. And humbled
people are teachable people. Humbled people are needy people. That's why Peter describes the
craving that they have, don't they? You desire, you crave the
sincere milk of the word like newborn babies. When babies are
crying, what are they saying? For a start, they might be well
lying to you. They often cry as if they're dying when they're
not dying. But what are they wanting? They're just wanting
to be fed, aren't they? They're wanting to be fed and
they're wanting to be nurtured. That's what Peter's likening
it to. It's a natural thing in the hearts
of God's people that he humbles, that they'll come. They'll come
humbled. They might be like blind Bartimaeus
and the world will say to them, you be quiet blind Bartimaeus,
you're an embarrassment. You're an embarrassment to everyone
here. And he just keeps on crying out, son of David have mercy
on me, son of David have mercy on me. And he received his sight. There is the way of God, and
the way of the Lord, and there is a way to learn that way more
perfectly, and that's which is going to be a humbled way, and
a humbling way. The way of God more perfectly
is the way of the Lord Jesus Christ and the work he's done
in his church. John the Baptist looked across time like so many
of the Old Testament prophets and they saw the coming of the
Lord Jesus Christ and the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ
all conflated together. But so often, these 2,000 years
of this gospel age we live in, seems to be an age that's caught
between those two points, isn't it? We have seen the judgment
of God fall upon this world as it fell upon the Lord Jesus Christ.
And we have seen the wonder of that judgment having fallen upon
Him. in that he's gathered his people to himself. And yet this
world rolls on, and we are standing on the tiptoes of eternity, waiting
for the Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed yet again. And John
says he's got his winnowing fork in his hand, his fan in his hand,
and he's going to thrash out that grain, and he'll blow away
the dust. It'll be burnt up, and he'll
gather the wheat into his barn, into his garner. And yet what
do we see? John didn't see it. And it seems
in this church age that we don't see it, but the Lord's people
see it through the eyes of faith. They see it through the eyes
of faith. And we find out, brothers and
sisters, that the Lord's way is the way of Him, isn't it? It's His way of gathering His
people, it's His way of raising up His church, it's His way,
it's His particular and special way in this gospel age of getting
glory for Himself. getting great glory for himself,
for revealing the manifold glory of God, and he does it in places
like this. And he's done it all over this
world, and he's doing it all over this world. That's why he
says, doesn't he, our Lord Jesus Christ says, I am the way, the
truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but
by me. The early church was called,
was signified by that title. They weren't called Christians
much at all. It's only terms only used twice in the New Testament.
But it was called the Way. It was called the Way in deference
and in reference to the One who is the Way. But it is called,
I'll just read some of the ones in the Scriptures, it's called
the Way of Truth. It's the truth about who God is. There are three
great truths, aren't there? The truth about who God is, he's
a sovereign creator and ruler of this universe. He's sovereign
over everything. There's a truth about man. Man is dead in trespasses and
sins. Man lives and comes into this
world as a rebel against God. That's why I love what Psalm
68 says, for the gifts that the Lord Jesus has earned are for
the rebellious also. Are you a rebel? Are you a sinner? Well, the other great truth,
there's three great truths out there, the character and nature
of God as revealed in the Lord Jesus Christ, and there is no
revelation of God outside of the Lord Jesus Christ. If you
want to know God, that's what he said to Philip, isn't it?
If you've seen me, you've seen the Father. All you're ever going
to know and see about God is in the Lord Jesus Christ. So
don't go looking anywhere else, because it's all there. All in
Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. All this
nonsensical talk about God in this world, any talk about God
that doesn't refer directly to the Lord Jesus Christ and doesn't
give Him the honour and glory due for what He has done and
who He is right now, is just idolatry. It's an image, isn't
it? It's an imagination of men. There are those three things, aren't
there? The character of God as revealed
in the Lord Jesus Christ, the character of man as God describes
us, and then the wonder of the Gospel is the character of God
and the way He saves sinners. And He saves sinners because
of the work that's done entirely outside of them. and entirely
by Him. Salvation is of the Lord. You
might have to go like Jonah down into the whale's belly into the
depths of the sea for three days to learn it. But if you've learnt
it, you've been taught by God. Salvation, every tiny little
part of salvation, is of the Lord. From beginning to end is
the Alpha and the Omega. If it's the beginning and the
end, it's everything in between, brothers and sisters. It's the
way of truth, says Peter. It's the way of righteousness.
It is the way of peace. Romans 3. Paul said it's the
way of salvation. Acts 16, 17. It's the way of
salvation. Even the demons knew that it
was the way of salvation. They were the words of a little
girl. It's the way. It's the way that
the Jews and all the religious world call heresy. The way they
call heresy, I worship God, says Paul. And how does he do it? He says, I believe everything
that's written in the prophets and the Psalms. It's called,
there's one of my favourite verses in the Bible, it's Isaiah 35,
it's a beautiful description of the way of God with his people.
We're looking at the way of God bringing his people to himself.
This is one of the reasons The Lord used this title, it's one
of the reasons the church was given this title in Isaiah 35
verse 8. It speaks of a highway, and where's
that highway? The highway is in a parched ground. The parched ground shall become
a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water, and in the
habitation of dragons, where each lay, shall be grass with
reeds and rushes. That's sorting out a drought.
And a highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called
the Way of Holiness. The unclean shall not pass over
it, but it shall be for those. The wayfaring men, though fools,
shall not err therein." See, God puts you in the way. You
can be a fool in the eyes of this world, you can be a wayfaring
man, and you're not going to err at all, because God puts
his people in the way. It is a great description of
the Lord Jesus Christ. He says in verse 4 of the same
chapter, He's going to save you and put you in the way. Don't
you remember the miracles of the Lord Jesus Christ? Those miracles were pointing
to the fact that this is who he is, that he's the one who
is the way, and he puts his people on that way. And there is a miracle
in the scriptures which is attributed entirely and only and specifically
and particularly to the Messiah, and that's opening the eyes of
the blind. That's what that blind man in John chapter 9 says. Has
anyone ever heard of anyone opening the eyes of one born blind? No
one's ever opened the eyes. It was saved for the Messiah.
Apollos and Paul and all of the Church is put on this way, put
on this way. Grace put him on a way that brought
him to Ephesus. Grace equipped him to be eloquent
and mighty in the Scriptures and to say that the Messiah is
coming. He's here. Grace taught him the
ministry of John, and Grace humbled him to be taught of Aquila and
Priscilla, tent makers. And he was taught. He was taught
by God. He was taught by God. And he,
humbled, could then go to Corinth. And he could help those who believed
through grace. One of the markers of grace is
the providence of God and the humbling of God's people before
his word. And they just say, it's true. It's true. Everything he says
in that book that you have on your lap, is true. They believe by grace. They believe by a divine appointment. That's why Acts 13.38 says those
who were ordained to eternal life did what? They believed. They didn't work. They looked
to someone who had done all the work for him. See, all that God
requires, all that God requires he finds in him who is the way.
He requires perfect faith. Where does he find it? He doesn't
find it in us. He finds it in his son and he's
satisfied and delights in it. He requires perfect love, holy
love. He finds it in his son. He requires
perfect obedience. And he finds that in his son.
He's well pleased with him. He requires that his law be honoured
in every way possible. And he finds that in his son.
And he requires that for him to fellowship with his people,
their sins must be gone forever. For a holy God must punish sin
And all that sin he laid on his son, and the son owns it as his
own. And God the Father punished him
until holy justice and holy wrath, says, it is finished. And then he leads captivity captive. His resurrected glorious savior
says, they're mine. I bought them. She's my church. She's my body. She's my bride. I love her. I'll nurture her
and nourish her. And I'll have her with me forever. The way may be varied, brothers
and sisters in Christ, but the way never varies at all. He'll have his bride. You'll have her and be satisfied. And you'll honor his promises
to her in this world to get glory for himself in the gathering
of her together in little assemblies around this world where he manifests
himself and reveals his truth. Let's pray. Now, Heavenly Father,
we pray that you would make us mindful of your son and thankful
to your son. And Heavenly Father, may we be
reminded again and again, as much as your son has these extraordinary
gifts to give, what he gives most abundantly and most preciously
is himself. Oh, our Father, we pray that
we might Look upon Him whom we have pierced that we might find
in your Son who now bears the wounds
of the cross in heaven to be all that we are before you and
all that we have. Father, humble us and teach us
and guide us and lead us in your ways to your dear and precious
son. Father, we commit ourselves,
we pray that we'd find ourselves carried in his arms and close
to his chest, that we might see his blood as precious and his
broken body as all of our salvation and all of our nourishment in
this world. Make us to live upon His life,
our Father. We pray in His name and for His
glory. Amen.