I thought, seeing this is our,
Lord willing, our last message on Acts chapter 13, I'd read
this sermon again. We have looked at Acts with the
thought in our mind that these are the Acts of the Holy Spirit,
they are the Acts of God's Church in the early days, and they are
the Acts of the living Lord Jesus Christ. He reigns and he rules. He decides who will be his witnesses. He decides where they will go
to witness for him. He decides what will be said.
He decides who will listen. He decides what response there
will be in the listeners. Our God is absolutely sovereign. And this sermon is the first
and the longest sermon of Paul's that's recorded for us in Acts.
No doubt he spoke many sermons and he repeated the words of
this sermon again and again and again. Once foundations have
been laid, then you just keep building on that same foundation,
which is what he said to the Corinthians. He needed to change
nothing in this message again for the rest of his days. The
Holy Spirit has blessed us by recording these words and blessed
us by recording the response to it. And there are, of course,
two responses to the Gospel. There are those that receive
and find the news of a Saviour the most glorifying thing that
they can possibly imagine. The news of a Saviour that you,
because of His work, Have eternal life with God. And if you're
going to hear that good news, you're going to hear it through
the preaching of the Gospel. So I thought we might read, it
begins in Acts 13 verse 17, and Paul begins with a God who chooses. He begins with a God who's absolutely
sovereign. There's nowhere in the scriptures
that you get any hint that our God is in any way troubled, that
our God is trying to do something and not able to achieve it. Our
God reigns. Let's read this sermon for one
final time in this series. The God of this people of Israel
chose our fathers and exalted the people when they dwelt as
strangers in the land of Egypt. With a high arm, he brought them
out of it. And about the time of 40 years,
he suffered their manners in the wilderness. And when he had
destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan, he divided their
land to them by lot. And after that he gave unto them
judges about the space of 450 years, until Samuel the prophet.
And afterward they desired a king. And God gave unto them Saul,
the son of Cis, a man of the tribe of Benjamin by the space
of 40 years. And when they had removed him,
he raised up unto them David to be their king. To him also
he gave testimony, and said, I have found David the son of
Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfil all my will. Of this man's seed hath God,
according to his promise, raised unto Israel a Saviour, Jesus. When John had first preached
before his coming the baptism of repentance to all the people
of Israel, and as he fulfilled his course, he said, Whom think
ye that I am? I am not he, but behold, There
cometh one after me, whose shoes of his feet I am not worthy to
loose. Men and brethren, children of
the stock of Abraham, and whosoever among you feareth God, to you
is the word of this salvation sent. For they that dwelt at
Jerusalem, and their rulers, because they knew him not, nor
yet the voices of the prophets which are read every Sabbath
day, have fulfilled them in condemning him. And though they found no
cause of death in him, yet desired they Pilate that he should be
slain. And when they had filled all
that was written of him, they took him down from the tree and
laid him in a sepulchre. But God raised him from the dead,
and he was seen many days of them which came up with him from
Galilee to Jerusalem, who are his witnesses unto the people.
And we declare unto you glad tidings. how that the promise
which was made unto the fathers, God hath fulfilled the same unto
us, their children, in that he raised up Jesus again, as it
is also written in the second psalm, Thou art my son, this
day have I forgotten thee. And as concerning that he raised
him up from the dead, now no more to return to corruption,
he said on this wise, I will give you the sure mercies of
David. Wherefore he saith also in another
psalm, Thou shalt not suffer thine holy one to see corruption. For David, after he had served
his own generation by the will of God, fell on sleep and was
laid unto his fathers, and saw corruption. But he whom God raised
again saw no corruption. Be it known unto you, therefore,
men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you
the forgiveness of sins. And by him all that believe are
justified from all things from which you could not be justified
by the law of Moses. Beware, therefore, lest that
come upon you which is spoken of in the prophets. Behold, ye
despisers, and wonder and perish. For I work at work in your days,
a work you shall in no wise believe, though a man declare it unto
you. And when the Jews were gone out
of the synagogue, the Gentiles besought that these words might
be preached to them the next Sabbath. Now when the congregation
was broken up, Many of the Jews and religious proselytes followed
Paul and Barnabas, whose speaking to them persuaded them to continue
in the grace of God. And the next Sabbath day came
almost the whole city together to hear the word of God. But
when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy and
spake against those things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting
and blaspheming. Then Paul and Barnabas waxed
bold and said, It was necessary that the word of God should first
have been spoken to you. But seeing ye put it from you,
and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, we turn
to the Gentiles. For so has God commanded us,
saying, I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that
thou shouldest be for the salvation unto the ends of the earth. And
when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad. and glorified
the word of the Lord and as many as were ordained to eternal life
believed. And the word of the Lord was
published throughout all the region, but the Jews stirred
up the devout and honourable women and the chief men of the
city and raised persecution against Paul and Barnabas and expelled
them out of their coasts. But they shook off the dust of
their feet against them and came unto Iconium, and the disciples
were filled with joy and with the Holy Ghost." Wouldn't it
be wonderful if the Lord blessed his word this morning and we
left here filled with joy and with the Holy Ghost. I love the simplicity of the
Gospel. That's a short sermon, isn't
it? You can read Paul's sermon in a matter of a few minutes. as with all of the words of the
Lord Jesus Christ and his messages to us in the scriptures. They
are simple. They are simple. They are a simple
declaration of who our God is. They are a simple declaration
of who man is. And they are a simple declaration
of who and how God saves sinners like us. I'd like us to spend
some time on that verse in Acts 13, 48. And when the Gentiles heard this,
when the Gentiles heard the fact that God had set his son, you
see in verse 47, God's preaching comes with a command from God. The Lord commanded us saying,
I have set thee, I have set thee, I have laid thee down. as a foundation,
I've set thee as a light for the Gentiles." In fact, Simeon
calls the Lord Jesus someone who is to come to lighten the
light of the Gentiles, to set that light on high, that by his
light we actually might see who God is and see who we are and
see the wonder, the wonder of redeeming love in the Lord Jesus
Christ. that thou shouldest be salvation
for the ends of the earth. When the Gentiles heard this,
when the Gentiles heard that message, you've got to remember
the scene again in this city of Antioch, there they all turned
up at the synagogue, all the Jews, all the proselyte Gentiles,
the Gentiles that had come to worship in the synagogue, and
according to the Holy Spirit, almost the whole city was turned
up. They turned up for a church service, And it's no record that
the church service ever began. Such was the hostility of the
Jews to this. But maybe, maybe Paul, as he
did in many other places, just took those people who gladly
received the Word aside and they rejoiced. They rejoiced in who
God is. So the Gentiles heard this. They
heard this message. They heard this Gospel. They
heard of this Saviour. They heard this, they were glad,
and they glorified the word of the Lord, and as many as were
ordained to eternal life believed." God's ministers, our fellow workers
with the Lord, 1 Corinthians 3.9 describes them, we are labourers
together with God. All of us, those who preach and
those who support the preaching are labourers together with God
and you are God's husbandry and you are God's building. God is
building in this world a testimony, a witness to the Lord Jesus Christ. The place where the Lord Jesus
Christ is promised to be glorified in this world is in the church. Gatherings like this The churches
in the New Testament era were often small churches like the
churches scattered throughout the world today. They are small
gatherings of people and we're not to despise the day of small
things. It's when the people hear, they
hear and they are glad and then they glorify the Word of God. and as many. There is a group
amongst this world who will hear the Gospel and as many as were
ordained to eternal life believe." God's children are brought to
love the character of God as he's revealed in the scriptures.
And the more we know about him, the more delighted we are in
him. The more we know him, the more
we're amazed at his redeeming love, his eternal purposes, the
more we are in awe of that eternal covenant when before the foundation
of the world, God said to his son, this is my gift to you. She will be your bride. And the
son struck hands with his father and he said, I will bring them
back to you, wholly spotless, unblameable, unreprovable in
your sight. And all of what unfolds in all
of creation and all of what unfolds in all of your lives is but the
outworking of that great promise. And when the Lord Jesus Christ
returns, those who are glad, as many as were ordained to eternal
life, those who have been brought by God to believe and to trust
in that Saviour will join that glorious throng. They are a divided
bride at the moment, aren't they? There is the bride in heaven.
There are those who are around the throne of God, and who do
they see? Who do they see on that throne?
They see a wounded, crucified, risen, glorified Lord Jesus Christ. And what are they doing in heaven?
What's happening in heaven right now? They're singing. They're
singing the songs of redemption. They're singing right now as
we are here. They're singing about the glory
of the Lord Jesus Christ, the glory of his deity, the glory
of his sovereign rule over all things, the glory of his successful
redemption for his people. And then there is the bride that's
here, isn't it? This scattered, somewhat despised, easily overlooked. You can walk through this world
and miss seeing them all together. But they're gods. They're gods. He says that he's engraven them
on the palms of his hand, those blood-soaked palms. He's written
them and he carries them on his heart. He carries, he has the
government of this world on his shoulders and he carries them
on his heart all the time. They are dear and precious to
him. And nothing, nothing and no one,
not Satan, not yourself, not anyone in this world is going
to take them out of his hand. He carries them in his arms through
all the trials and troubles of this world. He'll carry them
to heaven's glory. They are perfectly fit for heaven. They were perfectly fit for heaven
from before the foundation of the world. They were perfectly
fit for heaven when they fell in their father, Adam, in the
garden, and turned and became God's enemies and despised him.
And yet, with everlasting love, he's loved them, and he draws
them to himself. They must be saved, brothers
and sisters. They were saved from before the
foundation of the world. They were saved on Calvary's
tree when he bore their sins in his own body on the tree.
And he bore those sins away, and before God they have no sin. They're justified. They're justified. And in that wonderful, wonderful
time that the scriptures call the time of love, at the time
of love, the Lord Jesus Christ comes to his bride, to every
single one, individually, personally, he comes to every single one
and says, you're mine. I bought you. You were mine in
eternity. You are my father's gift to me. You are the means by which I
glorify my father in this world. Come. Come, he says to his bride. Come away with me. Come away
to me. I don't know about you, but I
love to hear the Gospel again and again and again. The reason
I love to hear it again and again and again is because I forget
all the time, and there's nothing in this world, in our interactions
with the people of this world, that draws us back to Him. Everything
draws us away, and yet He draws His people. He draws His people
to Himself. And he draws his people to himself
by the simplest means possible, by taking a frail, feeble, fickle
servant of his and preaching the Lord Jesus Christ in his
glory. Just preach him as he is. The
end result of all this opposition in Antioch is that Paul just
preached on. When there's opposition, he just
kept preaching. Why? Because faith comes by hearing. Seeing the Lord Jesus Christ
comes by hearing. and hearing by the Word of God. So all of our activities, aren't
they, all of our activities are now about glorifying the Word
of God. We want to see the Lord Jesus
Christ lifted up, we want to see Him high, and we want to
see Him glorious. And all the false religion, all
of the Babylon's anti-Christ religion in this world has two
purposes always, and they are one and the same, aren't they?
They are to diminish the character of God while pretending to proclaim
His name, to reduce Him just a little bit and at the same
time to elevate man. Always, the two go hand in hand. If you elevate man and his ability
and his worth and his will and his works, then necessarily you
diminish the glory of God. God's servants have a solemn
task, don't they? Paul says in Galatians 1.10,
he says, For do I now persuade men or
God, or do I seek to please men? For if I yet pleased men, I should
not be the servant of Christ. My task, the task of all of God's
preachers, is not to hide God's character, but to exalt God's
character, and to leave you in his hands, he who is sovereign. It is appointed. It's appointed
to men once to die and after that the judgement. When you
leave here, in your little brief sojourn here, it is tiny. I know you young people think
that it goes on forever. I promise you when you get to
my age you realise it's gone like that. The scriptures talk
about it being like the flower of the grass. I mowed our grass
last week and there are thousands of clover flowers on there, thousands
of them. And I just mowed them all off
and I bet you if you went out there to try and find the clover
flowers now, they'd all be gone. They've gone away. That's how
brief our time is. Eternity goes on forever and
you will meet Him. You will meet Him as He has promised
and you will meet Him as His character is revealed in the
scriptures. So much of modern religion wants
to hide the character of God in case it offends people. You've
got to remember that these terms like ordained to eternal life
and predestination and election were the common talk of Christians. When John writes to fellow believers,
he talks about the elect lady. They talked about election all
the time. Paul began this sermon by talking about God being a
choosing God, that he chose nation Israel, and he didn't choose
Egypt, and he didn't choose America. He chose Israel, he chose his
people. Our God sovereignly predestines
all things. Religion is continually telling
man how to live. That's why we have that picture
of the tree on the front of our bulletin for this last maybe
nearly 10 years. Religion is telling man how to
polish the old stump. God says it's dead and God's
people rejoice in the fact that it's dead. that my flesh and
all of its sin was put to death on Calvary's tree. And now my
task and the task of the Gospel always is to cause you to look
away. Look away from yourself and look
to the Lord Jesus Christ. Religion is always telling men
how to live. The Gospel tells men how to die. how to finish your time here
with gladness, with joy and with expectation amidst all the trials. Believers are brought to see
that salvation is a grace activity of God. They are. They are encouraged. Believers
are encouraged to know that you have eternal life. This is eternal life, says John
17.3, isn't it? That you know the Father and
Jesus Christ whom He has sent. He's the one who was sent. He
was sent because He existed before He was sent. He's the eternal
Son of God. He was sent by the Father on
a mission. And Acts, this passage in Acts
and the events that happened around it, and the events that
have happened for the last 2,000 years are but the outworking
of that promise. It's knowing Him, knowing Him. So if the character of God in
the Scriptures is offensive to you, then be honest with yourself
and be honest with God and call yourself at that point an unbeliever
and plead to God for mercy. God's children love His character. They love His holiness. They love His coming as a man. They love the wonder of the humanity
of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was fully human. and he was
fully divine. They love his promises, his promises
to come as a reigning sovereign, his promises to come and to do
all that was necessary to present that bride holy and spotless.
We love the fact of his majesty. the majesty of his being, the
majesty of his works, the majesty of the lowliness of his love,
the majesty of the wonder that everyone who came to him in the
Gospels who was in need, everyone who came in need went away satisfied. Everywhere we turn in the scriptures
we see more of His Majesty and we long to see more of it. And
so when it comes to issues like this electing love, this ordaining
purpose, this ordaining to eternal life, it is the very hope of
our souls. It is the very hope of our souls
because you have nothing in yourselves to do this. You cannot, you cannot
by your own self do works that are fit for God's presence. God alone must give you. God alone must work it in your
heart to give you. We love the way he draws his
people to himself. We love the fact that he is a
God of absolute justice. And we see that justice in the
passage before us, these people that responded so negatively
to him. They were called despisers. They
were those who turned from the Word of God and they are fully
responsible for what they have done. But more of that later.
But let's look at the order of this, isn't it? The Gospel comes,
the Lord Jesus Christ comes when the Gospel is preached and he
comes personally and powerful. He came to these people in Antioch. He came to that particular city
and not to other cities. He came there and then people
here God causes people to hear. They hear. And then God's people
hear gladly. They hear the words of salvation,
that there's a saviour for sinners, that there's forgiveness of sins,
that there is justification before God. They hear gladly. and then as many as were ordained
to eternal life believed." The point is simple, isn't it? That
believing is the fruit. It is the fruit of the work of
God in our lives, isn't it? He says in verse 39 of our text,
isn't he, he says, by him all that believe. What a great comfort
it is, isn't it, for you who believe to know that the cause,
the beginning, the first cause of true saving faith is not worked
in me by my activities and my efforts, but it is a gift of
God. It's the gift of God. It's the
work of God. It's that new life that God brings. It's life from the dead. To be
able to believe requires a birth from above. That's what the Lord
Jesus Christ said to Nicodemus, that incredibly learned, moral,
religious man. He says, you cannot see the kingdom
of God. You cannot enter the kingdom
of God unless you are born from above. You have to have light
from God. He says in Isaiah 57, 19, he
says, I create the fruit of lips. I create the fruit of lips. Peace,
peace to him that is far off. It's a glorious passage of scripture,
Isaiah 57. Let me read the rest of the verse
to you. 57. He says, I create the fruit of
lips. Peace, peace to him that is far
off and to him that is near, saith the Lord, and I will heal
him. I will heal him. So the scriptures
continually encourage believers just to look to the Lord and
look to the Lord's dealings with them. The people in Antioch were
going to be visited again by Paul on his return journey and
then when he got back to Antioch and reported all the great things
that God had done, he couldn't wait to go back and see them
again and see how the Lord was working in their hearts. We are
to look to our Lord, but also we are encouraged to see His
hand of grace in bringing the Gospel to us. So let's look at
this verse, this verse which offends so many. It says in verse 47, the Lord is
set. Verse 37 says that the Lord God,
the Lord Jesus Christ was set. was set, set by God, laid down
as a foundation. He was set to be a light, a light
to the Gentiles. And this is what they heard and
were glad. They heard this, and as many, that particular group,
that and that many, were ordained. Now the word ordained is a military
term originally. It means to draw up troops or
ships in a battle array. God always does things in order. I love that picture of the order
of the Lord Jesus Christ when he had those people come to him
starving on that mountain when they'd been following him and
he didn't want to send them away and he had them set in companies,
set down in companies. The Lord is the Lord God of hosts. He orders all things and he draws
up these troops. He, as it were, draws up troops
to station, to post them or station. It is to put someone somewhere
and then to command them. It is the act of the sovereign
God to ordain. It also can mean to appoint,
to appoint. God appoints people to service. Paul was appointed to be an apostle
to the Gentiles. It is an appointment. I love
how when the centurion, you might remember the story in Luke chapter
7, when the centurion had that servant of his that he loved
and he was really sick. And then he said, and the people,
he had built a synagogue, and he'd been a friend of the Jews,
and they came distressed about this man. And he sent, and they
sent for the Lord Jesus to come to him, and the Lord was on his
way to see him. And the man sent his servants
to him. In Luke chapter 7, verse 8, this
man sent these servants, and he said these remarkable words.
As the Lord Jesus was coming to him, he sent friends to the Lord Jesus
and saying unto him, Lord, trouble not thyself, for I am not worthy
that thou shouldest enter under my roof. Wherefore, neither thought I
myself worthy to come unto thee, but say in a word, and my servant
shall be healed. For I am also a man set under
authority, having under me soldiers. And I say unto one, go, and he
goeth. And the other, come, and he cometh.
And to my servant, do this, and he doeth it. When Jesus heard
these things, he marveled at him. and turned him about and
said unto the people that followed him, I say unto you, I have not
found so great faith, no, not in Israel." The Lord Jesus marvelled
at this man's faith because this man believed that the Lord Jesus
Christ had appointed things and all he had to do was say a word.
All he had to do was say a word and this servant would be healed.
It's an appointment that humbles the ones appointed. It is to
be set in order. It is to command. When Cornelius had Peter come
to his house, he said, we're all here gathered together to
hear all the things that are commanded thee of God. But in our text it also means
to have been appointed. as if it's in the past tense,
as many who were ordained to eternal life believed, as many
who has had been appointed. See, God determines the time
and he appoints the bounds of people's habitation. He sets
the bounds and rules of all things in this world. The Lord Jesus
Christ, as Paul would have us know and as the scriptures have
us know, sits on a throne as a sovereign. Thy throne, O God,
is for ever and ever. He sits as a sovereign, and he
ordains, and he rules, and his people go where he sends them
to go. Paul went as a servant. God's children will go where
God ordains them to go. God ordained witnesses to the
Lord Jesus Christ, and he ordained preachers to preach that witness
to the people. He ordains hearers, and he ordains
the response of hearers. This is our God, and God's children
love it. They were ordained to a purpose,
weren't they? They were ordained to eternal
life. Whenever we come to issues of
eternity, we have to profess that although the words sound
really good, we don't have a clue about what they really mean.
What is it like to live in heaven's glory right now? What will it
be like to be in that new creation, to have physical bodies, to have
real relationships as meaningful and as real and profoundly more
significant than the ones we have here? What will it be like
to be in a body and see the Lord Jesus Christ and see Him as He
really is? forever, forever and ever. We just That's why faith is so
wonderful, isn't it? Faith is the gift of God. The
faith is what allows us to lay hold of those things without
having any serious understanding. Almost everything we talk about
when it comes to spiritual matters, we have almost no understanding
of it. And the more we know, the less
we realise that we know. the more ignorant we become and
the more dependent we are on just reading His Word and taking
Him at His Word as that centurion did, just believing that You
say a word. You say a word, my Saviour. and your word creates reality. As it did in the beginning, you
just said a word, light be and light was. He said a word and
this universe came into, he creates reality, brothers and sisters,
by speaking a word. And when he speaks of eternal
life, we often think that it's starting here and it goes on
forever. That's a part of it, but it's not the picture properly,
is it? Our God lives in eternity, thus
saith the holy, the high and lofty one who inhabiteth eternity. God inhabits eternity, whose
name is holy. And I dwell, I dwell in that
high and holy place with him who is contrite and humble. And he dwells there to revive. to revive hearts. So eternal
life has no beginning as well as no end. Now if you can get
your head around that, come and tell me. But it has no beginning
and no end. It doesn't have a beginning back
there and an end there. It is just forever. That's why
that which always has been and always will be is forever and
ever. It's called everlasting because God is everlasting. It's the commandment. The gospel
is the commandment of the everlasting God. It's eternal, eternal, because
God is eternal. The Holy Spirit is the eternal
Spirit, Hebrews 9.4. The Lord Jesus Christ is God
over all. He has a priesthood which is
like Melchizedek, it says in Hebrews 7. Neither beginning
of days nor end of life. There's no beginning. There's no beginning. There's
a beginning in our understanding of things. But what we do when
we do understand is we're drawn into something which has begun
from a long, long time ago. And those foundations that were
laid, were laid by God and they must stand for all time. 2 Timothy 1.9 says, God, the
power of God. You might be a partaker of the
afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God who has saved
us and called us with an holy calling, not according to our
works, but according to his own purpose and grace. See, notice
the order, isn't it? God saved us. When did he save
us? From before the foundation of
the world, brothers and sisters. When did He save us? He saved
us on Calvary's tree. When is salvation manifest to
us? When He comes and saves us and
He reveals the Lord Jesus Christ and gives us faith in Him. He
saves us and then He calls us. And He doesn't call us because
there's something good in us. He calls us not according to
our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was
given us in Christ Jesus, when? before the world began, before
the stars, before the planets, before light, before the world
began. It's called the everlasting gospel.
It's the gospel of the everlasting God. And it's eternal salvation because
it's eternal, eternal redemption. It's an eternal salvation. its
eternal life. To have that is to have life. To not have that like that is
to be like these Jews in Antioch who were despisers. And then
it says that they judge themselves, they judge themselves unworthy
of everlasting life. There is there is an eternal
punishment, as well as there is an eternal life. But life
is what's in our verse here. See, it's life, and it's everlasting
life, and it's eternal life, because all that brings death
is gone forever. Sin brings death. gone forever. Satan, who has
that power of death, gone forever from our presence. We are there. We will be there
because of the works of God. That's why it's called sovereign
grace. God saves his people forever. See, it's God's choosing, electing
love. That's why he says, it's as many
as were ordained to eternal life. The Lord Jesus Christ came not
to serve, not to be served, but to serve and to give his life
as a ransom for many. The Lord Jesus Christ had a purpose
in his coming. He had a purpose in His coming,
that He was going to save His people from their sins, as many
as they glorified the Word of the Lord. They glorified the
Word of the Lord. See, God's people love. the notion
of God's electing love. They love the notion of his predestinating
work. They love his foreknowing. They are glad when they hear
those things, because without those words, without what those
words mean, without what those words mean in the life and the
death of the Lord Jesus Christ, there is no hope. There is no
hope for our souls. We love them. So they believe
the gospel, they believe the truth, and they hear it with
gladness. They hear it with gladness. As
Paul said to the Thessalonians later on in his journeys, that
we are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved
of the Lord, for God, because God has from the beginning chosen
you to salvation through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the
truth. It's a word that comes. Paul's
foundational activities here in Antioch were going to be what
would follow him for the rest of his days. He began proclaiming
the Lord Jesus Christ in Damascus and in much trouble. It says
to these The Thessalonians, he says, knowing brethren, therefore,
your election of God. They were encouraged to look
at themselves and consider themselves and others who believed to be
the elect of God. Knowing brethren, beloved, your
election of God. It's love language, election
and ordination and predestination. It's the language of love in
the Scriptures. The word to the Thessalonians
was received with much affliction. It's a word in 1 Thessalonians
2 which was spoken with much contention. It's a word that
calls God's sheep into his kingdom and glory. It's a word that is
silenced in our day. Donald Trump stood before the
world, didn't he, the other day giving the Christmas message,
and he was very pleased with himself because they're now wanting
to say happy holidays around the place. I don't really care
whether they say happy holidays or happy Christmas, but Donald
Trump had the opportunity to commend himself to men, and what
did he say to all of the world? You're all God's children. Not
according to the word of God you aren't. There are children
of the devil. And then he says, and God loves
you all. You're all God's children and God loves you all. God loves
you all. And how's he shown his love to
you? He's shown his love to you, not that Donald Trump said this,
but this is where he got it from, didn't he? He's shown his love
to you by the Lord Jesus Christ dying for you. That God does not exist, brothers
and sisters. Our God reigns. Our God reigns
and rules. Our God is a God of purpose. Our God is a God of choosing,
as this sermon began. Choosing, electing, predestinating
for knowing. See, people think, don't they,
just some objections to this, people think that it shuts the
door to heaven to talk about those and it shouldn't be preached
to children and young people. Some people say this is sort
of secret doctrine and once you've actually got people to come and
profess some sort of saving faith, then later on you can take them
down this path to these deep, deep things which are so troubling
to people. It's what the non-believer needs
to hear. They desperately need to hear
that they're in God's hands and he's not in theirs. The God of
Donald Trump, the God that Donald Trump spoke of, is a pathetic
wimp of a God who can't achieve anything. They pray unto a God
who cannot save and such is the religious world. This, as I said
to you, was foundational language in the early church. Paul had
no problem going to these people and speaking of him choosing.
You read the Lord Jesus Christ's words to the Jews in John 6 and
8 and 10 and many other places in the scriptures, you'll see
that he didn't shy away from it and when there was objection
to it, he preached it more strongly. God is not embarrassed about
his character and he's not embarrassed about his purpose. It's a good
message for young and old to hear that salvation is entirely
of grace, that believing is the gift of God. And how does a believer
respond when he hears those things? The response of the believer
is, Lord, I believe, help my unbelief. Lord, save me. I can't save myself. You save
me. You reveal yourself to me. If anyone gets to heaven, if
anyone gets to heaven, God gets all the glory, all of the glory. There was a lady, a simple lady
who was saved and she said these wonderful words, she said, when
I get to heaven, Jesus will never hear the end of it. If I ever
get to heaven, Jesus will never hear the end of it. If anyone
gets to heaven, God gets all the glory and his children are
glad, glad in that. And the reality is that if anyone
goes to hell, it is 100% their fault. It is 100% their fault. There will be no excuses. There
will be no but I. There'll be no but this. There'll
be no but they. There'll be no buts that if they'd
actually preached more fully or preached more powerfully or
done more witnessing. There'll be no buts. There will
be no excuses. on that day. These people in
Acts 13 rejected the Word of God when others around them were
receiving it with gladness. The Lord Jesus Christ and the
Holy Spirit describes it, doesn't it, in Acts 13.41. Just look
at it. He says, you are despisers. They were filled with envy. Verse
45, and they spoke against the things that Paul preached, contradicting
and blaspheming. Verse 46, they put it from you. You take the Word of God and
you put it from you. And then you judge yourselves
unworthy of everlasting life. See, they did what they wanted
to do. And they are responsible. They
stirred up, verse 50, they stirred up devout and honourable men,
and then they expelled the messengers from their coasts. See, the willful
rejection of the Gospel is calling God a liar, according to 1 John
4.10. Willful rejection of the Gospel
is to despise the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, Hebrews
10.29, and treat it as a common thing to be trampled in the street. It is to set yourself in a fight
against God. Isaiah 63.10, they rebelled and
vexed his spirit and he became their enemy. As we read in these
verses before us, they are judging themselves. And what's the response? What's the response? Just read
to the end of the chapter with me. The Gentiles heard about a sovereign
God electing and ordaining, and they glorified the Word of God.
Verse 49, and the Word of the Lord was published throughout
all the region. The enmity of people to the Gospel
is the cause of the Gospel being spread. You remember what happened
in Jerusalem. There was that church in Jerusalem
and they had their temple and they had all of their gathering
there together and the apostles and the Lord brought persecution
on them and they were scattered. And what happened when they were
scattered? They went to Samaria and they went to Caesarea and
they went and went and went. And Paul was sent, expelled from
this area and it didn't hinder the Gospel proclamation one little
bit. And the Jews stirred up, the
Jews continued their activities in verse 50 and we know in the
next chapter that these same Jews followed and pursued Paul
wherever he went in that missionary journey and eventually stirred
up people to kill him. So what do God's people do in
these situations? What a shocking judgement. But
they, these servants of the Lord Jesus Christ, these men that
came with tears in their eyes, as Paul wrote Romans chapter
9, he had tears in his eyes that he would be cut off, that his
people might be saved, the Jews might be saved. to have these
people that come with this message of salvation, this message of
forgiveness of sins, to have these people expelled from your
area. And what's the response? They shook the dust off their
feet against them and came to Iconium. As I said earlier in
1 Corinthians 3.9, preachers, God's servants, are fellow labourers
with Christ. They shook the dust off their
feet. They are saying the most worthless
thing in all of your city is not even going to be taken with
us. God left them to themselves and left them to their religion,
left them to their just condemnation, left them in their own personal
judgment of themselves. And you preach on. Many of us
have many discouraging times when we try and speak to people.
The issue is that when we meet with opposition, we're not there
called to debate and argue with people, we're there to proclaim.
We proclaim and then we move on. We proclaim. We have one desire, that the
Lord would find us faithful in declaring his character, in declaring
his gospel. May the Lord find us faithful. Faithful slaves, faithfully sent,
faithfully declaring him. So the Jews' rejection just means
the gospel was spread. And look at what happens to the
disciples. All those, the word disciple
means to be a learner, means to hear something and to take
it in and to follow it. And the disciples were filled
with joy and with the Holy Ghost. It's to have Christ in you. It's
to be filled with joy in the midst of all of this persecution
and opposition. appointment to eternal life is
the cause of joy amongst the disciples. God's appointment
of people to eternal life is the cause and the motivation
and the guarantee of success in preaching the gospel. The
Lord Jesus Christ has sheep, doesn't he? He said, other sheep
have I. He says he's always had them. They've been his and he
must bring them in. People think that election and
predestination causes people to not want to preach and evangelise
in the scriptures. It's the motivation for evangelism. The God has his people out there.
I don't know what they look like. I don't know when they're going
to be gathered. All I know is that they belong to the Lord
Jesus Christ and he'll gather them to himself. And he'll cause
them to hear his word with gladness. He'll cause them to believe.
They'll hear the message of his character. His character, his
person, and his work. And they'll be glad. And they'll
believe. And they'll be so thankful that
this is God's ordination in their lives. And what God does, he
does forever. The works were finished from
the foundation of the Lord. They're glad. Like David. David said, I was glad when they
said to me, let us go to the house of the Lord. I was glad. May God make us glad. Let's pray. Now, Heavenly Father,
we thank you. We thank you for the history
that you have recorded. We thank you, Heavenly Father,
that history has been repeated throughout this Gospel age, throughout
all of the people that you've gathered to yourself, Heavenly
Father. And we praise you that it reveals to us a sovereign
God and a glorious and sovereign Saviour. We thank You, Heavenly
Father, that in Your ordination of all things, You rule over
all the events of this universe for the good of Your people.
And we praise You that our Saviour sits on the throne, Heavenly
Father, and He rules and ordains all things for Your glory and
for the good of His people. Heavenly Father, please make
us mindful yet again and again that this was a blood-bought
redemption, that he shed his precious blood on Calvary's tree
with a purpose. He was the lamb slain from the
foundation of the world, and by his death we are washed from
our sins. and made fit, made perfectly
fit by His work and His work alone to be with you forever. Oh our Father will you please
glorify your Son in our midst and cause us to with glad hearts
glorify your Word simply by trusting simply by believing, simply by
finding ourselves at rest in who your dear son is and what
he has done and what he is doing right now. For we pray in his
name. Amen.