I'd like to spend just a short
time looking at this verse in verse 26 where it says that this
word of this salvation is sent Wherever the word of this salvation
comes, it is sent. And I love how the Holy Spirit
is so definite about this word. It's this word of this salvation.
It's the word of this salvation. There is just one word that brings
God's glory in salvation, and it's this particular salvation. It's not a salvation that's in
any way other than so clearly defined as we've seen in the
scriptures. As you notice, probably as we read through that, Paul
effectively just gives a history lesson. He just says, these are
the events. These are the events, the history
of the nation Israel, the history in which God has revealed his
glory, the history in which all was written that the Saviour,
for whom the history is all focused on, might be revealed to Israel. And He's revealed by the preaching
of this salvation. This salvation is sent to you
It's lovely the descriptions that are used in this particular
chapter, isn't it, about the preaching of the word of God.
They preach the word of God and it's called the doctrine of the
Lord. Sergius Paulus was astonished
at the doctrine of the Lord. It was called the word of exhortation.
It's a word that describes a Saviour Jesus. It's glad tidings. It's the Word of God. It's the
Word of the Lord. It is always a word that is sent. And it's sent to particular people
at a particular time, at a particular point in their lives. And it's
sent by God the Holy Spirit. It's sent by His direction. It
says, it's remarkable how the apostles are joined with the
Lord Jesus in 1346, that says that the The word, verse 47, sorry, so
has God commanded us, God commanded the apostles, commanded us, saying,
I have set thee, the Lord Jesus Christ, to be a light of the
Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for the salvation unto the
ends of the earth. It is a message that comes in
the most humbling form possible and in the weakest form possible. Paul doesn't come boldly with
intelligence and an orator before these people. He comes in fear
and much trembling. He comes, I think we would have
been amazed to know how ordinary the likes of Paul were, if you
got to see him, and how in a sermon that we have just read that was
a sermon that began the mission to the Gentiles in this part
of the world, it's such an ordinary sermon. As I said before, if
you preach that sermon in Bible college preaching training classes
these days, they'd say, this is not good enough. There's not
enough in there about man. There's not enough in there about
man and his felt needs. There's not enough in there.
And yet every verse in it, every verse in it, is a picture of
the Lord Jesus Christ, a description of Him. They just had one, one
message, isn't it? The Holy Spirit says, separate,
separate. Separate unto me, separate unto
me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called
them. They are separated by the Holy
Spirit as the Church. They are separated from the Church. They are separated to go out
with the Church's blessing and the Church's prayer. There is
nothing done. There is nothing done in the
preaching of the Gospel which will not rebound to the glory
of God and His Church, that Bride of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
the word is sent by an omnipotent, providential hand, isn't it?
We don't know why Paul and Barnabas bypassed Perga, as it seems,
and why this is recorded. We know that the Holy Spirit
directs and guides where this word is sent. It is to remind
us that it's a precious thing. It's a precious, precious thing
to hear this Word of God. In fact, there are remarkable
verses in Acts chapter 16, where the Holy Spirit stops Paul from
preaching. In Acts chapter 16, verse 6,
he says, Now when they had gone throughout Phrygia and the region
of Galatia, they were forbidden by the Holy Ghost to preach the
Word in Asia. Were there sinners in Asia? There
were sinners in Asia. They were forbidden by the Holy
Ghost. And after they had come, after
they had come to Mysia, they were said to go into Bithynia. But the Spirit suffered them
not. The reality is, brothers and
sisters, that the word of God is sent to a particular people
gathered by God to hear. Always gathered by God to hear. This message, we desire for it
to go out to all the world and we publish and proclaim it as
the Lord would allow us to any who might give us hearing. But
the Lord opens doors and he shuts doors. My point simply is that
the Word of God, the preached Word of God, is a precious, precious
thing in this world. It's like rain, I love what Micah
5.7 says, it's like rain, the dew of heaven. It waiteth not
for man, neither tarrieth for the sons of men. The remnant
of Jacob shall be in the midst of many people. The Word of God
comes and it doesn't wait for man's particular deserving and
it doesn't wait for some particular preparation in man. It says in
the Scriptures that the grace of God brings salvation. The grace of God brings salvation. He comes to the dead that they
might have life. I love that glorious picture
in Ezekiel 16 of the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. And there
is just that lovely moment, isn't he, when he says in verse 6,
and when I passed by, I saw thee polluted in thine own blood,
and I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, live. Yea, I said unto thee, when thou
wast in thy blood, live. That's what the word of God does,
isn't it? It comes as a word from on high. It comes as a word
of grace. It comes and declares life. It comes and declares a saviour
who is life. He comes to the dead, John 10.10,
that they might have life. And he says at the tomb of Lazarus,
he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. He says in our chapter, Acts
13, 39, and by him, all that believe. How do you
believe? You believe by Him. By Him all
that believe are justified, are justified from all things, from
all things from which you could not be justified by the law of
Moses. The Lord Jesus Christ commissioned
Paul, and Paul recounts it in Acts chapter 26, in these glorious
words, where Paul is put, as all of God's ministers are and
all of God's people are, they are put in the dust. And they
are put in the dust and they find themselves being put there
again and again by the circumstances of life. And he says, but rise. But rise and stand upon your
feet, for I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make
thee a minister and a witness both of these things which thou
hast seen and of those things in which I will appear unto thee,
delivering thee from the people and from the Gentiles unto whom
now I send thee. To open their eyes, to turn them
from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God,
that they may receive the forgiveness of sins. They may not work for
them, but they can receive the forgiveness of sins, and inheritance
among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me." The faith that's in him sanctifies
his people. He is our sanctification. It's an inheritance, isn't it?
It's an inheritance. You don't earn an inheritance.
You're born into an inheritance. My children will collect a few
pennies from me one day, possibly. They're very, very few. If I
continue the way I'm going, there'll be probably none at all. But
nevertheless, if they do receive a few pennies, They will get
it because of something that happened a long, long time ago,
a time before they had any consciousness of it at all. That's how an inheritance
comes. The inheritance is in Him. He is our inheritance. So the preaching of the Gospel.
I love how Peter describes, and I do keep quoting these verses.
I hope you lay them to heart. because there's a lot more in
them than I can possibly declare to you but it says He says, verse
22 of chapter one, seeing that you have purified your souls. Isn't that remarkable? Purifying
your souls. We read about in Psalm 65 about
purging. It's a similar word, isn't it?
Purifying your souls in obeying the truth. And how do you obey
the truth? How do you hear and how do you
obey the truth? Through the Spirit. into unfeigned
love of the brethren." Unfeigned love of the brethren. See that
you love one another with a pure heart, fervently. Being born
again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the word
of God which liveth and abideth forever. For all flesh is as
grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass
withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away, but the word of
the Lord endureth forever." We have in our hands an eternal
word. Heaven and earth will pass away,
but why words will not pass away? This is the word of God, isn't
it? But this is the word which by
the gospel is preached unto you. So without the Gospel, without
the Gospel, without the preaching of the Gospel, there is no word
sent. Our privileged people throughout
this world, God has chosen to bring this gospel to us in the
most extraordinary providential circumstances. You can each relate
to your own particular journey in all of that as I can to mine.
And we'll find that again and again, as much as all the paths
of those have been mapped out in remarkably different ways
throughout time, there are some fundamentally simple things in
all of it, isn't it? That we have heard not the word
of men, but we've actually heard the word of God. It is God who has spoken to us. It is God who comes and speaks. In Ephesians chapter 2, Paul
talks about the work of our Lord Jesus Christ, he is our peace,
and he's abolished in flesh the enmity that's contained in ordinances,
making in himself of two one new man, so making peace, that
he might reconcile both unto God. So the preaching of peace
is to bring people to reconcile people unto God, Jews and Gentiles,
sinners like us, from all these different backgrounds. having
in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby. And
listen to these next words. It's speaking of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And he says, and came and preached peace to you. See, when he preaches peace to
you, brothers and sisters, nothing in this world will take that
peace away from you. When he preaches himself and
preaches his love and his eternal deity and all of the covenant
promises of eternity, if he comes and preaches those things to
you, there will be a peace that passes understanding. It will
be a peace that comes directly from God. He came and preached
peace to you which were far off and to them which were nigh. For through Him we both have
access by one Spirit unto the Father. See, Paul came preaching
a simple, simple message, a simple history, a simple history with
a simple warning, but very, very simple terms, a history that
these people understood, a history that they actually found in their
flesh some rejoicing in, but a history that was a history
that spoke about the Lord Jesus Christ. He says, to the Thessalonians,
he says, knowing brethren beloved, your election of God. How do you know your election
of God? Paul knew his election of God. For, because, our gospel came
unto you, this gospel that was sent by God, came not unto you
in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in
much assurance. It came with power. We thank God, he says in chapter
two, verse 13, that when you receive the word of God, which ye heard of us, ye received
it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth the word of
God, which effectually worketh in you that believe. It comes with a power from on
high, which is why we don't have to massage the Gospel. That's
why Paul said he's not ashamed of the Gospel because it's a
power of God under salvation. He's not concerned about diluting
it or changing it in any way possible. It comes to you. He says to the Colossians, This word has come unto you,
verse 6 of chapter 1, as in all the world, and bringeth forth
fruit as it doth also in you, since you heard of it and knew
the grace of God in truth. When God sends this word, it
comes as a message of truth. And for God's people, enlightened
by the Holy Spirit, it just comes with the power from on high.
It's a truth that has at its centre and at its heart a declaration
of who the Lord Jesus Christ is. He is the truth. And when
his word is sent from on high, it comes with power. He says
earlier to those Colossians, he says, We give thanks to God
and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you,
since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love
which he have for all the saints. for the hope which is laid up
for you in heaven whereof you heard before in the word of the
truth of the gospel. Preaching is witnessing. Preaching
is testifying. Preaching is declaring. Preaching is proclaiming. Proclaiming Him, the word of
this salvation, it becomes truth which is more than just words,
isn't it? Whosoever shall call on the name
of the Lord, the words of God come with spirit and with power. It is the spirit, the quickness,
the spirit that gives life. The flesh profiteth nothing.
The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are
life. We're going to sing another hymn
in a minute, but when we come back, I'd like us to contemplate
what happened at Jerusalem. It's a remarkably poignant verse
in verse 37, verse 27 of our chapter. It says, for they that
dwelt at Jerusalem and their rulers, there are two things that they
didn't have. these Jewish people who went to hell, having had
the most remarkable testimony of God laid out before them,
both in the history that they delighted in and were proud of,
and the history that they were witnesses to. They knew him not. They knew all about him. They
knew what he had done, but they didn't know him. They didn't
know him. nor yet the voices of the prophets
which are read every Sabbath day. They didn't know him, and
they didn't hear the voices of the prophets. Paul had just read,
been in their hearing, and they'd read in the synagogue, Moses
and the prophets. And Paul takes Moses and the
prophets, and he shows them that this is all about the Lord Jesus
Christ. And the people in Jerusalem,
and they put him to death. They didn't know him, and they
didn't hear the voices of the prophets. The remarkable thing
is that at the end of that verse he says, they fulfilled them. Every single one of us, every
single person on this planet is a living testimony to the
truthfulness of God's word. May He cause us to hear the voices
of the prophets. May He cause us to know Him. May He rend the heavens and come
and reveal Himself to us. Okay, thanks, we'll see you again.