It's lovely to be back here amongst
friends, familiar faces. It's a lovely verse declaring
the glory of our Lord in Ephesians 2, but now in Christ Jesus, you
who were sometimes far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. The blood of Christ makes us
nigh. I'm far off, I'm about as geographically
as far away on this planet as I can but I come here and the
warmth of the fellowship, familiar faces and to be with people who
delight in the Gospel of the Lord Jesus. It's just lovely
to be back here. I thank you for the opportunity
to be amongst you all and to be here at a time of celebration
has been very special indeed. The church, according to Ephesians
1, Ephesians 3, is the place where the Lord Jesus Christ has
been promised, the Father has promised to get glory for His
Son. So I'd like you to turn in your scriptures to Acts chapter
14. In Acts chapter 13, Paul has
preached the first sermon that's recorded for us to a Gentile
audience in that part of the world which is now modern day
Turkey. He preached that marvellous sermon
declaring the glories of the Lord Jesus Christ, the wonders
of salvation in him and he speaks of that word of God which is
sent unto you. In Acts chapter 14, I'll just
read these first verses and I'd like to focus our minds and my
mind on that, what verse 3 says, that the Lord gave testimony
unto the word of his grace The Lord gives testimony to the word
of his grace. So let's just read these verses
together. And it came to pass in Iconium that they went both
together into the synagogue of the Jews and so spake that a
great multitude both of the Jews and also of the Greeks believed.
But the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and made their
minds evil, affected against the brethren. Long time, therefore,
abode they, speaking boldly in the Lord, which gave testimony
unto the word of his grace, and granted signs and wonders to
be done by their hands. But the multitude of the city
was divided, and part held with the Jews and part with the apostles.
And when there was an assault made both of the Gentiles and
also of the Jews with their rulers, to use them despitefully and
to stone them, they were aware of it and fled unto Lystra and
Derbe, cities of Lyconia, and unto the region that lieth round
about. And there they preached the gospel. There they preached the gospel.
God's churches throughout all ages are raised up in the preaching
of the gospel. And this is all according to
the sovereign purpose of our God. I love that phrase at the
beginning of this chapter, isn't it? And it came to pass. If you could spend some time
contemplating the depths and the wonder of that word, it.
all of God's sovereign eternal purpose comes to pass. Everything that's happened in
this world is happening in this world and will happen in this
world is always an it came to pass. The eternal covenant of
our great God rolls on and is unfolded moment by moment throughout
this world and throughout history. And we're part of the it. It
came to pass. It came to pass. The history
of the formation of these churches in Acts is the history of us
as individuals and the history, it's our biography. The biography
of our churches is written here because what God begins, God
continues to begin. He doesn't need to change the
foundations. He doesn't need to change anything
at all. If the Lord would just continue to give us the grace
to just preach the gospel, And it came to pass. It came to pass. And they went both into the synagogue
of the Jews. Paul and Barnabas went to the
Jews all the time. And then when they found that
there was no audience amongst the Jews, they just preached
on. No matter where the gospel goes,
we will find there will be opposition wherever we go. And what do we
do in response to the opposition? We just preach on, brothers and
sisters. We just preach on. But they so
spoke. It's wonderful, isn't it? It's
wonderful to think that the Lord puts his gospel into the words,
onto the hearts and into the mouths of his people. They so
spoke. They so spoke that a great multitude
believed. Faith comes by hearing and hearing
by the word of God. They so spoke. If you go down,
verse two, it says, they spoke boldly in the Lord. Long time, when there was opposition
in verse 2, long time therefore abode they, speaking boldly in
the Lord. It means to speak freely, it
means to speak with confidence, with assurance, with conviction.
This is the word of God. God sends his word out. The word
of this salvation is sent unto you. We speak boldly in the Lord. God makes his ministers. He makes
his ministers and he gives them a message and we have the privilege,
as you've had the privilege here, of seeing just the simple preaching
of the gospel of the grace of God gather believers together. God honours, God has promised
to honour the preaching of his word. And that's what the verse
that I'd like us to spend some time looking at here. speaks
so powerfully to us, doesn't it? You speak boldly in the Lord. You speak with confidence, with
assurance. You don't back up when there's
opposition. You just go and find another place to preach. When
one door's closed, the Lord will have another one open somewhere.
You just keep preaching boldly in the Lord. And He gives testimony. I love that promise from our
God, that He gives testimony to the Word of His grace. He continues to give testimony
to the word of his grace. He's given it for the last 2,000
years. He's given it ever since Adam
had the gospel preached to him in the garden and Abel then believed. He gives testimony to the word
of his grace. He gives testimony to the word
of his grace by gathering people to simply believe the testimony
that God has given of his son. So the only means, the only means
of grace is grace produced, isn't it? The only means of grace is
faith. God causes his people to believe. We hear a word from God. The one piece of advice that
all of we preachers want to bring to anyone at any stage of their
life, whether they feel themselves saved or feel themselves lost,
is come and hear. Come and hear, come and hear
and come and see and keep on coming, keep on coming. He gives testimony. He gives
testimony to the word of his grace. I love the fact that all
grace is God's grace and all grace reflects all of the character
of God. So all grace is sovereign grace. All grace is eternal grace. All
grace is immutable grace. All grace reflects the righteousness
of God. All grace is glorious grace because
it rebounds to the glory of who He is. That He might save sinners
like us. If you just look down in our
text, there's a great picture of him bearing witness to the
testimony of the grace of God. In verse 8 it says, there was
a certain man at Lystra. This is so typical, isn't it?
Certain man at Lystra, impotent in his feet, being a cripple
from his mother's womb who had never walked. What a great picture
the cripple is of all of us. All of us, we came from our mother's
womb crippled. This man couldn't walk to hear
the gospel, but the gospel came to him. God made man upright
and this man was there a cripple. He was a cripple from his mother's
womb and he had never walked. And what happened? Verse 9 The
same, this man heard Paul speak. He heard a word from God. He
heard a word from God. And somehow, remarkably, as Paul
was preaching, he saw something in this man's face, didn't he?
He saw something in that response. He'd heard the stories, no doubt,
that Paul had been the means through which the Lord had healed
people as a testimony to the word of His grace. All of the
miracles in the New Testament are miracles which are verifying
the word of God. And once, John had put his pen
down at the end of Revelation. There is no need for us to look
to miracles, but the miracles are pictures of salvation, aren't
they? Pictures of this man's salvation. He heard, he heard
Paul speak, who steadfastly beholding him, perceiving that he had faith
to be healed, said in a loud voice, stand upright on your
feet. Stand upright. And he walked. When the word
of grace comes, there is an effectual word from our God, and it's efficaciously
applied. God applies his words. He applies
his words to the hearts of people. Paul perceived that this man
had the faith to be healed. That word healed means to be
made whole. It means to be saved. He perceived. All, all of this Word of Grace
glorifies the Lord Jesus Christ. It's all about Him. All of this
Word of Grace comes as a Word from God. All of this Word of
Grace is promised and sealed by the blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ. This is, as we saw at the beginning
of this chapter, the unfolding of God's eternal covenant. All
of those people that God the Father gave into the hands of
His Son. And He said, and He promised
in that surety covenant arrangement before the foundation of the
world, I'll take full responsibility. I take full responsibility for
all of their sins. And I take full responsibility
for all of their righteousness. And God looks to Him alone. And He's still looking. And God
finds satisfaction alone in what his Son has done. We cripples,
we cripples hear a word. We hear a word of grace. We hear a word that makes us
whole and heals us. It is the gospel of the grace
of God and our God is the God of all grace. What a remarkable
gift of grace to hear a word from God. If you've got your
Bibles open there in Acts chapter 14, just turn back to 13 and
we'll... There's a remarkable verse, a
remarkable verse which speaks so powerfully of this word of
the grace of God. In verse 27, Paul is preaching
to these people and he said, for they that dwell at Jerusalem
and their rulers, they had two serious problems, didn't they?
They knew him not. There they were, turning up at
church regularly. They knew their Bibles off by
heart, but they knew him not, nor yet the voices of the prophets. If God opens your ears, you will
hear the voices of the prophets. What did the prophets? The prophets
had one voice, didn't they? The prophets spoke of Jesus Christ
and Him crucified. In fact, Peter says, the prophets
searched. In 1 Peter 1.11, he says, what or what manner of time the
Spirit of Christ which is in them did signify. This is a summary
of all of the Old Testament, isn't it? This is what they were
searching for when it testified beforehand the sufferings of
Christ and the glory that should follow. The sufferings of Christ
and the glory that should follow. the sufferings of Christ on Calvary's
tree, and the glory that should follow, he shall see his seed. He shall be satisfied. This gathering
in this little town in what's modern day Turkey is a gathering
just like the gathering of the Lord's people throughout time
and throughout this world. It's a promised gathering. It's
a promised response, isn't it? It is the word of His grace. He gives testimony to the word
of His grace. There is this notion about the
world, isn't there, amongst the religious world, about this thing
called common grace. Well, common grace is like common
love. It's meaningless love. We were
celebrating at the wedding last night a particular love. And
that particular love remains a particular love, and it will
remain a special love, while ever it remains a particular
love. The Lord Jesus Christ has a particular love for his people,
and he has a powerful love, a love that's stronger than death, says
Song of Solomon. He will have his people. He will
have his bride. Common grace is useless grace. If you're a recipient of the
grace of God, you will be saved. If the Lord Jesus Christ shed
his life's blood for you, you must be saved. If God loves you,
you must be saved. And you'll be saved by hearing
this word of His grace. The word of His grace. It's a
great comfort to we preachers that He has made a promise. He's
made a promise, hasn't He? That He will testify to the word
of His grace. He won't testify to the word
of man's works. He won't testify to the word
of man's will. He won't testify to the preaching
of the law. But He testifies to the word
of His grace. And he does it, he does it through
the simplicity of us just declaring boldly, Jesus Christ and him
crucified. God has made this Jesus, whom
you crucified, both Lord and Christ. The miracles in the New Testament
just speak to us of the need of grace. The need, our need
of grace. The first time that word grace
is used is in those well-known verses in Genesis chapter 6. When you know the story, such
was the wickedness of man on the face of the earth. And God
saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that
every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continued. And the Lord, and it repented
the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved
him at his heart. And the Lord said, I will destroy
man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man
and beast and creeping thing and fowls of the air, for it
repenteth me that I have made them. No doubt like me, when you come
across these situations in the scriptures where the absolute
wickedness of man and his depravity is just laid out before us with
such clarity as it was in Jerusalem when that crowd cried out, crucify
him, crucify him. When we read these verses in
Genesis, a description of humanity, the instant thought of my self-righteous
heart is, well, I wouldn't have done that. If I'd been there,
I wouldn't have been like that. And in our very thoughts we reveal
the depths of our depravity. And in our very thoughts we have
revealed to us the need of grace. See, was Noah any different to
the others? What were the thoughts of Noah's
heart? What were the thoughts of Noah's heart? Every imagination
of Noah's heart. The thoughts of his heart was
only evil continually. Noah was no different to the
rest of them, brothers and sisters. The only difference is the difference
that grace makes. The only difference is that blood-bought
difference, that he was one of those, one of those extraordinarily
few in all of that creation. that God had set his heart upon
from old eternity. Noah was just like the others.
What happened? Noah found grace. God was gracious and he found
grace in the eyes of the Lord. What a wonderful description,
isn't it lovely? It's lovely to think that God sees everything
about you all the time. He knows the thoughts of our
hearts all the time. Lay your life out before him,
brothers and sisters, and say, this is what I am. This is what
I am. And I can't get any better. So that's why in the scriptures
we have pictures again and again, the miracle pictures and pictures
of salvation. They're pictures of grace. Again
and again the Lord Jesus comes to those who have no means whatsoever. Just like this crippled man in
Lystra. He had no way of getting to hear the gospel, but God brought
the gospel to him. As God will bring the gospel
to every single one of his people throughout time. He comes, our
Lord Jesus, he comes with a word of his grace, doesn't he? He
comes to that tomb of Lazarus and he just says a word, doesn't
he? He says, Lazarus, come forth. And it's remarkable to think
of what happened to Lazarus at that moment. There he'd been
dead for four days, dead in trespasses and sins, locked in that darkness
of that cave with the stone of the law rolled against the entrance
of it. No way could he get out. The thing that is remarkable
to me about that miracle is that Lazarus was bound hand to foot
and Lazarus came forth. What happened? He was picked
up and brought outside of all that darkness. Then they say,
loose him and let him go. Loose him and let him go. We have, as that woman, the woman
with the issue of blood, we all have an issue of blood. The wages
of sin is death. Without the shedding of blood,
there is no remission of sin. We've spent all we had and we
know better. and the Lord comes, and she says,
if I can just touch the hem of his garment, I'll be made whole.
If we could just hear a word from him. What a word of grace
she heard that day. Your faith has made you whole. Your faith has made you whole. We were, in our father Adam,
in the horrible sin of our rebellion against him, our personal rebellion
against him, we came into this world blind to the glory of God. And we're in a miracle of sight.
We come deaf, unable to hear a word of God. We come into this
world captive to demons and we're not in our right mind. And we
need the Lord Jesus to come. We need him to come and overcome
that strong man and set us free. We are constantly and forever
in need of grace. In need of grace. So these are works only that
God can do. They are works that God testifies
to. And he's testifying again and
again in this church, in the churches throughout these ages. He's building up these churches
and gathering. It's remarkable if you read on
in Acts chapter 14, Paul having gone from this town, moves down
to other towns and on his way back in Acts chapter 14, on his
way back, he comes to these people. They preached the gospel in Derby
and they came back and taught many, they returned again to
Lystra and to Iconium, where this all happened, and to Antioch. Listen to what was happening
in such a short space of time. People talk about planting churches. When God creates a church, when
God builds a church, it's a miracle of grace. We stand in awe and
wonder of what he's done. It didn't take them years. They
didn't need Bible colleges and all sorts of degrees and things.
They came back, in verse 22, confirming the souls of the disciples
and exhorting them to continue in the faith and that we must,
through much tribulation, enter into the kingdom of God. And
when they had ordained them elders in every church and prayed with
fasting, they commended them to the Lord, on whom they had
believed. These churches were formed just
through the simple preaching of the gospel. He builds his
church by his spirit. He builds his church by his word
of grace. He builds his church And he builds
his church, as we see throughout the book of Acts, in the midst
of opposition. In the midst of opposition. The
opposition just highlights the wonder of the grace of God, doesn't
it? Because grace divides and grace
exposes and grace reveals because the grace of God strips us of
all of our creature worthiness and all of our creature righteousness
and leaves the child of God totally dependent upon God. And you never
get any better, brothers and sisters. You never get any better. He commended them to the Lord
on whom they believed. They simply had their eyes opened
And Paul uses this same phrase, this word of his grace in Acts
20. And it's hard to read Acts 20 without tears in your eyes.
People say all sorts of things about brother Paul, but dear
oh dear, he had a heart of love for the children of God because
he loved the gospel of God's grace. You might recall that
scene on that beach there in Turkey and Paul says in verse
32, He's free of the blood of all men because He hasn't...
He's pure of the blood of all men because He hasn't shunned
to declare unto you all the counsel of God. All the counsel of God
is Jesus Christ and Him crucified. But in verse 32 He says, And
now, brethren, I commend you to God. and the word of his grace
which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among
them that are sanctified. See, we have in this verse that
we're looking at here a promise from God. Paul was sent on a
mission. The Holy Spirit set him and Barnabas
apart. Paul was sent on a mission and
he describes that mission that the Lord Jesus Christ had promised
him to be a part of and to see fulfilled. And the same fulfillment
has happened throughout this world. He says, the Lord Jesus
says to him in Acts chapter 26, this commission was, he's going
to send him to the Gentiles to open their eyes and to turn them
from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God that
they may receive inheritance. among them which are sanctified,
and listen to this last phrase, sanctified by faith that is in
me. Purified their hearts by faith,
brothers and sisters, pure in the sight of God. Let the world have its contentions
and let's not worry about them. Do what Paul did. You just move
on and preach the gospel again and again. We don't need to get
involved and entangled in all that. We just preach the gospel.
It's the power of God under salvation. And the great evidence of the
gospel is simply faith. Simply to rest all of the hopes
of your eternal salvation on the Lord Jesus Christ. See, Paul left this town. He had to flee from this town. But the Lord Jesus Christ was
there. God the Holy Spirit was there. Wherever his people are,
there he is. He goes before them. He does
the work through them and in them. And the man might move
on and never be seen again. The Lord's there. He's made a
promise, hasn't he? The success of God's church is
so assured, brothers and sisters, that we can rest with the greatest
confidence that we just preach the gospel. Preach the gospel
if the Lord would make us faithful. The Lord Jesus made a remarkable
promise in John chapter 12, verse 26. And he says, if any man serve
me, Let him follow me. Then he makes a statement which
is just quite remarkable, like so many of his statements. He
says, and where I am, there shall also my servant be. Who goes first in the preaching
of the gospel? He says, where I am, there my
servant will be. He went there. So he preached
the gospel. They had opposition and they
just preached the gospel. The power of God. And churches
were raised up in weeks and months. It's remarkable, isn't it? It's
lovely to be back amongst you. It is remarkable that I've been
to San Diego on my way here, and the San Diego Fellowship
was raised up by the Lord, and this fellowship a year or so
earlier was raised up by the Lord, and our fellowship down
in Nauru was all raised up by the Lord. We had no idea about
each other at all. We had no idea about each other
at all. And yet what happens? It's the
same word of grace. It's the same God that gives
testimony to it again and again. It's a promise fulfilled, brothers
and sisters. Promises fulfilled should give
us great heart and great hope for the future. So what does
grace look like in evidence? There are a couple of verses
I'd just like to briefly look at in closing. The evidence of
grace is faith. One of my favourite passages
about grace in all the scriptures is in Exodus 33. See, Moses had
a promise. Moses had a commission from God. Moses had a task ahead of him
which was beyond any human understanding whatsoever. But God was going
to bear testimony. He was going to have his church,
brothers and sisters. And in verse 12 of chapter 33, And Moses
said unto the Lord, See, thou sayest unto me, Bring up this
people, And thou hast not let me know whom thou wilt send with
me. Yet thou hast said, I know thee
by name. That's eternal life, isn't it? To be known of Him, to know Him. I know thee by name, and thou
hast found grace. in my sight, it's a promise from
God. If you have found grace in God's
sight, if you've heard this word of his grace, and you've been
brought to him to believe, what does Moses then do? He now prays,
doesn't he? He's heard a promise, a promise
fulfilled. And he says, now therefore I
pray thee, if I have found grace in thy sight, show me now thy
way. you show me your way take me
away from my way you show me your way show me your way that
I may know thee if you found grace you'll be crying out to
him for more grace you'll show me your way that I might know
thee that I may find grace in thy sight and consider that this
nation is thy people." The church of God belongs to the Lord Jesus
Christ, brothers and sisters. It doesn't belong to men. And
he said, God said, my presence shall go with thee and I will
give thee rest. If you found grace in his sight,
you'll call out for more grace that you might find rest. And
Moses said, and this is a verse I've used ever since the beginning
of our church, and I keep praying it regularly. If thy presence
go not with me, carry us not up hence. If you're with me,
everything is fine. If you're with me, everything
is fine. I pray, I pray that you would
find that the Lord gives testimony to the word of his grace in you
and amongst you. To the glory of his name, brothers
and sisters, that we might know him, that we might know him. And if we know him, we'll be
calling out for more grace for the rest of our days. Amen.