We're in Acts chapter 13. The subject tonight is the strength
of a witness. The strength of a witness. You who believe the Lord Jesus
Christ are sent forth to be a witness of Christ. And we often are hesitant to
tell people what we know about Christ and what Christ has done
for us. And for various reasons, we do
live in a dark world. We do live in a world where so
many seem to be religious, and yet There's a zeal, it seems,
but not necessarily according to knowledge. But as we've seen
throughout the book of Acts, the apostles went forth and preached
the Word of God, preached the Gospel of Christ, and they came
into contact with sinners who responded to the Gospel they
preached multitude of ways. But really it comes down to some
believe and some believe not. That's what it really comes down
to. But as we face so many different reactions to the gospel, where
is it, how is it that we have the strength to actually speak
the gospel, to actually declare what we know about Christ. How
can we have the strength to do that? And then, as we collectively
in this place endeavor to set forth the gospel and to stand
for this truth that we trust in, that we put all our hope
in, as we do that and we see little result from it, What is
it that keeps the believer from being just so cast down that
we stop, that we just give up? I want to talk about that tonight.
Paul here, when he's preaching in Acts chapter 13, He faced different reactions,
and we may look at those next time. I have some here listed,
but we'll try to look at those another time. But what I want
you to see is, verse 44 says, 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." Now, where did that boldness come from? 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, lo, we turn
to the Gentiles. For so hath the Lord commanded
us, saying, I have sent thee to be a light of the Gentiles,
that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth."
Paul quotes Isaiah here, and he applies it to him in Barnabas. As messengers of the Gospel of
Christ, he says, So hath the Lord commanded us, saying, I
have sent thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest
be for salvation until the ends of the earth. Now, let's look
over at Isaiah, where this is quoted from Isaiah chapter 49. And I think we'll see where this
boldness and the strength comes from. The strength of a witness. Where does it come from? Isaiah
49, verse 1. Listen, O Isles, unto me. And hearken, ye people from far. This is the word of Christ Jesus
the Lord. This is the Son of God speaking
to the Gentiles. The islands beyond the sea. And
He is the great prophet. He is the light sent forth to
declare that in Him alone is salvation. We need light. As sinners, we need light. Until
we have Christ the light, we don't even know we need light.
And until we have Christ the light, we don't know we need
a Savior and that we need salvation. Listen to him. And he declares
his authority concerning the work which he came to do. Now
look. The Lord hath called me from
the womb. from the womb of eternity, he
was called, called to be the mediator between God and his
chosen people, to be the prophet, priest, and king of his people.
We saw in Hebrews, no man taketh this honor unto himself but he
that is called of God, as was Aaron. So also Christ glorified
not himself to be made a high priest. But he that said unto
him, Thou art my son, today I have begotten thee. He says, The Lord
hath called me from the womb. And then he says here in verse
1, From the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name.
Joseph. It says, The angel of the Lord
appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David,
fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife, for that which is conceived
in her is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall bring forth a son,
and thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his
people from their sins." Paul said we were sent forth to be
a light to the Gentiles and for salvation. But now, this is speaking
of Him who is the light and who is the salvation. He says, I
was called from eternity to go forth and be the light. And He
says here, I was called from my mother's womb in the name
that God the Father called His servant. Jesus, He declared,
He's the Savior. Salvation is in Him and no other. And He shall save His people
from their sins. Now look, verse 2. And he says,
"...and he hath made my mouth like a sharp sword." That is,
he put the Word of God in my mouth. The Gospel of Christ,
which Christ spoke, is the sharp sword. Look at Ephesians chapter
6 with me. Ephesians chapter 6. It's true. He is the Word. He is the Word which was from
the beginning. Sometime at your leisure read
John chapter 1 and notice how closely related the word and
the light and salvation in Grace and truth how it's all summed
up in Christ Jesus the Lord Look here this word though at Ephesians
6 verse 17 take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the
Spirit which is the Word of God and Look over at Hebrews 4.12. For the word of God is quick
and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword. You want
to know what a man thinks in his innermost part? Declare God's word. Declare the
truth concerning Christ Jesus the Lord. For the word of God
is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing
even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the
joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of
the heart. He says here in Isaiah 49, Harken unto me ye people
from afar, listen now, the Lord hath called me from all eternity. He set me apart as His faithful
servant from eternity to be the surety of His people. From the
bowels of my mother He's made mention of me and He put His
Word in my mouth. And He says here in verse 2,
And in the shadow of His hand hath He hid me. In His counsel
and purpose, in the counsel and purpose of the Lord of Hosts,
of God Almighty, this is the sum of His counsel and of His
purpose, His Christ. In shadow and in tight throughout
the Law and the Prophets, He was hidden there. In His providence,
He spared Israel because He chose Christ to come of that one nation.
He was the holy seed in the leafless tree. And it says here, verse
2, And He made me a polished shaft, in His quiver hath He
hid me. Christ the Lord is a sword to
conquer those who are near, and He's God's choice arrow to pierce
the hearts of those who are far off. And now listen, verse 3. And he said unto me, Thou art
my servant. Philippians 2, 7. The Son of
God made Himself of no reputation and took upon Him the form of
a servant. Whose servant? What does it say
here in Isaiah? He said unto me, Thou art my
servant. God the Father said to him, Thou
art my servant. And He came and was made in the
likeness of men. He didn't come to be ministered
unto, but He came to minister and to give His life a ransom
for many, to make the divine purchase that only He could make,
that purchase called redemption. He was the Lord's obedient servant,
His willing servant, His cheerful servant, His diligent servant,
His faithful servant. And He said, verse 3, and His
name is Israel. Israel You know why Jacob was
called Israel. You know why God said your name
should be changed from Jacob to Israel Genesis 32 28 says
for as a prince has thou power with God and with men and has
prevailed That's who Christ is He is Israel as a prince as the
prince of peace. He has power with God Almighty
and with men, and he has prevailed. He came forth to serve before
God, and he prevailed. He accomplished that which he
came to accomplish. Now verse 3, there again, Isaiah
49, verse 3. In whom he said unto me, Thou
art my servant, O Israel, in whom I will be glorified. The law of God is this, Thou
shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul,
with all thy strength, and with all thy mind, and thy neighbor
as thyself. He so thoroughly is the glorification
of God's will that he left heaven's riches to become poor, to fulfill
the law as the representative and substitute of his people,
all because he loved God perfectly. And he loved those whom God had
given him perfectly. And thus in Christ Jesus the
Lord, the Son of God alone, in Christ Jesus the Lord, the Son
of God, in Him alone is God glorified. In His righteous servant, He's
glorified because He loved God perfectly and he loved his neighbor
perfectly and he put away completely purged his people of their sins
in loving kindness toward us and he declared God just and
justified by the sacrifice of himself by his own faithfulness
before God before God and before his law and thus he perfectly
fulfilled the whole law of God. He perfectly honored God and
he perfectly loved his brethren. And in that, God's glorified. God's glorified. You see here what we're seeing
here in these verses so far, in these first three verses,
is that we're looking at Christ Jesus as the mediator, as the
surety of his people, as the servant of God, as the son of
man. That's how we're looking at him
right here. Now listen, stay with me here. Now, we know scripture
says He came unto His own. He came to that nation Israel,
that physical nation Israel, and they didn't receive Him.
But the Spirit of Christ moved Isaiah to record God's Word. These prophets that spoke, they
spoke as they were moved by the Spirit of Christ. As the Spirit
of Christ moved them, they spoke. And what he's recording here
is God's Word to Christ, our Mediator, concerning this rejection
that he would endure. But he's writing about it, and
he's sending forth this Word to Isaiah years and years and
years and years before it ever happened. Now listen, verse 49-4. Then I said, now this is Christ
the Mediator. The servant of God, His faithful
servant. This is Him speaking. I have
labored in vain. I have spent my strength for
naught and in vain. Now, Christ is God. He's God. He said, I know my
shape. He's known them from everlasting.
God the Father gave them to Him before the world ever began.
Their names were written, where? In the Lamb's Book of Life, slain
before the foundation of the world. There's never been a new
name added to that book. They've all been added there,
and He knows them by name. He's God. He's the Son of God. Now listen now. Yet as the servant
of God, as the Son of Man, He trusted the Father just as
you and I trust Him. In fact, let me back up. He doesn't
trust Him like you and I trust Him. You and I trust Him imperfectly. He trusted Him perfectly as the
righteous, faithful servant of God, the faithful one He is,
the just one He is. Now listen, and He constantly
spoke of the Father's will, not His own will. He spoke of the
Father's will. and those that He sends forth
to bear witness of Him. You know what they go forth speaking
about? His will. We don't go forth talking about
our will. We don't go forth talking about
man's will. We don't go forth bragging on
man's will. We go forth talking about God's will, about Christ's
will, about what He's accomplishing. Not that His will is frustrated,
but that He accomplishes His will and fulfills His purpose. And his encouragement was this.
He said, all that the Father hath given me shall come unto
me. Now listen, I want to get this
point across. I want you to understand or you
won't get the gist of this. As the servant of God, as the
son of man, though he's God, as the son of man, as the servant
of God, he's trusting God. And he said this, Just as I came
to New Jersey to preach this gospel, trusting God that all
that the Father hath given to Christ shall come unto Him. They'll come. I can't make them
come. They'll come. And He said, all
that the Father hath given Me, they'll come to Me. They will
come to Me. And this was the encouragement
He had. He knew that not one that God
had given Him There wasn't a possibility that not one He'd given Him would
fail to come to Him. And that's the encouragement
that I have and that you have as a witness of Christ, that
all that the Father has given Him shall come to Him. You know
that. They shall. There's no doubt
about it. And as the servant of God, he came forth trusting
God to do the work of drawing His sheep. He said, no man can
come to Me except the Father which hath sent Me draw him. And I'll raise him up at the
last day. Now you see, he's trusting, this is the son of man, the servant
of God, trusting him. He's the righteous, trusting
him like, I'd like to say I've trusted him like this, but I've
never trusted him like this. You and I never trust him like
that. I want to believe that God is going to bring all His
sheep. I believe His Word. I believe that's what He says
He'll do. And I know He'll draw. But I get so discouraged and
I get so... We just go a little while and
we don't see some kind of result. We start wanting to take matters
into our own hands. We start wanting to craft the
Word in such a way that we take the edge off of it so we can
make something happen when we want it to happen. He said, those
that my Father has given me, He'll draw. They can't come to
me unless He draws them, but He's given them to me, and my
Father is faithful, and I trust Him, and He promised to draw
them all to me, He said. Now, this One who could summon
twelve legions of angels at His command, this One who made the
world, who upholds the world by the word of His power, this
One for whom and by whom all things were made, as a man, He
spoke as God's servant, as one totally dependent upon God to
do the work, to do this work of grace in bringing His people
to Himself. And that's what He commands of
you and I, who He sends forth to be witnesses of Him. Simply
go forth and declare what He's given us to declare. Declare,
be witnesses of Him. He'll do the work. He'll do the
work. Have you endured a contradiction
of sinners against yourself concerning the Gospel of Christ? Have you
ever said, I'll tell you what Christ did for me. God the Father
chose me. And if He hadn't chosen me, I
never would have chosen Him. And you ever heard somebody say,
oh, you don't believe man's will is free? It's free as a frog
in a snake's belly. I believe that God the Father
has to give us a willing heart. He has to give us a new nature
and a new heart that desires Christ, that has a light to even
behold Him as He is, to know we need a Savior. And when He
does that, we're coming to Him. We can't turn away from Him.
We're coming to Him. And then you tell somebody, and
Christ, as my surety, I've been accepted in Him since before
the foundation of the world. And He came forth before I ever
even knew Him and went to the cross and laid down His life
for me. And he who knew no sin was made sin for me. A substitution. He was made sin
in my place. And he bore the wrath of God
that I should have bore. He bore it. And when he said
it's finished, it's finished. He put away my sin. He purged
me of my sin. And he didn't make me savable. He didn't make me acceptable.
And then it was just up to me then to do some tenth of the
part to make myself savable or acceptable with God. No, he finished
the work. And somebody will say, well,
then you're saying that there's nothing that the believer can
do? Yeah, that's what I'm saying. I'm saying either Christ has
to do it all and receive all the glory, or man has to do it
all. It can't be a mixture of the
two. If it's of grace, it's grace. If it's of works, it's works.
If you put grace and works together, you got nothing. You got nothing. It can't be a mixture of the
two. It can't be Christ... And he that sanctifieth, and
they that are sanctified are all of one, for which cause he
is not ashamed to call us brethren." Meaning that he's the one who
sanctifies, and because he sanctified, and he has perfected forever
them that are sanctified, he's not ashamed to say, that's my
brother. Either it's all of him, It's all of you can't be combination
of the two and somebody says when I believe the believer by
his obedience to the law He sanctifies himself. He makes himself more
holy with God God of God is Christ made unto us wisdom, light, so
we can behold Him, so we can actually know who He is, and
righteousness, to behold that in Christ God has justified us,
and He has done so in a manner that is consistent with His justice,
so that His holiness, His holy character hasn't been injured
whatsoever in saving. And He's made sanctification
unto us. He's made unto us all our separation. by faith, by the word, through
the spirit, by God's electing grace, by Christ's work, we're
sanctified. I don't turn back into this flesh
and start saying, well, now there's something else I got to do. Either
he's all of it or he's none of it. Either he's all of it or
he's none of it. And somebody says, well, I don't
believe that. I don't believe that. Have you endured the first
message He preached? He came forth and He preached
this message and He said, of all the widows in Sarepta, He
passed by and He came to one. Of all the lepers, He passed
by all the lepers, He came to one. And he stood up and he said,
I came to preach the liberty of those that are captive in
sin. I came to preach that I'm going
to set them free. By my shed blood and by my righteousness,
I'm setting them free. And they took him up to the brow
of the hill. They wanted to throw him off the hill. They said,
no, you're not taking us. We love our son of God. We love
our system of works. We love our law. We love to go
to the law and to the prophets and see how in that law and the
prophets we can do something to make ourselves more pleasing
to God. Now, if you're saying that you
came to do this work and you came to do it for a certain people,
we don't believe we're... we might not be that people.
And they wanted to kill him for it. Well, he said, He said after
all of this, after He'd come and time and time again they
sought to kill Him. He said, have I labored in vain? Have
I spent my strength for naught and in vain? Now there's no way
as God, there's no way this could be said of Him as God who could
do with His own whatsoever He's pleased to do. But as the Son
of Man, as the Servant, as the Righteous Servant, this is what
He said. But listen to this faithfulness now, Isaiah 49.5. Yet surely
my judgment is with the Lord and my work with my God." Now you hear that? This is Jesus,
the cry, this is the servant of God speaking. My judgment
is with the Lord and my work with my God. In his sufferings,
God was his strength. So that though he met with all
the opposition one might imagine, though he was held in contempt
by the very people who called themselves by his name, by Israel,
yet he didn't fail, nor was he discouraged. The one who spoke
as a man, as one totally dependent on the Lord of covenant mercy,
this one who said, O Jerusalem, Now that killest the prophets,
and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I
have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathered her chickens
under her wings, and you would not." This same one had this
promise from God the Father all along. Listen to it now. Verse
5, And now saith the Lord that formed me from the womb to be
his servant, to bring Jacob again to him. Now this is what the
Lord said to him. This was his encouragement. This
is what the Lord said to him. Though Israel be not gathered,
though none but a very small remnant return by his grace. That's what he's saying. Though
that nation that didn't receive him, yet shall I be glorious
in the eyes of the Lord, and my God shall be my strength.
Now this is Christ speaking. God sent forth a deliverer out
of Zion who brought back again that remnant left in Israel.
But the majority is not a remnant. The majority is not a remnant.
And so it appeared as you looked at them. Israel hadn't returned.
Israel hadn't returned. But listen to the word of the
sovereign God of this universe. What if some did not believe?
Shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect?
Because some rejected God's Christ, is the servant of God going to
be less glorious in the eyes of the Lord who sent him? This was his concern. His concern
wasn't, you listen to his concern, yet shall I be glorious in the
eyes of the Lord. The Lord's going to behold me
as glorious, he said, and he'll be my strength. There's no strength but His strength.
Everything that's ever taken place right now or ever has been
or ever shall be has come to pass by His strength. And He
says in accordance with everything He purposed before the foundation
of the world, I'll be glorified before His eyes and He'll be
my strength. to accomplish this. This is what
God's righteous servant said. This is the faithfulness with
which he bore witness of God the Father's faithfulness. And
then verse 6, and he said, now listen to this word from the
Lord of hosts to Christ Jesus our mediator. This is the word
spoken long before by the Spirit of Christ through Isaiah. This
was God's purpose of grace all along. Listen now. It is a light
thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes
of Jacob and to restore the preserved of Israel. I will also give thee for a light
to the Gentiles that thou mayest be my salvation until the end
of the earth with God. for Christ Jesus to merely bring
back the remnant from among the tribes of Jacob, and to restore
those elect children whom God preserved in Christ the Holy
See, who had the oracles of God, who had the law of God, who had
the prophets whom he had scattered into Babylon, to bring them back.
That was a light thing. I'm going to save a people that's
never even had my word. He said, I'm going to bring light
and salvation. I'm going to bring my gospel
to a people who have never even had the oracles of God. And I'm
going to bring them out of darkness into my marvelous light. That
my son, my righteous servant might be glorious before my eyes. That he might be the father of
many nations. That's what he promised Abraham.
And what he promised Abraham, he promised his son. He said,
and to thy seed, which is Christ, the covenant he made with Abraham
is a covenant God the Father made with God the Son. And he
said, you'll be a father of many nations. You'll be a father of
a people chosen and redeemed and bought with the blood from
a people out of every nation, every tribe, every kindred, every
tongue. Not all of them, but from among
them. And listen to him now. He says... He's saying here that those in
Israel who rejected Christ, he didn't surprise God. He didn't
surprise God. This was God's purpose from the
beginning. This is prophecy of Isaiah long
before the Son of God ever came into flesh. Simeon knew this. Look over at
Luke chapter 2. Simeon knew it. Look at verse 29. Simeon takes
this babe and holds him up and he says, now let us thou thy
servant depart in peace according to thy word for mine eyes have
seen thy salvation which thou hast prepared before the face
of all people a light to lighten the gentiles and the glory of
thy people israel and joseph and his mother marveled at those
things which were spoken of him And Simeon blessed them, and
said unto Mary his mother, Behold, this child is set for the fall
and rising again of many in Israel, and for a sign which shall be
spoken against. Yea, a sword shall pierce through
thy own soul also, that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.
Now, you be sure you get this. Make sure you get this. Christ
Jesus the Lord is the light and the Savior. of a people out of,
from among Jews and Gentiles. That's his Israel, as Pete just
said, that's his true Israel, people saved from among Jew and
Gentile. Now when he came, this was the
word of the Lord to our mediator, to our surety, all along, from
the beginning, this is the word to him. that we just read in
Isaiah 49. Now when He came, He sent forth
His apostles and He told them this. He sent forth the twelve
and He commanded them saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles
and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not, but go rather to
the lost sheep, the lost sheep of the house of Israel. He went
to the lost sheep of the house of Israel first. But the righteous
servant of God had the covenant word of the Lord, the same covenant
we just saw spoken there. And he said, and other sheep
I have, which are not of this foal, and not of Israel, them
also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice, and there shall
be one foal and one shepherd. And so when Paul says back there,
go back now to Acts 13. So when Paul back there, is opposed
by these Jews. And bear in mind this too, brethren. This is the point here where
Paul is turning from the Jews to the Gentiles. But you see
right here in chapter 14, the same sin and depravity that was
in the Jews is in the Gentiles. Look here, verse 2. Chapter 14,
verse 2. But the unbelieving Jews stirred
up the Gentiles and made their minds evil-affected against the
brethren. And it says, Long time therefore bode 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 cities was divided, and part held with
the Jews and part with the apostles. And when there was 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 they left. See, Jews and Gentiles together.
So, it's not that the Jews are any worse than the Gentiles.
Or the Gentiles are any worse than the Jews. Both in the same
boat. In depravity, in sin and rebellion
against God. But this is the Gospel right
here. This is what Paul said. For so hath the Lord commanded
us. When did the Lord command Paul
this? when he arrested him on the road to Damascus. And he
sent forth one to preach to him, and he said, Go tell him which
things he must suffer for my namesake, that he might be a
light to the Gentiles. Now look, he said, He sent thee
to be a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation
unto the ends of the earth. And look here with me at Acts
26.22. This is what Paul says though.
Who is it that was actually the light and who was actually the
salvation? Paul is saying we were this.
We were sent to be a light, but only as far as they bore witness
of the light and of the salvation. Look here at what Paul said.
Verse 22. Having therefore obtained help
of God. That's where our strength of
a witness comes from. If that's where the strength
of Christ, the servant of God, if that's where his strength
came from, where do you think our strength's gonna come from?
Paul said, having therefore obtained help of God, I continue unto
this day witnessing both to small and great, saying none other
things than those which the prophets and Moses did say should come,
that Christ should suffer and that he should be the first that
should rise from the dead and should show light unto the people
and to the Gentiles. He's the light and salvation
of everyone which he's bought with his own blood. Paul is saying
to the people what was said of John the Baptist. He's not that
light. He came to bear witness of that
light. But as Jesus Christ trusted the Father, was strengthened
by the Father, and waited on the Father to call out his sheep,
even so, it was from Christ Jesus that Paul drew all his strength.
And as Christ Jesus sits enthroned in glory right now, right now,
We who bear witness of him draw all our strength from him, just
like Paul did. That's how he waxed bold. That's
where he got the boldness to speak the truth. Christ Jesus
is the one of whom believers are sent to bear witness, and
he's our strength, and he's the one in whose hand this work is
accomplished. We can't bear witness of the
light and the salvation if we spend our time speaking of man
who loves darkness and hates light and will not come to the
light, lest his deeds be reproved for what they are. If we speak
of man, that's all we can say about him. That's all we can
say about ourselves is by nature we don't love the light. We won't
come to the light. And we shut men up to the fact
that Christ is the light and that he's the salvation. and
hearing the Word of the Lord, of His righteousness, and the
fact that we're being sent forth with the light, to bear witness
of the light, that Christ is the light and that Christ is
salvation, that automatically lets us know that we're going
forth to speak to people who don't have light and who don't
know that Christ is all salvation. They think that because they
don't have light, Doesn't mean they don't have some kind of
religious act, some kind of religious love and joy. They don't have
light. It's not according to knowledge.
And they don't behold Christ as being all of salvation. Read the words, salvation is
of the Lord. But they don't take that too
far. That means salvation is of the
Lord. Lock, stock, and barrel. Beginning
to end. So, knowing that we're going
to be faced with opposition, knowing that they're going to
contradict and blaspheme the Word just as they did Paul when
he preached this Gospel. And go back and refresh yourself.
We've had, what, three, four messages right here out of what
Paul preached? And we're just coming to the end of this first
message now. But listen to all of them. And you'll see here
that what he did When he preached Christ, he shut him up to the
fact that everything God's ever promised has been in his Son.
And everything he's ever brought to pass, he's brought to pass
according to promise, according to the Scriptures, according
to what he said he would do in the Law and the Prophets. And
they both bear witness to the fact that Christ Jesus the Lord
is the righteousness of God without man's obedience to the Law. Read
Romans chapter 3. He now is the righteousness of
God manifest without the Law. But it's born witness to by the
law and the prophets. And so we're sent forth to bear
witness to none other but Him. So, let me give you two words
of application here. First of all, never let opposition
discourage you. Never let opposition discourage
you. Look at verse, let me see, Acts 13 here,
verse 50. But the Jews stirred up the devout
and honorable women and the chief men of the city and raised persecution
against Paul and Barnabas and expelled them out of their coast.
But they shook off the dust of their feet against them and came
unto Iconium." This is what the Lord, our King and our Savior,
our light and our salvation, this is what he told the apostles
to do when he sent them out that first time. He said, come unto
them. If they don't hear you, just
shake the dust off your feet and go on. Don't stop preaching
the Word. Just keep going. He said, Thou
art my servant, O Israel, in whom I'll be glorified. Isn't
that what He said? That's what He told Christ. You
know what Christ says to you and to me who trust Him, who
sent forth to bear witness of Him? Thou art my servant, O Israel,
in whom I'll be glorified. He don't have to use me and you.
He just chose to. It pleased Him to use to use
those in whom He's given light to bear witness that He's the
light. And then, God's faithful to give reason for great joy
to those who are faithful to declare the name of His Son in
truth and in spirit. Verse 52 says, And the disciples
were filled with joy and with the Holy Ghost. Paul and Barnabas
and those disciples who believed on Christ were filled with joy
and with the Holy Ghost. The sinner who has experienced
the power of God knows that God is able to save to the uttermost. And therefore we have no reason
to be discouraged. We have reason to be filled with
great joy and great hope. And He'll give us that joy and
that hope. All we have to do, all we're sent forth to do is
tell others what He's done for us. That's it. Don't try to debate somebody
on the doctrine of election. Don't try to debate somebody
on predestination on those things. Let folks who want to argue and
fight do that. Just tell folks what Christ has
done for you. Tell folks how he's accomplished
fully your salvation and you're not trusting in yourself. that
you're trusting Him alone. Just tell Him that He did it
all from regenerating me, giving me a life, spiritual life, giving
me faith, granting me repentance, keeping me separate from this
world, keeping me stayed on Him. He's done it all. And we're not to look at how
well we're able to communicate. We're not to look at the results,
whether positive or negative. Because truthfully, we don't
know how the Lord's using His Word. We may look at something
we think is a result and think, boy, that's a grand result. He's really working a revival
now. And it may not be something he
worked at all. And we may look at some and say, well, he just
don't seem like he's doing much and have no idea what he's done. We may send forth this Word and
never even know That he's called one of his sheep out with it,
have no idea, never even know about it in this world. We're
not, it's not about the results. It's about what? Just speaking
of him. Just bearing witness of him.
That's what it's about. Not about the results. I was
talking with somebody the other day and I said, you know, I said
it would be something to see, uh, Revival like like what you
saw what you read about when you read about men like Huntington
and Whitfield and Spurgeon that just thousands of people came
to hear him and the fellow pointed out something to me that I thought
was Was wise I never thought about this and he said you know
in those days He said most everything was shut down on Sunday and he
said there wasn't anything else to do and but go hear what somebody
preached. And he said, just because there
was 3,000 there don't mean they was all hearing anything. There
wasn't anything else to do. That was entertainment. They
was there because that was all there was to do. But that's the
point that we just don't know what revival looks like it's
it's a reviving of the heart in the inner man in the spirit
and it's over time that that a man stays and is hungry for
the word and Stays on Christ and doesn't go back to the works
of the flesh or the works of self-righteousness That you behold
this appears God's done a work of grace in this man's heart
So that's what we, we just set forth Christ, nothing more, nothing
less, that's it. And remember the word of the
faithful servant, Christ Jesus, and remember in whom he trusted.
Then I said, I've labored in vain, I've spent my strength
for naught and in vain, yet surely my judgment is with the Lord
and my work with my God. That's it, my strength. And then
we know this, brethren, If we know this, we can tell
dying sinners of Christ Jesus, our victorious Redeemer, and
we can do so expecting Him to do great things which only He
can do. For surely, surely, our judgment
is with the Lord and our work with our God. I want to be able... After all
this time, I think I'm just beginning to understand and to have a little
confidence of just how great it is to be able just to tell
folks about Christ. I think of how many people I
come into contact with every day and how little I actually
tell anybody about Him. And is it not because, I don't know what, I don't have
any excuse. Works with him. He he said just if you if you
have opportunity If he's made it apparent that somebody's willing
to listen And try to seek an opportunity try to find an opportunity
to preach him to say something about it But this is the joy
We don't have to try to make results. We don't have to try
to force something on somebody We don't have to try to make
somebody believe something Just tell him and watch him amaze
you. Watch him do something you never
would have imagined. That's what Paul saw. Paul saw
just a short time. He saw it with that Sergius Paulus.
Then he saw it with the Gentiles there amongst them. And he goes
somewhere else and he sees it. And he just keeps on seeing it.
And God just keeps on giving him encouragement, encouragement,
encouragement. Strengthen him, strengthen him, strengthen him.
Just like he did Christ the Lord. That's what Christ does for us.
That's the strength of a witness. It's Christ our Lord. All right.