Acts chapter 13 verse 14 we'll
begin reading when they departed from purgah They came to Antioch
in Passaida and went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day
and sat down and After the reading of the law and the prophets the
rulers of the synagogue sent unto them saying you men and
brethren if you have any word of exhortation for the people
say on and Then Paul stood up and beckoning with his hand said
men of Israel and ye that fear God give attendance Now I want
us to consider the opening statement of Paul's sermon to those in
the synagogue in Antioch in Passaida If you wonder how the folks in
this assembly in a synagogue might have regarded God and his
Christ All you have to do is remember how you regarded him
before the Holy Spirit quickened you to newness of life. We don't
have to know the backgrounds. We don't have to know the cultural
influences around these folks. All we have to consider is the
natural heart. Whether a sinner's a direct descendant
of Abraham or a Gentile, the unregenerate heart has always
hated God the same and loved the self-righteous deeds of the
flesh the same. Paul knew that. Verse 16, Paul
addresses this congregation as men of Israel and you that fear
God. Men of Israel were the natural
descendants of Jacob. His name was changed to Israel. These are the natural descendants
of Jacob. And you that fear God were the
Gentiles. Some were proselytes, meaning
that they professed Jehovah and were circumcised. Others professed
to worship Jehovah, but had not submitted to circumcision, which
was required to be a true proselyte. These in particular were called
God-fearers. So in the synagogue here sits
Jew and Gentile, each believed that they were the children of
God because of something accomplished in their person. That's Every
unregenerate sinner thinks God favors sinners because God has
respect for something in our persons. When the Jews boasted
that God loved them because they were the natural descendants
of Abraham, they were saying God loves me because I am, not
because of thee I am. Gentiles make the same boast
when saying God loves all men without exception. The true That
that the natural heart is saying when it says that because it's
not according to God's Word But the thing that the natural heart
say when it says that is I am deserving of God's love By nature
we consider ourselves God's surely God would love me. I'm somebody
when the descendants of Abraham Made their boast like this to
the Lord Jesus Christ. He said verily verily I say unto
you before Abraham was I am Now I'm the door I'm the bread I'm
the way, I'm the truth, I am the light. Before Abraham was,
I am. We need to be taken back to before
the foundation of the world and behold the great I am. Behold
the sovereign electing grace of God in Christ Jesus and know
that's where salvation originates, not with me and you. Paul begins
at the very point here of their vain confidence, and it's the
same vain confidence of every sinner, and it's the same confidence
that every sinner must have stripped away. If we'd be brought to believe
on Christ, listen now, we've got to experience the sovereign
grace of God which alone saves sinners. So let's start here
in Acts 13, 17. The God of this people of Israel
chose our fathers and exalted the people when they dwelt as
strangers in the land of Egypt, and with an high arm brought
he them out of it. Paul begins here and he says,
the God of this people of Israel, that's who I want to talk to
you about. The Law of Moses and the Prophets had just been read.
The Word of God. And they had just read of this
people of Israel. And everyone to whom Paul speaks
sits there and they're thinking, we're of this people of Israel.
And all by their own will. by blood, by the will of man,
by the will of the flesh. Paul says we got to go back further
than your fathers and further than your decision for Jehovah.
Paul says the God of this people of Israel whom you just read
about, that's the God I'm about to declare to you. And so Paul
sets forth three things in this one verse and this will be our
three points. First of all he says the God
of this people of Israel chose our fathers. We noted last time
that the Lord Jesus Christ began his first message declaring God's
sovereign elect in grace That's how the Lord Jesus Christ began.
He said there was many widows in Sarepta the Lord came to one
they were many lepers the Lord came to one And we see here by
the Spirit of Christ working in Paul Paul begins in the same
place They've got to understand fact is that the place where
Paul begins here The place where the salvation of every true child
of God begins of God or yet in Christ Jesus Look over at Ephesians
chapter 1 and verse 3 Look there at Ephesians 1 verse 3 Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with all spiritual
blessings and heavenly places in Christ According as he hath
chosen us in him Paul speaking to believers at Ephesus. He's
not talking to everybody He's talking about those who God chose
and put in Christ and he says here and he did this before the
foundation of the world That we should be holy and without
blame before him in love The only way we would be holy and
without blame before him is in love He chose us and put us in
Christ and he looked Christ And he predestinated us unto the
adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself According to
the good pleasure of his will and it's all to the praise of
the glory of his grace wherein he hath made us accepted in the
beloved look over at 2nd Thessalonians chapter 2 and verse 13 and 2nd Thessalonians chapter 2 verse
13 But we are bound to give thanks always to God for you brethren
beloved of the Lord Because God hath from the beginning Chosen
you to salvation through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the
truth Where unto he called you by our gospel to the obtaining
of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ The doctrine of God's
sovereign election sets the theme of salvation, and it sets the
theme of salvation before self-exalting sinners. It's what self-exalting
sinners need to hear from the outset. The doctrine of God's
sovereign choice sets God upon his throne in supremacy. The
truth of God's sovereign choice declares God is the Alpha and
the Omega of salvation. This doctrine sets the sinner
in the dust at his feet. The true meaning of grace is
understood only when we behold God, whose right it is to withhold
and bestow grace as it pleases Him. We've got to be brought
to see that it's no more grace if it's based on something in
us. Grace is no more grace if there
was some merit in you and I. If by works, if it's by something
that we've done, salvation will be a debt owed, not grace freely
given. And Paul proclaims here that
God of this people of Israel chose our fathers. Now, the folks
in the synagogue to whom Paul's speaking, they consider Abraham
and Isaac and Jacob to be their fathers, and so Paul saying God
passed by every sinner in Ur of Chaldeas and called out Abraham
Saying in these shall all the nations of the earth be blessed
in like manner. God looked nowhere else but to
his own son and It's God who first trusted his son His son
is the one who he first trusted and said in these shall all the
nations of the earth be blessed That's that's what's typified
there and God making his covenant with Abraham is the covenant
he made with his own son before the world began The God of this
people of Israel rejected Ishmael God rejected Ishmael because
he was the product of man's will of man's wisdom of man's strength,
but Isaac was the child promised by God. He was the child born
and the son given. And thus God said, in Isaac shall
thou see be called. Who did God glorify in choosing
Isaac and passing by Ishmael? He glorified his own son, for
it said of Christ in Isaiah 9, 6. Look, look there, Isaiah 9,
6. Turn over there. I'll give you
a minute to get there. Isaiah 9, verse 6. Under us a child is born under
us a son is given Isn't that what happened to with Isaac?
He was a son of promise. He was born by God And he was
given a son the son of God given to Abraham and Isaac So he said
I'll call the government to be upon his shoulder and his name
should be called wonderful counselor the mighty God the everlasting
father the Prince of Peace and He said in Isaac that seed shall
be called Abraham because he glorifies my son who is my preeminent
first choice. The God of this people of Israel
said, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. They were
both descendants of Abraham. They were both the born sons
of Isaac. But he said, Jacob have I loved,
but Esau have I hated. Not because of any good or evil
in those two, Jacob's name means supplanter. He was no better
than I saw probably worse than he saw But Jacob's name was changed
from supplanter to Israel. And what does that mean? Look
at Genesis 32 28? What does the name Israel mean?
If you'll see here that when he chose Jacob when he changed
Jacob's name to says I chose you My son I chose you because
it glorifies my son look here at Genesis 32 28 Tell me this
name is a name that glorifies Christ look And he said that
name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel for as a prince
thou Has power with God and with men and has prevailed Jacob's
name was changed because Israel is the name was described Jacob
Savior Christ Jesus the Son of God who as a prince has power
with God and with men and has prevailed Look over at Isaiah
42 Isaiah 42. I want you to be be sure on this
that you see the point I'm making to you Before God chose anybody,
He chose His Son. And then, those He chose, He
chose them. In the same manner that He chose
His Son. His Son is His elect. Look here,
Isaiah 42, 1. Behold My servant whom I uphold,
Mine elect, in whom My soul delighteth. I've put My Spirit upon him.
He shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. This is the
firstborn son of God. This is the, this is the one
who, who is before Abraham. This is the great I am. This
is, this is God, the mighty God, the everlasting father, the prince
of peace. He said, I bring salvation to
my people. And then he chose a people and
put them in him. And so. Man's rejection of the
doctrine of election is against God not only because it exalts
a sinner But even worse it denies the son who was elected of God
to do the saving and who alone saves If I can reject God and
reject the fact that God chooses whom he will Maybe maybe I can
just reject the son whom he chose. That's the natural heart the
enmity in the heart Paul declares, this is how this people of Israel
became the children of God. This people, not all of these
people was the children of God, he's not saying that, but he's
saying they didn't do anything, even national Israel didn't do
anything to be chosen to be used of God. Read Deuteronomy 7, verse
7. The Lord did not set His love
upon you, nor choose you, because you were more in number than
any people. For you were the fewest of all people. But because
the Lord loved you, and because He would keep the oath which
He had sworn unto your fathers, hath the Lord brought you out
with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen,
from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. Know, therefore, that
the Lord thy God, He's God. You and I aren't. He is. He's
the faithful God. He keeps covenant and mercy with
them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations. But those that want to boast
of their free will, those that want to say that by their natural
generation, by their relation to their mother and their father,
by blood that they're somehow children of God, he said, I repay
them that hate him to their face, to destroy them. He'll not be
slack to him that hateth him. He'll repay him to his face.
So here's the point as Jew and Gentile set before Paul in the
synagogue Thinking that they were the people of Israel because
of something in their person Paul declares that the fathers
in Israel did not make themselves the people of Israel, but God
chose them he chose them And so it is with God's Israel. God
chose his son, and God chose whom he'd save in his son. Jew
and Gentile, bond and free, male and female, rich and poor, none
of that makes any difference. God chose them before any of
those things were. At the end of this account, in
Acts 13, look over to verse 48. The Spirit of God declares this.
when the Gentiles heard this they were glad and glorified
the word of the Lord and as many as were ordained by God choosing
them or putting them in Christ and Predestinating them unto
the adoption of children before the foundation of the world in
heavenly places as many as were ordained to eternal life Believed
that's who believed All right, then secondly He first he said
God chose our fathers. We didn't choose him and secondly
he said the God of this people of Israel Exalted the people
when they dwelt as strangers in the land of Egypt This word
exalted means to raise From what Moses wrote the word is translated
multiplied it means God birthed them into a nation they didn't
even make themselves a nation and Perhaps in a synagogue, they
may have just read from the Law of Moses, how that Moses wrote
in Exodus 1, 7, how the people multiplied greatly. And then
in verse 11, he says how Pharaoh did set over their fathers taskmasters
to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh treasure
cities, and Pytham, and Ramses. But the more they afflicted them,
the more they multiplied and grew. Paul's declaring to them,
it wasn't the people who did this, it's God who did this.
Paul's declaring to the Jew and Gentile in the synagogue that
no man has room to boast, but God alone births his children
into his nation, his spiritual nation. Whether Jew or Gentile,
the natural heart imagines that we can make ourselves God's children
three ways. By blood, by the will of the
flesh, or by the will of man. In this congregation to whom
Paul spoke, you had Jews who believed they were of this people
of Israel because they were natural born sons of Abraham. Their boast
was, I'm a child of God because mom and dad were children of
Israel. Jacob was a child of God. That's not how you become
a child of God. Gentiles who were here in the
synagogue believed they were sons of God because by the will
of their flesh they had joined the synagogue and professed to
believe Jehovah and Jew and Gentile together believed that they were
holy because that these Gentiles were holy because they truly
imagined and the Jews imagined that they had kept God's law
But they hadn't they merely continued in the idolatry of trusting the
will of the flesh The Gentiles just called it by a new name
And then these Jews and Gentiles joined together to proselyte
other Gentiles. And they thought by the will
of man, by their proselyting, that is, by their fleshly wisdom
and persuasion, that they had made others join with them, and
thus by the will of man they made them the children of God.
That's not so. Not so. Look at John 1, 11. He came unto his own, and his
own received him not. But as many as received him,
to them gave he power, the honor to become the sons of God, even
to them that believe on his name, which were born, here's how they
were birthed into his nation, which were born not of blood,
not by natural ancestry, Nor of the will of the flesh not
by their own will they're running and doing and and striving to
gain acceptance Nor of the will of man not by the preacher or
anybody Coercing them or proselyting them but of God that's how he
and that's what Paul's saying here He exalted the people when
they dwelt as strangers in the land of Egypt. He birthed them
into his nation. They didn't and You see, you
remember John, look, look, look with me at John chapter three,
look at, look over there at John three, verse five. We're born
in this world the first time by the predestinating grace and
power of God, and then we're born a second time the same way,
by the Spirit of God. And the Lord told Nicodemus this.
He said, John 3, 5, Jesus answered, verily, verily, I say unto thee,
except a man be born of water, that's the first birth, and of
the Spirit, that's the second birth, he cannot enter into the
kingdom of God. Now, let's go back over there,
think about the people this people of Israel in Egypt. Satan, working
through Pharaoh, would have destroyed all the children in Israel so
that Christ, the seed, would not be born. He didn't want him
to be to be born of woman to be made under the law because
he didn't want his head to be bruised But God frustrated all
Satan's purposes in order to fulfill his promise to his son
To his children in the garden to Abraham to David to all his
saints. So God brought forth the Savior
he Exalted this people Israel. He birthed them into a nation
because of the stock of Abraham Christ would be born Look at
verse 23 in Acts 13. Of this man's seed, talking about
David, hath God according to his promise raised unto Israel
a Savior, Jesus. This is what he promised Abraham.
In thy seed, not of many, not in your children, but in thy
seed who is Christ shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.
So Pharaoh couldn't destroy them. He couldn't destroy these Israelites
because God birthed them into a nation because his son's gonna
be come come from from the stock of Abraham and then Concerning
the second birth of Jesus from the dead think about that Same
token Satan and his children poured out all their power on
Christ to see to it that he died that he'd be buried that the
sepulcher be guarded but it was but he was born a second time
by the Spirit of God and Verse 29 through 30 here in Acts 13,
when they had fulfilled all that was written of him. They only
did what God determined before to be done. And when they fulfilled
everything that was written of him, they took him down from
the tree, laid him in a sepulcher, but God raised him from the dead.
And we declare unto you glad tidings now that the promise
which was made unto the fathers, God hath fulfilled the same unto
us, their children, in that he hath raised up Jesus again, as
it is also written in the second Psalm, Thou art my son, this
day have I begotten thee. So it's for you, it's the same
for you who were chosen of God. Satan would have destroyed your
father and your mother and their father and mother so that you
would have never been born. But God wouldn't allow that for
the sake of his son to whom you were promised. after you were
born the first time satan used ever means possible to destroy
you during all your days of rebellion so that you couldn't be born
of the spirit of god but god's not willing that any of his elect
perish but all come to repentance and that all be born the second
time of the holy spirit except a man be born of water and of
the spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of god and so Paul
says to the Jew and Gentile, the fathers didn't raise themselves
to be a nation, neither can the elect of God, neither can those
God chose raise themselves. God exalted the people when they
dwelt as strangers in the land of Egypt. August 9th, 1945, in Nagasaki,
Japan, there was an 11-year-old girl who got up that morning
to go to school. And she was sick. Sometimes the
Lord gives us sickness for our own good. She was sick. And she went to the doctor instead
of going to school. And the weather was bad that
morning. Who sent the weather? Because
the first place that there was a plane in the sky, the first
place it was supposed to go, They didn't go there because
of the weather and they ended up turned and went to Nagasaki
But they didn't get there till about 1102 and this little girl
was at the doctor's office instead of at her school and They dropped
the atom bomb And she didn't go without getting
injured it it did burn the clothes some of the clothes on her back
but every one of her schoolmates died and over 20 years later
20 years later she gave birth to Teresa Edmondson Who was one
whom God was willing will be born of water the first time
and so her mother couldn't perish and He was willing she be born
of the Holy Spirit the second time That's Pastor Dave Edmondson
the pastors New Caney Laird Street Baptist Church in New Caney,
Texas. That's his wife That's the case Says with with this
nation in Israel this people have got his true elect He chose
him and he burst them into his spiritual Israel into his true
Israel into his true nation And he won't he won't allow him to
perish just won't allow him to perish now look here thirdly
and the God of this people of Israel with an high arm Brought
he them out of Egypt Arm expresses might and power in the old Hebrew
language With the highest power and might God brought the people
out of bondage out of Egypt out of their state as strangers and
foreigners Just like Moses wrote in Deuteronomy 7 verse 8. He
says because the Lord loved you Here in his love not that we
love God, but that he loved us and sent his son be the propitiation
for our sin. Because the Lord loved you and
because he would keep the oath, the covenant which he had sworn
unto your fathers. We said that typified the covenant
he made with his son. Because he'd keep the oath he
swore to his son that the Lord brought you out with a mighty
hand. And he bought you out of the house of bondman from the
hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Everything about Israel's redemption
out of Egypt foreshadowed the preeminent arm the mighty hand
of power and salvation And that's Christ Jesus the Lord the Son
of God look look at Exodus 13 11 This is the this is the Ordinance
of the Passover that the Lord instituted after they were brought
out of Egypt listen to this Exodus 13 11 And it shall be when the
Lord shall bring thee into the land of the Canaanites, as he
sware unto thee and to thy fathers, and shall give it thee, that
thou shalt set apart unto the Lord all that openeth the matrix. And every firstling that cometh
of a beast which thou hast, the males shall be the Lord's, all
firstborn males of beasts and of their own sons. And every
firstling of an ass thou shalt redeem with a lamb. And if thou
will not redeem it, then thou shalt break his neck. And all
the firstborn of man among thy children shalt thou redeem with
the blood of a lamb. And it shall be when thy son
asketh thee in time to come saying, what is this? That thou shalt
say unto him by strength of hand, by strength of hand, the Lord
brought us out from Egypt, from the house of bondage. And it came to pass when Pharaoh
would hardly let us go, that the Lord slew all the firstborn
in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of man and the firstborn
of beast. And he did just that. The Lord
killed all the firstborn in Egypt. Killed all of the firstborn Egyptians
and all the firstborn Israelites all of them died the sinner that
sinneth must die and he He judged them all every one of them this
just as he'll do when he comes again. He's gonna he's gonna
It's not one that's not gonna die for their sin the difference
is he provided a lamb he gave a lamb to the Israelites and
And he said this lamb is gonna die in the place of your firstborn
son this lamb's gonna die in the place of your chosen sons
and you put the blood over the doorpost and when I pass through
Egypt when I see the blood I'll know that One died in that house
in the blood of a lamb. They can't die again, and I'll
pass over them But the Egyptians didn't have a lamb Because God
didn't give him a lamb. He didn't provide him a lamb.
And he poured out his judgment upon their firstborn. And he
says here in Exodus 13, 15, Therefore I sacrifice to the Lord all that
openeth the matrix, being males, but all the firstborn of my children
I redeem. All the elect of God are his
firstborn because they were created in sovereign electing grace in
the firstborn Christ Jesus and all the elect of God are his
children and all the firstborn of his children God the Father
redeemed He bought them by his own blood Into the spotless lamb,
which he provided Christ Jesus the Lord and he won't pour out
his judgment on him a second time They died in that lamb and
when he sees the blood That he passes over them It shall be
for a token upon thine hand and for frontless between thine eyes
for by strength of hand The Lord brought us forth out of Egypt
Isaiah was sent forth and he said in Isaiah 53 1 who hath
believed our report and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed
in verse 7 there he says he Arm of the Lord's a person. It's
Christ. Jesus is Lord the our Lord He says he was oppressed
and he was afflicted yet. He opened not his mouth He is
brought as a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before her shearers
is dumb So he openeth not his mouth He was taken from prison
and from judgment and who should declare his generation for he
was cut off Out of the land of the living for the transgression
of my people was he stricken? God put upon him, made him the
sin that his people were. This one who knew no sin, this
one who is the spotless lamb whom Abraham saw, who Abraham
said to Isaac, God will provide himself a lamb. This one was
made sin for us. The transgression for the transgression
of my people was he stricken, God said, that we, his people,
his elect, the chosen ones of Israel, might be made the very
righteousness of God in him. We can't do that. We can't bring
ourselves out of bondage with a mighty hand. We can't birth
ourselves into a nation. We can't choose God first He
must choose us and he must bring us into by the regenerating power
of the Holy Spirit He must give us new life. Give us a new heart. Give us an understanding He must
he must say let there be light And so there is light and we
behold the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus and we behold
He is the high arm. He is the mighty arm. He is the
strength of God and Declaring God just and justifier of all
who believe on him And here's what Paul's telling him He said
in his openness statement He strips away all the sinful pride
of man all the power which sinful man thinks is his is in his own
flesh and Paul declares that God's Israel true Israel is chosen
by God the Father alone and Created and born of God the Holy Spirit
alone birthed into his nation and redeemed out of bondage by
the Son of God Christ Jesus the Lord This is how God forms his
spiritual Israel Paul's declaring something that it'll take the
grace and power of God to make a sinner bow to But he sent to
declare it and that's exactly what it did The Jews thought
they were the children of God because us because of something
in them natural generation being born of the natural sons of Abraham,
and by circumcision, by keeping the law. In other words, by the
flesh. And that's what all unregenerate
Gentiles think. But look over at Romans 2. Look
at Romans 2, verse 28. This is what Paul said. He is not a Jew, which is one
outwardly. Neither is that circumcision,
which is outward in the flesh. but he is a Jew which is one
inwardly and Circumcision is that of the heart in the spirit
not in the letter whose praise is not of men but of God now
let me give you an application here And I want to give you the
very application Paul gives at the end of this sermon. We just
looked at the first verse tonight But we'll go through this as
we as we go and we'll but tonight I want you to go over to Acts
13 38 Here's here's how Paul ends up
this sermon Be it known unto you therefore men and brethren
that through this man Christ Jesus the Son of God is preached
unto you the forgiveness of sin you want to be forgiven You have
to bow to God who chooses whom he will and passes by whom he
will that's who hung there on the cross This is this is God
in human flesh. This is the Christ And we got
a bow to him You want forgiveness of sins? You're going to have
to bow to the fact that God Almighty, this is God Almighty. He must
give you life. He must give us spiritual understanding. He predestinated us under the
adoption of Jesus Christ unto Himself by Jesus Christ. And
if we're going to be brought into His nation, His spiritual
Israel, His church, His kingdom, His household, it's going to
be because He exalts us into, He multiplies us, He births us
into His spiritual nation. And it's going to be because
he comes to us and he shows us that Christ Jesus the Lord, the
high arm, the mighty hand redeemed us, bought us, paid the price
of his own blood, paid the price of his own righteousness, paid
the price of leaving heaven's glory. And became poor that he
might make us rich in the unsearchable riches of Christ There's where
we got to come to you won't forgiveness of sin You ain't gonna have it
because your mom and daddy was a Baptist or Presbyterian or
Methodist or Church of Christ or whatever You're not gonna
have it because because you decided one day you'd make your decision
for this Jesus that's birthing yourself into this nation that
ain't gonna happen and you're not gonna have it because Because
you think that you're believing made his blood effectual when
he had by himself Purged our sin put him away. He sat down.
He didn't he didn't make something possible. He accomplished it
Either you gonna bow to him Are you gonna come before God without
a lamb and be like the Egyptians and have to face him? Yourself,
but Paul said through this man is priest unto you the forgiveness
of sins, but there acts 1339 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 and There's a people who just
aren't gonna hear God said that clearly in the prophets behold
ye despisers and wonder and perish for our work of work in your
days a work which you shall at no wise believe though a man
declared unto you I Hope and pray you hear this and if you
don't believe on Christ I hope that I hope this makes you so
angry that you just can't you can't throw it off that it just
it just comes down on you and you walk away around with it
for the next two weeks three weeks year however long it takes
and can't get rid of it because if that's the case it might just
be that God's God has been merciful and gracious to you. He declares
this, that if some he passes by, because when he declares
this message and he quickens a sinner's heart and makes him
behold that he is God, that he can do with his own whatsoever
he pleases, it makes us see him as he is. Know therefore, he
told Israel, he said, know therefore that I'm God. I didn't choose
you because of anything in you. I didn't bring you out by your
strength. I didn't do, I did it myself. And that's what we're
gonna have to be brought to see. The gospel is humbling to the
pride of man because God brings us down. He brings us down before
he raises us to see Christ. And the thing about it is, is
he don't ever stop doing that. He don't ever stop doing it.
And a sinner don't ever want him to stop doing it. A believer,
it's the only message we can hear where it puts us totally
in the dust just wounds us just wounds our pride and wounds our
will and wounds everything about us and at the same time exalts
Christ before us and heals us you go to a dentist and he's
there to heal you but that pain he inflicts on you makes you
not ever want to go back to see him again not so with the gospel
not so with Christ he wounds you over and over and over Heals
you over and over and over so that you stayed on Christ. You
stayed on Jehovah. He separates you from the evil
He won't let you go back keeps you from the evil through his
gospel. He won't let you go back to that flesh He won't let you
go back to put trust in it confidence in it And he makes us willing
that Christ is all our confidence. He's all our hope and all our
rejoicing May God give us a heart like he gave to these Gentiles.
I You know what these Gentiles did after they heard Paul pray?
They said, would you come back here and preach that to us again?
We want to hear that again. Do you want to hear it again?
I pray God to give you a heart to go back and listen to it again. Go back and listen to any of
these messages. This is the same gospel I've
endeavored to preach to you week in and week out. And I pray God
be merciful to you. And if you know him and trust
him, I pray God once again will wound you and heal you. according
to the praise, the glory of His grace in Christ Jesus. Amen.