Well, may it please the Lord
to help us this evening as we continue our meditation in Acts
of the Apostles. And of course, this evening,
we will, God willing, complete our meditation in the Acts of
the Apostles. And we'll commence from verse 25 to the end. And we'll just read from verse
25 to the end. And when they agreed not among
themselves, they departed after that Paul had spoken one word
Well spake the Holy Ghost by Isaiah the prophet unto our fathers,
saying, Go unto this people and say, Hearing ye shall hear, and
shall not understand, and seeing ye shall see, and not perceive. For the heart of this people
is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their
eyes have they closed, lest they should see with their eyes, and
hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and should
be converted, and I should heal them. Be it known therefore unto
you that the salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles, and
that they will hear it." And when he had said these words,
the Jews departed and had great reasoning among themselves. Paul
dwelt two whole years in his own high house, and received
all that came in unto him, preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching
those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ, with all confidence,
no man forbidding him." Well, how true it is, as we read
And as we thought upon last week, as the apostle was able to bring
the word of God to those people that came to hear, and we read
those words to whom he expounded and testified the kingdom of
God, persuading them concerning Jesus, both out of the law of
Moses and out of the prophets from morning till evening. And
then we read, and some believed the things which were spoken,
and some believed not. Well, we believe that's always
been the case. The great blessing is, of course,
that there are some that believe. And we would indeed earnestly
pray, as we have prayed tonight, that in our neighborhood there
may be some who believe. No doubt, sadly, there will be
many that do not believe. But may there be some that believe."
And the Apostle said, and when they agreed not among themselves,
they departed. They obviously discussed those
things that the Apostle had spoken to, the most great, glorious
truths of God, and I'm sure that With his wonderful knowledge
of the Old Testament, he would have been very persuasive in
his arguments. But we notice that unless the
Spirit of God comes and opens eyes, people remain blind. And here these people were, many
were still blind and deaf, although they perhaps had, apart from
the Savior, the greatest preacher, opening the Word of God to them.
And we see that it's not the ability of men, it's God uses
the ability of men, but it's the power of the Holy Spirit
that convinces those who are dead in trespasses and sins to
be brought to the life and to believe the true and blessed
Gospel. There were those that believed
and some believed not, and when they agreed not among themselves,
they departed. But not before Paul spoken one
word. Paul was going to remind them
of a great truth in Scripture. Perhaps sometimes we fail in
following such an example. because here the Apostle speaks
to them very faithfully and he says, well speak the Holy Ghost
by Isaiah, which we know as Isaiah, the prophet unto our fathers.
He's quoting of course from the prophecy of Isaiah and the sixth
chapter and he says saying, go unto this people and say, hearing
ye shall hear. and shall not understand, and
seeing ye shall see, and not perceive." Now that's a very
solemn statement, isn't it? It's a very blessed statement,
but a very sad statement to realise that that was true then and it's
continuing to be true right up to the present moment of time. As the Gospel has been preached,
the gospel has been set before the people, then there are those
who will not hear. Hearing ye shall hear and shall
not understand. They hear with the natural ear,
but that's where it stops. And they see with the natural
eyes. They read the Word of God, but
they do not perceive that how We all need to have the blessed
eminence of the Spirit's work in our heart so that we do know
that we have heard with those spiritual ears. Our ears have
been opened. We haven't just heard the Word. We've heard, as it were, that
truth that lieth underneath the surface. the deep that couches
beneath, as the Word of God describes it. And saying, Hearing ye shall
hear, and shall not understand. And seeing ye shall see, and
not perceive. Well, the Apostle was very forthright,
wasn't he? And he was, of course, quoting
the Word of God. And how safe it is for us today
to quote the Word of God and to tell people the solemn condition
that they are in. They are either amongst those
who hear and hear without understanding and see and perceive, or those
who do not hear and those who do not see. Well, may we have
the glorious evidence in our souls that we are amongst those
who believe, those who hear, and those who see. And then he
explains something further, for the heart of this people is waxed
gross, and their ears dull of hearing, and their eyes have
they closed, lest they should see with their eyes, and hear
with their ears, and understand with their heart, and should
be converted, and I should heal them. Well, there are those who
the Lord does convert, who he does heal. And that should really
be our great concern, that we are amongst those who are on
the right side, not those who are wax gross and ears dull of
hearing. You know, we do see, don't we?
We see in our own churches. People who come and go and really
have no evidence of the work of God in their souls. They may
appear to be very good on the outside, do everything right,
but yet do not possess the great and glorious gift of God of eternal
life. It is a very solemn consideration,
isn't it? and how we should ever be concerned
about it. We know it's the work of the
Spirit, but the Apostle was very faithful in telling them. Those
who were indeed discussing it, who some believe and some believe
not, he told them this great truth, so perhaps it might, by
the Spirit's work, stir them up to be concerned as to whether
they were amongst those who were blessed of God. And then he says,
be it known therefore unto you that the salvation of God is
sent unto the Gentiles and that they will hear it. Well, that
was a very solemn word, wasn't it? So the Lord had sent the
apostle, he sent the apostles and others to preach the great
and glorious gospel to the Jews first. And what had they done? They'd rejected it. They rejected
it. They followed their own way.
They followed their own ideas of religion, right so far, but
lacking the blessed gift of believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so how solemn it was for
them to realise that the Lord then had sent unto the Gentiles,
well, we can bless God today, can't we, for that glorious truth.
as we form part of the Gentiles and how wonderful it is if the
Lord by His Spirit has sent the Word unto us and that we have
heard it in our heart and it's done us good and it's made a
change and we're not there for amongst those who just discuss
it and argue about it but it's the Blessed Movement of the Holy
Spirit in our hearts, which has enabled us to believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ and therefore be amongst those who are eternally
saved." And we see the effect. He said that word. It was his
last words. He was speaking to them. And
when he had said these words, the Jews departed and had great
reasoning among themselves. Reasoning is not salvation. People can discuss and reason
the things of God into their natural mind. It's not salvation. What we all need is the blessing
of God's grace to receive into our heart the great and glorious
truths which are set before us in the Word of God, and not to
be just found amongst those who have great reasoning, wonderful
debate on these things. But you see, there's no saving
knowledge in that. There's no true blessing in that.
What does it do? It only satisfies our natural
mind, our natural ego, to perhaps come to what we might think was
a better side of the argument. But such reasoning, vain reasoning,
would leave them lost and ruined. And so as we come right to the
end of this Acts of the Apostles, and we've seen again and again
how the Apostle Paul has gloriously proclaimed the truth of the Gospel
up and down the lands, even when at sea and in Rome, And, of course,
in Jerusalem, in Caesarea, so many places, there were those
that believed and those that believed not. Finally, we find
the Apostle Paul for two whole years in his own hide house. and received all that came in
unto him. And again, it would seem that
he didn't really have liberty as such. He had perhaps a soldier
with him, but nonetheless, he was able to receive all that
came unto him and to speak to them. And not only that, it would
appear in this two year period, he was able to write and write
many of the Gospels. And what he wrote in those days
was, he wrote to the Galatians, he wrote to the Ephesians, he
wrote the second epistle of Timothy, he wrote the Colossians, he wrote
Philemon, and then when he was set free to liberty, he wrote
the great and glorious epistle to the Hebrews. So, the apostle's
time was not wasted, was it? No, what a blessing it was the
Lord set him aside, as it were, in this place so that he might
write these great epistles that we are so favoured and privileged
to be able to read today. And as we read them to recognise
what the apostle was going through, he was able to have his friends
come to him, but he was still really a captive. But the Lord
blessed this time of captivity for the Church of God." Well,
may we today recognize the favor of God toward us in granting
us the Word of God and the truths that he was able to set before
us. They are wonderful, aren't they?
They are a great blessing to the souls of the Church of God.
And then, apart from writing all those epistles, we read what
he did, preaching the Kingdom of God and teaching those things
which concern the Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence, no
man forbidding him. He must have had many people
gathered from time to time to hear the great truths of the
Kingdom of God. And as he was able then to teach
them with regard to the blessings of the Lord Jesus Christ, we
only have to realise, as we read those epistles which he wrote
at this time, to realise what depths the Holy Spirit led him
into. and especially, of course, the glorious epistle of the Hebrews. And we know that at the beginning
of his ministry, he went for those three years into the desert,
really, where no doubt he was much blessed with the instruction
of the Lord. And then the years of his ministry,
it all continues to teach and instruct him. he comes down to
the end of his ministry and he's still able to bring these great
truths and obviously with more and more knowledge as greater
things were revealed to him and so here he was preaching the
kingdom of God and teaching those things which concern the Lord
Jesus Christ with all confidence. And my friends today, we can
preach and we can teach the Word of God with all confidence, knowing
it is true, knowing it is the Word of God, knowing it is that
which we can rely upon for our soul's eternal good. And may
we therefore bless God for that confidence that we may have in
the Word of God. no man forbidding him. Well,
no man came and stopped him. He'd been stopped many times
in his preaching career. But here he was now, at this
time, no man forbidding him. He was able to continue to preach
the great truths of God. Well, that's all we're told in
the Word of God of the life of the Apostle Paul. And as we've
traced it through, surely It's been a very illuminating journey
to realise how the Lord directed him, how the Lord instructed
him, what he did in his life, how he journeyed, how he spoke.
All these things have been, I'm sure, of great profit and instruction
to us. So may we perhaps read Acts of
the Apostles with perhaps new eyes, blessing God for the great
truths it contains, and realising the zeal that the Apostle Paul
had under every circumstance, however difficult, he never ceased
to desire and to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ. Amen.