I please the Lord to bless us
together this evening as we meditate in his word. Again, we'll turn
to the Acts of the Apostles in chapter 28, the last chapter. And we'll just read two verses
tonight, 23 and 24. And then we'll hope to conclude
our meditation in the Acts next Tuesday. So verses 23 and 24
read, and when they had appointed him a day, There came many to
him into his lodgings, 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 some believed the things
which were spoken and some believed not. Well, we will perhaps remember
that there was that desire that Paul might expound to them the
truths. The people had come and there'd
been a group had come to hear him speak and they said, but
we desire to hear of thee what thou thinkest. For us concerning
this sect, we know not, we know that everywhere it is spoken
against. And so they appointed then this
time, a certain day, and many came to where Paul was. Well, it's not clear of course
if it was the house that he rented for those two years or whether
he was still in someone else's accommodation. We know he had
freedom, so-called, but he may still have been in chains. We're
not too sure about that. And therefore, they came into
his lodgings. And what did he do? Well, he
expounded and testified the kingdom of God persuading them concerning
Jesus both as the law of Moses and as the prophets from morning
till evening. Well we can observe here that
wonderful example isn't it of the Apostle Paul there he was
in this house and these people came to him and therefore all
day apart from probably when they had some refreshments all
day really he was speaking to them about the things of God. And in that way, we read, to
whom he expounded and testified the kingdom of God, persuading
them concerning Jesus. Well, how needful it is perhaps
to be able to address people and to not just make a bold statement,
but to endeavour to persuade them of the truth of the Word
of God and the truth of those things which we read of. Now we know of course that we
cannot actually give any spiritual life, but nonetheless it is clearly
beholden to operate in the way that we have before us in the
Word of God, and here's Paul in this room persuading All those
people that had come to him, he didn't just make a statement
and then moved on and said, well, that's that. He was obviously
very concerned that the things that he was bringing to them,
there might be a good and tangible argument about it. And we know
how needful it is perhaps to use persuasion. It's something
perhaps which we aren't too familiar with, but nonetheless, Apostle,
when he wrote to the Corinthians, he used the same words when he
said, knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men,
but we are made manifest under God, and I trust also are made
manifest in your consciences. And now, on that occasion, when
he was writing to the Corinthians, his concern was that they might
be naturally persuaded of the truth of the things of God and
What a blessing it is if there is that natural persuasion to
then perhaps search out the truth of God and how wonderful the
truths are and They are contained as we read here Not only and
of course the New Testament, but also in the Old Testament. And so here was the Apostle persuading
them concerning Jesus both out of the law of Moses and of the
prophets from morning till evening. The blessing was, of course,
that the Apostle Paul was so well versed in the Scriptures,
the Old Testament, being brought up at the feet of Gamaliel, and
therefore no doubt knew the Old Testament very, very clearly.
And many of those texts referring to the Messiah, he would have
been very familiar with. And he will have been able to
point it out, the great truths which they contain. It's interesting
in our letter that we're sending round with the calendars and
the Gospel of John, we make this comment in the letter. We say there is one solid foundation
of truth in existence today, and that is the Bible. Some people
think it is a book of mythology and fairy tales. whereas the
reality is that its validity and accuracy is continually being
confirmed by fresh archaeological discoveries. This is not all. The Bible itself proves its own
truth. The question may be asked, how
is this possible? The answer is by very accurate
prophecies being fulfilled. Prophecies written many hundreds
of years previously in the Old Testament came to pass when Jesus
Christ was born. Details such as the place, the
type of birth, his life, his death are all accurately fulfilled. There is therefore indisputable
evidence that the Bible is true." Well, no doubt the Apostle Paul
was using the same type of arguments as he was together with these
people. They'd come to hear what he got
to say, they were obviously interested, and therefore as the opportunity
was presented to him, he was able to speak freely of those
great things. And of course we read together
in that last chapter in the Gospel of Luke, similar words that the
Lord Jesus Christ used when he was speaking to those two on
the Emmaus Road. You remember he joined with them
and they were perplexed and no doubt the people that Paul was
speaking to were perplexed. And today many people still are
perplexed today. They do not understand. They
do not realize the wonderful truth the Bible contains. And so here the Lord Jesus graciously
came and drew near to these two walking on this road and went
with them and we read the wonderful words that he spoke when he said,
O fools and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets
have spoken. How true that is today. How many
people are foolish. They do not believe, they will
not believe the word of God. And he tells us, ought not Christ
to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory?
And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto
them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. Surely this is still so needful
today, in the age in which we live, to be able to persuade
people, by the grace of God, of the glorious truths the Bible
contains and how it does speak in the Old Testament, so very
wonderfully, of the coming Messiah. How accurately and how it came
to pass. And here the Apostle Paul was
able to speak of these things, to convey the truth of them,
persuading them, concerning Jesus. That's a great truth, isn't it?
That's a great thing that people might come to believe in the
Lord Jesus Christ, both out of the law of Moses and out of the
prophets from morning till evening. How many references there are
in the Old Testament to the coming of the Lord Jesus and how he
would come and where he would be born and what he would do.
And then we read the great truth, the sad truth really. And some
believed the things which were spoken and some believed not. And that's been the same down
through the ages. Some, by the grace of God, have
believed the truth of God, and some have believed not. We have to recognise the sovereign
power of God, the sovereign grace of God, in these things, in shining
light into some who believe and others have been left in darkness."
Well, the blessing for us surely tonight is to have the evidence
that the great truths of the Word of God concerning the Saviour,
the Lord Jesus Christ, are true and that we do believe them. Well, you know, the question
was, believest thou on the Lord Jesus Christ? And that man says,
I do believe. Help thou mine unbelief. What he was really saying was,
he wanted to believe, but there was a great amount of unbelief. Desire that might be destroyed,
and that he might believe. Help thou. Well the Lord can
help, and the Lord does help. The Lord does give that amazing
light and grace to believe the truths of the gospel. What a
mercy it is for us tonight if the Lord Jesus has come and indeed
shown us indeed has persuaded us of the great truth of the
Scripture and enabled us to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ so that
we shall be saved. It's only those who believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ will be saved. all the others will be
eternally lost. All those who believed not will
be eternally lost. So it is a very solemn statement,
really, as we see the wonderful privilege and favour that these
people had. There was the great Apostle Paul,
so blessed by God, in that house, declaring the truth of God so
faithfully, so clearly, and yet some believed and some believed
not. what a blessing for us will be
if we're numbered amongst those who believe. And when they had
appointed him a day, there came many to him into his lodgings,
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 some believed the
things which were spoken, and some believed not. Amen.