All right, Acts 28. Acts 28. Paul, at this time,
was in Rome awaiting trial before Caesar. And with that time that
he had, he reached out to the chief among the Jews that were
there in Rome and said he'd like to speak to them, declare to
them the way that he preached, the reason why he was in chains
now. He wanted to declare to them
this way which we preach. And I want to make four points
from this passage here, which we're going to pick up in verse
23. But the four points being what Paul preached, how Paul
preached this message, the noted difference that the Lord makes
between his people who hear this word and those who will not hear
this word, and to see that there is a blessing, the blessing of
God in the word preached. There will be a people that hear
this word and believe it. So let's pick up in verse 23.
When they had appointed him a day, the Jews, the chief of the Jews,
when they had appointed Paul a day, there came many to him
into his lodging, 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. So the first thing we notice
here is what Paul preached to his hearers. It says that he
expounded and testified the kingdom of God. He was declaring how
that God has a people whom he calls and gathers through the
Lord Jesus Christ. He was declaring to them that
God has a people whom he calls by his grace according to purpose. And what he's doing is he's making
known to them the gospel that he preached. He's declaring to
them that word which he preached to the Gentiles and to the Jews. And for that cause, he now was
in chains for this hope hope of Israel, for the hope that
God had given him in Christ. Now notice this, brethren. He
expounded and testified the kingdom of God, persuading them concerning
Jesus. The focus of his preaching, the
focus of his ministry, was the Lord Jesus Christ. We preach Christ Jesus the Lord. We preach Christ Jesus, the salvation
of God for his people. He is the good news of God. He's the Savior, brethren. He
saves his people from their sins. He is the very salvation of God. We preach Christ. When I was
in Florida, I noticed that on the back of the wall, facing
the man who's preaching the gospel to the people, on the back of
the wall, it says, Sir, we would see Jesus. And I thought, what
a blessed word to say there, to put right in front of the
face of the man who's preaching the gospel to the people, we
want to see Jesus. Preach to us the Lord Jesus Christ. That's a quote from John 12,
21. When the Greeks came to the apostles, they said that to the
apostles. Sir, we would see Jesus. That is the true desire of every
child of God who hungers and thirsts for righteousness. Preach
Jesus to us. Preach the Lord Jesus Christ
to us. Don't waste our time with dead-letter
religion. Preach the Savior to us. Preach Him who feeds and nourishes
the people of God. Now, we're told that there came
many to Paul into his lodging. They came to hear what he had
to say, which they called a sect. a sect, a heresy, an opinion
of man. They said, yeah, we'll hear you.
We'll come to hear what you have to say about this opinion you
have, this thing which is spoken against everywhere. And the one
of whom Paul spake was Jesus Christ. That's who he preached,
the Lord Jesus Christ. And you, brethren, like these
many, you gather here each week to hear the Word of God. And I preach unto you the Lord
Jesus Christ. He is the Word of God. The reason is good. There's a good reason for that.
Christ Jesus is the one thing needful. He is the one thing
needful that you and I have. He's the one thing needful that
my family, my wife needs. He's the one thing you need.
And so I preach unto you the Lord Jesus Christ because He
is the very salvation of God to heal you of your sin, of your
disease from which you cannot heal yourselves. He is the life
of God, the light of God for the people of God. We declare,
we preach unto you, Jesus, every one of us here is sick, sick
with the disease that we have labored and spent all that we
have and worked and strove and tried by the works of the law,
by the works of religion, by being the best that we can be,
and we fail to heal ourselves of this sin disease. I'm not
any better than I was at the beginning. In fact, all I see
more and more in my own heart is what a wicked, vile, little,
sniveling, weasel, filthy sinner that I am. Because the more you
see the holiness of God, the more you see I'm undone. I'm undone. Just as Isaiah, who
seeing Christ seated on the throne, cried, woe is me. I'm undone because I dwell, I'm
a sinner and I dwell in the midst of a sinful people. And that's
what the Lord shows us. I'm not getting better and better.
I see more and more clearly how much I desperately need the grace
of God given to me in Christ, in Christ. According to his word,
just like he says in his word, And so this disease that we have,
it's death. We are already born spiritually
dead in trespasses and sins. And our bodies are coming right
after it. They're dying too. They're already
dead. And there's nothing we can do of ourselves to save ourselves. And so except we be healed of
this sickness, except we be healed of our infirmity, of this disease,
we can't even worship God and be accepted of him, be received
of him. We can't even do that in spirit
and in truth. We're like the woman at the well,
thinking that we're something because we drank out of Jacob's
well. and it doesn't do anything for us. We're still thirsty,
day after day after day, according to our works and our religion. But for this cause, this is the
good news, for this cause, the Father sent the Son into this
world in the likeness of our flesh to lay down His life, to
save His people from their sins. Christ came and was delivered
up, spared not of the Father, but delivered up for us all.
That is, of all His people, Jew and Gentile, scattered throughout
the world, Christ gave his life for the sins of his people, in
order that we should be reconciled, reconciled unto God by him, that
the enmity that is in us by nature be put away, and that we be brought
into the fellowship of God, with holy God. So Christ Jesus is
the salvation of God for sinners. He is the Savior. He is the one
who saves his people from their sins. Paul and Barnabas, when
they went around preaching, said, through this man is declared
unto you the forgiveness of sins. Through Christ is declared unto
you the forgiveness of sins. And by him all that believe are
justified from all things, from which he cannot be justified
by the law of Moses. Acts 13, 38, and 39. That was the message that they
preached. When our Lord sent out 70 of his disciples, he told
his preachers in Luke 10, verses 8 and 9, he said, into whatsoever
city ye enter and they receive you, eat such things as are set
before you. Eat such things as they set before
you. Why? Because they're going to
eat the very thing that you set before them in the preaching
of the gospel. You receive what they give you
because they're going to receive what you have in the preaching
of the gospel. So you eat what they give you.
Don't refuse it, otherwise they'll refuse you. You eat such things
as they give you because they're going to eat the very same thing
that you preach in the preaching of Christ. And so that's very,
very motivating to me to preach Christ to you. to preach the
one thing needful to you, to preach the one who saves his
people from their sins. He is the bread of life come
down from heaven, whom the Father sent. He is the bread of life,
the bread of life. And he adds there in that Luke
10, verse nine, and heal the sick that are therein and say
unto them, the kingdom of God has come nigh unto you. How do we heal the sick? We're
sick with sin, brethren. The healing of your sickness
is the healing of your sin, the preaching of Christ. He heals
you. We preach Christ because He heals
the sinner. As He told the Pharisees in Luke
5, they that are whole need not a physician, but they that are
sick. I came to call sinners to repentance. I came not to
call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. And what that
says to us is that if we're looking to our works and we're finding
a righteousness by our works and what we do, Christ didn't
come for us. He's saying, I didn't come for
you. Oh, you're righteous already by your works, by your doing?
That's not who I came for. I didn't come for you. I came
for sinners who cannot work a righteousness for themselves, who spend, labor,
strive, put their shoulder to the plow, who are given all that
they have, but cannot work a righteousness for themselves. That's who Christ
came for, the sinner, the sinner who cannot save himself. And
so this repentance that he speaks of is for us to stop trusting
our works to save us. Stop trusting what we're doing
and look to the one whom the Father sent to save us from their
sins. Trust Him. Look to Christ and
live. Believe Him. He is the life of
His people. Our Lord went to the cross as
the substitute of His people, not for His own sins, not for
any crimes or wicked things that He had committed. He went to
the cross as the substitute of His people, bearing their sins
to put them away forever. And by His life, we are healed
and He gives us The Holy Spirit who regenerates us, who gives
us a new birth in Christ Jesus the Lord. We're born of Adam's
seed, generated by Adam's seed, we must be regenerated, born
again by the seed of Christ. And that doesn't come by my doing
or your doing, it comes all by the workmanship of the Lord Jesus
Christ. It's by Him, it's His blessing,
brethren. Seeing then that we have such
hope, we use great plainness of speech. We preach to you the
simplicity of the Lord Jesus Christ. The plain and simple
message is Christ in you, the hope of glory. It's of him. It's
because of him that we have life and fellowship with the true
and living God. It's by Christ that we worship
God in spirit and in truth. And we declare his words to you
that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting
life. For by one offering he hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified. He's the Savior. Second, we see
that Paul spake to the many that came to him concerning Jesus,
both out of the law of Moses and out of the prophets from
morning till evening. from morning till evening. This is how he preached to them.
Out of Moses, out of the law of Moses, out of the prophets,
from morning till evening. With the time that Paul had from
morning till evening, he preached one message. One message to all
that came unto him. It's the message of Christ crucified. The things concerning Jesus,
giving all the glory to Christ Jesus, our Lord and Savior. By
preaching Christ, he was giving all the glory to the Lord Jesus
Christ and not the glory to man. He told the Corinthians, I determine
not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified. Why would he do such a thing
with the limited time that we have? He tells us, redeem the
time, because the days are evil. Redeem the time. Why would he
preach Christ then to them? Why would he spend all his time
declaring to them the things concerning Jesus? If we have
such a short time, why spend so much time on Christ, preaching
Christ to you? Well, because we're told that
neither is there salvation in any other. For there is none
other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be
saved. If you or I are saved and accepted
of God, it's for Christ's sake alone. It's by the Lord Jesus
Christ. It's Christ that saves us to
the uttermost. And so we preach Christ to our
hearers. And therefore, and this is why
the entire book here is revealing Christ to us. It's the testimony
of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is The Savior, when Christ
rose from the dead, he came to his 11 apostles. He rose from the dead, and he
came to them and said, these are the words which I spake unto
you while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled,
which were written in the law of Moses, right here in the beginning,
and in the prophets, and in the Psalms, concerning me. He went
and preached Christ to them. When he was on the road to Emmaus,
he was speaking to two of his disciples. And it says that,
beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them
in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. That's what
he preached. The risen Savior preached Christ.
And his apostles preached Jesus Christ, because he is the salvation
of his people. So whether we're reading the
first five books of Moses, or we're reading the Psalms, or
we're reading the prophets, it's testifying to us of Christ. Of Christ. This entire book concerns
Christ. He is the Savior of sinners. In John 5, 39 and 40, our Lord
testified to the Jews, saying, Search the scriptures, for in
them you think you have eternal life, and they are they which
testify of me. me. That's what Christ said. And then he said, and he will
not come unto me that ye might have life. Man is very diligent. He said that because man doesn't
believe that this book is concerning Christ. Man is very diligent
in his works of religion. He spends, labors, sacrifices,
does works, is obedient to what he thinks this thing is saying,
because he thinks this is how I'm going to be received of God.
If I do this, then God's going to save me. If I don't do that,
then God's going to bless me. He's looking at what he needs
to do to save himself. And he's missing Christ entirely. He's missing the Lord Jesus Christ.
And he's telling us here, this book is written to turn our eyes
upon the Lord Jesus Christ. We're not to be like the Pharisees
that were blind and didn't see Jesus in Jesus. They didn't see
Christ in Christ. They didn't believe him. Because
they were busy looking at their own righteousness, their own
religion for their own righteousness. And Paul said, I bear them record
that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge,
not according to the knowledge that God gives his children.
For they being ignorant of God's righteousness. God's righteousness? What do you mean? Don't they
follow Moses? Isn't that God's righteousness? No. No, God's
righteousness is Jesus Christ the righteous. He's the righteousness
of God. He's the one who reveals to us
the Father. And they going about to establish
their own righteousness have not submitted themselves to the
righteousness of God. And so our God saves us from
our own righteousness by the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's
why in John 4, that woman at the well, she was happy to dip
her cup in that well, because Jacob, he dug that well. This
is religious here. This has religious significance.
This has tradition and all this religious stuff associated with
it. This is what I keep drinking. And Christ said, no. If you knew
who was speaking to you, you would ask me, and I would give
you living water. by which you shall live forever.
Christ is your righteousness. He's the righteousness by whom
we can stand before God and be totally accepted of Him. And
God, who sees and knows all things, will look upon us and receive
us, accept us in perfect righteousness, finding no fault with us for
Christ's sake, for His blood. His blood puts away our sin. forever, forever. No spot, no
blemish, no wrinkle, no sin, no evil. It's Christ. He is the Savior of His people. And so look to Him, not our works. Galatians 3.22, the Scripture
hath concluded all under sin. Why? That the promise by faith
of Jesus Christ might be given to them that belief. It's to turn you to Christ, to
turn you away from having confidence in this flesh, and to turn you
to Christ who saves his people to the uttermost, to the uttermost. It's through the preaching of
Jesus Christ that the grace of God is manifest in them who are
called of God. How does he do that? He reveals,
he manifests faith in them which looks to Christ. which believes
Christ and stands upon the rock of Christ, that we are hidden
in the cleft of the rock in Christ Jesus. Acts 28 24 says, And some
believed the things which were spoken, and some believed not. Through the preaching of Christ,
our Lord divides the people. He puts his sheep on the right
hand and the goats on the left hand through the preaching of
Christ. That's how the Lord divides the people. That's how he makes
known those whom he calls. It's through the preaching of
the Lord Jesus Christ. The more we preach the risen
and exalted Savior, the more a man knows whether he loves
Christ or hates Him, whether he's satisfied with the one whom
the Father is satisfied with, or if he needs something more.
Is Christ all to you, or do you need something more? And preaching
Christ is gonna make that known in your heart. He's gonna make
you to know, and Paul said, the preaching of the cross is foolishness
to them that are perishing. Don't you have something more
to say? Why do you keep giving all the glory to Christ? Where's
my glory? Where's my work? What do I have
to do to save myself? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. Look to Christ. To us which are
saved, it is the power of God. If you grow weary of Christ,
you know right where you stand with God, on the outside in darkness. Because God the Father is satisfied
with the Son. That's why he gave him, to save
his people from their sins. Either Christ is all your righteousness,
or you're saying, well, I've carved out a little something
for me here. Well, now you've just added flesh to it. by your
works, by trusting in what you're doing and finding insufficiency
in Christ's righteousness. I'm not saying don't seek to
do good works or to serve your brethren in love and joy and
peace and thankfulness, but that's not our righteousness. Christ
is our righteousness. We trust Him and give Him all
the glory. And when we sacrifice and labor
and serve, it's in thankfulness. It's not to get more righteousness
for ourselves. It's not to sanctify ourselves
or to justify ourselves. He's all of it. We're only worshiping
God in spirit and truth because he saved us from our sins. And so those who believe God,
Christ rejoices their heart. He rejoices our heart, and we
delight in Him. But the wicked, they grow tired
of Christ. They grow weary of Him. They don't understand because
they don't know Him. They're not hearing what the
Spirit saith unto the churches. Just like the Israelites when
they were in the wilderness with Moses, and they were eating that
manna. And they said to Moses, our soul
loatheth this light bread. We're tired of this light bread. Give us something more. And they
all died in the wilderness, not having entered the promised land. Those who refuse Christ shall
not enter the promised land. And God makes that known through
the preaching of Christ. The Spirit makes that known through
the preaching of Christ. They despised Christ. But after
telling the Jews that he is the bread of life, that he is the
bread of God come down from heaven, Christ said, he that eateth my
flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me and I in him. And their response to that was,
this isn't hard saying. Who can hear it? We can't hear
that. You want us to feed upon you
day in and day out? To believe you for all? That's a hard saying. That's
impossible. Who can hear that? And he went on to say in John
6, 63, it is the spirit that quickeneth. The flesh, what man
trusts in, what man's hoping in and putting all his confidence
in, the flesh, Christ said, profits nothing. Nothing. The words that
I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life. Think of Christ's words there
and how you hear the gospel. Because he's making known that
it's all of him. It's all of Christ and not our
flesh. And he said, there are some of
you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning
who they were that believe not. And who should betray him? And
he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto
me, except it were given unto him of my father. And from that
time many of his disciples went back and walked no more with
him." Feeding on Christ? Drinking his blood? Come on. Who can hear that? those that
have the Spirit of God here, because God is drawing them in
and by the Lord Jesus Christ. And to the remaining disciples,
he looked and said, will you also go away? Are you offended
in this? Are you offended by me? And Simon
Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the
words of life. We're sure. Thou hast the words
of eternal life and we believe and are sure that Thou art that
Christ, the Son of the Living God. And this gospel is still
offending man. The preaching of Christ still
offends the carnal man because he's looking for something to
do in the flesh. rather than hearing Christ and
feeding upon his body, drinking his blood, feasting upon him
and trusting him. His words are spiritual. His
words are spiritual. The flesh profiteth nothing. And so man goes away despising
Christ because he favors his own religion, his own works.
But Paul had something to say to those who did not believe
Christ. Back in our text, Acts 28, In
verse 25, before the many which came to Paul that day, throughout
the day, left, Paul said, well it says in verse 25, when they
agreed not among themselves, they departed after that Paul
had spoken one word. Here's what he said, Well, spake
the Holy Ghost by Isaiah the prophet unto our father, saying,
Go unto this people, and say, Hearing ye shall hear, and shall
not understand, and seeing ye shall see, and not perceive.
And just looking at the vastness of what's called Christian religion,
you can see this is so. Christ is not all. Their hope
is in their works and what they're doing and their sacrifices. 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. And so the natural man is content
with his darkness, with his blindness, and he does not see Christ. And
what our Lord is demonstrating to us here is that without His
sovereign hand, without His sovereign grace delivering us from the
fires of hell, from this flesh, and from this, the wicked works
that we are by nature, without His sovereign hand, we will not
believe Christ. We will not believe Him, except
God do a mighty work of grace in us. And so Christ will be
to us nothing more than a token idol in our hand. For many are
called, but few are chosen. But Christ makes the difference. Christ makes the difference.
He stirs the heart. He gives the hunger and thirst
for righteousness, which can only be satisfied by Christ. And preaching Christ makes that
known, whether you love him or you loathe him. Now fourth, and
this is the final point, there will be a hearing of this word
by faith in God's chosen people. Because Christ is the successful
Savior who did not fail. And he does not fail. None for
whom Christ shed his blood are in hell. Not a single one. Not one drop of his blood failed
to deliver and save his people to the uttermost. And so when
the day of his grace comes, he brings that word with power into
the heart, delivering you from darkness to the praise, glory,
and honor of his name. And so he said in verse 28, be
it known therefore unto you that the salvation of God is sent
unto the Gentiles and that they will hear it. There will be a
people that hear this word and rejoice in the Lord Jesus Christ,
that cleave to Him, that love Him, that desire to hear Him
more and more and more because that's what He gives to His people.
And the blessing is though that man hates and despises this word,
it's not going to frustrate the grace of God in the Lord Jesus
Christ for his people. He has a chosen people whom he
loved in Christ and gave us to Christ before the foundation
of the world to ensure our salvation, to deliver us from death once
and for all. And so we believe his word and
therefore we preach Christ unto you. and testify unto you that
this word is Christ, and testify unto you that the salvation of
God is Christ, that through this man, the Lord Jesus Christ, is
preached unto you the forgiveness of sins. We believe the word
of God and therefore we testify these things to you. knowing
that he saves his people to the uttermost. So confident was Paul
in Christ that his message never changed. Look at verses 30 and
31 at the end there. Acts 28, 30, And Paul dwelt two whole years
in his own hired house and received all that came in unto him. Two
years now, preaching the kingdom of God and teaching those things
which concern the Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence, no
man forbidding him. Amen. Amen. Our gracious Lord, we thank you
for your grace and power, which is revealed unto us in the Lord
Jesus Christ, that by him we are healed of our sin, and we
are justified of all things from which we could not be justified
by the law of Moses. Lord we thank you for your grace
and your power in Christ and we pray that you would pour out
your spirit upon us opening our ear and our hearts to receive
these things of Christ to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ unto
the saving of our souls. It's in Christ's name we pray
and give thanks. Amen.