If you take your Bibles again
and turn with me to Acts chapter 4. Acts chapter 4. And our text will be found in
verse 23. It says, And being let go, they
went to their own company and reported all that the chief priests
and elders said unto them. The title of the message this
evening is, The Report of God's Preachers. the report of God's
preachers. Now, after Peter and John had
returned from the counsel of the Pharisees regarding the healing
of the impotent man, they returned to their own company and gave
a report. What they gave was the preaching
of the gospel that we have before us. They gave an account. of
what had happened, not only concerning the threatenings of these Pharisees,
but also the joy. They came back with a message
of great joy regarding the impotent man, regarding that God's Word
was heard, that God's Word was preached. And the threatenings
of the rulers was this, that they should no more speak in
Jesus' name. And so the apostles left that
religious counsel, and what do you think they did? Well, they
left them a report first. They said, you judge this. Which
is better? For us to listen to God or listen
to you? He said, you judge that. Now,
the only obvious answer is that we are to listen to God and not
to men. If man's word contradicts God,
then we are not to listen to any man. If you go over to Galatians
chapter 1, and in verse 6, Paul said, I marveled
that you, talking to the Galatian church, he said, I marveled that
you are so soon removed from him that called you into the
grace of Christ unto another gospel, which is not another,
but there are some that trouble you and would pervert the gospel
of Christ, But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach
any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto
you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so I say now
again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than that
you have received, let him be accursed. For do I persuade men,
or God? Do I seek to please men? For
if I yet please men, I should not be a servant of God." These
apostles were servants of God. They were not servants of men.
And so it is with everybody who preaches the gospel. We are not
servants of this world. We are not servants of religion.
We are not servants of foolish men. We are servants of God. It was God who sent Christ to
preach the gospel first unto us. And He preached the gospel
and when He was finished, when He finished the work of
redemption, God raised Him from the dead. And He was seen of
His men. He was seen of Peter and John
and those other 500 men 40 days after He was raised from the
dead. They spent 40 days with Him.
And they saw him ascend into heaven. What more can they say
than that? What more can they say than what
they have seen and heard? In Acts chapter 1 and verse 5
through 8, the Lord Jesus Christ tells his apostles, he says,
You shall be my witnesses. This was their whole purpose,
was to be his witness. They were to begin in Jerusalem.
But look where it's come from. Look where the Word of God has
come. It's come from that small little
city in that small little country. And it's spread to the uttermost
parts of the earth so that we now hear it. We hear it. The same message in Gospel that
Christ preached. The same message the Apostle
preached. They were faithful. And now then, we are witnesses. We are witnesses. And this is
the commission given to the church to preach the gospel to every
creature. To everyone that'll hear. Everyone
that'll give us the time of day. Everyone that is desirous to
hear of the gospel, we should preach to them. And that's what
the apostles left for us in this example, is that they preach
to everybody they got an opportunity to preach to. No matter the condition
of the person, think of that impotent man. He was in the lowest
condition that a man could be in. And then he preached to the most
highest of that day. He preached to the rulers of
the Jews. They preached to them and told
them of the Christ and said, neither is there salvation in
any other. For there is none other name
given among men whereby we must be saved. They preach the same
message to the common man as well as the elite. And this is my first point, is
that preachers preach to everyone God gives them to hear. Everybody
that will hear, we preach to. When God opens the opportunity
to testify of Jesus Christ, we should be ready. We should be
ready to give every man an answer. Isn't that what Peter said? Let's
go over there to 1 Peter. Chapter three. First, Peter, chapter three,
in verse fourteen. The Scripture says, but and if
you suffer for righteousness sake, happy are you and be not
afraid of their terror, neither be troubled. But sanctify the
Lord God in your hearts and be ready always to give an answer
to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is
in you with meekness and fear." The Lord opened the opportunity
for the apostles to preach. How? By the healing of the impotent
man. This man sat at the gate for
forty years and nobody healed him. Nobody was able to heal
him. But the Lord gave the power to the apostles to hear them,
to heal this man, so that they might have opportunity to preach. And as soon as the Lord opened
the door, as soon as they were asked, you go back in the text
there and it tells you in chapter 3 of Acts, it says that when
Peter saw it, he answered and said, why marvel you at this?
They had asked him, they said, how is it that Peter and John,
they ran unto them and called on them, and they, greatly wondering,
and Peter said, why are you doing this? Why are you wondering?
You see, Peter didn't look for an opportunity to preach the
gospel. God opened the opportunity. Matter of fact, they healed this
man and went about their business. They didn't make any celebration
of it. This man did. He made a celebration of it.
But Peter and John didn't make a celebration of it. They didn't
try to exploit this. They didn't try
to promote themselves, but they just would rather please God.
They would rather do what God told them to do. And they preached
to that infinite man through the healing and now then These
people rush on them and they have opportunity again to preach. And what do they do? Well, they
preach. They've preached to who? Whoever
wanted to listen. Whoever was there, they were
preaching to. And the Scripture tells us 5,000 men believed on
the Lord Jesus Christ. That's a lot of people. That's
a lot of people. 5,000? Do you realize we couldn't
fit 5,000 in this whole building? That's a lot of people. No believer ever tries to promote
himself. This is not the way. This is
not the way that we do things. We do not seek opportunities. But yet God presents them. When
He calls someone to preach the gospel, there is no way that
He will not give them an hearing of the gospel. That's the wisest
words. My pastor, I keep them with me
at all times. Never promote yourself. God will open the door if he
wants someone to hear. God will bring the people. God
will send the people that he has the message for. But rather,
we must be faithful. We must be faithful at every
opportunity to preach the gospel, whether to one or to one million. It doesn't matter. Preach the
gospel of Christ. That's what we are to be faithful
to do when we are called to do it. Until then, we are to be
faithful in the service of God. Faithful in the service of God.
We're to be faithful in the worship, faithful in the works that God
has given us to do, and faith In the witness that God has given
us in our heart. Faithful to hear the word and
study the word. Are we faithful to be in prayer
and thanksgiving for the providence of God, for his grace? Let us
be faithful. To give unto the ministry of
God and faithful to love Christ. We should set our affections
on things above and not on the things on the earth. The things
on this earth are temporal and passing, and they're going to
pass away faster than we get them. They're meaningless. In comparison
to what we have, they are meaningless. We have the gospel of Jesus Christ. We have the Holy Spirit of God
Himself residing in us. What are these things? They're
nothing. They're nothing. Scripture tells
us, I beseech you, Romans chapter 12, verse 1, it says, I beseech
you, brethren, by the mercies of God, because of the mercies
of God, that you present your bodies as living sacrifices unto
God, holy and acceptable, which is your reasonable service. Isn't
that reasonable? Isn't it reasonable to give an answer of this hope
that we have in us when man asks us? Yes. And if God, by the testimony
of our faithfulness to Christ, give us opportunity, we should
take it. We should take the opportunity
to witness when it's open. When any man asks, I like that
because a lot of people don't ask and people are trying to
tell them anyway. You're not going to tell anybody who's not
asking. It's just not going to work. How many times have I done
that? How many times have I been so
foolish as to spend my days with men who do not desire to hear
me and wanted to run away from me? Let them go. Let them run. God sends the people. God sends the people to hear
his gospel and we testify what we know. We don't testify what
we don't know. We testify of whom we know, not
what we know. You remember in the song of Solomon,
the bride, when she was so cold and left her husband on the outside,
what did she do when she sought him? When the daughters of Jerusalem
asked her, what is thy beloved above another? See, she wasn't
concerned about what they knew or didn't know about her Beloved.
She just wanted her Beloved. She had one affection, one goal,
and that was to find her Beloved. But in the way of finding her
Beloved, she was asked, what is your Beloved above another?
Oh, let me tell you. Let me tell you about my Beloved,
how wonderful He is. And that's what we're to do.
Give every man an answer. of the hope. What is our hope? Our hope is in a person. My confidence. And that's what he means by hope.
It's not our wish. It is our confidence, our assurance. When you suffer and you go through
many tribulations and God gives us strength to make it through
these times of trouble and difficulty, don't worry about it. People
are watching us. People are watching us, and if
God would have them to ask, how is it that you're so confident?
How is it that you can make it through such difficulty and troubles? Well, let me tell you about whom
I know and what He's done. We talk of the blood of Christ. We talk of the death of our Savior
with great affection. Because it's the blood of Christ
that cleanses us from all sin. We talk with great affection
of the person of Christ, the God-man mediator, who we were
accepted in before the foundation of the world. We speak of Him
as deity and humanity. That He's touched with the feelings
of our infirmities. That He understands our troubles.
That He understands our griefs. That He's our faithful High Priest.
That He intercedes for us daily before the throne of God. This
is what we tell men. Christ is our hope. He chose us. He redeemed us. And He keeps us. If I believe
until I die, I know this, that my faith was kept by God. That my Savior is the reason,
He is the author and finisher of my faith. And I had nothing
to do with it. And I'm so glad I didn't, because
I can mess up anything. Therefore, believer, wait upon
the Lord for the open door to witness. We don't force ourselves
on anybody, because you're not going to make anybody believe. Second of all, I want us to see
that our preaching of Christ will be accepted and received
by some and rejected by others. Isn't that the testimony that
the apostles reported? That they were received of 5,000
and rejected by those religious rulers? Scripture tells us that we who
preach the gospel are a saver of life unto life to some, and
a saver of death unto death to others. And when we preach this gospel,
no matter who it is, we also know this, that our message is
the same to all men. Those who reject the gospel and
those who receive the gospel, our message is the same. Isn't it amazing how our message,
how the message can be preached to a group of people and some
receive it and others have no interest in it? This is because of the grace
of God. This is because of the grace of God, because the message
is not different. It's the same message. It's the
same message. It's the same message God declared
from the beginning, he said, declaring the end at the beginning.
And from ancient times, the things were done, saying, My counsel
shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure. You see, we've preached
the same message that God has preached from the beginning,
which is the gospel of Jesus Christ. I don't know if you've noticed
this or not, but you should take notice of it because it's very
subtle that everybody seems to have a different gospel for different
groups of people. You notice that they have divorcee
night at the church. They have singles nights and
then they have kids nights and then they have all these other
different things. And what are they trying to do? They're targeting
people. You don't target people with
the gospel. You throw the gospel at a venture
and God plants it. God puts it in the ground. God
makes it to grow. There's not one gospel for one
group and one gospel for another group. There's only one gospel.
The same thing I need is the same thing my son and my daughter
needs. It's the same thing you need.
It is the gospel of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. It's the same
gospel because there is none other name given among men whereby
we must be saved. There's no other name. No other
name. There's no other Savior that
we preach, but Christ. It's the same message that we
have heard. It's this message I've heard.
I've heard this message of Christ, haven't you? Well, the same message
I heard is the same message I preach. The same message I received as
a gift from God, the Holy Spirit, is the same message that I give
to you. The same one I preach. Go over
to 1 Corinthians. The Apostle Paul. says this in
1 Corinthians chapter 15, verse 1, Paul says, Moreover, brethren,
I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which
also you have received and wherein you stand, by which also ye are
saved, if ye keep in memory what I have preached unto you, unless
ye have believed in vain." The gospel we preach is the same
gospel that we have preached. The message that I preach to
you is not accident. The messages I give to you are
not by accident. accidentally get all of this. This is by work. It's by labor
in the gospel. But this message that I labor,
I make sure that I want to tell you what I've heard of God, what
I know of God. What I've learned of God, I preach
to you what I have preached before Jesus Christ, and it's the same
message you receive. For I delivered unto you first
of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our
sins according to the Scriptures, that He was buried and rose again
the third day according to the Scriptures." Why is our message
the same? Because the Word of God does not change. That's why. This Word does not change. Our message is the same because
our God is immutable. unchangeable. This should give
us great steadiness. It should give us great quietness
and peace in our hearts that our God does not change. He does not move. His Word is
the same yesterday, the same as His person. Matter of fact,
God says, I've exalted My Word above My name. Now, how high
is the name of God? Well, that's how higher His Word
is. It's exalted above His name. And this is what we preach according
to the Scriptures. We report according to the Scriptures. We report the death, burial,
and resurrection of Jesus Christ. God says, I swore by myself,
and the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and it
shall not return. That unto Unto me every knee
shall bow, and every tongue shall swear, saying, Surely, surely
shall one say, In the Lord I have righteousness and strength, even
to him shall men come." That's talking about Christ. God says,
My word's gone out and it's not going to come back, and this
is my word that I'll send one who knows righteousness. I'll
send one. to whom men come for salvation. And that is my Son. I'll send
my Son, my only begotten Son, the love of my eternal existence. I'll send Him for you. And you'll
come to Him. God's Word preaches, we preach
God's Word that testifies that Jesus Christ alone has obtained
our righteousness. This is not an iffy situation. I'll tell you, I feel that way
at times. But my feelings have nothing
to do with this situation. My God has set all things that
are necessary. All things are ready. All things
are ready. My righteousness is full up.
I can't add one thing to it. It's full up. My atonement is
perfect. satisfied God's justice forever. I don't add anything to it. It's
done. The difference between our message
and the message of this world is due and done. Ours is done. Theirs is due. Ours is finished. The work is
accomplished. Jesus Christ did rise from the
dead as according to the Scriptures. He did die according to the Scriptures. You can't read the account of
the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ and not expect them to
have the Bible in front of their hands seeing what they should
do next. Oh man, what do we do next? Oh yeah, we've got to take
His coat and we've got to cast lots. Okay, you rip His coat,
now you cast the lot. No! They didn't know that, but
God had ordained that. done. That which God said He
would do, He's done. And if God promised it, shall
He not do it? How shall He not do it? If He's promised you to
take you to Himself by Jesus Christ, and He's already obtained
the righteousness and the atonement, how shall He not get you? Shall
you suffer for sin twice? No! God forbid. God will not cause us to be slain
because of our sin? Our sin has already been slain
in the substitute, in Christ. And for this message, we are
never ashamed. I'm never ashamed of this, and
I'm justified before God. Now, people can call me arrogant
if they want to. They don't have any understanding
of grace. I'm not arrogant about this at all, because there's
no difference between me and them. The only difference is
God. The only difference is grace.
The only difference is Christ. But praise God, there's a difference.
Praise God that I am justified. And in him, we rejoice, we boast. I know that Cheryl, when Andrew
was playing basketball, she got on her phone and texted everybody. Oh, my son's playing basketball.
I'm so proud. I'm so proud. How much more should
we be proud of our Lord? Be proud of Him and His accomplishments? How much should we glory more
in Christ? We should speak of Him whenever
we get the opportunity. Paul says, therefore, whether
it be I or they, so we preach and so you believe. It doesn't
matter who preaches. It matters what we preach and
whom we preach. We preach what we believe, what
we've trusted concerning the word of God, what God has given
us, his immutable word. We preach that because that's
what we've heard. And we preach it to you and you hear it. And
that's what you tell others of what you heard. Now, then, who's worthy of such
things? Who is worthy of that? I know this, that I am not worthy
to stand here and tell you these things. The things I'm telling
you concerning confidence and hope and trust, I myself am a
man, and I have failed in all those things. I have failed just
like you. My faith is at best nothing but unbelief. But I don't trust in my faith,
and neither should you. We trust in our Savior. We're
not worthy to preach this message and confess that we are sinners,
saved by grace, just like every other man. This is why I hate
titles. I hate them. A pastor should
be honored among his people. The Scriptures are clear. But
it's the office that should be honored. I'll tell you this, I'm not worthy
to do this. And so, therefore, it doesn't
matter where or to whom we preach. We are called when we are called
to preach, we preach the same message. We preach only the message
of Christ and him crucified, raised from the dead. According
to the scriptures, we preach the only name of salvation. We
preach the gospel. There is no other gospel. There
is no other gospel. And lastly. We who preach the
gospel love to preach to those who know it best. Notice in your
text, go back to your text and see this. And when they let them
go, where did they go? Where did they go? They went
home. They went to their church. They
went to their own company. You are my own company. You're
it. You're what I want to see. every
week. You're who I want to see every
week. I love to preach to you more than anybody else. If I
get an opportunity to preach to anybody, it fails in comparison
to preach to you. And this is because God gave
some, Ephesians 4, God gave some apostles, some prophets, some
evangelists, and some pastors and teachers. What for? for the perfecting
of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying
of the body of Christ, till we come in unity of faith and of
the knowledge of the Son of God unto the perfect man, unto the
measure of the statue of the fullness of Christ, that we henceforth
be no more children tossed to and fro and carried about by
every wind of doctrine, by the slight of men, and cunning craftiness,
whereby they lie in wait to deceive. But speaking the truth in love
may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ,
whom the whole body fitly joint together, and compacted by that
which is every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working
in the measure of every part." This is talking about the unity
of the church. that God sends men for them so
they may grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ. He first
sent apostles and prophets, and they were eyewitnesses. And then
He gave evangelists. And what are evangelists? Those
are the ones who receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit and
were sent out by the apostles, and they witnessed by their gifts
that the apostles' word was right. that they witnessed of the eyewitnesses. Now, none of the evangelists,
most of them were not eyewitnesses. But they were witnesses nonetheless,
because they experienced the grace of God, you've experienced
the grace of God, you've a witness, you have a witness, the Holy
Spirit. And last, he gave pastors and
teachers, and this is the same thing. In that passage, you can
look back later and see it, but If you see that each one of those
are divided up by the word some, some apostles, some prophets,
and some evangelists, and some pastors, teachers. You notice
that the some is not in between pastors and teachers. They're
the same thing. They're the same office. God
says, I will give pastors to them after mine own part. Why? So that you're not tossed
about. I tell you what, I know what
it is to be tossed about, but I tell you, when I'm here preaching
to you, I'm the most settled. I'm the most settled. And I'm sure it's the same with
you, that you are the most settled when you're here hearing the
gospel, that this is the most assuring place to be. That you're not tossed about
when you hear the gospel, that you are fed In Philippians 3, he said, Finally,
my brethren, rejoice in the Lord, to write the same things unto
you. Indeed, he is not grievous, to me is not grievous, but for
you it's safe. You see, we say and preach the
same things because to you it's safe. I like safety. I like being safe. I like being
secure. Behold the Lamb of God, our Savior,
our hope. And this is not grievous for
me, because I love to preach to you. And this is the last
thing, result of the report of the preaching. And they heard
and they lifted up their voices, verse 24, they lifted up their
voice with one accord. What's the result of preaching
to God's people? fellowship, unity. That's what
it is. One voice. They all cried, but
they cried with one voice. I preach to you, but I know this,
God's people, their hearts are elevated through the preaching
of the gospel. They speak to God as I preach. And we all have fellowship and
union with each other. We are one in Christ, one accepted
in Him. We are one with Him. He's our
head and we're the body. What are you? Fingers, toes,
it doesn't matter. We're all one body. Fitly joined
together. Fitly. When we were in Christ before
the world began, we were accepted. And now we have heard and by
grace we have received faith in Christ. We have the same thing
again, the preaching of the gospel. The preaching of the gospel.
May God give us grace to love and serve each other, to be in
union and fellowship with each other, and give us grace to witness
when he opens the opportunity. Be faithful until then, and then
witness when we're able. And what do we witness? Even
that which is written, and that which we preach. I like this. I'll close with this from Brother Henry Mahan. He
said, The things that are written and that are preached by us concerning
salvation in our Lord Jesus Christ are not only written and preached
to encourage sinners to believe Him and to come to Him that they
might be saved, But the gospel is written and preached to you
who believe that you may have confidence and assurance of your
interest in Christ. And having come to Him, you are
still coming. How is faith confirmed? How is faith increased? Even
by the preaching of the gospel. by having the person and work
and righteousness and sacrifice of Christ explained to us again
and again and again. Eternal life is to be found nowhere
but in Christ. And in order that those who are
already in Christ through faith might have assurance and grow
in the grace and knowledge of him, The preacher is to magnify
over and over again the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and
the glory of our blessed Lord. This is our main thing. I remember, I don't know why
it stuck in my head, but it did. We used to say in the school,
keep the main thing the main thing. What's our main thing
is Christ preaching of the gospel. This is our main thing. And I
tell you, I love it. I love the gospel. It gives me
assurance, hope, peace, joy, meekness, temperance, faith,
all those things this gospel continues to give me over and
over and over again, because I need it over and over again.
I don't know about you. Maybe you don't. Oh, but I do. I need to be fed over and over
and over again. I pray that God give you peace,
comfort in Christ. Let's stand, we'll be dismissed
in prayer.