Acts chapter 28. We'll be looking
at the last couple of verses in this chapter. Acts chapter
28. The title of the message this
morning is, The Threads of Grace in Acts. The threads of grace
in the book of Acts. Now we've come to the conclusion
of this book, and let's read these last couple of verses here
together in verse 30 and 31. The Scripture says, And Paul
dwelt two whole years in his own hired house, and received
all that came unto him, preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching
those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ. with all confidence,
no man forbidding him." Now we've come to the end of the book of
Acts and as well the end of the journeys of the Apostle Paul. The Apostle Paul in this text
had been prisoner now for five years under the Roman rulers. Through no fault of his own,
only because he preached the gospel of Jesus Christ. And there are many lessons that
we can learn from the verses here concerning the Apostle Paul.
And we will look at that in just a moment, but before I delve
into the lessons we can see from Paul, I want us to first go back
and to trace through the book of Acts and the things that we
have learned. The things that we have learned.
This book was not only a historical book. As we look back over the
messages that I've preached through this book, we've learned many
different things, doctrinal things, practical things. This book is
not just a history lesson, but it is a book for us. It is a
book for our learning and profit. All Scripture is given by inspiration
of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction,
for instruction in righteousness. And this book is no different.
A lot of people take this book and just say, well, that's a
history of the first members of the church and that's all
that is. No, it's not. There's a whole
bunch here. And I was thinking, and I told
you this before, as my grandmother, she used to make the quilts,
and when she sewed that together, on one side it looked like a
mess, but on the other side it was beautiful. We're on the side
that looks like a mess. We're on the side that looks
horrible. The threads, we cannot see very
well what they mean to us. But through this book, through
the eye of the history of the church, we can see the threads
of grace that ran through this book, and also these same threads
They run through our lives as well. The threads of God's grace
and mercy toward His saints. You can't help but read this
book and not see these things. I have five things, five threads,
that we can see by the grace of God and for our good. First,
as we went through this book, could you not see the providential
rule of Christ? You can't help but see the providential
rule of Jesus Christ. The first thing that Luke writes
in this book is concerning the ascension and sitting on the
throne of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what he writes, first
of all. He writes about the ascension of Christ. After the Lord Jesus
Christ, the God-man mediator, had done all the will of the
Father. After He had brought in a perfect righteousness and
after He had suffered for the atonement for the sins of His
people, God raised Him from the dead and is now seated on the
throne of glory where He sits undisturbed, ruling over all
things by the Word of His own power. He rules all things. And as you read the book of Acts,
we can't help but see His rule in these things. You think about all the suffering
that the apostles went through. The stonings, the tortures, the
beatings, the rejection even of them. These things did not
happen to them by chance or by accident. These were by the providential
rule of Christ for the good of His church and the salvation
of His elect. You not see that? I do. Every
time that one of the apostles suffered, something good came
out of it. Something good always came out
of it. You think about when Saul of
Tarsus rose up. And he started persecuting the
church, and Stephen was stoned. Sad time for the church, but
a great time for the Gospel to be spread. Because they were
content just to stay there in Israel, remember? And it wasn't
until God sent persecution that they got off the pews and actually
had to leave and go out and spread the Gospel. But God used this
persecution. to save those people in Samaria
by the gospel that Philip preached, and to save the Ethiopian eunuch
who was traveling down from Jerusalem. He used this message when the
Apostle Paul was put into prison wrongfully. Down in that dungeon,
there was a jailer that God must save. And so, through the persecution
of Paul, the providential rule of Christ sent Paul down to the
middle of a dungeon so that he might save his people. Everything
God does, everything Christ does is for the good of His people
and the glory of His name. Ephesians 1.20 says, "...which
He wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and
set Him on His own right hand in the heavenly places." I love
this, far above all principality and power and might and dominion
in every name. Just in case he missed something,
he said every name. Whatever name you think of, He's
above that name. God has put Him above every power. The power of nature, the power
of men, the wills of men. He moves them as He pleases for
the good of His church. He does all things well. And
he hath put all things under his feet." Paul said, it doesn't
appear all things are under his feet, does it? We can't see that. But it doesn't matter what we
see. He rules all things. And he'd given us this book to
show us. He said, hey look, I rule all things. I rule all things. And he gave him to be the head
over all things to the church. which is His body, the fullness
of Him that filleth all in all." Do you like your body? Do you
protect it from harm? Well, guess what? We are the
body of Christ. And He will do all things to
protect us from what is hurting us or harming us. He will do
what is right for us. Number two, the second thread
of grace is the mission of the church. He said in chapter 1
and verse 8, he said, "...you shall be my witnesses unto the
uttermost parts of the earth." Every believer in Christ that
is part of the church of Christ, that is part of the body of Christ,
who has Christ as their head, ruler and commander, are commissioned
to preach the gospel to every creature. That's my commission
and that's your commission. It is to preach the gospel to
every creature. Every believer is to be a missionary
and every local church is to be the centra of preaching the
gospel of Jesus Christ. I preach the gospel of Jesus
Christ to you three times during the week. I read once that George Whitefield
preached 13 times a week, and I just can't get there. And a
pastor, I was worried about that, and the pastor told me, he said,
well, you don't need to preach 13 times a week. If you do, God
will give it to you. But right now, I preach three
times a week. And what do you do with that message? What are
you to take that message and do with it? Keep it for yourself?
Put it under a bushel? No. Christ commissions us to
go out and to witness of the Gospel that you've heard in this
place. This is the center of preaching.
And you take the preached message and you take it forth. That's
a commission of our Lord who has risen and is above all things. This is what He's given us to
do. As we've learned in Acts chapter
8, you remember when the church was scattered? We studied this,
that the church was scattered and went forth preaching the
Word. And in the very next verse, it tells us that Philip preached
Christ. Two different words. Why? Because we have two different
offices, two different ways we communicate the Gospel. I'm given
an office to preach the Gospel to His people in this local assembly. But the church is to gossip the
gospel. They're to go out and to witness
the gospel in their daily activities, in their daily lives, in the
things that they do, the job that they have, the places that
they go. They witness of the gospel in
whatever you do. This is your commission. This
is your command. We should renew our commitment
constantly. to preach the gospel, to witness
the gospel to others. Friends, this world has a need,
and it is Christ. And how can they hear of this
need? How can they know of their need? How can they know of Christ
unless they hear the gospel of Christ? They must hear it. And
God uses men to convey that message. It is our mission not to entertain
the world. It's not our mission to educate
the world. It's not our mission to govern
the world. It is our mission to preach Christ and Him crucified. That's our mission. That's what
we do. You go through the book of Acts, you will not find Paul
trying to run for office. You will not find Paul entertaining
folks. You won't find Paul doing anything
but preaching Christ and none of the other apostles. Nor will
you find any of the other church doing that. They only preach
Christ. This is our mission. It's what
we're called to do. And you can see that clearly
through the book of Acts. Number three, we see the thread
of the cross being an offense. Did you not see that? Every time
the cross was preached, somebody was offended. Somebody hated
it. They hated the gospel. The natural
man hates the gospel. You know, if Paul would compromise
on one thing, he would have been accepted. It's what he said in
Galatians 5, verse 11. He says, and I, brethren, if
I yet preach circumcision, why do I suffer persecution? He said,
if I preach circumcision, I wouldn't suffer. If I would just give
in to one thing, If I would compromise one thing
and say, well, Christ is good, but you just need this one thing. You see, Paul would have been
accepted. But our gospel is not Christ plus anything. Our gospel
is Christ alone for salvation. Christ plus nothing. We preach the salvation by the
sovereign grace of God through faith in His blood and righteousness
alone without the law. And to compromise this, the cross
loses its offense. We must learn that the gospel
of God's grace will be hated by men and will not be accepted
by men unless the Holy Spirit come and revive them and give
them life and faith. Why is it that people have a
hard time preaching the gospel? Is it not rejection? Expect it. Expect it. The Holy Spirit is
the only one that can give them life and cause them to understand
what you know. We're all taught of God. We're
not special. We don't have a special education
that's higher than other folks. We know things because the Spirit
of God reveals them to us. And that's the only reason. And
this humbles us. This doesn't bring us up. We
have something that other men don't have, not because of us,
but because of the Spirit, because of God's grace. And so when we
preach this, expect to suffer persecution. Now, we're not in
this day suffering persecution like they did. We're not beaten. We're not thrown out of the city
for preaching the gospel. Friends, we will be hated. You compromise, you'll be loved.
You keep the gospel, and you'll be hated. Because, you know what? I hated the gospel. I hated the
gospel just like everyone else did. I loved religion. I loved that I thought I was
a good kid. I thought I was growing up in
the right church. I thought I was doing the right things. But then
God showed me none of that matters. None of that was anything good
that he would accept. It was all sin. And Christ was
my only hope. It's only then I loved the gospel.
Number four, we can see through this book of Acts the importance
of the Holy Spirit. What did the apostles do? What
did they ever accomplish apart from the Holy Spirit? Nothing.
Nothing. Christ said, without Me, you
can do nothing. And it's the same with the Spirit
of God. He sends His Spirit wherever He wills, and His Spirit is the
one that comforts, guides, and gives us liberty to preach, gives
us opportunity to preach. One thing about it, Paul never
had to force an opportunity to preach. He was given those opportunities
by the Spirit of God and every time He gave the opportunity,
He was ready, ready to preach. And we should be ready at every
opportunity and ask of the Spirit of God to guide us and not ourselves. There's times I've witnessed
a people and I couldn't say two coherent sentences and put them
together. Why? I was restricted by the Spirit
of God to say anything to that person. I wanted to. I was ready
to. But I was not given permission.
I was withheld. You remember how Paul wanted
to go into the coast of Asia and the Spirit of God hindered
him. He told him, no, you go over
here to Philippi. And he did. He did. The Spirit
of God should direct us. Not our feelings or emotions
about things, but the Spirit of God directs us by the Word
of God. By the Word of God. You can have
a feeling or an emotion about something, but if it goes against
God's Word, you know it's not the Spirit. You know it's not
the Spirit. The Spirit of God does move in
us and does cause us to do things and moves us in certain directions.
But if it is against God's Word, we know that's not the Spirit.
We know that's ourself. The Spirit of God directs His
people. Our preaching, our witnessing, our worship, our prayers, our
love, our study is nothing without the Holy Spirit. I long to preach a message. I
hadn't done it yet, but I'm just waiting. Any day that the Lord
would give me a great message to preach. But you know what?
It's not my skill. It's not my ability. It's not my words. It's
not this printed message that I have. It is the Spirit of God
to apply it. It's nothing without Him. It's
wood, hay, and stubble. And you'll leave here, you'll
say, oh, that was great for about 30 seconds, and you'll walk out
of here and forget it. unless the Holy Spirit comes
and brands it on your heart. That's how much we need Him.
Without Him, we'll do nothing. We'll do nothing. Number five,
the thread of the immutability of God's purpose. When we trace
through the book of Acts, we can see this, all God purposed
to do, He did. There was not one thing through
the book of Acts that God did not purpose that did not come
to pass. And He purposed that from eternity
and He accomplishes all He designs to do. And nothing thwarted His
purpose. Think of all the wicked and evil
men who tried to thwart His purpose. And think of their power. We
have a government that's powerful, but our governors and rulers,
they're not as powerful as these men that lived in this day. These
men could execute a man on sight. I mean, these kings and rulers,
they were evil men and they didn't have any qualms. You think about
Herod. He went through that whole little town and killed all those
infants without any question. He just said, go kill the infants.
And they went and killed the infants. These men had power. But you
know what? The more they tried to stamp
out the Gospel, the greater the flame of the Gospel went. Why? Because God purposed it so. God
purposed it so. God's immutable purpose in this
book of Acts is revealed in Daniel. Go to Daniel chapter 9. Flip
over to Daniel chapter 9. I think this is one of my favorite
passages of Scripture, passages of prophecy. Verse 24, 70 weeks
are determined, 70 weeks of years, 490 years are determined upon
the people. And upon thy holy city to finish
the transgression, and to make an end of sin, and to make reconciliation
for the iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness,
and to seal up the vision of the prophecy, and to anoint the
most holy. to seal up the vision of the
prophecy. That is to end the canon of Scripture. God is going to seal up His prophecy.
When is He going to do that? Look at verse 27. And He shall
confirm His covenant with many for one week. In the last week,
the last 49 years of this prophecy, He will confirm this covenant
with many for one week. And in the midst of that week
he shall cause the sacrifice of oblation to cease, for the
overspreading of the abominations he shall make it desolate, even
until the consummation and the determined shall be pour out
upon the desolate." Now what he's saying here is he's making
an end of the Old Testament law. And what did the preaching of
the apostles do? It made an end of the Old Testament law. And
it ended when the last apostle died, John. He was on the Isle
of Patmos. He was the last one to live.
When he died, the canon was closed. He wrote the book of Revelation.
It was over. It's finished. God purposed it
here in Daniel. And we see it accomplished where?
In the book of Acts. In the book of Acts, God purposed
His Word. to be accomplished, to be sealed.
Therefore, we should know and rejoice that our God reigneth,
and we should not be discouraged, for the foundation of God standeth
sure. And although all hell rage against
us, if God has purposed to save His elect people, Christ has
already accomplished that, and the odd will stop at nothing
to call them to Himself. There is nothing, no one, that
will ever stop God's purpose of salvation to His people. Nothing. Nothing. Well, in closing, let us look
then at a couple of lessons that we can learn from the imprisonment
of the Apostle Paul. Now here it is, he's finished,
he's done, and now he's chained to a Roman soldier for the last
two years of his life, He's in a hired house, which is better
than most prisoners. Most prisoners would have been
thrown in a dungeon somewhere. But the Lord gave favor to the
Apostle Paul in the sight of these men, and he had his own
hired house. He had his own house. And in this house, he was free
to preach the gospel of Christ. And he did. He did. You see, Paul preached the Gospel
while he was on all those missionary journeys, and now he's come to
the end. He knows the end is near. And what does he do? Does
he stop? Does he retire? Does he just
take it easy from now on? No! He continues to preach the
same message. The only difference is, no man
forbids him. This is a grace of God that no
man forbade him. They forbade him from the time
he started. And now then, here it is, his
last two years, God gives him a reprieve. A reprieve to do
what? Preach the gospel in peace. And
he did that for two years. Now, what can we learn from this?
We can learn to trust the providence of God. Five years he was a prisoner,
and you do not read of one time him moping around and lamenting
his circumstance. Not once. Not once. Why? Because he knew his circumstance
to be the providence of God. He knew that this was God's will
for him. In Philippians, he tells us that
this was rather for the furtherance of the gospel. He said, my chains
are for the furtherance of the gospel. So we learn to trust
the providence of God in all His troubles, and so should we.
We should learn to trust God's providence. Number two, we should
learn that God honors those who honor Him. If we honor God with
our lives and the sacrifices of this life and the things of
this world, friends, we can count on it. God will honor us. Are we worthy of honor? No. But
Christ is. Christ is worthy of honor. And
guess what? Christ has given us His righteousness. And God sees us through Christ. And as we do these things, everything
we do for Christ then is accepted. Our worship is accepted. Our prayers are accepted. Our praise, our giving, everything
that we do is acceptable. And God will honor us. God will
testify of us. And we can learn to be content.
Be content with such things as you have. I'm still learning those, aren't
you? I can still learn a lot from these men in the book of
Acts. And friend, God gives us these
threads of grace so that we can grow in the grace and knowledge
of Christ, so we can know that these things that happen to us
are common things. It's not that they're uncommon.
They're common to all God's people. Troubles, persecutions, the offense
of the gospel, it's all common to us. But yet God has promised,
Christ reigns, and He does all things after the counsel of His
own will should give us hope and glory and praise to Him. I pray this will be a blessing
to you.