If you will take your Bibles
and turn with me to Acts chapter 28. Acts, the 28th chapter. This morning
we'll be looking at verses 1 through 10. Acts chapter 28 and verses
1 through 10. Now, the title of the message
this morning is, Natural light and God's grace. Natural light
and God's grace. Now, last week we saw in chapter
27 that salvation is both the sovereignty of God, and yet it
is the responsibility of everyone to believe on Jesus Christ. We saw that God, by His decree,
had told those men that all of them would be safe. All who were
in the ship would be saved. And yet we found out by the message
of the Apostle Paul that if any were to leave, that none would
be saved. It was their responsibility to
stay in the ship, even so it is with salvation. God has eternally
purposed salvation, accomplished salvation in Jesus Christ, and
will call by the Spirit all of His people by the Gospel. But it is also equally true that
man is responsible to believe until the end. Now, we see the
decree of God being accomplished in verse 1 of chapter 28. It says, "...and when they were
escaped." In other words, everyone that God purposed on that ship
to save, they all were saved. And they escaped the sea and
landed on this island called Malata, or it is the island we
now call Malta. So when I say that, you'll understand
why I changed the name. We don't know anything about
that name. So this island of Malta is where
they had landed. And through these verses, verses
2 through 10, we are introduced to a people, the Maltese people. And these people are called barbarous
people. Barbarous people. And we'll see
why that is in just a minute. But we know in verse 2 that these
people were kind. Look at that in verse 2. And
the barbarous people showed us no little kindness, for they
kindled a fire and received us, every one, because of the present
rain and because of the cold. In other words, it was raining
and cold. They saw these strangers and they brought them in. And
they gave them shelter and warmth. In verse 3, we see the Lord beginning
to separate His Apostle from the rest of these men. Verse
3 says, And when Paul gathered a bundle of sticks and laid them
on the fire, there came a viper out of the heat and fastened
to his hand. And when the barbarians saw the venomous beast hang on
his hand, they said, No doubt, this man is a murderer. Though
he hath escaped the sea, yet vengeance suffereth him not to
live. And Paul shook off the beast and the fire and felt no
harm." You see, God separated then His Apostle from the rest
of these men. And down in verse 7, we see we're
given the revelation of the purpose of God, why they were delivered
to this island. Verse 7, In the same quarters
were possessions of the chief man of the island, whose name
was Publius, who received us and lodged us three days courteously."
In other words, this man received the Apostle Paul and his companions,
and we know that he received more than that. He received their
gospel. This was the chief man. This
was the man of the whole village. He was the highest authority,
and yet he received Paul. Why was that? Because he received
Paul's gospel. And we see the purpose of God
was to save these people. In verses 8-10, we see that Paul's
compassion to heal And also the result of the healing of these
people and the gospel effect is that they provided all things
that were necessary for their journey. Now, that's the history
of these ten verses. But I believe the Holy Spirit,
again, has more for us here than just that. The Holy Spirit, I
believe, shows us three things here that we can see very plainly. Three things. First of all, the
light of nature cannot save. That's the first thing that is
evident from these passages of Scripture. Now, these Maltese
people in verses 1 and 4 are called barbarians. Now, the first
thing when I read that is savages. We think these people were cannibals
or something, and that's not true. These people had some form
of civilization. These people were moral people. These people were moral people. When Luke says that they were
barbarians, what he is saying is they were not Greeks, they
were not Romans, and they were not Jews. That's what he was saying. He
said, look, we don't know what kind of people these are. We've
never had any contact with these people and their customs. And
so from this, we can determine that these people have never
heard the Word of God. Never. They have never heard
of the one true God, and especially they have never heard of the
Lord Jesus Christ, yet these people were moral. They were moral people, weren't
they? Imagine this, 276 men, strangers, they had no idea who
they were. And what did they do? They said,
hey, come over here, here's a fire. Come over here, we have shelter
for you. These people showed great kindness, to these strangers. Let me ask you this, how many
in our so-called civilized world would do that? How many people
who are Christians would do that? You see a man in the cold and
the rain, would you not give him a blanket? Would you not
give him some form of shelter? You see, these people, they had
a light about morality. They were kind. Second of all,
these people knew something about justice. When they saw Paul being
bit by that viper, what did they say? Look in verse 4. No doubt
this man is a murderer. You see, they knew justice. They understood the death penalty. They believed in it. They knew
that murderers deserve death. Thirdly, these people were religious
and superstitious people. These men were not only moral
and know justice, they also knew about religion or God. In that same verse, verse 4,
why did they say that they thought he was a murderer? He said, "...to
whom he hath escaped the sea, yet..." What? Vengeance. They
knew something about divine vengeance. They thought God didn't get him
in the sea, but He got him with the snake. They knew something
about sowing and reaping, didn't they? They knew that God was
real and that He was a God of vengeance. He was a God of vengeance. Now, let me ask you this. How
did these people know these things having never heard the Word of
God? How is it that these savages
were moral? They understood justice and they
knew of divine wrath, and yet they never read God's Word. They
never heard it preached. How is that? This is because
they had the light that is given to every fallen son of Adam. This light is given to everyone.
Look at this in Romans 1, verse 18. Flip over a couple of pages,
Romans 1, verse 18. The Scripture says, for the wrath
of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness. Let me ask you this. A man lives
as a drug addict, alcoholic. A woman lives as a prostitute.
You know that that life is not going to be a happy one. You
know that. How do you know that? That's
natural light. It's natural understanding that
when you live an unrighteous life, there's going to be consequences
to your actions. You know that. You know that
God must have wrath and vengeance. You know that by nature. You
don't have to be preached this from the Word of God. It's something
that you know. And yet Paul says, "...who hold."
the truth in unrighteousness." In other words, that word, hold,
means to push down. It means to suppress. Men suppress
the knowledge that they have about God. So everyone knows
there's a God. They know He has wrath against
the wicked. And they can see His power and
His person by creation." Look at that, what Paul says. He says,
"...because that which may be known of God is manifest to them,
for God showed it unto them." How? "...For the invisible things
of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being
understood by the things that are made, even the eternal power
and Godhead, so that all are without excuse." You can look
at creation and man can see both God's person and God's power. Every child understands this
principle, that something never comes from nothing. Every little
child understands it. That's not something too great
that men can't ascertain or understand. Everybody knows this. When you
have a little child party and you have the magician come out
there, and he has a hat, and he reaches in and pulls a rabbit
out of the hat, why are the children surprised? Why are they so amazed? Well, because children know that
rabbits don't come from hats. Rabbits just don't come from
hats. And children also know that rabbits just don't appear
out of thin air naturally. They know that. So what must
be true? Either one or two things are
true. Either it's a trick or this man has some kind of power.
That's what the children think. They think, wow, it's magic. In other words, this guy's got
some kind of power to bring rabbits out of nothing. Friends, Even so it is with the
creation of this world. Either this is a trick, or someone made this world by
supernatural powers. And we know it's not a trick.
Some of the philosophers used to try to do away with God in
this manner. They would say, well, we're not
real. You're not real, which is all a dream. You see? Some kind of trick. Some kind
of trick. We know that's not true. We know
these men are insane. Those men were trying to suppress
the truth that they knew. There is a God, and you can't
look at creation and not see that. No matter how educated
people may think they are, this world was created by God and
there is no other way that you can look at it. So men know there's
a God by creation. And because they know there's
a God, God has also put His law in the hearts of men so that
they know what is right and what is wrong. These men knew It was
right to take in strangers and they knew murderers should be
killed. They knew that because God had
put that in their hearts. And because of these two things,
men become religious. Isn't that right? Because of
these two things, men become religious. But the one thing they don't
understand, The one thing natural light cannot teach them is this,
by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified. That's
what nature cannot teach man. Nature cannot teach that they
can please God by their works. You see, Jesus says this about
natural light. He said, if that light in you
be darkness, how great is that darkness. Friends, the natural
light of man, these people, these Maltese people had the highest
form of natural light and yet they were lost. What did they
need? What is it that they needed that
they didn't have? They need the Gospel of Jesus
Christ. They need His blood and His righteousness
and they had no idea they needed it. But God did. God knew. God knew they did. And this is the second thing
I want us to see, that it is the grace of God to send the
gospel that saves. It is by the grace of God that
the gospel of Jesus Christ comes to sinners and shines a light
in our hearts so the darkness of natural light flees and we
see Christ as our only salvation. He sends the gospel. Here again,
in this chapter, we can see again the providence of God. Have we
not seen this time and time and time again? Has this not become
a repetitious word that we have used in the book of Acts? Providence. This is the working of God's
providence in history. We can see it. And you see the
providence of God in bringing them all the way from Crete to
this island they had no intention of going. They weren't going
to Malta. They were going to Rome. But
God says, no, you're not going to Rome yet. You're going to
Malta first. If you remember, it was the sailors
and soldiers who disobeyed the Word of God. It was the reason
that they were caught up in that storm and brought to this island.
And yet it was God who used their disobedience to bring the Gospel
to these people. You see, God before had already
determined that the Gospel be brought to these people. And
He had determined the means by which He would bring it by His
Apostle that was in that ship. You see, Apostle Paul wasn't
disobedient. He told him to stay. But yet God used their disobedience
to bring him to this island. If God is ever to have grace on anyone,
it will first be manifest by sending His preacher with His
gospel. Now God had from all eternity determined to have mercy
on these people. He determined to save them and
Jesus Christ had already shed His blood for them, but yet these
people and Paul, neither one of them knew that they would
meet at this time. But when God sent His man to
this island, it was the first manifestation of grace to them. The preacher and the preaching
of the gospel being sent is the manifestation of God's grace. God purposed to save them, and
yes, He sent His preacher in His time. If God is to save anyone, friends,
it must be by the means of preaching the gospel. Go to 1 Corinthians
chapter 1. 1 Corinthians chapter 1 and verse
18. You know, if God wanted to, He
could have put the Old Testament in a bottle and sent the Old
Testament letter over to these people if He wanted to. But friends,
that's not God's means. God's means is always to send
His man with His Word. That is always His means. Look
at this in verse 18. For the preaching of the cross,
is to them that perish foolishness." But what is our experience? What
is your experience? But unto us which are saved,
it is the power of God. Is this not our confession? Is
this not what is foolishness to this world? Is this not the
power of God that came to our salvation? Was it not through
the preaching of the gospel that we heard and believed on Christ? And why would we think it a strange
thing that this is not the same means He uses with everyone?
Because this is the means that His Word declares. It declares
it. I tell you that preaching the
gospel is not foolishness to us, to this world it is. And let me say it this way, let
me put it this way. Preaching is not foolish to this
world. Preaching is not foolish. The preaching of the gospel is
foolishness. There's a lot of preachers and
they're preaching a lot of things. And so to them, preaching is
not so foolish, but the preaching of the gospel time and time and
time and time again is to them foolishness. Foolishness. To this world, preaching takes
many forms. Music. How many times do they
say they're preaching the gospel by music? Entertainment. Emotional stories. Celebrity testimonies. Group opinion sessions. That's
what this world calls preaching. But that is not what the gospel
calls preaching. That's not what God calls it. To preach Jesus Christ and Him
crucified is foolishness to the world because religion today
believes everyone can believe and receive the gospel without
preachers and without preaching the gospel. But why do I say this? And I'm
going to talk about this definitely in the worship service today.
But why do I... Preacher, that's just so narrow.
You've just narrowed it down to only one way. And yet God
can do anything. I say God can do anything He
wants to. But God has chosen His means. This is not my means. This is
His means. Go to Romans chapter 10. Romans
chapter 10. And Paul plainly puts this out
for us in a very succinct and systematic manner so everyone
can understand. Romans chapter 10 and verse 13. For whosoever shall call upon
the name of the Lord shall be saved. Isn't that wonderful?
I like that. I do like that. But how then
shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how
shall they believe on Him in whom they have not heard? And
look at this, how shall they hear without a preacher? And
how shall they preach except they be sent? As it is written,
how beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of
peace and bring glad tidings of good things. Now friends,
did not the Apostle Paul narrow that down for us? Did He not
show us that this is the means of God, that no one can call
on God unless they believed, and no one can believe unless
they've heard, and unless no one can hear without someone
telling them? And no one can tell them except
they be sent. How beautiful is the feet of
the man that delivered the gospel to you. How beautiful was his
feet to you. Was it not wonderful the words
that He preached to you, and God applied them to your heart?
It was wonderful for me. I remember, it was the man of
God that came, and it was the Word of God He preached, and
it was the Word of God that God used to apply the seed to my
heart, and I believed on Christ, and His feet to me were beautiful.
That was great. Paul says this, he says, woe
unto me. Paul didn't say, woe unto me
if I preach not. That's not what he said. He said,
woe unto me if I preach not the gospel. And we who are called
to preach, we preach only the gospel of Jesus Christ. This is the only message it can
save. The sum and substance of all of our preaching is Jesus
Christ. And friends, don't get me wrong, it's not preaching
that saves. It is the gospel we preach. It's
not my preaching that saves anyone. It's not my preaching that causes
you to grow in the grace and knowledge of the gospel. But
it is my gospel that I preach that causes you to grow in the
grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ, the desire to desire
Him. And if God will ever have grace
on men, He'll send a man with the gospel. And that gospel of
Christ will be used by the Spirit of God to quicken the souls of
men, just like He did for these people on Malta. He sent the
Apostle Paul with his message. Friends, the preacher is nothing,
but our gospel is everything. Our gospel is everything. We,
Paul says, are ambassadors of Christ. Let me ask you this, if you were
to go to another nation and you were to claim to be an ambassador
for the United States, but you had no authority, wouldn't you
be laughed at? You would. Friends, the authority
of my gospel comes from Jesus Christ alone. He is all my authority. for the gospel that I preach."
And what is that gospel? Be ye reconciled unto God. Be
ye reconciled unto God, for God hath made Him to be sin for us
who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of
God in Him. That's our message. And where do we get that from?
We get that from the Word of God. We get that from God's Word. This is the message to sinners.
Behold, the Lamb of God, that God imputed the sins of His people
to Christ, not willing to impute them to His people. And everyone
that believes on Christ may have the righteousness of God. That's
our message. And number three, the grace of
God in preaching of His gospel always has results. Always has
results. I read this this morning. It
says this, the man said this, the end of all gospel preaching
is to cast the sinners at the feet of mercy. This is
the purpose for all gospel preaching, is to cast ourselves at the feet
of Christ for mercy. And I'll tell you this, if a
man says he believes in Christ and stops doing that, something's
wrong. We are constantly at His feet
seeking mercy. We are constantly at His feet
begging Him for mercy in Christ alone, that we may be found not
having our own righteousness, which is of the law, but that
we might have the righteousness of Christ, that He might give
us faith and strength Now this man Publius, in our text, when
God brought the apostle Paul to him, this man heard the gospel
and what was his response? He received them into his own
home. He received God's men into his
own home and his possessions became theirs. His possessions
became theirs. Friends, there was a result,
wasn't there? And when the Spirit of God applies the gospel to
a heart of a man, there will always be an effect. Always. There will be a change. It always results in a blessing. And the blessing of this man
was that his father was healed. Who here does not desire their
kin to be healed of their spiritual disease? I long for them to hear
the gospel. I do. I long for God to save
them. Believers in Christ, let us learn
from this that our God uses our witness of Christ to bring men
to the sound of the gospel. This man Publius, he brought
his father, where? To the gospel preacher. The only
man that could heal his sickness. He brought him there. And so should we, by our witness,
strive to bring men unto the sound of the gospel." Now friends,
I am called to be a public preacher of the gospel. But I want you
to understand this. You are called to be a private
preacher of the gospel. Do you know that? I know we've
gone over this before. Turn to Acts chapter 8. Acts
chapter 8. This is a very important chapter.
It gives us a great word about what it is to preach. Look at
this in verse 4 of Acts chapter 8. It says, "...therefore they
were scattered abroad and went everywhere preaching the word."
Now this is the church in general. And in verse 5, "...then Philip
went down to Samaria and preached Christ unto them." Same English
word, two different meanings. The one for the church, they
gossip the gospel. In other words, they lived it
in front of men. I want you to hear me about this. If we are not faithful people, If we are not faithful to the
service of Christ, if we are not obedient to the Lord Jesus
Christ, if we are not honorable people, if we are not honest
people, who then will hear our gospel when we speak? No one. Friends, we are called to preach
the Gospel with our lives first and then our words. We want to
go so fast and skip the life and go right to the words because
they're easier. The life is harder. Peter says, be ready to give
every man an answer when he asks of the hope that is in you. He's
not going to ask of the hope that is in you if he don't see
any hope. Friends, people must see the
hope in us before they're going to ask. And we're not to force
ourselves on people. That's not witnessing of the
Gospel. How many times do we rob the
employee or employers by so-called witnessing during the middle
of our work? What kind of testimony is that?
We're robbing this man of his time. We should be waiting for
God to open the opportunity. The Apostle Paul, what was he
doing when he landed on the island? Did he just start preaching?
He was carrying wood. He was serving. He was a prisoner. It wasn't until God set him apart
that he preached. And it's not until God sets us
apart in the eyes of men that we should give an opportunity
to witness. Let me also ask you this, how
many times have you asked for an opportunity? I think many times we neglect
to ask the Father to open an opportunity for us. And when
we ask, just be ready. The Apostle Paul, he was ready.
And you know what happened when he witnessed, when he preached?
These people were changed. These people heard the Gospel
and they were changed. And when these people were saved,
there was a change in their life. They received Him into their
house, and they also gave double honor to God's men. God's men
are worthy of double honor according to the Scripture, and they're
worthy of our gifts and love and whatsoever honors. Whosoever
honors them honors God who sent them. Because they gave us the gospel. God makes His people gracious
people, doesn't He? He does. His grace makes gracious
people. And they gladly supplied all
of the needs of the apostles, and so does everyone who believes
the gospel of Jesus Christ, who has heard the gospel from God's
man. Remember, natural light never
saves, but God in grace sends His gospel. And every time God
sends His gospel, there are results of that gospel. Let us therefore
be faithful witnesses of Christ and Him crucified. I pray that
God blesses to our hearts.