If you will, take your Bibles
and turn with me to Acts chapter 17. Acts chapter 17, we'll be
looking at verses 1 through 5 this morning. Acts chapter 17, verses
1 through 5, and the title of the message this morning is Providence
and Preaching. Providence and Preaching. And
we read in chapter 17, verse 1, It says, now when they had passed
through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica where
was a synagogue of the Jews. And Paul, after his manner was,
went in unto them, and three Sabbaths a day reasoned with
them out of the Scriptures. opening and alleging that Christ
must needs have suffered and risen again from the dead, and
that this Jesus whom I preach unto you is Christ. And some
of them believed and consorted with Paul and Silas, and of the
devout Greeks a great multitude, and of the chief women not a
few, but the Jews which believed not, moved with envy, took unto
them certain lewd fellows of the baser sort, and gathered
a company, and set all the city on an uproar, and assaulted the
house of Jason, and sought to bring them out to the people."
Now, the first thing in this passage of Scripture we notice
is the providence of God to pass by cities and give no gospel. The providence of God to pass
by cities and give no gospel. Again, we are open to Scriptures
and you cannot help. In the book of Acts, you cannot
help in every chapter, in every instance of the book of Acts.
You will see the providence of God moving so that He will save
His people. And here we cannot help but see
the sovereign Spirit of God again moving His Apostles to pass by
these two cities, Amphipolis and Apollonia. These two cities
were cities on the way to Thessalonica, but we have no record at all
of the Apostle ever preaching to these cities. Now, one of
these cities, I believe Iconium, is a border town to these cities,
so there was gospel preached up into the border of this town,
but we really have no word that they were preached here at all.
And this is the case that was with Asia and Bithynia. If you
remember, the apostles determined to go into Asia. And then when
they were refused of the Holy Spirit, the apostle Paul said,
I'm going to go into Bithynia. And the Spirit of God said, no,
you're not going to go there. The Spirit of God restrained
His men to give Asia no gospel at this time. And so now, not
so in the same manner, but the apostles pass by with the same
results. No gospel given to these cities. Now, I want us to understand
this. This sovereignty of God in this
matter. of giving His gospel and withholding
His gospel from cities. Now, we see the names of cities
and we see the names of countries, but I want you to really take
this to heart, that God did not pass by these people because
of their government or because of a certain plot of land. God
passed by thousands upon thousands of people, individuals. People who had an eternal soul
and they needed the gospel, no doubt. They needed Christ. But God in His sovereignty has
determined that these people, He would withhold His gospel
from them. And thousands upon thousands
of people died never hearing the message of hope. Never hearing it. Why? Because the Spirit of God told
them, no, you will not preach to these people. There were many
sinners that never heard the gospel and they are right now,
in this day, in this time, they are right now suffering the torment
of hell, never have heard the gospel. Never hearing the gospel. They died in their sins. Why? Why are they in hell? Why are
they there today? Why are they suffering in the
torments of the gospel? See, and most in our society,
people think that's unfair. That's not right of God to do
such a thing. They would say, well, if God
elected a people and He didn't elect them, then it's God's fault
they're there. No. You're not going to blame
God for this. You cannot blame God. Why? They're there because of their
sin. They're there because of their
sin, not because of God's election. Friends, let us see God is right
and just to give His gospel to whom He wills and to pass over
whom He wills. And that includes my children
and your children. I'll make that very personal.
God has the right to give your children and my children the
gospel, or He has the right to withhold the gospel from them. And so then, if my children,
if your children, if you are without Christ, you will suffer
because of your sins. They will suffer because of their
sins against God. God is right to do this. He has
a right to withhold or to give His gospel to whom He wills.
Jesus tells us that if the works that He did, He said, if the
works that I did in Capernaum and Chorazin, if they had been
done in Sodom and Gomorrah, they would have repented. But you see, God chose to withhold
it from them. And then when the time came,
He poured out His wrath on all their sins. God is sovereign
to allow these men, allow wicked men by nature to do what they
wanted to do anyway. Friends, the only reason that
we are not as vile as we can be is the restraining hand of
God. That's the only reason. The only reason wicked men are
not as vile and as wicked as the baser sort of men is because
of the restraining hand of God on the nature of these men. And
God will destroy all who are found with sin in His presence. All men are without excuse, friend,
whether they have ever received the gospel or not. that these
people in these two cities, even though they have never heard
the Gospel, even though they have never heard of Christ, even
though God restrained the Gospel from them, they are still without
excuse. Turn to Romans chapter 1. Paul
gives us this in Romans chapter 1. Look at verse 18. Romans 1, verse
18, it says, "...for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven
against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in
unrighteousness, because that which may be known of God is
manifest in them." For God hath showed it unto them. For the
invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are
clearly seen, being understood by the things which are made,
even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse." Every man that has never heard
the gospel of Jesus Christ, he has this, God has written His
law in their hearts. God has given the creation. And he says, behold, the Godhead. The power of God. You can't look
at creation and not see the power of God. You couldn't wake up
this morning and see the sun rising over the horizon and not
see the power of God in creation. You can't but help but see that.
And every man knows there's a God. You know, friend, there is not
A nation in history that has not had some type of religion. Not one. Every nation has had
some type of God. Some type of deity that they
worshipped. You see, they knew that there's
a God, but they worshipped Him not as God. They glorified Him
not as God. But they would rather worship
the Creator or some four-footed beast rather than God. In our
day, Men would rather worship themselves. The idol of self
is the God of our day. And they will not by nature subject
themselves to the law that is within their own hearts. So they're
without excuse. Every man knows this. You can
go to the darkest jungle anywhere and you can find a set of rules
that every tribe would have to live by. Where does that come
from? Where does that come from? Why do they know that it's wrong
to steal or to lie? They know that because it's in
their heart and yet they've even rebelled against the knowledge
that they've been given. And I'll tell you, it matters
not, Paul said, whether you were circumcised, Jew or Gentile,
it didn't matter. Jews heard the gospel. They heard
the message of God. They had the oracles of God.
And yet they still rebelled against God, just as well as the Gentiles. And so it doesn't matter, religious
or not, All men by nature are not righteous. All men by nature
don't understand or know God. All men by nature will not seek
after God. They'll seek after a God of their
own imagination, but they will not seek after the God of the
Bible. They will not seek after the God who is true. And so then by right, God has
passed by some men. And He has the right to pass
by all men, doesn't He? He has the right to pass by every
man. Why? Because all have sinned. All have sinned. For someone
to presume that they are worthy of the gospel, they have misunderstood
their own nature. Misunderstood and misrepresented
the holiness of God. Now here, the lost man, the rebel,
cries foul. He says, that's not fair for
God to give His gospel to some and pass by others. It's not
just for God to leave men without hope. But Paul in Romans 9 answers
this very well. Romans chapter 9 and verse 11. Talking about Jacob and Esau,
for the children not yet being born, either having done good
or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might
stand, not of works, but him that calleth. It was said unto
her, The elder shall serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob
have I loved, but Esau have I hated. What shall we say then? Is there
unrighteousness with God? Is God unfair? God forbid. that you would say God was unrighteous. God forbid that any man should
dare shake their fist in the face of God to do with his own
as he pleases. Hath not the potter power over
the clay to make one vessel to honor and another to throw his
trash in? Yes, he does. And God has the
right of the same lump. That's important. That's important. You see, because all men are
of the same lump, You see, if there was a good lump and a bad
lump, then God's election would be determined based on the lump. But that's not true, is it? Of
the same worthless, vile lump of clay, God has taken and made
some to honor and some to dishonor. See, God is sovereign to give
his gospel to whom he wills. And these two men here picture
all the fallen race of Adam. I'll tell you, Esau and Jacob,
when they were young, I tried to pick the best one. Tell me
which one would be the best one. I'll tell you, Jacob was just
as vile as Esau. No difference. And so are all the sons of Adam. They did any good or evil, chose
one and passed by the other, loved Jacob and hated Esau. Is there unrighteousness with
God? No way. God declares, I will have mercy
on whom I will have mercy. And this is the case here in
this passage of Scripture. When Lord Jesus talked about
Capernaum, He said, Thou which was exalted to heaven shall be
brought down to hell. It will be more tolerable in
the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for thee. Why?
Because they heard the gospel and refused it. I'll tell you
what, there's some Jews here that are going to hear the gospel
and they're not going to believe. God sent His gospel to Thessalonica. And there are some Jews in this
place that will hear with their ears the gospel, but they will
not believe the gospel. Who do you suppose would be better
off in hell? Now, both of them are going.
Ain't no doubt about that. Both of them are there. But who
do you think it's more tolerable for? The people that God passed
by or the people that heard the gospel and rejected it? We know
that it is more tolerable for those who have never heard the
gospel than those that have and refused. And so, my friends, in this country,
in this country, there is not a place in this country where
the name of Jesus Christ has not been heard. And I'll tell you, it's going
to be more tolerable for Sodom than this place. more tolerable
for Sodom and Gomorrah than for these that have heard and will
not bow down before Jesus Christ as Lord." But I'll tell you this,
praise God that He has determined to pass by some, but He is also
determined not to pass by others. He passed by these, but He went
to Thessalonica. Praise God that He doesn't pass
by us all. This is the message the Jews
refuse to believe. and was the same message that
these Gentiles embraced. It was the Gospel. The Gospel
of Jesus Christ. What made the difference between
these Gentiles in our text and the Jews? What made the difference? What moved these men and women
to consort and fellowship with Paul while the Jews stirred up
strife and hated the Gospel? The answer is the only thing
that makes any one of us to differ from another is the grace of
God. The only reason that you have heard the gospel and others
have refused is the grace of Almighty God. He makes the difference in them
that are saved and in them that are lost. Between those that
are blessed and those that are cursed. Between those who go
to heaven and those who go to hell. It is God that makes the
difference. Not man's will. It's not man's
intellect. It's not man's religious deeds.
It's only the free and sovereign grace of God Almighty that any
one of us has ever believed on Christ. And so therefore, all things
are for the glory of His grace. Are they not? Isn't that what
He did everything for? He says, according in Ephesians,
He says He chose us in Christ. Christ redeemed us. What did
He do it for? According as He had chosen us
in Christ for the praise of the glory of His grace. That's it. Praise of the glory of His grace. And I would also have us notice
in our text that it was not the religious Jews, but rather the
Gentile proselytes that God saved. Isn't that something? Religious
folks, they were left out. But it was the baser sort of
people in the eyes of the Jews. Now, I'll tell you what, Gentiles
were dogs in the eyes of the Jews. Now, they were a little
bit better if they became proselytes, but they weren't much better.
They weren't much better. But you see, God saved the dogs
and left the religious folks alone. And that's what He does
all the time. I love that story of the woman
that came to Him and He says, is it me to give the children's
breads to dogs? And what did she say? Truth,
Lord. That's the truth. I'm a dog. She took her place before the
Lord Jesus Christ, and so did these people here. And God left
these self-righteous people to themselves. Let us therefore
praise God for His sovereign providence to save us. Praise
God He did not pass by us. Praise God that when we heard
the gospel, He in sovereign grace applied it to our hearts so that
we would enjoy the things of Christ, so that we love the things
of Christ. Otherwise, had He not done this
for us, Our condition would be the same as these Jews, the same
as those He passed by. His gospel is by grace. Now, in Galatians 4, verse 6,
it says, Because you are sons, because you are adopted by the
election of God, God hath sent forth His Spirit into your hearts,
crying, Abba, Father. Isn't that what our spirits cry
daily, constantly? Father, help us. Father, save
us. Father, keep us. Father, give
us. Father, help us. It's all Him
we cry in our hearts because of the grace of God. Number two,
the message that Paul preached. Go back to your text. Look at
verse 2, and it says, And Paul, as his manner was, went unto
them, and three Sabbath days reasoned with them out of the
Scriptures, opening and alleging that Christ must needs have suffered
and risen from the dead, and that this Jesus whom I preach
unto you is Christ." Now, how did this grace of God come
to us? We know that the grace of God
sends His men where He wills, preaches His gospel to whom He
wills, and applies it to whom He wills, but how and by what
means did God use to apply His gospel? How did God send His
Spirit into our hearts, and by what means was it that moved
us to believe on Christ? Was it not the preaching of the
gospel of Jesus Christ? Was it not the preaching of gospel
of Jesus Christ and Him crucified? Yes, it is. It is by the gospel
being preached that a man comes to know Christ and is fed with
the gospel. And so this again is the same
message that we have seen throughout the book of Acts. I'll tell you,
every time the apostles went somewhere, what are they doing?
What are they doing? They're always preaching. They're
always preaching. The apostles and preachers spoke
many different things to people in many different backgrounds
and different customs. And although they outwardly appealed
to customs, you see the apostle Paul, he says, he went into the
synagogue as his manner was. This is his normal mode of delivering
the gospel. When he goes into a city, he
tries to find a synagogue. Because he recognizes that the
gospel must be first preached to the Jews, and after they have
rejected the gospel, he turns to the Gentiles. Isn't that the
same thing that happens every time in these cities? Every time
he goes to a city, he gets to the synagogue, and by the synagogue,
when the Jews hear the gospel, they reject it, and then the
Gentiles are embraced. And so he adapts himself to this
custom. Now, the custom of this synagogue. Now, from what I understand,
there were many synagogues in this place. There were a lot
of people in this city of Thessalonica. And so there were several synagogues
in this place. And so Paul went three weeks
preaching in these places. And when he would enter into
a synagogue, you must understand that when a visiting rabbi would
come, they would allow him to speak as a place of honor. And so Paul, he took that position
that he had with the Pharisees and he used it to preach the
gospel to these people. And this teaches us something.
I think this can teach us something. That we are to use every mode
and means and method that is made available to us to witness
of Jesus Christ. Every chance. If you have entrance
into a certain place, if you've been given the opportunity and
asked certain questions, then you should take that opportunity.
Every time the door opens, we are to walk through that door
and witness of Jesus Christ. When Paul walked into a synagogue,
he had an open forum. He had an open position where
he could preach. And I'll tell you what, if the
Catholic Church down the road invited me to preach, I'd go
preach. I wouldn't hesitate. Now, I'd probably get thrown
out on my ear, but I would preach anyway. That's what Paul did.
He knew that these people were going to be hostile. He's experienced
that. But every opportunity, he took
it. And so we, too, ought to take every opportunity to witness
of Christ. Now, friends, take, for example,
the CDs that we have, the CD ministry that we have. And if one day the Lord opens
other doors, we'll use that. But right now, this is a means.
This is a means by which we share the gospel with other people.
It's a means by which we confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. And if God opened other means,
we'll use those means. But friends, we should be faithful
to use the means that God has given us, whatever that is. Bob was talking this morning
about giving the bulletin to someone. Well, that's a means. That's a means. And maybe that
might, by the Spirit of God open, dialogue with someone. You don't
know. And when that door opens, we're
to witness every time of Jesus Christ. Now, I want us to notice
this, that Paul shows us here a method of preaching. His method
of preaching. Now look at this. It says, He
reasoned with them out of the Scriptures. Now this word reason
is where we get our word dialogue. Dialogue. to commune, to talk,
to converse. This is a manner, this is a method
of preaching. If you'll remember when we first
started in the book of Acts, and you go back to Acts chapter
8 after the death of Stephen, you'll notice that Philip and
the church were scattered. And the Scripture says that the
church went abroad preaching. And then it says Philip preached.
I've told you that those are two different words. One of those
words the church preached is that they gossiped the Gospel. They witnessed the Gospel as
they went about their daily life. preached in a declarative sense
like I'm doing today. I'm up here declaring the gospel
to you as a group of people. But see, as you go out into the
world, you also are commanded to go and preach the gospel. How? Reason with them. Reason with them. And I use this
method a lot. When people come to me in a private
setting and ask questions of me, you see, I sit down with
them and I open the Scriptures and I reason with them out of
the Scriptures. So this is a dialogue. It's kind
of a back and forth conversation. Now Paul, after his preaching,
he entered into this dialogue in the synagogue. And these men
no doubt had questions. These men, no doubt, had questions
about what Paul was preaching, and so he engaged their questions
and answered their questions reasonably. Now, friends, I've had some men
say some things, and I've asked them questions, and they've given
me an answer. It's just absolutely absurd and
unreasonable. Our answers to the gospel should
be reasonable. They should be understandable.
When I declare the gospel to you, I don't try to preach above
you, I try to preach to you. I try to meet you where you are
and I don't do it with great words. I try to be as simple
and as plain as I possibly can so you can understand. I'm reasoning
with you about these things. When I preach, I want it to be
something that you can follow. I want it to be something succinct
so you can attend to it. And so should we when we witness
to others of Christ. We should not be unreasonable.
And I think a lot of times we are. We try to dig into the deep
things of God first without laying a base. without witnessing concerning
sin, righteousness, and judgment. Those things are the base things.
We should have those first. We should have those first. We
should lay a foundation for our conversation, our witness. And
so when we preach, we must preach with reason and strive to witness
to them, convey the message so they can understand. What does
our reason come from? How do you reasonably witness? Paul said he reasoned with them
from the Scriptures. Don't go anywhere else. Don't
go off on a tangent and tell them what other men said. Don't
do it. You don't need to. Tell them
what God said. Reason from this, thus saith
the Lord. Do you need any other reason?
Do you need any other explanation? God said it. And God who is the
author of all reason, is He not reasonable? He said, come, let
us reason together. Isn't that what God said? That's
amazing, isn't it? God said it. Let's reason together.
My word is reasonable. This world and its religion is
unreasonable. It makes no sense. It makes no
sense. It makes no sense to tell men
that Jesus died for everyone and get atoned for no one. That
makes no sense. That's unreasonable, isn't it,
to think of Jesus Christ's work that way. But friends, we reason
from the Scriptures. That's how we are to approach
men. And not only that, he said he
opened and alleged. Friends, if you're to witness,
but you never opened this book, how are you going to know what
it says? If you don't spend the time studying
God's Word, Of course, you're going to be anxious and nervous
when someone asks you a question. I remember when I was in college,
if I didn't study and the professor asked me a question, I got nervous.
And he could tell when I made up some kind of bogus answer,
it wasn't reasonable. Friends, we need to study God's
Word. We need to dig into the things
of God and to read His Word. We need to open it to ourselves
so that we may open it to other people. How can you open the
Word of God to someone else if you've not opened it to yourself?
You've not understood it yourself. And it says, "...alleging." And
that word means to come alongside of. In other words, we take Scripture
and compare it with Scripture. You see, I don't take Scripture
and compare it with philosophy. I don't care what philosophy
says. I don't care what men say. I care what God says. And so
what I do is take God's Word and compare it to God's Word. And so when we witness to others,
we must take it from God's Word and we must prove it from God's
Word. And what should be the message that we open, that we
allege, that we reason? This is it. Christ must needs
have suffered for our sins. The Jews thought Christ should
come and take the Roman people and overthrow them. That's not
what he was there for. He said Christ must need to suffer. Jesus said it behooved Christ
to suffer. Why? Because we needed a sacrifice. We needed a substitute and Christ
was it. And then, we are to reason that
He's risen from the dead, which means that we are to reason that
Christ is seated on the throne of God and all things that happen,
everything that happens, happens according to the sovereign decree
of Jesus Christ. Now friend, that should give
us a lot of comfort, a lot of hope, and that should give us
a lot of strength in our witnessing. that Jesus Christ will rule,
and praise God, He even overrules my inability to preach. And He'll
overrule your inability to witness at times. And so therefore, take
confidence in this. Open the Scriptures, read them
for yourselves, and reason to others in witness of Jesus Christ. Praise to have been a blessing
to you.