All right, go with me back to
Acts 28. The Lord willing, we will finish
our study through the book of Acts. You know that, how they say,
time flies when you're having fun. We started this study in the
book of Acts in February of 2014. I was curious. We were going
to finish it, and I went back and looked. When did we start
it? And I thought, you know, mid
last year, early last year. It was February of 2014. And I believe that this book
has been a real blessing to my heart. It really has. And I pray it has been to yours. I know it's a real blessing for
a brand new congregation. I can't think of a better book
to go through than the Book of Acts. It's just the New Testament
church, the start of the church. It's just wonderful. And I do
pray the Lord will bless this message tonight. The title is
going to come from verse 31. Verse 31 says, preaching the
kingdom of God and teaching those things which concern the Lord
Jesus Christ. Paul ended his ministry. He ended this ministry just the
same way he started it. Preaching the things concerning
Christ. That's how he ended it. Preaching
the things concerning Christ. I pray God would teach us how
to do that. I'd love to forever. I'd love to start and finish
preaching the things concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. Well,
let's lead up to that. Paul and some of the prisoners
and a centurion and some soldiers, they went through a shipwreck.
And verse 1 says, When they were escaped, then they knew that
the island was called Melita, Malta. 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. And when Paul had gathered a
bundle of sticks and laid them on the fire, there came a viper
out of the heat and fastened on his hand. And when the barbarians
saw the venomous beast hang on his hand, they said among themselves,
no doubt this man is a murderer, whom though he hath escaped the
sea, yet vengeance suffereth not to live. And he shook off
the beast into the fire and felt no harm. How be it they looked
when he should have swollen or fallen down dead suddenly, But
after they had looked a great while and saw no harm come to
him, they changed their minds and said that he was a God. They experienced some repentance.
They had a change of mind. Now that's the fulfillment of
what our Lord said in Mark 16. Look with me over at Mark chapter
16. Mark 16 verse 15, And He said unto them, Our Lord
said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel
to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized
shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be damned. And these
signs shall follow them that believe. In My name shall they
cast out devils, They shall speak with new tongues. They shall
take up serpents. And if they drink any deadly
thing, it shall not hurt them. They shall lay hands on the sick,
and they shall recover." These false places that have all those
rattlesnakes in the cages, that's a bad mistake. I don't recommend
that at all. Our Lord said that these are
the signs that He would give to prove the message. That's
what He said. He said, I'm going to prove your
message. You're going to be bitten by deadly snakes, and they're
not going to hurt you. And if our Lord says something
is going to happen, it has to happen. It must happen. Not one
single word of his will fail. And it happened to Paul, and
it caused these barbarians to believe this man's of God. This
man is of God. Now go with me back to Acts 28,
verse 7 says, 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. And it came to pass that the
father of Publius lay sick of a fever and of a bloody flux,
to whom Paul entered in and prayed and laid his hands on him and
healed him. So when this was done, others
also, which had diseases in the island, came and were healed,
who also honored us with many honors. And when we departed,
they laded us with such things as were necessary." It was a
God-given miracle that Paul didn't die from that snake bite. This
was the kind of snake where they didn't even bother to help him.
They all just stood there and watched him, just watch him die.
And it was a miracle from God that he didn't die. But not only
did he not die, he went in and started healing all of their
sicknesses, all their diseases. And when the Lord deals with
a person, he makes that man or woman a thankful person. They're
thankful for it. They're so thankful that God
would look on their afflictions and look on their iniquities
And these barbarians, they gave to Paul and they gave to the
men that were traveling with him generously out of thanks
and love and support. Verse 11, and after three months
we departed in a ship of Alexandria, which had wintered in the isle
whose son was Castor and Pollux. And landing in Syracuse, we tarried
there three days. And from thence we fetched a
compass and came to Regium, And after one day, the south wind
blew, and we came the next day to Puteoli, where we found brethren
and were desired to tarry with them seven days, and so we went
to Rome." They finally come to Rome. This is what everything
has been leading up to. Paul going to Rome. Verse 15,
and from thence, when the brethren heard of us, they came to meet
us as far as Appii Forum and the three taverns, whom when
Paul saw, he thanked God and took courage." This town, Appii
Forum, was about 50 miles from Rome. And this other town, the
three taverns, that was about 33 miles from Rome. And these
brethren from those places, they heard that Paul and the brethren
traveling with him had come to Rome. And they traveled all that
way to go see him. And they went because they wanted
to go. And we do things because that's
what we have a heart to do. But God's people are such a blessing
to God's people. You know that? They really are.
God's people are such a blessing to God's people. I want you to know that when
I say this, I'm not saying it because I think it sounds good
and I think it would butter anybody up. I'm saying it from my heart.
I'm saying it honestly. But it truly makes my day to
see you. It really does. It makes my day
to see you. God's people are such a blessing
and such an encouragement. When we all come piling in through
this door, I'm encouraged that God would bring me, that God
would bring you. I'm just encouraged. I become
more and more convinced that we need each other. We need each
other. We don't just love each other,
we need each other. For our mental, our emotional, our even spiritual well-being. Coals
need to be in the pile of coals for our spiritual well-being,
for our comfort. We need each other. Heaven is
not a place. Heaven is not a place. Heaven is a person and his people. And this is heaven on earth. If there are two or three of
us here in his name, he's here. We are right now in the midst
of heaven. We're in heaven. And the people of Christ coming
together in the name of Christ to worship and praise and glorify
Christ, that's our encouragement. That's all of our encouragement
on this earth. We go out into this world and say, how's it
going? Not too good. Pretty discouraging. Well, come
on in here. Just come on in here. But when
Paul saw these brethren travel as far as they did, 50 miles,
you know, man by nature will really weigh whether or not he
wants to go 50 miles in a car traveling 70 miles an hour. These
people were walking, you know, 50 miles. He saw them come as
far as they did just to greet him, support him in the ministry
and the cause of Christ. These people were right there
with him. And verse 15 says, From thence when the brethren
heard of us, they came to meet us as far as Appii Forum and
the three taverns, whom when Paul saw, he thanked God and
took courage. Man, that encouraged him. That
encouraged him so much. Those brethren didn't realize
that I'm quite positive. I'm quite sure, but that was
their ministry. That was their ministry that
God had given to them. God gave Paul a message to give
to his people in their time of need, and that's what he needed
right then and there. their ministry to Him. And we're
all in this ministry together. A minister is someone who ministers to somebody
else. This whole thing is not about
doctrine. This thing is about God's people. It's about our
God and it's about His people. And we minister to each other.
We need each other. Verse 16, And when we came to
Rome, the centurion delivered the prisoners to the captain
of the guard, But Paul was suffered to dwell by himself with a soldier
that kept him. All the other prisoners went
to jail. Paul was allowed to go into his own rented house.
They rented a house and he was allowed to stay there with a
soldier. Verse 17, And it came to pass that after three days
Paul called the chief of the Jews together And when they were
come together, he said unto them, Men and brethren, though I have
committed nothing against the people or customs of our fathers,
yet was I delivered prisoner from Jerusalem into the hands
of the Romans, who when they had examined me would have let
me go, because there was no cause of death in me. But when the
Jews spake against it, I was constrained to appeal unto Caesar. not that I had ought to accuse
of my nation. For this cause, therefore, have
I called for you to see you and to speak with you, because that
for the hope of Israel I am bound with this chain. And they said
unto him, We neither received letters out of Judea concerning
thee, neither any of the brethren that came showed or spake any
harm of thee." What they're saying is, we didn't know anything about
this. We didn't know about your travels and everything that's
happened to you. Verse 22, but we desire to hear
of thee what thou thinkest, for as concerning this sect, we know
that everywhere it is spoken against. That is the way that
the world views God's truth. And we know that's the case.
That is the way that this world views God's truth. You go tell
somebody exactly what this word says. And if God does not move
on their heart, isn't it such a blessing when God moves on
the heart? You go tell somebody the truth, and man, how wonderful
is it when God moves on the heart. But if He does not move on the
heart, it'll be spoken against. That's what'll happen. Every
religion under this sun is received and it's tolerated
by man and by this world, but God's truth. God's truth. Man will have no problem if somebody
wants to be, you know, in this denomination. That's fine. I'll
be in that one. No problem. You want to have that opinion?
That's fine. I'll have this one. No problem. But you go tell him
God's truth. You go tell him what he has clearly,
plainly written and declared in this word. Christ is all in
salvation. You go tell them Christ is all
in salvation, and His work is the only work that saves, and
the world won't have it. They just will not have it. Verse
22 says, We desire to hear of thee what thou thinkest, for
as concerning this sect, we know that everywhere it is spoken
against. Everywhere. And when they had
appointed him a day, there came many to him into his lodging,
to whom he expounded and testified the kingdom of God, persuading
them concerning Jesus, both out of the law of Moses and out of
the prophets, from morning till evening. And some believed the
things which were spoken, and some believed not. And when they
agreed not among themselves, they departed after that Paul
had spoken one word. Well spake the Holy Ghost by
Isaiah the prophet unto our father, saying, Go unto this people and
say, Hearing you shall hear and shall not understand. and seeing
you shall see and not perceive, for the heart of this people
is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their
eyes have they closed, lest they should see with their eyes, and
hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and should
be converted, and I should heal them. Be it known therefore unto
you that the salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles, and
that they will hear it. And when he had said these words,
the Jews departed and had great reasoning among themselves. And
Paul dwelt two whole years in his own hired house and received
all that came in unto him, preaching the kingdom of God and teaching
those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence,
no man forbidding him." Paul spent his last days, he spent
his last days Preaching and teaching what? Those things which concern the
Lord Jesus Christ. And He did it with all confidence. No man forbidding Him. God gave
Him a door of utterance. This is so wonderful, so glorious. When God gives a door of utterance. God opened the door. God opened
his mouth. God gave him a message. God gave
him a heart of conviction and a burden to preach it, a boldness
to preach it, and he preached it. No matter what his condition,
even in prison, he preached and he taught and he wrote the things
concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. Should we ever get off of that?
Should we ever get off of that ever? If a man is called of God,
that's what he'll preach. That's what he'll preach start
to finish. That's what he'll teach the things which concern
the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's it. That's it. He
will not give one ounce of the credit or the glory to man. Never. Never. Now everything
in this chapter points us to Christ. Everything. We just read a bunch of stuff.
We just passed a bunch of stuff, didn't we? Everything in here
points to Christ. Paul was bitten by that serpent.
That deadly venom did not hurt him. It did not end Him. It did not
conquer Him. And that's a picture of Christ.
That's Christ. Christ was bitten by the venom
of our sin, wasn't He? But it couldn't end Him. It could
not end Him. He conquered it. He conquered
it. The serpent bruised his heel,
but he crushed the serpent's head, didn't he? And through
that victory, God's Holy Ghost now brings the good news. He
brings faith. He brings repentance toward God
to sinners. Those barbarians, they had a
change of mind. So does every sinner who truly
sees the crucified Christ. He has a changed mind. He has a changed mind. Every
sinner who sees what Christ on the cross actually means. Poor souls in religion, I was
working on Sunday morning's message this morning, and it has to do
a lot with religion. And I was dwelling on poor souls
in religion. They know that Christ hung on
the cross, but they have no idea what actually was accomplished.
They have no idea the meaning of it. They have no idea the
effectiveness of it. And if a sinner ever sees what
God demands, you know what Christ on the cross shows us? What God
demands. What God will do to sin. If a sinner ever sees what God
demands, his mind will be changed. on His own ability. If He sees
what God did to Christ, His mind will be changed. I don't want
to go stand before Him. I don't want to go be judged by Him.
And with that changed mind, if God in mercy gives that changed
mind, sinners come running, don't they? They come running to Him. And here's what our Lord said,
Every soul who comes, I will in no wise cast out. He healed
them all. Every soul who came, He healed
them all. He went on to say that he was bound by this chain. That's
us. That's us. That's where we are
in this flesh, bound by this chain of sin and bondage and
death. But this gospel, and this is
so amazing to me, God has given us this gospel. This gospel that
Paul preached, the same one, it hasn't changed. It never will.
This gospel sets men absolutely free from all that bondage. That
bondage is real, and that condemnation is real, and that punishment
is real, and this gospel sets men free from every bit of it. And that's why it says He preached
it with all confidence. He knew, and every man who preaches
it, every man who's been called to preach it, knows this is the
only thing that will set a man or a woman free. This is it.
the preaching and teaching of the things which concern the
Lord Jesus Christ. Now, how is that done? How does
a man preach and teach the things concerning Christ? And I need
to know this as a preacher and you need to know this as a hearer.
You're going to hear men. Like those Galatians, some men
came in that they didn't need to hear. So I need to know this as a preacher
and you need to know this as a hearer. How does a man preach
and teach the things concerning Christ? Look with me at verse
23. Verse 23, And when they had appointed
him a day, there came many to him into his lodging, to whom
he expounded and testified the kingdom of God, persuading them
concerning Jesus, both out of the law of Moses and out of the
prophets, from morning till evening. What are we doing when we preach
the gospel? We are expounding, we are testifying, and we're
persuading. That's what we're doing. Now
listen to what expounded means. This word is a wonderful word. It means to place, to set out,
to exhibit, to expose. That's all we're doing. That's
all we're doing in preaching the things concerning Christ.
All we do is just exhibit. That's all we do. We don't add
anything to it. We only exhibit. We just open up this word and
set it out. That's it. We don't say, well,
based on all these facts, this is what I think. We don't do
that. You know that? Every other religion
does that. But the truth is an exhibit. That's all it is. Adding something
to this is not expounding. That's what we think expounding.
Well, this is what it says. Now let me expound on that. That's
not what expounding is. We just set it out. That's all
we do. If a man is going to expound
the gospel, all he is going to do is expose Christ. That's it. That's it. Many people
like to go into these in-depth studies. We're going to do an
in-depth study. Well, I love an in-depth study
too, as long as all we do is expose Christ. That's all we're
going to do is expose Christ. He expounded, now listen to what
testified means. It means to attest to what you
have seen. You. Every time Paul preached,
he told his own story. You know how often he tells that
same story? He tells his own story every
time. Every time he preaches sin, he
preaches my sin. Every time. But this is what
God did for me. It's hard to be confident in
something you've never experienced. You know, you hear about something
and you repeat it and you think, I hope I got that right. I hope
I heard that right. It's hard to be confident in
something that you've never experienced. Our Lord told that Gadarene,
you go tell how great things the Lord has done for you, for
you. And you know, if the Lord has
never done something for a man, all he can preach on is what
he's done for God. That's all he knows. That's all
he knows. If the Lord has never done something
for a man, all he can do is go around telling people what he's
done for God. He's never experienced it. But preaching Christ is telling
men and women, this is what God did for me. And he's able to
do it for you. So he expounded and he testified. And here's what persuading means.
It means to convince by urging. urging. Verse 23 says, When they
had appointed him a day, there came many to him into his lodging,
to whom he expounded and testified the kingdom of God, persuading
them, urging them concerning Jesus, both out of the law of
Moses and out of the prophets from morning till evening. He
did all of his urging out of the word of God. Every bit of
it. Men think too much. Men think
way too much. It's always, well, I think. If
you're going to argue with somebody, you're going to say, well, I
think. Men think way too much. This scripture says when he by
himself purged our sins, he sat down. And if that's what it says,
that's the way it is. It doesn't matter what I think
about that. That's just the way it is. Verse
24 says, Some believed the things which were spoken, and some believed
not. That's in the hands of God Almighty. That's in God's hands. It's not
my concern. And it concerns me. It really concerns me. I'm so
concerned that men and women believe this. I worry for our
children, I worry for our families. It concerns me, but it's not
my concern whether or not men and women believe this. That's
in the hands of God alone. All we can do is set forth the
things which we have seen and urge men. That's all we can do
with all confidence. I love that. Some will believe
it. Some will not. But it's all in
God's hands. Verse 25, when they agreed among
themselves, they departed after that Paul had spoken one word.
He said, well spake the Holy Ghost by Isaiah the prophet unto
our fathers saying, go unto this people and say, hearing you shall
hear and shall not understand. Seeing you shall see and not
perceive for the heart of this people is waxed gross and their
ears are dull of hearing. And their eyes have they closed,
lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears,
and understand with their heart, and should be converted, and
I should heal them." What a dangerous place to be. What a dangerous
place to be. Dull of hearing. That's a place
that none of us want to be. Dull of hearing. When a person
is sick and that person won't eat, that's a terrible sign,
isn't it? When he will not eat and it gets
more and more and he goes longer and longer, that's a terrible
sign. And appetite is a sign of health, it's a sign of life,
and what a terrible place to be when our ears grow dull of
hearing. Yeah, I got it. I'm good. Really. I know it. I know it
already. I believe it, yeah. What a sad,
terrible place to be. May the Lord quicken us, quicken
us, keep us from that. And here's why. He said in verse
28, Be it known therefore unto you that the salvation of God
is sent unto the Gentiles and that they will hear it. That
is the greatest news we Gentiles have ever heard. That is the
greatest news. God said this gospel is now going
to go to all the world. This gospel is now going to leave
this one little country, and it's going to go to all the Gentiles. It's going to cross the Atlantic
Ocean. It's going to come to a people in America, all the
way into a state called Tennessee, into a town called Kingsport,
and some are going to believe it. That's amazing. Some are
going to believe it. But some will. Some will. That's encouragement. Some will.
That's a glorious declaration. Some are going to believe this.
Verse 29, And when he had said these words, the Jews departed
and had great reasoning among themselves. And Paul dwelt two
whole years in his own hired house and received all that came
in unto him. Preaching the kingdom of God
and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ
with all confidence, no man forbidding him. And thank God for that. We understand that. We know what
all that means. From that we got over half of
the New Testament. from this event, from the Lord
bringing Paul to Rome, keeping him there for two whole years.
We got the Word of God through this. So, thank God. Thank God for His goodness in
that. We mistake His goodness, don't we? Well, the way I see
it, this is not good at all. Well, how about let's quit seeing
it the way I see it? We mistake his goodness. And
this right here was absolute goodness and kindness. God threw
that man in a prison and gave him nothing to do but write and
preach. Thank God for that. All right,
let's stand together.