Go back with me to Acts 14. Acts 14. Let's read verse 1 together. And it came to pass in Iconium
that they went both together into the synagogue of the Jews.
and so spake that a great multitude both of the Jews and also of
the Greeks believed." I got to the study Monday morning and
I opened up this chapter, Acts 14, and I read this first verse
right here and one phrase caught me. Tony was fishing that day. And Chris and Daniel. And I thought
Bob probably was too. And I thought at that moment,
it feels like a hook got caught in my, something caught me. And
I couldn't get away from it. And I was so intrigued by this
because it applies to what I do every day. It applies to what
I've been called to do. I immediately realized that I
want to learn something about this. I deeply want to learn
something about this phrase. Three words, right in the middle
of the verse, and so spake. And so spake. Verse 1, and it came to pass
in Iconium that they went both together into the synagogue of
the Jews. Paul and Barnabas, they went
into the synagogue of the Jews and so spake that a great multitude, both
of Jews and also of Greeks, believed. I want to learn something about
that. Now is there any doubt that salvation
is of the Lord? Is there any doubt that salvation
is of the Lord? Is there any doubt that faith,
that's what believing is, they believed. Is there any doubt
that faith is the gift of God? Did Paul and Barnabas get any glory
for this? Not one bit. See if you can find
Zechariah in the Old Testament. It's the second to the last book
in the Old Testament, just before Malachi. Go to Zechariah chapter
4. Zechariah 4 verse 6 says, Then he answered and spake unto
me, saying, This is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel,
saying, Not by might," It's not by man's might. "...nor by power,
but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts." I cannot preach anybody
into salvation. I just can't do it. I cannot
preach anybody into salvation. But I will tell you this, the
Lord is going to use preaching. He is going to use the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. And God has called me
to speak. I really believe He has now. So I'm curious to know something
about this in particular. Go back with me to Acts 14. Verse
1 says, it came to pass in Iconium that they went both together
into the synagogue of the Jews and so spake that a great multitude,
both of the Jews and also of the Greeks, believed. What did
they say? All right, what did they say? I want men and women to believe
God. I deeply, I can tell you that whatever
you're called to do as a occupation, you become engrossed in it. If
God calls you to be a housewife, you become engrossed in it. If
he calls you to be a mother, you are engrossed in that child
and you learn everything you can about that child. And if
he calls you to fix axles, you learn everything you can about
axles. I want men and women to believe
God. I deeply, deeply, deeply beg
that God would bless His Word, that God would send His Spirit
and call out His sheep. I deeply beg that. So what did
they say? What did they say? If God has
been pleased to use preaching, if this is the means that he
has purpose to use, what is the message that God blesses? That's
what I want to know. What is the message that God
blesses? What should I say? I am not the only person who
has asked that question. I'm not the only person. Moses
asked that question. Go with me over to Exodus 3. God appeared unto Moses in a
burning bush, and God told him in Exodus 3 verse 10, Come now
therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest
bring forth my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt. I'm
going to send you forth, and you're going to call them out.
You're going to be the instrument that calls them out. Bondage
to freedom. Verse 13, And Moses said unto
God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall
say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you,
and they shall say to me, What is his name? What should I say? What should I say? When I go on your errand to your people, With your message,
what should I say? Verse 14. And God said unto Moses,
I am that I am. And he said, thus shalt thou
say unto the children of Israel, I am hath sent me to you. And
God said, Moreover unto Moses, Thus shalt thou say unto the
children of Israel, The Lord God of your fathers, the God
of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent
me unto you. This is my name forever, and
this is my memorial unto all generations. Our Lord said, Before
Abraham was, I am. I am. Jesus Christ is I am. I am God. Bow the knee before
your God. Bow the knee before your God.
You know, I thought about this. Most of you expected me to say
that. You have any idea how many people
on this earth have no idea that that's even in the Word of God? You tell them that I created
all things. Do you have any idea how many
people don't believe that? I mean, they just don't believe
that. You tell them I created them.
Do you know how many people have no idea that God is their creator? They're not their own. You tell them that I do according
to my will. in the army of heaven and among
the inhabitants of earth and none can stay my hand or say
unto me, what are you doing? Nobody can say that to me. I
am. I am. That's the message that
God blesses, the message of his sovereignty. Moses wanted to
know, what should I say? I have the same question, what
should I say? But we're not the only two. Isaiah
asked the same question. Go with me over to Isaiah 40. Isaiah 40, verse 6. The voice said, Cry. And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the
goodliness thereof, all of the good parts, everything that you
think is good about your flesh, is as of the flower of the field,
the grass withereth, the flower fadeth, because the Spirit of
the Lord blows on it. Surely the people is grass."
Isn't it amazing that we love that? As I'm reading it, I am
just having a ball reading that. You tell them that they are grass. And verse 8 says, The grass withereth,
the flower fadeth, but the word of our God shall stand forever. You tell them that the word of
I Am is going to stand forever. It is going to stand forever.
Look at the last three words of verse 9, Behold your God. Right before that he said, Lift
up your voice with strength, lift it up, Be not afraid, say
unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God." That's the message
that the Lord blesses. Now, hold your place right there.
I want to show you something really quickly in 1 Peter 1.
Peter quoted this, but I want to show you something else that
says in 1 Peter 1. Verse 24, 1 Peter 1 verse 24
says, For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the
flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the
flower thereof falleth away. But the word of the Lord endureth
forever. And this is the word which by
the gospel is preached unto you. This is the word by which the
good news is preached unto you. This, behold your God, I am,
you go tell them that I am and then you tell them that all flesh
is grass and the grass is going to wither. That is the message
by which the gospel comes to you. You know, There's nothing new
to tell under the sun. And I think one of the reasons
why we love these truths so much is because we know what's coming
after it. That law and that holiness is the needle that pierces the
heart, but through that piercing, a way is made for the scarlet
thread of the gospel. Pierce me, Lord. If the good
news is coming, pierce me. Most people would say, I don't
hear good news in that at all. Man is sin and God is holy, so
God has to judge man. There's no good news in that
at all. Well, that's not all that God told Isaiah to cry. He said, what should I say? There's
some other things in there too. Go back to Isaiah 40. Isaiah
40 verse 1, I am said, comfort ye Comfort ye my people, saith your
God. Speak ye to the heart. You have a margin for the word
comfortably? Speak ye to the heart and cry unto her that her
warfare is accomplished. Your warfare is over. This life seems like an uphill
battle, but I promise you it's all downhill from here. It is all downhill from here. I worked on the Bible study a
little while this morning, and I'll tell you this again Sunday
morning, but in about 20 years, a lot of the people in this room
are going to be in glory together. I graduated from high school
20 years ago, 21. In that amount of space, A lot
of the people in this room are going to be totally unified in
glory together. It's not far. It's not far. It is all downhill from here. I know it doesn't seem like it,
and I know we're going to worry all the way down. We're going
to be just riding it all the way down, and we're going to
be worried the whole way, but your warfare is accomplished.
There is no dead end waiting for you. The gate is wide open. speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem,
and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity
is pardoned." Every sin that every now and then our mind recollects,
that we all have them, that's already been pardoned. God's going to get me for that.
No, that one's already been pardoned. It's just gone. It's just gone. You have received of the Lord's
hand double for all your sins. All those sins that you hate,
that same amount is now doubled in the blessings that are found
in Christ. The IM said, that's the message
I want you to bring to my people. Our Lord Himself said, The Spirit
of the Lord is upon me, because He hath anointed me to preach
the gospel to the poor. He hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted,
to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight
to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach
the acceptable year of the Lord. That's the message God blesses. He blesses that. Right here in
Isaiah 40, look at verse 10. Behold, the Lord God will come
with strong hand and His arm shall rule for Him. Behold, His
reward is with Him and His work is before Him. This is my work,
he said. It's not your work. You're the
cause of my work, but this is my work. And you think he'll
do it? Or should I say, do you think
he did it? Here's the good news. If any
man sin, do you know how hard it is to find a sinner? We were
talking about this today. There is, I would venture to
say, I won't speak for every soul, but you would be very,
very hard to find a center on Church Circle. Very hard. You'd be very hard to find a
center in any of the bars in town. Very hard. Centers are not easy to come
by. But if there are any, if any
man has sinned, you have an advocate with the Father. His name is
Jesus Christ the righteous. Is that not good news? Man. His
finished work, His saving work, putting no responsibility back
on man. Well God finished it, but now
let's turn around and look at man again. Nope. leaving man
totally out of it. The work of Christ on that cross
alone is the message that God blesses. It's the message God
blesses. Here is that message. Go with
me to Mark 5. Mark 5, look at verse 1. And they came over unto the other
side of the sea into the country of the Gadarenes. You ever heard
this story? And when he was come out of the
ship, when our Lord was come out of the ship, immediately
there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit. That was me. That was me. Unclean. Unclean. Unclean in every thought. Unclean
in every deed. Unclean in every motive. A spiritual
leper. Verse 3 says, who had his dwelling
among the tombs. That was me. Dead. Dead. Absolutely dead. And this story right here goes
on to say, but Christ came to him. Christ came to this man
and he purged him with hyssop, as David says. And he emptied
him of every evil. Christ did the work. And then
Christ made that unclean man to be a brand new creature. And
when all the people came out and saw him, they found this
man sitting and clothed and in his right mind. Verse 18 says,
And when he was come into the ship, our Lord, when he was come
into the ship, he that had been possessed with the devil prayed
him that he might be with him. How be it Jesus suffered him
not, but saith unto him, Go home to thy friends. and tell them
how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath had compassion
on thee. And he departed and began to
publish in Decapolis how great things Jesus had done for him,
and all men did marvel. Every person that he went and
told from his heart how great things the Lord has done for
me, God blessed the message and men started to marvel, started
to believe. That's the message God blesses,
a sovereign God, a sinful man, a compassionate savior, and a
finished work. All right, now go with me back
to Acts 14. Acts 14 verse 1, And it came
to pass in Iconium that they went both together into the synagogue
of the Jews, and so spake that a great multitude, both of the
Jews and also of the Greeks, believed. But they all didn't
believe. Verse 2 says, But the unbelieving
Jews stirred up the Gentiles and made their minds evil-affected
against the brethren. Why didn't they believe? Many believe, great multitude,
but why didn't they? One clear answer. Our Lord told
those Pharisees in John 10, you believe not because you're not
of my sheep. That's the only answer there
is. You're not of my sheep. God's sheep hear his voice. God's
sheep love his voice. They love his word. They bow
to and they believe every word. Verse 3 says, Long time therefore
abode they, speaking boldly in the Lord. That's how they spake. What did they speak? How did
they speak? And so spake. That's what it
says in verse 1. That's how they spoke. Boldly. Boldly. They did not skirt around
the truth. And they didn't try to sneak
in a little bit of truth here and there. Well, let's not offend
them. Let's just try to sneak it in. They boldly and clearly spoke
the Word of God. Now, boldly does not mean arrogantly. It means with confidence. Listen
to this. Long time, verse 3 says, therefore,
a bold day speaking with confidence in the Lord. That's what they
were doing. They were speaking with confidence
in the Lord. That's the message that God blesses.
Confidence in the Lord. Everything that He has promised
to do for us throughout this word, He shall not fail. Every single thing. He said the
Lord will provide, didn't He? In whatever it is we need. He
said, the Lord will provide. You will be provided for. You
will not be forsaken. You will not be begging bread.
I don't care what your budget looks like. You just won't be. He said, I will never leave you. He will never leave you. Never. He said, come to me and I'll
give you rest. If you go to Him, He will give
you... I'm gonna go to Christ, but I'm
hoping He'll help me in this. I'm hoping He'll speak to me
and answer me. I'm gonna draw near to Christ
and I'm just hoping that if you go to Him, He will give you rest. He will. If you are troubled
about something, Go to Him. Whatever it is, go to Him. Well,
I don't know if He's the right one in this area. Go to Him.
He will give you rest. He said, I'm coming back. He
is coming back. It's just a matter of time. He
said, I am going to prepare a place for you. You will have a place. You will not be turned away.
How do you know? I used to hear men say things
like this, and I used to think, how do you know? I am said so. I am said so. Verse 3, long time
therefore abode they speaking boldly in the Lord, which gave
testimony unto the word of His grace, and granted signs and
wonders to be done. by their hands, but the multitude
of the city was divided, in part held with the Jews, in part with
the apostles. When the message comes to a place,
the message that truly, clearly, boldly exalts God Almighty and brings man way down lower than
where he thinks he ought to be and gives all the glory and salvation
to Christ. When that message comes to a
place, it brings division every time. It brings division every
single time. Unless God gives a sinner a heart
to bow to Christ and this word, every sinner will say, I will
not have that man reign over me. He just will. This word is a sword and it divides. And it all boils down to who
is getting this glory and salvation, doesn't it? And God's glory,
man's glory, those two cannot walk together. They just cannot
walk together. And it's division every time.
Verse 5 says, and when there was an assault made both of the
Gentiles and also of the Jews with their rulers to use them
despitefully to stone them. There was an assault made on
Paul and Barnabas. They were aware of it and fled
unto Lystra and Derbe, cities in Lycaonia, and unto the region
that lieth round about. An assault was made. Now, I just
want to talk to you for the next couple of verses. I'm almost
finished. And I wrote it down in my notes. I have notes here.
It's not going to be any different from what I've been doing, but
I wrote in here on purpose. I just want to talk to you for
the next couple of verses. My prayer is that we have set
forth that God is sovereign, right? None can stay his hand
and all those things, but I want to tell you something. I hope that this will be good
for us. When confidence in the Lord is
clearly declared, the message that God blesses, when that message is very clearly
declared, A spiritual assault is made on every soul that hears
it and believes it. Did you know that? A spiritual assault is made. The truth is very specific. If
I go get in my car and I go to Center Street and have a wreck,
There is only one set of facts that took place. The truth is
very specific. I pulled out, they hit me, such
on and so forth. You call a man into a courtroom
to give testimony of what he has witnessed, witness to a crime.
If that man gets up there and he tells some truths and then
he says, now I got a lot of gray area right here in the middle,
well then you're not our man. You don't have the truth. The
truth is very specific. And when that truth is very clearly
set forth, and I'm not talking about myself, take me out of
it, but it's a fact, when it's clearly set forth, a spiritual
assault is made on those who hear it and believe it. Our Lord
gave a parable of the sower. And this is what he said, he
said, those by the wayside Are they that hear? Then cometh the
devil, and taketh away the word out of their hearts, lest they
should believe and be saved." Now, again, I'm going to say,
are you saying God's not sovereign? No, I'm telling you what God
said. I'm just repeating what God said. I want you and me, you know, if we believe this
message, many events of opposition are going to cross our path.
That's what I'm trying to get out. Many tempting opportunities
are going to cross our path. They are going to happen. Our
adversary is called the tempter. The Lord called him that. And
he does not use things that don't tempt us. He's the tempter and
you know, oh what a blessing, what a blessing, what a blessing.
Is it? He will use any means that he
can to keep us from hearing the message that God blesses. He
wants us to become sickly. spiritually weak, spiritually
empty. He knows that the hearing of
this gospel is what strengthens the believer, and what nourishes
the believer, and it settles the believer. So when that fork
in the road comes, here's what I want to tell us. When that
fork in the road comes, and it will come, some of you might
have already had a fork in the road. You know, the things of
the kingdom of God or the things of this flesh. How many men do
we know that, well, my job is taking me, I've got to go. Do
you? I won't have work otherwise. Well, I'm just telling us, when
that fork in the road comes along, recognize what's going on. Recognize
what's going on. Watch, therefore. There is one
thing that we need day in and day out for the rest of our journey
on this life and it does not have anything to do with anything
in this world. We don't look on these temporal
things, we're looking on something eternal. Seek ye first the kingdom
of heaven and his righteousness and I promise you, you'll get
a job. I promise. Now with all that being said,
have confidence in the Lord. All right, let's take it back
off of us. You're not going to lose your salvation. We can be spared a lot of heartache
though, so have confidence in the Lord. When that fork in the
road comes, don't take either path until you look to the Lord.
Just look to the Lord. Trust in the Lord. He that hath
begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus
Christ. He is able to keep you from falling
and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory
with exceeding joy. And even though oppositions and
persecution, it comes, even though all these things come, I mean
they were persecuted, they were going to be stoned. Our God always
uses it for the good of His people, every single time. Verse 6, they
were aware of it and fled unto Lystra and Derbe, cities of Lycaonia,
and unto the region that lieth round about. So they fled, verse
7 says, and there they preached the gospel. And Lord willing,
next time we pick it up, we're going to see how great things
the Lord did for somebody. Right? That message that God
blesses preached clearly and boldly, that's all we need. That's all we need. May God enable
us to do that. Preach and sow spake, just like
that. All right, let's all stand together.