Go back with me to Acts 13. I want to take just a second and tell you something that has
been weighing heavily on me this week, very heavily. Men and women miss Christ every
day. They miss Christ every day. And it's to their own damnation. Paul, who was an apostle, and
he had been for a while, he said, Oh, that I might know him. You know, after all that stuff,
he said, I count all that stuff dung and everything and this
and that and everything I am. He said that I might know him. Do we hear what he's saying?
Do we hear what he's saying? That I might know him. That I might know him. He did not say, oh, that I might
know Calvinism. He didn't say that. He didn't
say, oh, that I might know systematic theology and all these things.
He said that I might know him, that I might know him. I don't
want us to miss Christ. I don't want us to miss Christ.
I know that our Lord said there must be heresies among you. I know that there's going to
come a day when he's going to separate wheat from tares. I
know all that. And I don't want to miss Christ
and I don't want you to miss Christ. People miss Christ every day.
They miss Christ everywhere. The heavens declare Him. And they miss Christ everywhere. But there is one place in particular
that people miss Christ more than any other place on this
earth. There's one place in particular
that men and women miss Christ more so than any other place
on this earth. You know where that place is?
It is inside His own Word. It's right inside the pages of
his, this is the most missed place in the entire world. Those who are caught up in religion
are in danger of missing Christ more than any other person on
this earth. And the reason is because our
Lord said, I came not to call the righteous. I came to call
sinners. And very few people in church
believe they're sinners. Very few people. So those who
are caught up in religion are in danger of missing Christ more
so than any person on this earth. They are either so caught up
in church, so caught up in everything that church has to offer for
their children, and for the singles, and for the couples, and for
the elderly, and for the homeless, They're either so caught up in
those things, they never even open God's word. Or they're so
caught up in the doctrine of the Christ. They miss the Christ
of the doctrine. And I'm just telling you as honestly
as I can, I don't want us to miss Christ. I don't want us
to miss Christ and I don't want us to take it for granted that
we won't. Paul said, I pressed toward the mark. He said, lest
myself also be found to cast away. Now look in acts 13 in
at verse 38, verse 38 says, be it known unto you, therefore
men and brethren, that through this man, through this man, through this man, it's through
this man, everything he has to say is through this man. Did you know that a man, a human,
a mortal, can stand up and preach on justification. He can stand
up and he can preach on justification and he can give all the facts
and he can tell us what Moses wrote about it and he can tell
us what God said about it. He can tell us everything about
it. A man can preach on justification and never preach Christ the justifier. You know that? It happens every
day. A man can stand up and preach
on redemption, and never preach Christ the Redeemer. A man can stand up and preach
on sanctification, holiness before God, and never preach Christ
the Sanctifier. the sanctifier. He can preach
on justification, sanctification, redemption, righteousness, and
still miss Christ. Still miss Christ. I don't want
us to miss Christ. I don't want us to miss Christ.
Redemption is not a transaction on God's piece of paper. Redemption
is a person. It's a person. He is a person.
I am redeemed in this man. I'm redeemed in this man, Christ
Jesus the Lord. Justification is not just a doctrine. It's a person. I'm justified
in this man right here. This man, by this name only.
There's one name under heaven. God does not look at me and say,
I see you finally got it straightened out. You finally got your mind
in order. You understand what I wrote.
So therefore, I'm going to forget about your sins. No. When he looks at me, he sees
Jesus Christ as a bloody sacrifice. And he sees that I was put in
Jesus Christ And he sees that I was absolutely punished in
Jesus Christ. And then he looks at me and he
says, for Christ's sake, you're justified. You're justified. Justification is a person. Sanctification
is not an attainment. Well, you know, I've gotten this
much holiness and I'm hoping to get this much more holiness.
It's not an attainment. I am sanctified completely, fully,
totally in this man. There is no higher sanctification
than the holiness that's in Christ. It does not get any higher than
that. He is my sanctification. Do we see the difference? Do
we see the difference? I pray that I see the difference.
That is preaching and hearing Christ. Christ. Christ is the subject and He's
the substance and He's the fullness of all these things. And God
has called some men to declare that to sinners. He has called some men to this
work of preaching the truth. The truth. And that's what our text is telling
us here tonight. Saul and Barnabas, they are being
called to the work of this declaration. And as I told you, I'm going
to just skim through this just a little bit, but let's start
with verse one. Look at verse one with me. It says, Now there were in the
church that was at Antioch certain prophets and teachers as Barnabas,
and Simeon that was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manan,
which had been brought up with Herod the Tetrarch, and Saul. Now we've made the statement
before that Christ is in every verse of scripture. Is Christ
in that verse of scripture? I really struggled with tonight. We're not going to, but I was
going to have a whole message on this one verse of scripture,
which would have been wonderful. But that's not how the Lord had
me go. And I want to show you very quickly, and then we'll
move on. There are seven names inside this verse of scripture.
And then there's a place, Cyrene is a place, and then the word
Tetrarch is a title, that's the governor. Barnabas, the first
one mentioned, his name means the son of consolation. That's
what the gospel is. It's consolation. It is consoling. We come here to be consoled.
We come here to worship, we come here to praise, we come here
to honor, and we come here to be consoled by our God. Simeon means hearing. That's
what we're here for. Faith comes by hearing, doesn't
it? Salvation begins with hearing the truth. It began before the
foundation of the world. It began when Christ died on
that cross. And it begins when God crosses
the path of a sinner with the hearing of the truth. Niger means black. And that's
what my and your sin is. It is black. And that's the first
thing that God crosses the path of a sinner with. His own sin.
And it's black. Lucius means illumination. Bright light. That's what happened
to Saul of Tarsus. Behold your God. God is holy. That's His righteousness and
His judgment. When God comes to a sinner, he
confronts that sinner with his sin and with God's holiness. Menaean means comforter. The true God of heaven, he comes
to his children in mercy and he shows them their sin and he
shows them his holiness and then he shows them Christ. This man, come see a man. Came to save centers. You're
a center, but let me show you a man who came to save centers.
Herod, even though he is the enemy, Herod's name means to
view, to see, to know. Oh, that I might know him. The one that's my comfort that
I might know him. And then Saul means desired.
The good news is we are desired by God in him. Outside of Him, we're enmity
against God. But in Him, God desires us, and
that makes us desire Him. So there's a whole gospel right
there in verse 1. Well, these men, they were in
the church at Antioch, and verse 2 says, as they ministered to
the Lord. All true ministering is unto
the Lord. Every bit of it. When God calls
a man to do something, He does it unto the Lord. And the reason
he does that is because when God truly works and when a man
who is called truly sees how serious this is, he is absolutely
overtaken by the fear that God is watching. God is watching. God is watching me. If that does not strike fear
in a person, I don't know what will. God is watching me. Paul said, woe unto me if I preach
not the gospel. Do you know what our God is going
to do to me if I lie to you? You know what he's going to do
to me? I mean, he's very clear with in his word what he does
to liars. Woe is unto me if I preach not
the true gospel. We must tell sinners the truth.
We just must. We must. And in doing so, our
Lord said in as much as you've done it under one of the least
of these, my brethren, you've done it unto me. So all true
ministering is unto the Lord. Verse two says, as they ministered
to the Lord and fasted, fasting is denying yourself. It's so much deeper than not
eating food. It's a denial of self. Every
true believer will deny himself. Every true believer. And every
man that is truly called to declare God's Word will deny himself. Every man. Look at verse 25 right
here in Acts 13. And as John fulfilled his course,
he said, Whom think ye that I am? I am not he. They came to him and said, Who
are you? What's your name? He said, Don't
worry about it. It doesn't matter. Are you that
prophet? I am so vile. I would never touch
his shoes. He is so holy. I would never
even touch his shoes. Never. It says, As John fulfilled his
course, he said, Whom think ye that I am? I am not he, but behold,
there cometh one after me whose shoes of his feet I am not worthy
to loose. A man who is truly called to
declare God's word will deny himself. He will. Verse 2 says,
As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Ghost said,
Separate me, Barnabas, and Saul, for the work whereunto I have
called them. A man who is truly called to
declare God's word is called by God Almighty. He's called
by God Almighty. Men do not put men into God's
ministry. Men do not put men into God's
ministry. A man cannot put another man
into God's ministry. Now, a man can very easily put
another man into the pulpit. But that doesn't mean he's in
God's ministry. God the Holy Ghost, this is a
work that God does. And this proves right here the
person of the Holy Ghost. He said in verse 2, as they ministered
to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, separate me, me as
a person. Barnabas and Saul for the work
where unto I, I as a person, have called them. This is a work
that the Holy Spirit of God does. And he tells everybody in the
room, this is who I've called. And that's the truth. It's just
the truth. When God does it, he tells everybody,
this is who I've called. This is what I've done. Verse
three, and when they had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands
on them, they sent them away. When they had fasted and prayed,
when they denied themselves and when they called on God, they
laid their hands on them and all that means is they publicly
acknowledged them and then they sent them away. Verse 4, So they
being sent forth by the Holy Ghost departed unto Seleucia,
and from thence sailed to Cyprus. And when they were at Salamis,
they preached the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews.
And they had also John to their minister. Now a man who is called
by God's Holy Spirit, a man who is called by God's Holy Spirit
will stand up and he will preach the word of God to sinners. That's what he'll do. He will
tell men and women what God has said, and that's all he will
tell men and women, what God has said. And he'll do it with
love, And he'll do it with compassion,
and he'll do it with tenderness, and he'll do it with kindness,
and he'll do it with meekness, but he will not shy away from
God's truth. He just won't do it. And God's Holy Spirit will reveal
to that man that Christ is the truth. If he's going to go preach
the truth, that means he's going to go preach Christ. Christ is
the truth. He won't preach what I'm doing.
He won't preach what I need to be doing. He will preach what
he has done. That's all he'll preach. He called
it in verse 12, look at verse 12, he called it the doctrine
of the Lord. You see that at the end of verse
12, the doctrine of the Lord. I believe and I agree with and
I preach what men call the doctrines of grace. I do. That term is not in the word
of God, that's a man-made term. But if someone would ask me,
are you a Calvinist? I would tell them, yes. Yes,
I am. I wholeheartedly agree with my
brother, John Calvin. That's what the word says. But the way that our message
is worded in the scripture is this. Over in, you don't have
to turn, in 2 John 9, two times it is called the doctrine of
Christ. the doctrine of Christ. The plural word doctrines is
in this Bible five times. And all five times it's talking
about false doctrines. All five times. Our message is
the doctrine of Christ. Now don't be afraid of the term
doctrines of grace. It's a good term. It's a fine
term. But we recognize that John Calvin
Just like John Baptist said, don't stop at me, behold the
Lamb, filter through. Everything that we're saying
here is pointing to Christ. It's all pointing to Jesus Christ. And a man that has been called
by God's Spirit will preach the doctrine of the Lord. That's
what he'll preach. He'll preach the Word of God.
which is the doctrine of the Lord. It's who Christ is and
what He's done. Now let me quickly, very quickly
show you Paul's message and the result of this message. Verse
14 says, But when they departed from Perga,
they came to Antioch in Pisidia, and went into the synagogue on
the Sabbath day and sat down. And after the reading of the
law, And the prophets, the rulers of the synagogue, sent unto them,
saying, Ye men and brethren, if you have any word of exhortation
for the people, say on. Then Paul stood up, and beckoning
with his hand, said, Men of Israel, and ye that fear God, give audience. If God has called a man to declare
the truth, that man will tell sinners to fear God. That's what
it'll say. Fear God. The God who is angry
with the wicked. The God who cannot clear the
guilty. The God who we all have sinned
against. Fear God. The fear of the Lord
is the beginning of wisdom. It is the beginning of wisdom.
Verse 16, Then Paul stood up, and beckoning with his hands,
said, Men of Israel and ye that fear God, give audience. The
God of this people of Israel chose our fathers. If God has called a man to declare
the truth, that man will tell sinners, God did all the choosing. He did every bit of it. Now man is absolute sin, and
man must fear God, but God did some choosing. We didn't choose him. That was
not in our hands, this was not in our decision, right? We had
no say in the matter, but thank God, God did. God had some say
in the matter. You see, election has got to
be the most glorious truth ever told. Without election, no sinner
would be saved. Election is but God. And God did something about it.
He did all the choosing. Verse 17, the God of this people
of Israel chose our fathers and exalted the people when they
dwelt as strangers in the land of Egypt and with a high arm
brought he them out of it. God did the choosing. God did
the exalting. And God with His high arm did
all the redeeming. He did all the bringing out,
all the delivering. I love the verse of Scripture
in Isaiah 52. It says, The Lord hath made bare His holy arm. That's Christ. The right hand
of God, the right arm of God, Jesus Christ Himself. He did
all the redeeming. And how did he do that? Look
at verse 18. It says, about the time of 40
years suffered he their manners in the wilderness. He took upon
himself to suffer their manners. You know what my manner is? It's
sin. That's it. It's sin. You know, we say, where's your
manners? Mine are all in the gutter. Every one of them. I'm nothing but sin. Everything
I do is sin. Everything I am is sin, but I
have a Redeemer who suffered my manners. Verse 19 says, and
when He had destroyed, when He conquered, when He had gotten
the victory, when He had destroyed seven nations in the land of
Canaan, He divided their land to them by a lot. He took an
inheritance and He gave it to His people. And He didn't ask
them if they wanted it. They just received it. Verse 20 says, And after that
he gave them judges, Samuel the prophet. Verse 22 says, He raised
up David to be their king. And then to put it plainly in
verse 28, he says, Though they found no cause of death in him,
yet desired they Pilate that he should be slain. They found
no cause of death in this sinless one. Yet they still desired Pilate
that he should be slain. And when they had fulfilled all
that was written of him, they took him down from the tree and
laid him in a sepulcher. But God raised him up. You know
what that means? It means the work was successful. That's what it means. It means
the work was successful. I am so full of sin. This body
is so full of sin. Thank God it was successful. Thank God He has already overcome
this flesh, overcome the world inside this body right here.
He really did put away my sin. He really did. And God the Father
really is satisfied. Verse 38 says, Be it known unto
you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness.
of sins. And by him all that believe are
justified from all things from which you could not be justified
by the law of Moses." God's law said do this, it said do that,
and no man could be justified that way. No man. It's only through
this man. Verse 40, Beware therefore, lest
that came upon you which was spoken of in the prophets, behold
ye despisers and wonder and perish. Behold, beware, lest you despise
this word. For I will work a work in your
days, a work which you shall in no wise believe, though a
man declare it unto you. What he's saying is it's impossible.
Even though a man declared unto you, you still won't believe.
Verse 42, and when the Jews were gone out of the synagogue, the
religious, the leaders, the self-righteous, when the Jews were gone out of
the synagogue, the Gentiles besought that these words might be preached
to them the next Sabbath. Now, I love the thought of these
Gentiles. They are not part of the covenant. I'll make a covenant with Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob. And all you Gentiles are strangers
and pilgrims and outcasts, and this does not pertain to you. And Paul just preached a message
unto them that applies to sinners. And they said, we're sinners.
And all the religious Pharisees, they got tired of hearing this
mess, and they went out. They all left. And then all these
Gentiles wait their turn, and they wait for all those Pharisees
to leave. And then they go up and they say, Brother Paul, I
don't know what your schedule is, but is there any way that
you could come back here next Sunday and tell us the exact
same thing again? Verse 42, when the Jews were
gone out of the synagogue, the Gentiles besought that these
words might be preached to them the next Sabbath. Now, when the
congregation was broken up, many of the Jews and religious proselytes
followed Paul and Barnabas, who, speaking to them, persuaded them
to continue in the grace of God. They kept saying, y'all, I know
what the Jews have been telling you, and I know what that law
has been saying, but this thing is by grace. It's by grace. And the next Sabbath day came
almost the whole city together to hear the word of God. What
a sight that probably was. But when the Jews saw the multitudes,
they were filled with envy and spake against those things which
were spoken by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming. Then Paul and
Barnabas waxed bold and said, It was necessary that the word
of God should first have been spoken to you. But seeing you
put it from you and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life,
lo, we turn to the Gentiles. For so hath the Lord commanded
us, saying, I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that
thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth. And
when the Gentiles heard this, They were so glad. You know what
that is? They were telling those Pharisees, you're too good for
this. You don't need this. So we're
turning to the sinners. And when the sinners heard that,
they were so glad. Verse 48, when the Gentiles heard
this, they were glad and glorified the word of the Lord. And as
many as were ordained to eternal life believed." They were so
glad. They said, do you mean this is
to us? It's not just to the Jews, it's to us. But it says, as many as were
ordained believed. Do you know that sinners have
to be ordained to believe? Do you know that? Do you know
that a sinner cannot just believe? Well, go tell them the truth,
they'll believe it. Well, they will if they have been ordained
to believe it. This whole thing is of God. The
whole thing is of God. These two preachers here that
were called by God represent every preacher who's called by
God. Preachers have to be ordained by God to preach. And his people
have to be ordained by God to hear and to believe. They have
to be ordained to believe. That's why we preach this gospel
and then we turn around and walk away from it. And we don't run
after people and try to convince them to believe it. They must
be ordained to believe. Well, then why witness? Because
God told us to. He said, go preach the gospel
unto all the world. But we declare this truth and
we know that God's Holy Spirit starts this work. God's Holy
Spirit finishes this work. And whoever God's Holy Spirit
has chosen and called to believe it, they're going to believe
it. Like we had in the Bible study Sunday morning. It doesn't
matter how good the vessel is or bad the vessel is. It's what's
in the vessel that matters. And God's going to get the glory.
He's going to get the glory start to finish. Verse 49, the word
of the Lord was published throughout all the region, but the Jews
stirred up the devout and honorable women and the chief men of the
city and raised persecution against Paul and Barnabas and expelled
them out of their coasts. But they shook off the dust of
their feet against them and came into Iconium, and the disciples
were filled with joy and with the Holy Ghost." God's people
are going to suffer persecution for God's truth. If you go out
and preach God's truth, you are going to suffer persecution for
it. Not adding anything to it, not
adding your own opinion to it, only declaring what's on the
page. You will suffer persecution for
it. But if God is getting all the
glory, it is so worth it. It is so worth it. It really
is. And it says in verse 52, the
disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Ghost. How
blessed, how blessed. Our Lord said, just like I have,
The same thing that happened to me is going to happen to you.
They persecuted me, they're going to persecute you. But that's
okay. Our God is going to get the glory.
And by His grace and by His Spirit, His word will be declared. And
His people will say, would you mind coming back next week and
preaching that same thing again? All right, let's stand together.