I'll be a sinner to make my way.
I'll be a sinner to make my way. I'll be a sinner to make my way. I'll be a sinner to make my way. As you know, I often stop and
make comments on hymns that we sing, comments on words, because,
as I've said so many times, I don't want to be singing hymns just
because it's time to sing a hymn. I go through the motions of singing. That is an abomination to God. God said true worshipers worship
from the heart. And to draw, and he said it two
or three times in the scriptures, he said, some people draw near
with their lips when their hearts are far from them. So I often
stop and comment on the words because I want, there's a message
there. And the people that wrote them were moved to write them
and they had a message they were trying to convey. So the hymns
we sing are important, the words, the message, and too much of
this music and all going on today has very little gospel in it,
and the music is so pretty that nobody cares. Nobody cares what
the words say. Tonight's message, and I probably
will continue this on Sunday night. I don't know. We'll see. But tonight's message will center
around one verse here in the book of Acts. It jumped out at
me from the page here, and we could dwell on a lot of this
that I'm going to go through in a hurry, but we won't. But
I do want to say this about the end of the chapter. Let's look
at chapter 15. I haven't yet covered these last
several verses, beginning with verse 36. Now, let me lay the groundwork
here of what this is all about. This was Paul's second missionary
journey. Paul is called the apostle to
the Gentiles. Paul was sent by God out of Jerusalem,
out from the Jews to the Gentile world, and he went all over the
world, the unknown world, preaching the gospel. And this was his
second journey, his second missionary journey. And by the way, on this
journey, this is a very important trip he's about to take, and
he went to Philippi. for the first time, Thessalonica
for the first time, Ephesus for the first time, Corinth for the
first time, Berea for the first time. And we get all those epistles
as a result of this trip. So you see, this is God's providence
in leading him, and we get the Bible as a result of this trip. So you see there, God's providence.
He was sent by the Church with a letter And he started at Antioch. Antioch was a city just north
of Jerusalem, up around Lebanon, present-day Lebanon up there,
a city up there. Now look at verse 36. It says that some days after
Paul said unto Barnabas, here they were at Antioch, Paul said
to Barnabas, And this must have been a special church at Antioch.
They didn't want to leave. They stayed there a long time.
I know places like that. But some days later, Paul said
to Barnabas, Let's go again and visit our brethren in every city
where we have preached the word of the Lord, where they went
that first trip, remember? We went through all of that.
He said, Let's go see, look at it. in every city where we preach
the word of the Lord," that's significant, and see how they
do, not what. Remember, we talked about that.
Not, let's go spy on them and see if they're being good Christians,
see if they've got TV sets or a bottle of beer in their refrigerator,
or smoking, or something. Go see what they do. That's not
what he said. You'll see how they're doing it, how they're
doing it. True men, they're people, God's
true people, are not holier-than-thou people. They're not ultra-pious
people. You've seen them. You can smell
them coming, can't you? These ultra-pious Christians,
you know, look down their nose at you. Superfluous is a good
word, the Scripture uses that, a facade. True people of God are down-to-earth,
ordinary, everyday people. Everyday, ordinary, true, loving. I'll tell you what they're like.
They're like Jesus Christ. And the Scripture says that publicans
and sinners were drawn to him. They didn't feel intimidated
by his presence. They didn't feel like he evidently
didn't act condescend to them or look down his nose at them. On the contrary, he's the only
one that would have anything to do with them, wouldn't he?
So that's how God's people are, too. That's how they are. They're real people, real people
with real sin and need of a real Savior. And people aren't everyday ordinary
people aren't threatened by them. And he said, Let's go see how
they do. Read on. And Barnabas determined to take
with them John, whose surname was Mark. Now, this fellow, John
Mark, was Barnabas's nephew, and that pretty much explains
the little rift that they had here. At any rate, Paul, verse
38, Paul didn't want to take John Mark whipped them because
he departed from them from Pamphylia and went not with them to the
work. We'll not go into that too much except to say this,
that John Mark evidently got scared where they were going. Paul's life was in danger everywhere
he went and raised a riot everywhere he went for preaching the gospel.
And this young man got scared and said, I'm leaving, and left. Barnabas' nephew. So Paul said, since he chickened
out on us, so to speak, he's not going back this time, we'll
teach him a lesson. Well, Barnabas didn't like that.
Verse 39, the contention was so great, so sharp between them,
Barnabas and Paul, they had an argument. They departed asunder,
they split up one from the other, and Barnabas took Mark and sailed
to Cyprus, and they split up on bad terms. Now, this is an
ugly scene, this is a bad scene, but the Lord records it, doesn't
he? I think this shows us that the
best of men are just men at best, no matter who it is. The Scripture
says that every man at his best state is altogether vanity. That's what the Scripture says.
Nothing. And they split up. Many things get in the way of
relationships between people, mostly pride. But other things, envy, jealousy,
family. Family can get in the way, and
I'll not go into detail about that. But blood is thicker than
water, the old saying is certainly true. It shouldn't be that way
among believers, though. Our family should never take
precedence over this family, ever. Well, this is what Barnabas
did, obviously. Paul chose Silas and departed,
being recommended by the brethren of the grace of God." What does that tell you? It tells me that Paul went, being
recommended by the grace of God, and chose Silas. We're going
to look into that, Paul and Silas. where the Lord greatly used these
two men. This was the beginning of a close
relationship, constant companions. They were in jail together. The
next chapter, they get in jail together, put in jail, and they
are singing, remember? The Philippian jailer. At any rate, Paul and Barnabas
split up, and I have had relationships, and so have you, in order to
establish new ones. haven't you? And the Lord does
that. God always overrules, even our sin. He overrules. But let me say this, though,
this is important. Paul was obviously God's chosen leader, was he not?
Barnabas didn't heed his opinion. Paul said, No, we shouldn't take
it. And there's a lot of debate about this situation here, but
you know this for a fact. Paul was God's chosen leader,
was he not? He was He was acknowledged by
everyone as being such, even Peter. Barnabas didn't heed Paul's
advice or opinion in this place. Barnabas is not heard from again
in the scripture. He will not read his name again
in the scripture. And I've known this to happen
many times. I've known men that God obviously used, obviously
was blessing, and other men rise up against them and may have
a valid point here and there, and that man may be wrong in
certain instances. Resist not authority, the scripture
says. All authority is ordained of
God. Barnabas, and I'll add this,
Barnabas was carried away with Peter. Remember when Peter left
the Gentiles' table, it says Barnabas was carried away with
him, too. So evidently, Paul said something to Barnabas that
day, too. And this got in his cross. Well, at any rate, and
there's a separate message, too. I won't charge you for that one.
All right, let's go on. So they went, verse 41. They
went through Syria and Cilicia, confirming the churches. Now,
here's the meat of the message tonight. They went through Syria
and Cilicia, confirming the churches. How did they confirm the churches?
In other words, they went back through these cities where they
had once been, and they confirmed the churches. What did they do?
Well, they had a church social. They had a big dinner. They had
a youth meeting, Crusaders for Christ. They had a Lord's Acres
sale. Well, they had a miracle crusade. They had a big fundraiser. This
will do it. They had a gospel sing. That
will bring them in, won't it? Is that what they did? Look back
at chapter 14. They did the same thing they
did the first time. Chapter 14. We looked at this
before. Verse 21. Verse 21, it says that this is
their first trip. They came to Derby, and it says,
when they had reached Augusta, Paul said in another place, and
he said, God didn't send me to baptize or count heads or do
all this church nonsense, he sent me to preach the gospel. That's what all true preachers
of the gospel are sent to do, preach the gospel. Messengers
of God, preach the gospel. Not entertain people, preach
the gospel. And that's what they did. When
they preached the gospel in that city and had taught many, they
returned again to Lystra and Iconium and Antioch, verse 22,
confirming the souls of the disciples. and exhorting them to continue in the faith." You
see that? Look down at chapter 15, verse
32. We read this, but Judas and Silas,
they were prophets themselves, they exhorted the brethren with
many words and confirmed them. After they had tarried their
space, they were let go in peace from the brethren unto the apostles,
notwithstanding it pleased Silas to abide there still." Verse
35, Paul also and Barnabas continued in Antioch, teaching and preaching
the word of the Lord, the gospel. So how did they confirm The souls,
the people, the disciples, they preach the gospel. The first
thing the Lord uses is what the Lord continues to use, the preaching
of the gospel, the preaching of God's work. The gospel, the
scripture says, is the power of God and the salvation. The
gospel concerning God's glory, concerning who God is, concerning
who his son is, There are very few places that do this, right? They use the terms, they say
gospel, don't they? But they don't preach it. They
use terms like mercy and grace, and they don't define it. What
do you mean by that, preacher? They say, we preach the Bible,
but very seldom go verse by verse in it, do they? This is what
the apostles did, and this is what every true preacher of the
gospel does. And this is what God uses to save souls. to change lives, to conform people
to Christ, to transform whole societies. Not tricks, not gimmicks,
not schemes, not man-made methods and devised things that some
board comes up with to win souls. Not that at all. It's the preaching
of the word of God, the preaching of the gospel more particularly.
preaching up God's Word. Scripture says this Word is his
voice. And as I said earlier, God doesn't
speak audibly anymore. If you read Hebrews 1, it will
tell you that. God used to speak audibly before
this book was written. But not now. The book is infinite. This is the only way he speaks.
And he does not speak apart from this. If a man tells you anything,
it better be from this. or else it's wrong. Right? This
is God's voice. And he said, my sheep are going
to hear my voice. They're going to hear it. And
by God's power, by God's Spirit, in God's good time, one by one,
they'll hear this voice. They'll hear the Word of God,
the message. And they'll believe, they'll
repent, they'll believe, they'll come to Christ. What I'm trying to say is this.
The consistent, clear preaching of God's word, God's gospel,
is what God uses to confirm those that he saved, to confirm them. That's what we read there. All
of God's children, John 6.45 says this, they're all taught
of him, aren't they? Our Lord said that, all thy children
shall be taught of God. And that's a quotation of Isaiah
39, or 59, I forgot, 54. It's a quotation that all of
God's children will be taught of God, taught by God, taught
about God, who he is, taught of who God's Son is and what
he did, taught the gospel. And God keeps on teaching them. It's not a one-time thing, and
then he goes on. No, he keeps feeding them with
the gospel. He keeps feeding them a steady
diet of the gospel. And some of you have been hearing
these same things. You know what I'm going to say
before I say it, some of you. But you still rejoice in it,
don't you? But I guarantee you there's something you don't know
about it, isn't there? It's something you don't know. But God keeps feeding us with
a steady diet of the gospel. And this is how the scripture
says we grow in grace and the knowledge of Christ. They become
grounded and settled in the truth. There are some things we need
to be grounded and settled on, isn't there? So that when some
newfangled preacher comes down the pike and everybody else is
so impressed with him, that we don't get carried away by him. or some new opinion or some new
revelation. We need to be grounded and settled. We need to come to some absolute
conviction about some things, don't we? Who God is, who Christ
is, how he saves sinners, and how we can get to this God. That's
what it means. Scripture says that. Grounded
and settled in the truth. More and more persuaded of who
and what we believe. So they confirmed the churches
by preaching the gospel. Then Paul and Silas left, verse
41, chapter 15. They went through Syria and Cilicia,
confirming the churches, and they left Cilicia and they came,
it says, verse Then came he, Paul, to Derbe and Lystra." Now,
look up. Don't look any further. Look
up. You'll catch what I'm getting
to here in a minute. Wait a minute. Do you remember
what happened in Lystra? Do you remember the last time
we talked about Lystra? So you can look down. Turn back to chapter 14. At Lystra,
back in chapter 14, they had been run out of Antioch for preaching
the gospel. They had been run out of there.
They came to Iconium, and verse 3 of chapter 14, it says, Therefore
they there, speaking boldly in the Lord, which gave testimony
unto the word of his Grace, they preached the gospel of God's
sovereign grace, is what they preached. Well, they got run
out of Iconium for preaching this gospel. Down to verse 6,
and they fled unto Lystra and Derbe. See that? Cities of Lyconia
and under the region that lies round about. And there they held
a gospel saying. Verse 7, they preached the gospel.
There they preached the gospel, too. You'll see in a minute they've
got to run out of there. But do you remember this message?
Verse 8. It says, And there at Lystra
sat a certain man, a crippled man, impotent in his feet, a
cripple from his mother's womb who never had walked. Do you
remember that message? One little crippled fellow sat
over to one side while Paul was preaching the gospel. And one
poor insignificance unknown nobody. He was nobody. Nobody cared for
him. He sat over to the side, and
he was a nobody from nowhere, but he sat there listening to
the gospel. I know somebody who knew him. God Almighty knew him
from before the world began, had his name on his mind. But that Poor fellow sat there
listening to the gospel, and you remember that Paul looked
on him, and I'll just paraphrase the story. Paul looked on him
and said, Stand up. Stand on your feet. And he arose
and was healed, and the Lord healed him. And the town got
all stirred up. Remember, this caused a great
commotion, and some Jews came down, and the Jews told the people
what Paul was preaching. Hey, they're preaching God's
sovereign. They're preaching that you're sinners. and so forth. And the people got mad and stoned
Paul, killed him. This is where Paul died, if you
remember. They stoned him to death. It
says that over there in verse 19. They stoned Paul and drew
him out of the city, supposing he had been dead. Remember that? That was for preaching the gospel.
Read on, verse 20 of chapter 14. As the disciples stood around
about him, he rose up. Paul jumped up and came into
the city, and the next day he departed with Barnabas to Derbe. You would think he had been scared
to preach the gospel by now. Don't go preaching that message,
Paul. Preach on evolution, or preach
on abortion, or preach on political issues. He preached the gospel,
didn't he? The next place he came to, he
preached the gospel. Verse 22, and he confirmed the
souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith.
So Paul preached the gospel in the town of Lystra, and God had
that one sheep there. we thought. There was more than
one there. Quite a significant fellow was
there. There was more than one there.
Now, you remember, Paul went back through. Remember, Paul
was stoned to death in Lystra and then went on down the road,
rose up and went on down the road and preached the gospel
and tarried there a little while, and he said to his companions,
well, let's go back to Lystra. Paul, they just stoned you there,
killed you. Are you going to go back there?"
Well, what more can they do to him? They killed him. So he went
back there. He wasn't afraid. He knew who
sent him, God sent him. But he went back and preached
the gospel again in Lystra. Somebody was sitting there. The
first time he came through, there was somebody sitting there. He
said, crippled fellow was, somebody else. It was a young man over
in the other corner, a little crippled over here and a young
fellow over here, listening to that gospel, listening to him
preach. Paul came back through, the same
fellow came back out to the meeting again. He was listening. And
God Almighty was pricking his heart. He was touching his heart. And he heard and he believed
this gospel. He believed the gospel that Paul
preached. Paul wasn't aware of this fellow
until later on, until the next trip he made to this city. It
reminded me of what Barnard used to say to young preachers. He
said, You be careful what you say on the pulpit. Somebody is
going to believe you. Somebody is going to believe
you, what you say. Paul knew that, didn't he? as well as every preacher should.
That's the reason Paul said, Woe is unto me if I preach not
the gospel. Woe is unto me if I preach not
the gospel. I'm determined, he said, not
to know. He said this right after he said, I didn't come with enticing
word. I didn't come to try to impress
you with how great a preacher I am or what a great church we
have and how many souls I'm winning for Jesus. He said, I'm determined
to know nothing among you, not to know anything among you save
Jesus Christ and him crucified, just to preach the gospel and
leave it up to God to do what he will with whom he will. Because
there's souls at stake every time we stand up to preach this
word. Right? Somebody, as Richard Baxter said,
we preach as dying men, a dying man to dying men. And somebody
hasn't heard this message before. It could be somebody who's heard
it many times, but hasn't heard it. You know
what I'm talking about? I was that way. Man, I was a
preacher's kid. I heard more messages than an
average person would hear in a lifetime in my first twenty
years, you know. But I didn't hear one of them.
until one day I heard one in God's good time. I heard the
message. And many people hear the gospel
being preached over and over and over again and don't hear
it. And finally, in God's good time, they hear it. They hear
it. Well, Paul went back through
Lystra and he preached this gospel, and God had some sheep there.
And God calls his sheep by the gospel, and Lystra was no different.
It was no different. Same man, same message, different
town. That's all. Paul preached again,
and here and now you can look at it in verse 1 of chapter 16.
It says, verse 1 of chapter 16, He came to Derbe and Lystra,
and behold, behold, a certain disciple was there. named Timotheus. That's the title of this message,
Terry. A certain disciple was there. Behold. Whenever the scripture
says, Behold, it means for us to sit up and pay attention.
Stop and consider this. Behold. Stop and behold this. A certain disciple was there
named Timotheus. You know who Timothy was? Timotheus? Paul wrote those epistles to
Timothy. He was to be Paul's constant
companion in days ahead, his only companion for a while. There
came a time when Paul said, Everybody's left me, and I have no man like
mine but you, Timothy. Remember, Timothy became pastor
at Ephesus and was a great preacher. Here's the point I want you to
see. It says a certain disciple was there. Turn back to Acts
chapter 3 now. Acts chapter 3, and I've preached
a message similar to this before. A certain disciple. I love the absolutes of God's
Word. I like how God's Word says, I
will and you shall. The Word of God doesn't say,
If you will, I shall. It doesn't say that. Read Ezekiel
36 sometimes. God over and over and over and
over says, I will, I will, I'm going to do this, I will this,
I will that, I will this. And he says, And you shall. I
will do all of this, and you shall believe. You shall. The only reason anyone shall
is because God said, I will. That's the difference in what
we preach and what the world is preaching. The world says,
if you do this for God, he'll do this for you. No, we say,
if God does this for you, you will do this. But not until. Right? That's the difference.
And I love the I wills and the I shalls. I love the I must.
When Christ said, he must need to go through Samaria. Why does
he have to go through Samaria? He has a sheep there. A woman
sitting on the well. that he had been thinking about
for all eternity, for absolute certainty. And I love this, the
certainties of God's Word. Look here at chapter 3, verse
1. Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of
prayer, being the ninth hour, and a certain man, lame from
his mother's womb, was carried and laid daily at the gate of
the temple. And you know that story, don't
you? He was healed and the Lord saved him. Chapter 9, verse 10,
and this was the story of Saul, or Paul, receiving his eyesight,
and there was a certain disciple at Damascus, named Ananias, that
God chose to take to Paul. Verse 33, Peter came down to
Lydda, and there he found a certain man named Aeneas. Remember that message? Sick of
the palsy? And Peter said, Man, Jesus Christ,
make it be whole. Remember that? Look at verse
36. Now there was at Joppa, another
city, a certain disciple named Tabitha. Another certain disciple. Chapter 10, verse 1. Now there
was a certain man in Caesarea called Verse 8, and we've already read
this, but look at it again. Maybe you didn't notice it the
first time. Verse 8 says, There sat a certain man at Lystra,
crippled, impotent. Chapter 16, verse 1, we come
back to our text. It says, And there sat and there
was at Lystra a certain disciple, read on, Timothy, the son of
a certain woman. Of this it is certain from God's
word. Of these things it is certain
from God's word. Whatever God purposed to do before
the world began, he certainly will do it. Right? Whatever God purposed to do,
he certainly will do it. He said that in Isaiah 46, he
said, I've spoken it, I'll do it. Dictum, what's the other? Factum. Said, done. God's purpose. Look at chapter
15. It's not too much trouble to
turn in one book, is it? Look at chapter 15, verse 18. This is what James said, remember,
in his message? Chapter 15, verse 18. Theology is built on this right
here. Known unto God are all his works from the beginning
of the world. That's what makes him God, you see. That's what
makes our God different from what the world's preaching to.
Known unto God are all his works from the beginning. God's purpose
and his will will certainly be done. God has a certain purpose. God made a certain covenant.
God chose a certain number of people. We can't number them. There are as many as the stars
in the sky and the sands of the seashore, as Scripture says.
But God can and did. A certain number of people. God
had one certain son. On a predetermined certain day,
he sent his son down here with a certain job to do for those
certain people. to save them, to save them. He came down here to live a life
for them that God demands of them, a holy life. God said,
Be ye holy, I am holy. You're not going to be with me
unless you're holy. We can't, can we? We're sinners. Christ
could and did. Christ said, I'll do it for you.
And God said it twice from heaven. Now, there's a man I can I'll
approve of. I'll accept him. He can just
come up and live with me and everybody that believes on him.
Everybody that believes on him. Here's a big word, but it just
means charged to. He imputed this life that he
lived. He took this life he lived and
charged it to. Like your wife would charge something
to your credit card. Or maybe you charge it to your
wife nowadays, I don't know. But God Almighty charged all
of our sins to Christ and charged all of his holiness to us. And
we'd get what Christ had come unto him. And he got what was
coming to us, death. He said the soul that sinneth
must surely die. That's what Christ came to do.
for a certain number of people, because everybody he did this
for is going to be saved, he said. And he came down here and
he did that certain job for a certain number of people. He rose from
the dead to oversee this work. Now, did he save them or did
he not? Did he get the job done? He certainly did. I'm glad you
said that, John. He certainly did. That's my punchline,
but I'm glad you said it. He certainly did. He most certainly
did. Christ sent his Holy Spirit.
Now, after Christ went back, Christ sends his Holy Spirit
to earth to these certain people with a certain message, a certain
gospel that is his voice for certain. A certain sound. Didn't Paul say that in 1 Corinthians
14? It must give a certain sound.
And at a certain time, a point in time, Known only to God, but
he knows when it is. Each sheep, he has a sheep in
a certain place that are going to hear that certain message
of a certain Savior and his certain salvation, and they will most
certainly believe that gospel. It's certain. And they will become
certain disciples. Right? Just like this man. That's
what I'm saying. God does all things on purpose.
Everything is certain with God. I don't want a God with whom
nothing is certain, do you? I don't. Everything is certain
with God Almighty. You know, preachers today like
to say, well, God can do this. How often do you hear them say
that? I don't read that in Scripture.
God can. Well, God can get you out of
your troubles. God can save you if you'll let
him. God can this. God can that. I
don't want to hear about a God who can. I want to hear about
the God who did. Don't you? Don't tell me what
he can do. Tell me what he has done. That's
where the gospel is. It's not good news to me to say,
well, he can. He can. But if you tell me he
did, That Christ can save many lives? That sounds good, but
how do I know he will? You tell me he did, he saved
sinners. He came down to save sinners.
Now, that's good news to me. Tell me what he did, not what
he can do. All right, the certainty. All right, now, I'm going to
have you turn over 2 Timothy, and then we'll quit with this. 2 Timothy, chapter 2. 4 or 5 books toward the end. 2
Timothy chapter 2, and this is Paul's letter, as you know, to
young Timothy later on. This was some years later. And this is the reason I have
to do a follow-up message on this, because as a result of
this young man's salvation, God's good providence in bringing him
here, there's so much written to this young man, so much went
on. And we may do that. And like I was saying, we preach
a God who is certainly God, with a sure and a certain purpose
to save a certain people a certain way by his certain Savior, and
all their salvation is certain and sure. And this is what all
of God's people know, and they They all know this. They all
come to this conclusion, don't they? And they become more and
more convinced, and yes, certain of it, all the time. These things
I've been saying, right? No ifs, ands, or buts. They become
more and more certain of these things, of who God is. You remember Barnard's six stubborn
statements? that God is either sovereign
or He's not. Like the message Sunday morning,
either God's God or somebody else's. The true meaning of the
word God is that He's in absolute control. There's nothing outside
of His control. God is either God or He's not.
There is no God. If I didn't believe in the God
of the Bible, I wouldn't have a God, period. I'd be an atheist.
I'd just say things happen by chance. But I'd get me a truckload
of rabbit's foots and four-leaf clovers and might even hide in
a cave somewhere for fear of what might happen. But all of
God's people come to this certain conclusion that God is God. And
they come to this conclusion of what they are. I'm nothing. I can't do anything. I'm flesh. I'm a sinner. Always have been,
always will be. If I get to heaven, God's going
to have to get me there. They come to that certain conclusion,
the older they get, the more certain they become of that.
Right? Like Peter said in 1 Peter 1 verse 5, we're kept by the
power of God. We're not kept because we keep
on keeping on, or we pray through, or Mama prays us through, or
we remain faithful. It's because He's going to be
faithful. Christ is going to be faithful to His people. And
God's people become more and more certain of that all the
time, don't they? Grounded and settled and convinced of that,
don't they? Are you older people, Henry?
You old folks. Are you more and more convinced
of that now than ever? You know it's so. That without
him, like Christ said, without me, you can do nothing. It's
not like they say you take your first step and God will meet
you halfway. We're like that crippled man. We can't walk at
all. We're dead, as Scripture says, dead in trespasses and
sin. And we become more and more certain of this. If I'm going
to get to God, God's going to have to get me to him. God's
going to have to bring me, pick me up and carry me all the way. And another thing, they become
convinced of the truth of the gospel, that there's only one
gospel, right? Only one way, only one way a
man or woman is going to be saved. And that's by Christ coming down
to save them, by Christ doing it all, right? Christ living
and dying for them and going back and making sure they get
there. That's basically the gospel, isn't it? In a few words, they
become more and more certain of that all the time, convinced
of it. Christ's person and his work, that's the reason they
can't get enough of hearing about Christ. They don't want to go
to anything, to other things. They want to hear that same message
over and over again. and they become grounded and
settled on certain things. Years later, Paul wrote to Timothy,
here in 2 Timothy 2, verse 19, and he said this. I said all
that so we could read this. He said, Timothy, nevertheless
the foundation of God stands sure, having this seal. The Lord knoweth them that are
his. Now, I don't know about you,
but I do know about someone. But of this I'm certain. All
my salvation, the foundation of my faith, all of my salvation
depends on that right there. That the Lord knows me. Right? That I'm one of his. Like I said, it's not going to
be me keeping on keeping on or me being faithful, and someday
I may be lying in my bed with hardening of the arteries and
my mind is gone. What's the thing that old folks
get? I must be getting Alzheimer's,
Alzheimer's disease, where you forget things. Well, I may be
laying on my bed some day and can't even remember the name
of Jesus Christ. Right? Can't even remember the name.
Then where does my salvation depend? It depends on him remembering
me, doesn't it? Like that old thief hanging on
the cross. In his dying hours, he said, Lord, remember me. Remember
me. And the foundation of the Lord
standeth sure. The Lord knows them that are
his. And like old Timothy, they're going to hear his voice, they're
going to believe this gospel, they will. Christ said, All that
the Father giveth me shall come to me. And him that cometh to
me, I don't care how sinful, I'll know I was cast out. Never,
no never cast them out. And my sheep will hear my voice. He said, I know them and they'll
follow me. They'll hear my voice some day. and I'll save them,
and they'll be with me some day." Shepherd and the sheep. And Paul said that to Timothy.
The foundation of the Lord stands sure. The Lord knows them that
are his, and you're one. You're one, Timothy. You remember
that certain day that I came through, and you, Timothy, a
certain disciple of his, heard a certain message, and the Lord
certainly did a marvelous work, didn't he? And everybody in here,
most everybody can tell their own story about how the Lord finally got your attention. And
he will, he will, through this gospel. All right, stand with
me and I'll dismiss this in prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you
for your word and Thank you for how plain it is, how it speaks
to everyday, ordinary people. Thank you, Lord, that these things
aren't so far over our head that you condescend to speak to simple,
common people. Scripture says that common people
heard him gladly. And we hear this simple gospel
message gladly, more and more gladly all the time. of this
certain salvation, of a certain Savior for a certain people. My hope is built on nothing less.
How firm a foundation is laid for the saints of the Lord. The
Lord knows them that are his, and he'll have them, and they'll
be his, and he'll be theirs. In Christ's name we meet together
and ask your blessings upon these things. Amen.