Good evening, let's all stand
together. We'll sing hymn number 129. 129, we'll sing all four
verses, but not the chorus. Alas, and did my Saviour plea,
And did my Sovereign die? Would He devote that sacred head
For such a worm as I? Was it for crimes that I have
done He groaned upon the tree Amazing pity, grace unknown And
love beyond degree Well might the sun in darkness hide And
shut his glories in When Christ the mighty Maker died Forbid
the creature's sin But drops of grief can ne'er repay The
debt of love I owe. Dear Lord, I give myself away,
Tis all that I can do. Bass sated, we'll sing hymn number
263. ? The Lord's our rock in Him we
hide ? A shelter in the time of storm ? Secure whatever will
be tied ? A shelter in the time of storm ? Oh Jesus is a rock
in a weary place A weary land, a weary land. Oh, Jesus is a rock in a weary
land. A shelter in the time of storm. A shade by day, defense by night. A shelter in the time of storm. No fears of harm, no foes of
pride A shelter in the time of storm Oh, Jesus is a rock in
a weary land A weary land, a weary land Oh, Jesus is a rock in a
weary land A shelter in the time of storm The raging storms may
round us beat A shelter in the time of storm We'll never leave
our safe retreat A shelter in the time of storm Oh, Jesus is
a rock in a weary land A weary land, a weary land Oh, Jesus
is a rock in a weary land A shelter in the time of storm Rock divine,
oh refuge dear, a shelter in the time of storm. Be thou our helper ever near,
a shelter in the time of storm. Oh, Jesus is a rock in a weary
land, a weary land, Jesus is a rock in a weary land,
a shelter in the time of storm. Acts chapter 14. Acts chapter 14. Start reading in verse 19. And there came thither certain
Jews from Antioch and Iconium, who persuaded the people. And
having stoned Paul, drew him out of the city, supposing he
had been dead. Howbeit, as the disciples stood
round about him, he rose up and came into the city. and the next
day he departed with Barnabas to Derbe. And when they had preached
the gospel to that city, and had taught many, they returned
to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch, confirming the souls of the disciples,
and exhorting them to continue in the faith, that we through
much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God. And when they
had ordained them elders in every church, and had prayed with fasting,
they commended them to the Lord, on whom they believed. And after
they had passed through Pisidia, they came to Pamphylia. And when
they had preached the word in Perga, went down into Attalia,
and then sailed to Antioch, from which they had been recommended
to the grace of God for the work which they fulfilled. And when
they were come and had gathered the church together, they rehearsed
all that God had done with them, and had opened the door of faith
unto the Gentiles, and there they abode. a long time with
the disciples. Our great, glorious, and blessed
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, we come to bless you,
to praise you, to thank you, Lord, that you gave us another
day. You gave us a day with, still closed in our right mind,
health to get up and go, a desire to go, a desire to worship with
the people of God. Lord, I was so thankful that
we can meet, and Lord, I pray more than anything tonight that
we just have your mercies and your presence, your grace, your
mercy, and your presence. Lord Jesus, I pray for those
that are not with us through frailty of body. Lots of saints
have frailty of body. Bodies are weak. I know the spirit's
willing, but the flesh is so weak. So Lord, we pray for your
mercies and blessings upon them. And Lord, we ask that you'd please
save your people in this place. Stir up your elect. Chastise
them that need chastising. Bring us down if we're too high.
Bring us up if we're too low. Meet with us tonight. Forgive
us of everything that's unlike you. Have mercy upon our family
and friends, those that we love. We ask it for Christ's sake.
Amen. Amen. Number 63. Make sure I'm in the right key
here. Take the name of Jesus with you,
child of sorrow and of woe. It will joy and comfort give. Take it then where you go Precious
name, oh how sweet Hope of earth and joy of heaven Precious name,
how sweet Hope of earth and joy of heaven Take the name of Jesus
forever As a shield from every snare If temptation's round you
get Bring that holy name in prayer Precious name, oh how sweet Hope
of earth and joy of heaven Precious name, oh how sweet Oh, the precious name of Jesus
How it thrills our souls with joy ? When His loving arms receive
us ? And His songs our tongues implore ? Precious name, oh how
sweet ? Hope of earth and joy of heaven ? Precious name, oh
how sweet ? Hope of earth At the name of Jesus bowing Falling
prostrate at his feet King of kings and heaven will crown him
When our journey is complete Precious name, oh how sweet Hope
of earth and Just look back here then again at chapter 14. of Acts chapter 8, let me review
just a little bit. You know that Jews stirred them
up and they had to leave Iconium and they came down, or had to
leave Lystra, Antioch, and then next day they come to Iconium
and they came down there. And so wherever they went, the
unbelieving Jews stirred up people against them. And remember, they
stirred up their minds, evil affected against the brethren.
And then Paul healed that impotent man and those people from Lystra
here, they said, oh my, they're gods, they come down, they come
down. And Paul asked them a question
in verse 15. And he says, sirs, why do ye
these things? Why do you these things? I remember
asking myself that question years and years ago. Why do we do what
we do? Why do we worship the way we
did? Why do we sing the songs, the songs we sang? But Paul said,
what I did, I did it ignorantly and unbelief. And I hope by the
grace of God that that's what I did. Some of us did, we done
it ignorantly through unbelief, and then God done something for
us. But here Paul comes down now, and he says in verse 19,
there came certain Jews from Antioch and Iconium who persuaded
the people. And having stoned Paul, drew
him out of the city, supposing him to be dead. And that's what
he said, once I was stoned. You know, you can go to St. Corinthians
11 and he talks about all the things that befell him. Left
three days and three nights floating around in the ocean, beaten three
times with stripes, stoned and left for dead. So many things
happened to him. And this crowd at Lystra, they
praised him at the first, said their gods had come down and
wanted to offer sacrifice to him. And then here they turned
against Him. They turned against Him. And
ah, they just turned against Him very bad. And that's the
way I'd done our Lord Jesus Christ. One day they were crying, Hosanna,
Hosanna. Blessed is he that cometh in
the name of the Lord. Three days later they was crying,
crucify Him, crucify Him. No wonder the apostle said, we
have no confidence in the flesh. No confidence in the flesh. And
if you seek men's favor in this world and listen to their praise,
you'll be sadly, sadly disappointed. Now you keep axing, look with
me in Psalm 145. You know, if you seek men's praise,
you're going to be disappointed because there's just no confidence
to be had in this flesh. Mine, yours, or nobody else's.
And I tell you, I have least confidence in my flesh than I
do anybody. But look what He said here in
Psalm 145, and that's what happened here, you know, these fellows
come running up there praising Paul and them, wanting to, excuse me, Psalm 146, you know,
run up there and, oh, going to offer sacrifices to them. The
next thing you know, they turned against them. Next thing you
know, they helped stone them. And I tell you, when you seek
the favor of men, oh, how disappointed. David said, here the psalmist,
the sweet psalmist of Israel said in verse three, put not
your trust in princes. Don't trust in men, no matter
what their authority, how much power they got, what position
that they have, and not in the son of man either. I mean, any
son of Adam, any son of man, and there's no help in them.
There's no help. When it really, really need help,
there ain't gonna be any. And here's the reason why. His
breath goes forth. It goes forth, it's going to
leave him. He's going to draw his last breath one of these
days. And then he's going to go back to the earth just from
where he came. And the day that that happens,
his thoughts perish. But here's the people that's
blessed. Here's the people that's blessed. He that hath the God
of Jacob for his help. Who's the God of Jacob? Well,
first of all, he's the God of promise. He promised Abraham
and his seed after him. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He's
the God of electing grace. He sells those men. And then
he's the God who changed Jacob to Israel and changed the way
he walked. So I'll tell you what, Jacob
who is his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God. Oh, listen,
don't put no confidence in the flesh. Now back over here in
Acts 14, These Jews hated the gospel, hated grace, hated faith,
hated faith, but they loved law, they loved ceremonies, they loved
tithe paying, they loved their rituals, they loved their tithe
paying, they loved their washings. And they came there, and it says
there in verse 19, And they came certain Jews from Antioch in
Iconium, now this is Antioch in Galatia, and Iconium is in
Galatia, who persuaded the people. They got the people all stirred
up and persuaded the people. And then they threw Paul outside
of town, they got him outside of town, and then they stoned
him, stoned him with big rocks and great big boulders and anything
they could get their hands on, and they beat him so mercilessly
that they said, Well, he's dead, and they walked off and left
him. That's how merciless religion
is. That's how merciless people are
about their gods and the gods that they want to protect. Merciless. They take an apostle and stone
him and they're glad he's dead and walked off and leave him.
You know who didn't leave him? Look what it says. Oh my. Howbeit as the disciples stood
round about him, Did you hear that? God's elect go stand with
him. God's elect, God's blessed people,
people that loved him and people that cared for him, they stood
around about him. And listen to what happens. You
think God ain't got power? He had already healed an impotent
man, never took a step in his life, crippled from his mother's
womb. What do you think God's gonna do for this apostle? The
next thing he says, he rose up. And those fellows that stood
around there, they said, listen, we killed him. Well, you may
think you did, but God raised him back up. And he rose up. And listen to this, he came into
the city, came right back before he left. We're right back among
the lions. We're right back in the lion's
den. Oh, my. He rose up the next day. I'm
telling you what, this, God's gonna take care of, no one, this
is the man who said, my grace is sufficient for thee. He said,
my strength is made perfect in your weakness. Now, how could
he have been any more weaker than he was here when it looked
like he was dead? Could he have been any weaker?
And grace was sufficient for him, even when they thought he
was dead, that God raised him back up. And look what they said
now. And he went right back into the
city. And then the next day, now you're talking to me, he's
been beat till they think he's dead. So what kind of shape is
his body in? Well, it's good enough to travel,
good enough to walk, good enough to go on a trip, good enough
to go back to preaching. And the next day, verse 20, the
next day he departed with Barnabas to Derbe. They traveled and they
started going back to the saints, that there were places where
they had preached, and they was going back to these places, and
what happened was they went back to encourage these dear saints
of God, to encourage them. They weren't even thinking, Paul
wasn't even thinking of himself. He didn't think about his troubles.
He wanted to go and visit the brethren and be an encouragement
to them. And you know, they did two things to help the saints. And you know what they were?
In verse 21, this is how you encourage the Lord's people.
And this is what he started doing. And when they had preached the
gospel to that city and taught many, preaching and teaching, That's the best way in the world
to encourage the Lord's people, preaching and teaching. And that's
what they preached and they taught. They preached and they taught.
And I tell you what, they, you know, they went to the places
that they had been, and I know that they preached the Lord Jesus
Christ. I know that they preached His
substitutionary death. I know that they preached that
He satisfied God. And I know that they preached
that He put away sin. And I know that they preached
that He had risen from the dead. And I know that they preached
that Christ was sitting at the right hand of God, Lord of all. I know they preached those things.
and oh my and when they had preached the gospel to that city in Derby
and had taught many taught many look what they did and again
they went to Lystra that's where they run them out the first time
and then to Iconium they run them out of there and then to
Antioch back all these places are in Galatia and look what
it says that they did confirmed confirming the souls of the disciples
What in the world does this mean? Now, I seen something the other
day. You know, Lutheran churches and Catholic churches, they CONFIRM
people. They have to go to a catechism
class, and they have to learn by rote things that they're supposed
to believe, and they stand up and they'll go through all their
catechism and tell that, and if they do that when they're
12 or 13 years old, they CONFIRM them into the church. And what
they do then is then they, I saw in this one particular one, there
was three people that was confirmed. And they was 12 to 14. And then they had a big cake
out there for them with their names on it. And got their pictures
taken, you know, to put in the bulletins and all that. But that's
not what he's talking about here when he talks about confirming
the saints. That ain't even close to the same thing. You know when
He said He confirmed the souls of the saints, that means to
MAKE FIRM, that means to STRENGTHEN, that means to ESTABLISH, that
means to establish them more firmly. Christ had already saved
these dear children, these dear saints of God. He had saved these
people, and Paul told us over in 1 Corinthians 1-4, he said,
The testimony of Christ is confirmed in you. He said, What do you
mean the testimony of Christ is confirmed in you? It s true
that the testimony of Christ is established in you, it's OBVIOUS
that Christ is in you, it's OBVIOUS you believe that because it's
CONFIRMED in you because I can tell by your LIFE! And oh, my! And God already SAVED these people,
and He CONFIRMED them, MAKE them FIRM, STRENGTHEN them, ESTABLISH
them, Our Lord already saved them, and when we hear preaching,
now listen to me, when we hear preaching, and we're all been
taught the Word of God, been taught by the Holy Spirit, taught
the Word of God, and we hear preaching, you know what it does
for us? It confirms us. It confirms us. I believe that. That establishes us. That strengthens
us. That makes us stronger. and it
confirms that this, what we hear and is what we re believing is
right, it s true, it s true. And then they said not only that,
to confirm the soul s disciples, but exhorting them to continue
in the faith. And what he means here, continue
in what we taught you, what we preached to you, continue Continue
in what you believe. Continue in the salvation that
you have in the Lord Jesus Christ. When he talks about the faith
here, he's not talking about their individual faith or their
subjective faith. He's talking about the belief
that they have, what they believe, the TRUTHS that they believe.
And I tell you, continue in the faith, the faith of what you
believe, who you believe, the faith of what you've learned
about Christ, the faith of what you know about salvation, the
faith of what God's taught you. Now let me tell you about faith. Faith is a great fight. Faith,
if you've got faith, it brings you into a great fight. Paul
says, you know, said, told Timothy, said, fight, fight the good fight
of faith. Paul said, I've kept the faith. And I finished my course. I kept
it. You know, faith is a fight. And
what does it fight against? Well, one of the first things
I think faith fights against is our feelings. You know, we
all want to go by our feelings. Feel good, feel strong, feel
like things are going well, and when things are going well and
when they don't, we don't feel so good. But faith has to fight
feelings. Faith has to fight our failings. Faith has to fight all the failings. How many failures have I had
in my life? How many failures have I made
in my preaching? How many failures have I made
in my life and the way I've treated people? How many failures have
I made in my life? God only knows. And faith has
to fight them failures. Faith has to fight outward appearances. We re so bad to look at what
looks like on the outside and how somebody acts or how they
react to something, and we make judgments. Faith has to fight
that. I tell you, faith has to fight
self-righteousness. Oh, if faith didn t fight self-righteousness,
it would destroy us. If faith didn't fight against
pride, what would pride do to us? And those two things are
natural to us. And you want to find out whether
you're proud or not, let somebody fight for it with you. Let somebody
blame you for something. Let somebody get up in your face
and say, you ought not do that or ought not do this. And you'll
find out if you got any pride, God is self-righteous. And the
faith has to fight it. Faith has to fight it. Oh, as
you receive Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him. And then
he says, you know, continuing in the faith. Continue believing
God. That's what he's talking about.
And look what it says down there in the last line of that particular
verse 23. It says, on whom they believed. Not what they believed, on whom
they believed. And that's what they're saying,
continue believing in Christ. Continue believing in God. Continue
being like Abraham, who believed God. Believe his promises. Believe in Christ did it all. All to him we owe. Believing
we are complete in him, and we can't add nothing to him. Oh,
I believe that we are perfect in him. And he says, you continue
in the faith, stand fast in that faith. Our Lord Jesus Christ
says this, if you continue in my word, continue in my word,
then are you my disciples indeed. Continue in my word. And it's
obvious a lot of people don't continue in the word. It's obvious
that they don't. The word has no effect upon them.
Our Lord said, know the truth and it will set you free. And
whom the truth sets free, they're free indeed. And then he went
on to say, if you continue, continue in my word, not the church's
word, not the preacher's word, not the denominational word,
but if you continue in my word, You know what? Then you're really,
really my disciples. Not just in word, but in deed. Now when Christ says in deed,
I believe that. And that's no wonder Paul said,
let God be true and every man be a liar. And then look what
else he goes on to say there in verse 22. He confirmed the
souls, established strength, and made them firm in the gospel. He's ordering them to continue
in the faith. And this, listen here, and you know this tells
us how the faith is a fight, that we through much tribulation
enter into the kingdom of God. Much tribulation, much tribulation. We continue in the faith through
much, much tribulation. Tribulation means troubles. means
trials, means a lot of things. Somebody was telling me Sunday
that Gabe Starnaker, they was listening to Gabe, and Gabe was
talking about a young man came to Brother Barnard, Ralph Barnard
one time, and said that he wanted to really, really serve the Lord,
and he wanted to be used of God. Wanted to be used of God. So
Brother Barnard said, Do you say you really want to be used
of God? He said, I do. Brother Barnard would say, Lord,
give this man trouble. Give him tribulation. Make his
life miserable. Send him to awful trials at anybody.
Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. What are you talking
about? He said, That's the only way. God will never use you. We're through tribulation, trials. Abraham faced his greatest trial
when he was an old man. Henry Mahan faced his greatest
trials when he was an older man. Scott faced trials all days of
his life. And I tell you what, it's through
much, that's why we have much tribulation, not just a little
bit, not just a little bit. I don't know what you went through
today. I don't know what you go through in your mind. I don't
know what you go through at your home. I don't know what you go
through at your job. But I do know this, that what
goes on in your own self is your own self is trial and error.
What you have to deal with your own self, that's trial and error.
It really is. Just dealing with you. Dealing
with children. Troubles, troubles, troubles.
And, oh, what overcomes the world? You know what the victory that
overcomes the world? John said, 1 John 5, 4, he said,
this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Even our faith. Oh, my. Our Lord said, in the world,
you shall have tribulation. In the world, you shall. And
I know I know I preached that in those fundamental churches,
and they'd get so upset. They talked about a tribulation
to come. It's only going to last seven
years. I wish all my tribulations would have been over in my first
seven years. I wish that had been done. You know, if I could
deal with them, if I'd have been able to deal with them from 50
to 57, I'd have been nothing. Tribulation. We threw much. Our Lord said, in the world you're
going to have tribulation. Now let me tell you something
about tribulation. Tribulation is relative. It's a relative
term because what might trouble me very much may not bother you
at all. And what may trouble you and
throw you for a loop may not affect me at all, may not bother
me. So tribulations are relative. They're relative. And you know,
everybody don t go through the same thing, and that s why so
often there s so many more people won t mention about the tribulation
they go through because they think, You know, I ve been through
this before and God will get me through it. Tribulation works
patience. What does patience mean? I ll
wait on God. I'll just wait on the Lord. He's
got me through this before. I've been in some tight spots
before. I've been in some sorry spots before. I've been depressed
before. I've had heartaches before. I'd
have aggravation before. I've had sickness before. Buried
a lot of people before. And God got me through every
one of them. Tribulation, workers, patients. And that patience works
experience. Experience says, God's brought
me this far. You think he's gonna put me through
that and not take me all away? Huh? You know, like, oh, Scott,
I believe he's right. I really do. So believers in
one of three places, he's either in trouble, coming out of trouble,
or going into trouble. No, most of us can handle great
big things. When something big happens in
our life, oh my, we can handle that. You know the things that
gets us? The little bitty things. The little foxes. The little
aggravations. The little things that aggravate
us and worry us. And we fly off. It's the little bitty things
that just upsets us to no end. Great big things, we handle it.
But them little bitty things, oh my. Little foxes. Our hearts
trouble us over what we think, over what we say. And especially,
oh, why can't we handle things any better than we do? Oh, that's
something that just aggravates, just bothers me to no end. Why
can't I handle things better than I do? Then let me hurry
on, I've got to hurry on. And then it says in verse 23,
And when they had ordained them elders in every church, and had
prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord, and I love
this right here, on whom they believed. Paul said, I know whom
I have believed. And these fellows believed whom
they believed. That's what I'm talking about,
when we're studying the scriptures and going through the scriptures,
words will just stand out at you on whom they believe. We'd
have skipped out over that most of the time when we read it.
And they ordained elders in the churches, and when they had ordained
them elders in every church, wherever they went, the church
needed leaders, the church needed preachers, the church needed
teachers. And I don't think when it says elders, I don't think
it had a thing in the world to do with how old a person was.
That had nothing to do with it. What had to do with it is believing
first and foremost the Lord Jesus Christ in whom they believed.
And I'll tell you what, they had to have some stability. They
had to know Christ. They had to know the Word of
God. They had to be trustworthy. And they no doubt were men who
labored in word and in doctrine, and they ordained them elders,
people that they could trust the sheep of God with. And then
look what it says, And then they commended them to the Lord. Could
you do anything better for anybody? It's like I said, Sunday morning
when they come in, they told him about his mother. When they went to Simon's house,
they told him about her mother. And that's the best thing you
can do, tell the Lord about somebody. And here these men come, and
they took all these elders and these preachers and these teachers,
these men who are so faithful in the Word of God. They said,
Lord, here they are. They're yours. They belong to
you. And I commend them to you. I
commend them to the word of your grace. I commend them into your
hands. We're going to leave. We're going
to leave these men. We're going to move on. But they've
got to fight to faith. They got to keep it up. They
got to keep preaching. They got to keep teaching. They've
got to keep laboring. And so, Lord, we commend them
to you. Oh, how would you like a, how
would you like an apostle to take you and say, I commend you
to the Lord? Huh? Oh my. And this word, commend, oh my,
means to, commend means to put it on deposit. It means to put
it there as a trust for protection, to commit them to keeping him,
to set before her. These men weren't their own,
they were God's property, and He commended them to the Lord
in whom they believed. And then look what else they've
done now, they've gone on now, they've gone back to encourage
the saints of God, they've gone back to be a blessing to the
Lord's people. And after in verse 24, and after they had passed
through Pisidia," you remember that was in Greece, "...and came
to Pamphylia," that was in Greece, "...and when they had preached
the word in Perga, and went down to Italia," and listen to this,
"...and then sailed to Antioch, from which they had been recommended."
You know what happened? They went right back to where
it said in Acts 13, where they started, separate me, Barnabas,
and Saul for the work unto have called them. Went right back
to Antioch in Syria. Went all the way back to the
starting place. And from whence they had been
recommended to the work of grace, the grace of God for the work
that they fulfilled. They preached the word, that's
the first thing to do. What a blessed, blessed thing.
Oh, to preach the gospel. Preach the gospel. He told Timothy,
preach the word, preach the word, be instant in season, out of
season. And then it says there, they went to Antioch, verse 26,
where they started out, where they'd been recommended to the
grace of God. They said, here, God, you and
your grace, protect and work them. And listen to this, they
were committed to the Lord's protection, and listen to this,
and they, for the work, they fulfilled. How many people can
say that? For the work, they fulfilled.
God sent them out to do a work, and it says that they fulfilled
it. They done it. How many can say that? And listen
to what they done here now. It says this. And when they were
come and had gathered the church together, all the church of God
had gathered there. And then they got up and told
everything that God had done with them. They got up and started
telling everything from the time they left, everywhere they went,
what God had done, what had happened. They rehearsed everything, every
person they met, started telling about how God had done for this
one, God done for that one, how God had saved this many people,
how the Lord had done this work and that done. And they especially
talked about how God had done with them and how He had opened
the door of faith unto the Gentiles. Oh, my! And I tell you what,
Paul says, you know, said they rehearsed what God had done.
By the grace of God, I am what I am. It's God which worked in
them both to will and to do of His good pleasure. And let me
tell you, you think that they, you think they've had trouble?
Listen to what happens, starts in verse one. They fixed to have
another great fight. And certain men came down from
Judea and taught the brethren and said, except you be circumcised
after the manner of Moses, you cannot be saved. They fixed to
get in another fight. Oh, the Lord is so gracious,
so gracious. Oh, the word, I hope it confirmed
you. I hope it has strengthened you,
encouraged you, and established you. Our Father, oh, our blessed Savior,
Thank you for meeting with us this evening. Thank you for your
precious word. Oh, Lord, it confirms me, establishes
me when I just read it. It's such a strength to my heart,
such a strength to my faith, such a strength to my soul. And Lord, we commit ourselves to you. And
to the word of your grace, keep us, keep us, keep us, keep us. Keep us cleaving to you. Keep
us believing for Christ's sake. Amen. Amen. All righty. Well, I'll see you
Sunday morning, God willing. Remember, no dinner, lunch Sunday
evening. And Sunday afternoon, we'll have
lunch here at the church, and then no service Sunday night.
Lord bless you.