back here with me in Acts 11
and I find my title like I said there in verse 23 talking about
Barnabas when he who when he came and had seen the grace of
God see the grace of God beloved wherever God is working
wherever he's performing his saving work towards sinners His
grace can be seen. It's manifested. His grace is
manifested. It can be seen. And wherever
God's hand's at work, there are results. If God's working and
His hand's at work, there are going to be results. And He's
the cause of men. He is the cause. The cause of
all things. But He's the cause and then men
being converted is the effect. He's the cause and then men being
converted is the effect. And that's what happened here
in verse 21. It says look in verse 20, the hand of the Lord
was with them and a great number believed and turned to the Lord.
Now why did they believe and why did they turn to the Lord?
Because the hand of the Lord was with them. That's why. But
there's another side to this. He's sometimes the cause, well
He is the cause and sometimes blindness of heart, hardness
of heart is the effect. Let me show you that. You keep
this 11 and look over here with me in John chapter 12. Sometimes,
beloved, He causes blindness when God's hands on a man and
He's the cause of it. But in John 12, 37, the effect is blindness and hardness of
heart and so this is the thing You know, it's a horrible thing
to think that God would, you know, and if you read in Romans
1, four times it says, God gave them up, God gave them up, God
gave them up. When God gives up on a man, you
know how bad you've got to be for God, and how hard-hearted
you've got to be, and how resistant you've got to be, and how cruel
you've got to be, and how unbelieving you've got to be, and what an
enemy of God you've got to be for God to say, I give up. Well, here's some people he did
that way. Look here in John 6, 12, 37. Though he had done so
many miracles before them, yet they believed not on him. that
the saying of Esaias, or Isaiah, the prophet, might be fulfilled
which he spake, Lord, who hath believed our report, who has
believed our preaching, and to whom hath the arm of the Lord
been revealed? Now listen to this, therefore
they could not believe, could not believe, because that Isaiah
said again, He, who did? God did. He hath blinded their
eyes, hardened their hearts, that they should not see with
their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted,
and I should heal them. Now listen to this. These things
said Isaiah, when he saw His glory, and spake of Him. So there's
the hand of the Lord, and the cause, He's the cause and the
effect is men being converted. There's the hand of the Lord,
And He's the cause in hardness of heart and blindness and unbelief. He's the cause of that. Now what's
it going to be for you today? Hardness of heart? Blindness? Not being able to believe? Or
the hands of the Lord be toward you and we see the grace of God. Oh listen. Now Barnabas has said
down here in verse 22. What there had been, there had
been a great persecution over Stephen. Remember when they stoned
Stephen to death and the Lord Jesus received him into glory? And it says down here in verse
22, Barnabas was sent forth by the church. Then tidings of these
things, this revival here that was going on and men were preaching
the word and some of them of Cyprus preached to the Jews.
Then tidings of these things came under the ears of the church
which was in Jerusalem and they sent forth Barnabas that he should
go to Antioch. They had heard something was
going on down there. They had heard that God was working
down there, that something was happening. People were being
converted, people were being saved. And Antioch was the eastern
capital of the Roman Empire. Jerusalem was down here, Antioch's
up here. So he left and went north to
Antioch. So he's up here in Antioch. And
it's the eastern capital of the Roman Empire, but something was
going on in this great city. And I'll tell you what it was.
People weren't going up there to see art. There was an industry
going on. There was an architecture that
was going up there to see. But he went up there to see God's
mighty saving grace at work. And there was a revival broke
out. And David asked this question, O LORD, wilt thou not revive
thy work in the midst of the years, that thy people may rejoice
in thee? Wilt thou not revive thy, it's
God's work, Lord, will you revive it, that your people may rejoice
in thee? But now listen, I'm gonna just
go down through these verses and deal with this a little at
a time. First of all, there's revival at Antioch. How did it
start? How did it start? Back up in
verse 19. Now they which were scattered
abroad, upon the persecution that arose about Stephen, traveled
as far as Phenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, preaching the word.
And the persecution, you remember that Stephen, he preached to
them and they just nagged on their teeth and stoned him to
death. And our Lord Jesus received him up into glory. But the last
thing he said, lay not this charge, this sin to their charge. And
they were scattered abroad. And you notice it don't say any
names. It said they were just disciples. They were scattered
abroad. No, nameless disciples. That's what we would be to most
people, nameless disciples. and they were scattered abroad
and I tell you the scriptures tells us now the wrath of man
they hated God they hated Christ they hated his gospel and when
Stephen preached to them and brought them right down from
the time that they was brought out of Egypt until the time the
Lord Jesus Christ came and they crucified him and this Christ
is sitting at the right hand of God that's all they could
take and they killed him and slaughtered him and stoned him
to death And so there was a young man standing there holding the
clothes of them that stoned him named Saul. And the scripture
says, surely the wrath of man shall praise thee. These folks
thought we were going to put God out of business. But you
know what happened? A revival broke out over us.
I don't care how mean people are. I don't care how hard hearted
they get. I don't care how they persecute
the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. I don't care how much
they despise the gospel of the grace of God. These persecutors
thought that well this is evil against God's church. But you
know what? God did it for good. They left
there and a revival broke out. And it started over the persecution
of Stephen. And I tell you people, there's
people that's upset over the gospel, people upset over election,
people upset over free grace, people upset over the fact that
God is going to save His people, that He has a purpose in this
world, that He's sovereign over everything, that the Lord Jesus
Christ is the only Savior in this world, and there's not another! But if it happens, it's for our
good. It's for our good. And God will
see to that. And these things happened unto
these people. That the furthest of the gospel
might go out. The gospel be sent out. That
people would start getting out of Jerusalem and go preaching
the gospel. It fell out rather to the furthest of the gospel.
And here's the thing about it. You don't have to go out here
looking for trouble. The Lord's people, they'll find trouble.
They don't have to look for it. It'll find them. It'll find them.
But now here's the origin of the revival over the persecution
of Stephen. Now look at the means of this
revival. The means of it. Look what I
said there again in verse 19. Look down at the last part of
the Scriptures. They went preaching the Word. They were preaching
the Word. They didn't go down there and
say, listen, God loves you and we do too. They didn't go down
there and start talking about the love of Jesus and that He
died for them or said, Oh, Jesus loves you and He died for you.
That's not what happened. They went down there preaching
the Word. And I tell you what, beloved,
it's the Word that God uses. He said in Psalm 119 verse 89,
He says, Thy Word, O Lord, is forever settled in heaven. And
he told him, you keep this, and look with me over here in 2 Timothy
chapter 4. This is what has to happen. And
this is why, you know, I often times, often times whenever a service
is rough, or I feel like I've not preached very well, or you
know, things wasn't going good, this is the consolation that
I have, regardless of what happens. And every other preacher that
I know has this consolation. That we're preaching the gospel
and God will use that. It's not our ability, it's his
word. It's not how good we preach,
it's whether God will use it. He's going to use his word. And
so that's what he says, the preaching of the word. Look what Paul told
Timothy here. chapter 4 verse 1 I charge thee
or I command thee therefore before God and listen to this and the
Lord Jesus Christ who shall judge the quick and the dead at his
appearing in kingdom preach the word don't preach your opinion preach
the word wherever you go you take God's word and all he had
was the Old Testament you take God's word and you be instant
in season whenever you get an opportunity do it And be instant
out of season. Whether you ain't got aptitude
or whether you don't feel like you got any liberty or whether
you're not feeling well or whatever's going on. But if you're out of
season, do it too. Whether you feel good or you
don't, you preach the gospel, you preach the word. And he said,
and rebuke, reprove, rebuke and exhort with all long-suffering
in doctrine. And that's what the word will
do. And listen to this. This is where we're at. God has
been so dumbed down by this generation of preachers. He has been so
dumbed down that God has got so little that you can't see
it. People, when they tell you, come try our church, they don't
say anything about God. They don't say anything about
Christ. Come as you are. That means come if you got shorts
and flip-flops on. God don't care. God's not high. God's not holy. God's not interested
in any of it. Listen, they don't, God and Christ,
and so they brought God down where they don't even mention
Him to get people into a service. Because they want folks, they
want to count numbers and they want to count heads, but they
don't care about God. God don't even exist in these
people's thoughts. There's preachers in this county
that God's not even in their mind. Now I'm telling you the truth. They can't preach the Word because
they don't know it. They can't say anything about
God because they don't know Him. I've told you all this before.
Henry's got a message that says, Goodbye God. Get on Sermon Audio
and find it. Goodbye God. Barnard said they
take the Lord Jesus Christ whenever you preach him whenever folks
get upset about it They'll take him to the edge of the town say
get out of here and don't come back And all he said here preaching
the word and this is what this is what I said all that For he
said in verse 4 for the time will come When they will not
endure sound doctrine But after their own lust, after their own
desires, after their own flesh, after their own lust, and don't
call me a sinner. Don't tell me that there's only
one Savior. Don't tell me that I don't get
to heaven because I've been a good person. Don't tell me that. They'll heat to themselves. They'll
start piling preachers onto themselves. Having itching ears. They got
itching ears. They say, you preachers come
and tell us what our ears want to hear. That's what he's saying
here. But I tell you, beloved, they
went about preaching the Word. That was the means of the right
Bible. We can't change God's Word, but God's Word can certainly
change us. And oh my! And so, look what
else the means of the revival. Look down here in verse 20. And down in the last part of
this verse. They spake unto the Grecians,
listen to this, preaching the Lord Jesus. Preaching the word,
synonymous. Oh, preaching the Lord Jesus.
You know, Paul said over in 2 Corinthians 4, he says this, we preach not
ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord and ourselves, your service
for his sake. And what does it mean that we're
priests, not ourselves? Well, we point men to Christ
and tell men about the Lord Jesus Christ, high and lifted up, sitting
on a throne, sitting with all majesty and all glory, that He's
the one that God gave power over all flesh, that He should give
eternal life to as many as God gave Him. We priesthood, all
that the Father gave shall come to Him, and everyone that comes
to Him He'll never in no ways cast them out. So we point men
and we preach men. Christ is who you need. Christ is who you need. We don't
point men to an organization or a denomination or a political
party or our wisdom or our philosophy. We draw and we don't draw disciples
after ourselves. We preach Christ Jesus the Lord. Now what is it to preach ourselves
whenever we want to talk about what we've accomplished? And
let me ask you something, what have we accomplished in the kingdom
of God? What have we accomplished? Oh my, men write books about this book. But this is
the book that God wrote, that's the one I'm interested in. Oh my, what is it to preach ourselves
when we preach what we think, what we think, and our opinions
instead of what men must hear and should hear. What does it
mean to preach ourselves? When we preach what men want
to hear, want to hear, instead of what men ought to hear. And
this is the difference between people that God has saved and
those that He hasn't. Those that God has saved by His
grace, they want to hear the same thing week after week after
week after week after week, every service. That's what they want
to hear. Ain't that right? And the other
side of it is, the people God ain't saved, they want to hear
the same thing week after week after week. They want to hear
how good they are, how accomplished they are, and how much God admires
them. And you know God, because He
couldn't be everywhere, that's why He created mothers. Yeah, what would God do if He
didn't have mothers to help Him out? And then other folks, you know,
I read an article here a while back where God's my co-pilot.
And a fellow said, if God's your co-pilot, you're in the wrong
seat and he's not even in the plane. Oh my, but that's what people
think about it. And here's another thing when
we preach ourselves. When we seek to please men by
taking the offense out of the gospel, out of the cross, and
out of the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. When we take the
offense, what is the offense? First offense, it offends man
to tell him that he's a sinner. It offends his pride. You tell
him that there is only one Savior and that offends his wisdom. So the means of this revival
is the Word and the preaching of the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh
my! To preach the Lord Jesus Christ.
I'm going to Mexico tomorrow and Tuesday morning I'll be with
a bunch of Native preachers. Some of those
men have been preaching 25, 30, 32 years now. Walter's been down
over 50 years. And those folks, a lot of them
have been preaching for 30 years. Over 30. And so they know the
gospel. But the first thing I'm going
to do in that preacher's class is I'm going to tell them this
is what I want to say. I don't know what title to say,
but this is what I'm going to say. I'm going to give you five reasons
why we define the gospel. You know what the first reason
we define the gospel and why we preach the Lord Jesus Christ?
For God's glory. God, to God get all the glory. Right? That's the very first reason.
God gets the glory. And if God don't get all the
glory, then He ain't saved a man. He saved me now look down here
in verse 21. Here's another reason the means
of this revival I said in verse 21 and the hand of the Lord was
with them and You know God don't have hands.
We know that. He is a spirit. But He uses language
to accommodate us. So the hand of the Lord was with
Him. That's why Isaiah said, Who's the arm of the Lord didn't
reveal. So when it talks about His hand.
It's talking about God is with them. God is for them. God is
behind this. God's got his power in this.
God's glory is involved in this. God is the cause of this revival. And God put his hand on these
men And this in the gospel, the gospel is the weapon in the hands
of the Holy Ghost to save men. The gospel is. Now I want you
to see this over here in 1 Thessalonians. Keep an axe here now. Look over here in 1 Thessalonians
chapter 1. The hand of the Lord was with
them. And that means that God's Holy Ghost power was with them.
The gospel is the weapon. that God uses in the hands of
the Holy Ghost to save men. Man can't be saved without the
Spirit of God. He can't be saved. And oh, God's the one who's got
to do the saving. And look what he says here in
verse 5. 1 Thessalonians 1.5. First thing he knows in verse
4 is, Brethren, we know your election of God. You're beloved. Knowing your election of God.
And he said, how do we know your election of God? For our gospel
came. It's got to come. It didn't come to you in just
words only. Just in word only. And I'm using
words. Words as vehicles of communication. Words is things we use to communicate
to one another and God uses words to communicate to us. And so
he says here, for our gospel came unto you, not just in word
only, but also when it come to you, it come in power. It didn't
just come, it come in power. And listen to this, and it come
in the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost power comes. And
I tell you what, when it comes in the power of the Holy Ghost,
and with that gospel coming to you in power and in the Holy
Ghost, revealing Christ, making Christ known, He gives you much
assurance. Much assurance. And I tell you
what, the only person that can give a bad assurance is the Lord. and the gospel. I've told Shirley
and I've talked to other people about it and we were talking
about it the other day that you know when I have the most assurance
is when I'm sitting and listening to the gospel. I can't hear the
gospel and not stir me up. You know when I'm sitting and
listening to the gospel I am full of faith while I'm listening
to it. Ain't that right? When you're hearing it and it
comes to you, you're full of faith while you're hearing it.
When you get away from here and get involved in life and go about
your business and all, going here, yonder, doing this thing
and that thing, you get to thinking, oh my, how could I think that?
How could I do that? How could I feel that way? Why
did I say that? And you'll say, oh my. And then
you come back and hear the gospel and you're full of faith again.
That's what the gospel does. That's why you keep coming back
to hear this 2 by 4 preacher preach to you. Oh my, look down
at verse 21. Look at the results of this revival
then. They preached the word. They
preached the Lord. The hand of the Lord was with
them. In verse 21, look what it says. Because the hand of
the Lord was with them, look what it says, a great number
believed and turned to the Lord. Oh my, a great number believed. But oh, they turned unto the
Lord. You know why souls turn to the
Lord? Because they believe. And when they believe, they turn
to the Lord. Let me see if I can explain something
here. Says, oh Scott, you say explain
it, but it, The new birth, regeneration, is something that God does and
it's a mysterious thing. He gives us life. He quickens
us and puts a spiritual life within us. Now how in the world
do we know we have that life? We turn to the Lord. Where He gives life, you start calling on the Lord.
You start looking to Him. When you believe Him, you turn
to Him. And that's exactly what happens.
That's why over in 1 Thessalonians it says, Brethren, we know that
you turn from idols to serve the living God. And I tell you
what, what is it to turn? Jeremiah said like this, Turn
me Lord and I shall be turned. Save me and I shall be saved.
And I tell you what it is, it's turning from darkness into light. It's turning from sin and helplessness
and inability to Christ and His power and His willingness. It's
turning from nothing to receive everything. And I tell you what, we can't
turn ourselves, but if He gives us that life. Let me ask you,
when a baby is in a mother's womb, she's got life. That baby's
got life, right? It's got life. And then when
it comes forth from that womb, the first thing it does is make
a noise. What does it do? It cries. And
then people get them and just flip them this way, flip them
that way, wash them off. And they just flip that baby
this way, that way. And just, oh my goodness, you'd
think they'd go. And they just scream and holler
and cry. That screaming and hollering
and crying didn't give them life. It gave them evidence that they've
got life. And they come out of there. And
that's the way we are. The evidence of our life and
our election is we cry. We turn to the Lord and cry out
to Him. That's how we know we're believers.
And I'll tell you something, beloved, we're preaching from
a verdict. And I'm preaching for a verdict from the lost. There's no reason, no reason
in the world why men that are lost ought to stay lost under
the gospel. Should they? No reason in the
world why somebody that hears the gospel week after week after
week, there's no reason for them to stay lost. And I tell you,
I'm preaching for a verdict from you that are lost. Turn to Christ. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Well, how do I do to believe? Set right where you are. Go to
Christ from your heart. You don't get to Christ by physical
movement. You get to Christ from the heart. And if that heart has been made
alive in Christ, you automatically start crying on Him. And oh my! And I'm preaching for a verdict
from the cold and the indifferent. Oh my! God is the cold and indifferent. God send the gospel, stir us
up, stir us up. And the thing is, God was doing
something for these people. God's gonna do something for
somebody. Why don't you say, oh Lord, why not me? God's gonna
use somebody, why not me? Why not me? Now look down here,
what else happens down here? In verse 22, what happens now? Then the tidings of these things
of people being believers and turning unto the Lord and hearing
the word and hearing the Lord Jesus Christ preach. The tidings
of these came down to the ears of the church. Oh my, people
come back there and say, boy, the Lord's working down there
in Antioch. Oh my, over here in Cyrene and
over in Phoenicia and over in Cyprus. These men, where they
go preaching, said the Lord's doing, He's saving people, multitudes
of people. People are being turned to Christ. People are believing on the Lord
Jesus Christ. People are rejoicing in the Word
of God. People are bowing to Christ. And they heard that and they
said, oh my, that's something going on down there. Barnabas,
I'll tell you what you want us to do. We want you to do. We
want you to go to Antioch. See what in the world is going
on. Oh my. Go down there and see what was
going on. Now look what it says about him. Down in verse 24. Look what it says about him.
Oh Barnabas is called to go down there. And he said in verse 24,
for he was a good man full of the Holy Ghost and faith. Now what does it mean he was
a good man? Well, good here means being good
in character, being good in constitution, and having a beneficial effect
towards somebody. He wasn't a selfish person. He
wasn't a self-centered man. He was a man who was interested
in other people and what he could do for other people. And that's
why, you know, the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord or
established by the Lord. And a good name is rather to
be chosen than silver and gold, is what the scripture says. And so he was beneficial, having
a beneficial effect, that's what it means. But God is essentially
and absolutely and consummately good. And he told us, make the
tree good and the fruit good. And he said, be zealous of that
which is good. And the fruit of the spirit is
goodness, goodness. And here's what I'm saying is
this, God makes his people good. And I thought about this. That
means they're honorable. They're upright. They're beneficial
to those that are around them. Now, right here in this service
this morning, I could go through this congregation and talk about
goodness. I'd talk about how good you men
are and how good some of you women are. You're good women.
In the sense of this, that you do for others. Your life is beneficial,
not just to you, but to people around you. You want to do when
you see people in need, you want to meet that need. You don't
call yourself good. You don't trust your goodness
before God. You never say your goodness is
going to make you better before God. But God makes his people
good in the sense that they want to help others. They want to
pray for others. They want to be an encouragement
to others and be beneficial to other people. Look at Psalm 37.23. This is why. Look at this here. You know, this is the way we
had sat down here and down here where we were from. Somebody
mentions somebody's name and you say, oh boy, he's a fine
fellow. That's how you say it down here. Oh, somebody mentions
his name. Boy, he's a fine fellow. He's
a fine fellow. Oh, there's people that say,
you know what they'll say about people? They say, I believe you can call
on Him day or night. And if you needed Him, I believe
He'd be right there. That's what it means about being
good, beneficial to others. But look what He said here in
Psalm 23 and verse 7. 23 and verse 7, I'm in the wrong place, no wonder. No, no, no, no. That's Proverbs
27. Oh, excuse me. Well, let me look back. 3723.
Not 237. 3723. Oh boy, when I got over Psalm
23, I knew right then I was in the wrong place. Oh boy. See
you all, look what you all have. You all got to be some fine people
to deal with me. Psalm 37, 23. Look what it says
here. The steps of a good man are ordered
or established by the Lord. And listen to what it said here.
And he delighteth in his way. God delights in that man that
he makes good. And that man, that good man that
God's made good, he delights in God's way. And that's what
he said. That's why Job said, the Lord
knows the way that I take. He knows the way that I take.
And so that's what it means. And I'll tell you what, do you
know, I'm going to show you an illustration of a fellow that
was, people was afraid of him. God put his hand on him, saved
him by his grace, but people were afraid of him. Look over
here in Acts 9, in verse 26. Oh, look what he did for Saul
of Tarsus. You know, he was a good man. full of the
Holy Ghost and faith. It said in verse 26, And when
Saul was come to Jerusalem, he assayed to join himself to the
disciples. He said, boy, I need to go join
myself to Peter, John and James and them. And believe not, now
listen to this, he's going to join himself to the disciples.
But they were all afraid of him. then believed not that he was
a disciple now here's a man who's an apostle and they believed
not he was an apostle but now watch what happens but Barnabas
took him and brought him to the apostles and declared unto them
how he had seen the Lord in the way and that he had spoken to
him and how he had preached boldly at Damascus the name of Jesus
But the point is that they were afraid he wasn't even a disciple.
And over here, this man that was a good man, full of Holy
Ghost and faith, he vows for Paul. He vows for Paul. And oh, they won't have to do
that ever again. But then it's back over here
in our text. It said Barnas was full of the Holy Ghost and faith.
What does that mean? That means he believed the Gospel. That means he believed the gospel.
He believed the gospel that he preached. It means that he had
the fruit of the Spirit in his life. That means, beloved, being
full of the Holy Ghost and the faith, he expected results. He
expected to see things happen. Now look what it says over here
also now in verse 23. So this is the kind of man that
would come down there. This is the man they sit down
there. And look what he says, who when he came, look what he
saw. He seen the grace of God. Saw the grace of God. You know, you say, well, how
do you see the grace of God? Well, I see it in you. I hope
you see it in me. How do you know the grace of
God is in you? Do you believe? Do you believe? You know a Roman philosopher
and all they could see what was going on was a vile superstition. They called it superstition.
But when Barnabas got there he saw the grace of God. He saw
men being saved irrespective of anything they ever said, thought
or done. being saved by the grace of God,
regardless of how sinful they were, or how self-righteous they
were, or how much there was a time they trusted in themselves. He
saw the grace of God. How did he see the grace of God? By the effects of it. People
were converted. People became believers. People
became rejoicing in the Lord Jesus Christ. And I'll tell you
something, beloved. Gracious people see grace. Gracious
people see grace. Now, if you don't have grace,
all you'll ever see is something else. You'll see hypocrisy. You'll
see self-righteousness. You'll see people that, man,
you know, just a bunch of hypocrites. You'll see something like that
if you don't see the grace of God. If you can't see it, and I tell
you what, you can't see grace if you don't have eyes to see
it. And I tell you a man's inward character, a man's inward character
determines what he sees. Like over in Acts 17, when Paul
went down to Marsh Hill down in Athens. All the Athenians, all they saw
was how many gods they had. They had altars and altars and
altars and altars. And all they saw was the gods
and all they understood was what they heard or seen. And when
Paul got down there, you know all he saw? Was a city wholly
given to superstition and vile, vile religion. false gods. They saw, oh my we got all these
wonderful gods. Paul said I see nothing but vileness. They both look at the same thing.
One trusted in it, one said that's awful, that's wicked. And that's
the way it is. And I tell you we are spiritual
people and we spiritually discern things. We see things that other
people don't see. We see the world like other people
don't see it. We see salvation like other people
don't see it. We understand the Bible the way
other people don't see it. And yet we're judged of no man
because no man can tell you what's in your heart and what's going
on in your life. And some people are so pessimistic
that they see bad in everything. You ever been around people that
everything's bad. I mean this is bad. That's bad. That's bad. Everything's bad.
It's not even seeing the glass half full. Everything is just
bad. No matter how good something comes their way, it's bad. And then there's other people
that they see good in everything. I mean, boy, they fall off a
ladder and say, well, praise the Lord. Got that over with. Fellow slips on a banana peel
and says, whoo, I'm glad that's over. And there's people that's
just happy about everything. But let me ask you this, what
do you see right here among this people? Right here in this body
of believers? What do you see when you look
around you? What do you see when you consider
one another? What do you see when you hear
the gospel? What do you see when you think
about one another and see one another? and deal with one another
and speak to one another and react with one another. What
do you see? Now some people all they can
see is something you've done that was wrong one time. But
the scripture says that love covers a multitude of sins. But we get stuck in one place
over one thing or two things. But what do we see here? Do we
see grace in each other? When we see heartaches and trouble
and sorrow, do we pray for it? When we see weakness and somebody
slip up and say or do something they shouldn't say, how are we
going to view it? Are we going to view it through
the view of grace, through eyes of grace, or eyes of judgment? If God don't look at us through
eyes of grace, what's he going to see? If God didn't look at us with
eyes of grace, what would happen? With eyes of love and eyes of
kindness. Oh, what do we see? What do we
see? What do you see in your circumstances? I do know this, whatever you're
looking for, that's what you'll see. If you're looking for something
wrong, you'll see something wrong. If you're looking for something
good, you'll see something good. If you're looking for grace, you'll see
grace. If you're looking for love, you'll see love. If you're
looking for faith, you'll see faith. I tell you what, when I look
at you all looking at me, I see folks looking at me with
love, grace and patience and long-suffering and forgiveness
that's what I see when you look at me and I'm thankful I'm thankful
all right and I tell you all to see the grace of God look
what happened now when he saw this grace of God down here in
verse verse 23 and when he has seen the grace of God was glad It made him happy. And you know
what? He absolutely had nothing to
do with it. He just went down there to see.
And when he got there, what did he see? The grace of God. And
it made him glad. And he never had one hand in
it. He never preached a message and
nobody down there. He just went to look. Doesn't it make your heart glad
to see God's work prosper? How many times have our hearts
rejoiced over seeing people converted? And, oh, I'd love to see my heart.
My heart's going to stay glad whether anybody does or not.
But I do know this. I'd love to see somebody say,
oh, preacher, fill up that baptistry. And if they was to stand up and
say, the Lord's done something for me, there's not a person
in this house whose heart wouldn't leap. And I tell you, when you see
the grace of God, it makes you glad. Listen, a man's character is
unmistakably revealed by what saddens him or makes him glad. Look over here, Scott Richeson,
some of y'all may remember this, when he first came down here,
John 20, when Brother Scott first came down here, one of the first
times he came down here, he preached from this text right here. John
20 and verse 19. And the title of this message
is, What would make you glad? What would make you glad? And
this has been back in the very early 80s, 81, 82, maybe somewhere
in there. This is one of the first messages
you ever brought. It was over in that old building.
But look what it says here. Then the same day at evening,
being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut, where
the disciples were assembled because they were scared to death
of the Jews, our Lord came and stood in the midst and saith
unto them, Peace be unto you. And when he had said this, he
showed them his hands and his sight. Then were the disciples
glad. when they saw the Lord. Oh, this
is the Lord! Went from being scared to death
to being glad. What made them glad? They saw
the Lord. Not only saw the Lord, but they
saw the evidences of His death for them. Saw the evidence of
the sin being put away. Saw the evidence that our Lord
Jesus Christ was indeed risen from the dead. And oh, they were
glad. They were glad. And I tell you,
Beloved, when I see the Lord, it makes me glad too. And look
what he did now, back over here in verse 23. Look what he did. Look what he did. He saw the
grace of God was glad, then he exhorted them all. What did he
exhort them to do? That with purpose of heart, they
would cleave unto the Lord. He exhorted them to cleave unto
the Lord. You know what cleave means? It
means to cement or glue. Get so close you're like you're
glued to Him. And that's what He says, He says,
you cleave unto the Lord. You get so, you hold on, you
hold on, you look to Christ and you and Him so become one that
you cannot, that's what I want you to do. And that means to
abide with. to abide with. And he told them
in another place that he persuaded them to continue in the grace
of God. Now our Lord says, you know,
the vines cannot abide, they can't live by themselves. They
only live as they're in the branches only live as they're connected
to the vine. And he's the vine, we're just
the branches. And he said, without me you can do nothing. So cleave
unto the Lord. And you know, you've all seen
this. Y'all seen this. You've seen children. You've
seen little babies and things. When they get scared, the first
and only thing they want is they want to cleave to their mama.
You speak to them and they just hug her tighter. They get afraid. Little Kaylee, where's she at?
She's back at... Little Kaylee. She'll sit there
and sometimes she's so bashful, I'll speak to her and she'll
go up and just get just as close as she can to Jay. And that's what I'm talking about.
It's like that baby, you know, Amy came to get the boys the
other day, and Kaysen the little one said, Mama, Mama, you know,
and she picked him up, and he just, huh, you know. And that's
what we're talking about. That's what this means. And then
look what else he said, cleave unto one another, and then he
says, with full purpose of heart. Oh my, with full purpose of heart. With deliberate intention, that's
what it is. Every one of y'all come here
with a deliberate intention. You come here because you got
a purpose in your heart to be here. Purpose of heart. And there'll
be so many things that distract us to pull us off our purpose. But let us with full purpose
of heart say, I've got to have Christ. I've got to have Christ. I believe that I'm going to believe
and believe and believe until my faith turns into sight. And then he went to get somebody
to help him. I'm preaching too long, but let me give you this
real quick and I'll be done. He went and got somebody to help
him. He said, boy, we got some, there's some work here to be
done. We need to be preaching. And much people were added unto
the Lord. Then he said in verse 25, then
departed Barnabas to Tarsus, that's where Saul was from, for
to seek Saul. And when he found him, He brought
him unto Antioch and look at this, and it came to pass that
a whole year they assembled themselves with the church and taught much
people. But wouldn't you love to have
been in that crowd and saw Paul teaching you, Barnabas teaching
you, and all that, and taught much people. And listen to this,
and the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch. Oh my. He saw somebody to help
him. And beloved, we all need help.
Now I want you to look at one thing with me before I go, before
I quit. I want you to look in Ecclesiastes.
We talk about help. I read this the other day and
it brought tears to my eyes. Ecclesiastes is right before
the book of Proverbs. But you look with me in Ecclesiastes
chapter 4 and verse 9. He saw somebody to help him. sought somebody to help him. But are you talking about help?
Oh my! He needed help. He wants somebody
to go help him in the work. And that's why all of us are
involved in this work here. Ecclesiastes chapter 4 and verse
9. Listen to this. Two are better than one because
they have a good reward for their labor. For if they fall, the
one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him that is long when
he falleth, for yet not another to help him up. Again, if two
lie together, they have heat. But how can one be warm alone? And if one prevail against him,
two shall withstand him. And listen to this. And a three-fold
cord is not easily broken. You take two people, husband
and wife, man and woman, brothers and brothers, two of them. Well, you get in an old cold
bed by yourself, you know, but if you get in bed and you scooch
up to one another and you get warm on a cold night. And that's what he's saying here.
And then if you put Christ in it, Three, four, cold. How's that going to be, bro?
In order to have a believing wife and a believing husband
and to live together in harmony in Christ? You talking about
three, four, cold? Who's going to break that? One. Two. No, we're standing together. We ain't going down. Put Christ
in there. You ain't going to break it.
That brought tears to my eyes one day and I looked at it. Alright,
they were first called Christians here at Antioch. Why were they
called Christians? Well, because they believed on
Him. And they turned to Him. And with
full purpose of heart, they were cleaving to Him. Cleaving to Him. He saw the grace
of God. Our Father, in the precious holy
name of Christ our Lord, thank you for allowing us to meet here
this morning. Thank you for your gospel. Thank you for your word.
I pray you'd cause the word to be fruitful, effectual by the
power of the Holy Ghost. I pray it wasn't my words, but
it's the words in power and in the Holy Ghost. And it brought
assurance today that it indeed is the word of God. Father, thank
you. add to the church those as such
as should be saved. We ask in Christ our Lord's name.
Amen.