Open your Bibles, if you would,
to Acts chapter 20. Acts chapter 20. The name of
the message is Paul and the Ephesian elders. Paul and the Ephesian
elders. We'll look today at the beginning
of Paul's farewell address, and we'll finish it next week. I've
decided to break it up into two portions. So first of all, we're
gonna look at the farewell, the first portion of the farewell
address of Paul to the Ephesian church, churches. So in Ephesus,
as I mentioned in Sunday school, Ephesus was a large city. full
of idol worshipers. Paul went in there and preached
the gospel, and the Lord established churches, not just one, but many.
Because how do we know that? Well, each church would have
an elder and deacons. And so what's happening, Paul
calls the Ephesian elders. So there's multiple churches,
beloved. There's multiple churches now in the city of Ephesus. Isn't
that wonderful? They returned from pagan worship
to worship the one true living God, all by the power and might
of the Lord Jesus Christ. My, it's wonderful. It's absolutely
wonderful. Let's stand up together and read
verses 17 to 21 in Acts chapter 20. We're gonna go a little further
than that in our study, but I figured this is a good place for us to
start and to finish for an introduction to the message. Acts chapter
20, verses 17 to 21. And from Maltos he sent to Ephesus,
and called the elders of the church. And when they were come,
he said unto them, You know from the first day that I came into
Asia, after what manner I have been with you at all seasons,
serving the Lord with all humility of mind, and with many tears
and temptations, which befell me by lying in wait of the Jews. and how I kept back nothing that
was profitable unto you, but have showed you and have taught
you publicly and from house to house, testifying both to the
Jews and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God and faith
toward our Lord Jesus Christ. My, what a wonderful portion
of Scripture here. Paul was God's ordained apostle. He was sent by God to preach
the glorious gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, to preach to lost
sinners that Christ is the only savior of sinners. And he preached
Christ as the Messiah, the long-expected one, the one who God would send
to redeem his people from all their sins. That's why he went
into the synagogues to the Jews, and he preached the gospel to
them, saying, Jesus is the Messiah. And then he went to the Gentiles
and preached, Christ is the only Savior of sinners. Same message. Same message to both parties.
Because there's only one message, isn't there? Salvation in and
through the Lord Jesus Christ and by his perfect Sanatonian
work. It's the only way we can be saved.
The only way. And he was relentless in what
the Lord had sent him to do. He'd go into the synagogues and
preach. He'd go into streets and preach. While he's making
tents, he'd be in the marketplace. People come up and ask him questions.
He probably talked to them while he was working. And then we found
out earlier in our ACT study that he actually met with those
folks afterwards, too. People had questions. He preached
Christ and him crucified. That was his one message, beloved. Oh, how far the church has gone
today. They're so worried about all
these other things. We ought to preach Christ. Isn't it amazing that the enemy
is a master at even taking Christians off their thoughts of Christ
onto other things? that have no redeeming qualities? It's amazing. And things that
we would call good, too. My, oh my. He preached Christ. This is his second missionary
journey. He spent three years at, or on his secondary, this
is his third missionary journey. On his second one, he had spent
three years at Ephesus. Three years at Ephesus. What'd
he do? He preached Christ. He preached Christ. Chris and
I were talking about how we were both into apologetics and all
that stuff. I don't even get into that anymore. I'll be honest with you. I'm
not going to waste my time on that. You know why? Because we're to be like bank
tellers. What do bank tellers do? What
do they study? To know real money, they study
real money. If we study the scriptures, We're
going to recognize error just like that, aren't we? By the
grace and mercy of God. I used to be into reading about,
oh, what do these people believe? Oh, what? It doesn't matter.
Number one, they don't believe Christ. That's the end of it
right there, right? So what do we do with folks like
that? We preach Christ. We preach Christ. More about Jesus would I know. Tell me more about my king. Oh, he's wonderful. He saves sinners. Praise God, I'm a sinner. Oh my, and then I found out he
saved me. My, now I want to tell you all about
him. Isn't it wonderful? And when
I go and talk to my friends who aren't saved, I know where they're
at because God's taught me the truth. And I can say, well, that's
not right. That's not the Jesus of the Bible. Christ is the only savior of
sinners. All by his works, we just look to him. By faith, by
God-given faith, we're born again and He gives us faith to believe,
beloved. Isn't that amazing? It's absolutely
incredible. Absolutely incredible. Our Lord
Jesus Christ, in the person of God, has delivered all those who the
Father gave Him in eternity. He's already delivered us. We
just found out, didn't we? We found out, didn't we? We found
out He delivered us 2,000 years ago, before we ever were. And then we find out that all
our sins are forgiven. Oh my. How many? Well, maybe not the really bad
ones. Oh, yeah. That's amazing. But in God's
eyes, all sin is bad. I remember talking to somebody
one time, and they were saying, well, that sin's an abomination
in God's eyes. And I said, so is lying. See, we measure sin, don't we?
Sin in God's eyes is sin. Praise God, it's all forgiven,
eh? Hallelujah! Someone says, well, surely God
can't save one of them guys in prison. Well, you know what?
The only difference between me and that guy in prison is the
grace of God. And he saved me. Say, I ain't never heard a preacher
talk like that. Well, you have now. were sinners saved by grace,
period. Covered under the blood of Christ. My. So he was allowed to be there
three years preaching the gospel. And now he's on his way to Jerusalem.
He'd finished his, on the third missionary journey, he's finished
his assigned work that our Lord had sent him to do at Ephesus.
And during that time, Paul was at Ephesus. We see many officers,
elders, and deacons had been ordained by God to minister to
the born-again, blood-washed saints. Remember, at one time,
the whole half the city was for Christ and half the city was
against Christ. There's a lot of people the Lord
saved. And remember, the Lord said, I have much people in that
city, even before Paul preached. Isn't that wonderful? Well, he
sure did, didn't he? He had a lot of Pagan idol worshipers
that were his lost sheep. And they'd come to Christ the
same way we did, by the grace and mercy of God. Oh, my God, so good. I just love
our Savior. He's just so wonderful. Oh. Now, it wasn't uncommon for deacons
to preach the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, but elders were
the pastors' teachers, were given the responsibility to keep the
gospel before God's saints. Brother Travis, when I'm not
here, Brother Travis fills in, does a wonderful job. Right? Here we are. We preach the same
message, don't we, Brother? And we keep setting it before
the folks. Whoever comes, we set it before
y'all. Christ is the only Savior of
sinners. I don't need to get up into any other thing. We just
need to focus on Christ. Tell you more and more, the older
I get, the more I see the urgency to do that. To not get tangled up in all
this other stuff. Jake finally, Jake was rejoicing.
Yesterday he called me and talked to me and he said, He said he
met a chaplain who's a reformed chaplain, and they were having
a great time. They were having a wonderful
time, talking and rejoicing in the Lord. He goes, man, I never
thought there'd be a reformed chaplain, but this is wonderful.
And he was telling the chaplain, he says, yeah, my preacher back
home, he says, he just preaches a simple gospel. And I said to
Joshua, after we got off the phone, I said, what a compliment.
I just preach a simple gospel. And that's all to the glory of
God, because he's taught me that message. He's given me that message
to proclaim. I can't take no credit for it,
but I like that. He just preaches a simple gospel.
And he says, well, what's your eschatology and your soteriology? And Jake says, what's
that? He didn't even know what those
were. And I said, well, one has to do with end times, eschatology,
and one has to do with salvation, whether it's monergistic or synergistic. So monergistic is what we would
believe. It's all of Christ. Synergistic means the sinner
has a hand in their salvation. We don't believe that. And Jake's like, oh, okay, that's
easy. Fancy words, but that's all they
mean. Isn't that wonderful? Eschatology is the study of end
times. What's that word again? Soteriology. Is that what it
is? Is the study of, is the study
of, is salvation of man or of God? Well, scripture says it's
all of God. Salvation's of the Lord, right?
Why do we even have the other one then? Because we're sinners. Because
we're a bunch of sinners. Oh my. So there's many congregations
now in the city of Ephesus. They're meeting in different
places throughout the whole city. It's a large city. It's a big
city in ancient Greece. It's a big, big city. And each
congregation would have an elder and deacons. Now let's read verses
17 to 21 again of Acts chapter 20 with that as a setting for
this. And from Marathos he sent to
Ephesus and called the elders of the church. Now the ones he's
calling there, he's calling the Ephesian elders to himself to
meet with him. He's gonna give them a farewell
charge. There's much for us to learn in this too. And when they
were come to him, he said unto them, you know, from the first
day that I came into Asia, after what manner I've been with you
at all seasons, serving the Lord with all humility of mind and
with many tears and temptations, which befell me by the lying
and weight of the Jews. Those were the unbelieving Jews.
They were persecuting them. They were persecuting Paul. Remember,
they followed him from Thessalonica. They followed him all over the
place. And how I kept back nothing.
Now that's what the preacher's supposed to do. I'm to keep nothing back from
you. Someone says, well, you shouldn't teach election to young
believers. Do you know who Paul wrote to
in Thessalonica? When he said, know and beloved
brethren, your election of God, they were brand new believers. In Ephesians 1, verse 4, he says,
you were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world.
He kept back nothing. He didn't say, well, I might
have found some people in the audience there. I don't really
want to hurt their feelings. He preached the whole counsel
of God. He preached the truth. He held back nothing. And I won't
hold nothing back that's profitable. Somebody might come to me in
the service and say, well, Sussan Suss is here. And they go to this
church. Well, they're going to hear the same message I preach
every week. And I'm not going to cherry pick
them either. I'm not going to do that. I'm
not going to take a hammer and go, bam, bam, bam. I'm not going
to do that. I'm just going to preach Christ. Some leave glad, and some leave
mad. Right? That's what Henry Mahan used
to say when he preached. Some leave glad, rejoicing in the
Lord, and some leave mad. But that's not our fault. We
don't seek to offend anybody in the preaching of the gospel.
We just preach Christ as the only one sinners need. And that
offend, did it offend us before we were saved? Oh, absolutely
it did, didn't it, Brother Travis? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Didn't want nothing
to do with that. These Bible thumpers. I remember being like that. I
remember cursing him up one side, cursing him down the other, and
walking away, thinking, oh yeah, I told him. Now here I am, a
preacher. My, oh my, by the grace and mercy
of God. It's amazing. God's grace is amazing. Paul
was a murderer, a blasphemer, seeking the church out and persecuting,
slaughtering the church, wasting it in the Greek, wiping it out. Lord saved him. David was an
adulterer, a murderer, poor false witness, man after God's own
heart. Man, we're just a bunch of sinners
saved by grace, aren't we? That's all we are. My, look at this, and I kept
back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have showed you
and have taught you publicly and from house to house. He did
it in public. He preached Christ in public
for people to hear. This is a public meeting, isn't
it? When I go to McDonald's and I talk to my friends about Christ,
it's publicly, right? When you're talking to your friends
and your family, it's publicly, isn't it? Yeah. Oh, yeah. We're not ashamed of the gospel
of Christ, no. It's the most wonderful news
we've ever heard in our lives. My. Testifying both to the Jews
and also to the Greeks, look at that. Both parties. The Jews
and the Gentiles. Both parties. Because in Christ
there's neither Jew nor Gentile, is there? The Jews wanted nothing
to do with the Gentiles, they called them a bunch of dogs.
My family were Gentiles. So are most of you, too. Unless
we have Jewish roots. But even then, a Jewish Gentile,
he preached the same message, didn't he? What did he preach? Repentance toward God and faith
toward our Lord Jesus Christ. Look at that. Isn't that amazing? We see Paul
call the Ephesian elders to him. He's going to give them a charge,
knowing that he'll never see them again. Isn't that amazing? We're not
told that yet, but we will be told that. He knows he'll never
see them again in this world. Now, think of this, beloved.
They've all been rejoicing for about, what, 1,900 years. So their farewell was only temporary,
wasn't it? But I'll tell you, that farewell
was full of tears. It was full of tears. It was. It's hard. It's hard when believers,
when they go, we miss Eric and Sandy when they, but you guys,
you know, you've got to go where you go, but we miss you guys.
It's all part of it. It's all part of our walk in
this world. We miss Jake, don't we? He comes
out and visits us here and there, but he feels like this is his
home. And we miss him out in Colorado. Miss Marcus and Michelle
and Billy. We miss them all. My. Then we miss the ones who've
gone on before us. Marge, we just sang that song.
Louise. Calvin. Hmm. Newell, my dear brother. Hmm. But we'll see them again,
beloved, by the grace of God. So, we see that these elders
met with Paul, and he started out by drawing their attention
to some truths concerning himself and his reason for coming to
them. He tells us from the first day he was with them. First day. That being the appointed time
that he was with them. You ever think of that? The appointed
time that he was, that was all appointed by God, right? The
length of time that he was there was all appointed by God. He was a servant of Jesus Christ.
He calls we believers bond slaves for Christ. That's what we are. We're bought with a price, aren't
we? The precious blood of Christ. Oh, my. And we see he shed tears
over lost souls, over his countrymen. My. And these elders were well
acquainted with Paul. They'd ministered with him. They
preached the gospel with him. They'd been persecuted by the
same unbelieving Jews who had a hatred for Paul and a hatred
for God's people. They even saw how the unbelieving
Jews plotted to kill Paul. But persecutions from unbelieving
Gentiles and Jews and plots to kill him could not keep Paul
from doing what the Lord had sent him to do. He preached Christ. Now, I want you to remember about
Paul. Now, this is something about
Paul. Paul could have probably well easily been a seminary preacher
or teacher, if you want, right? He could have been a teacher
of teachers, probably. He could have went toe-to-toe
with all those philosophers and just tore down everything they
believed. He could have went toe-to-toe with the Jews and
tore down what they believed. But you know what he did? He
preached Christ. That's a lesson for us, isn't
it? That's a lesson for us. I'm not
putting down learning stuff. I'm not saying that. But I'm
telling you, there's a lot of time wasted on things that have no redeeming
qualities, even though they may be good things. Paul preached Christ. He sat with them. He reasoned
over the Scriptures with them. They poured into the Scriptures. They poured over those scrolls
and studying the Scriptures. And Paul wasn't selling books,
was he? He was preaching Christ. Isn't
that wonderful? He could have sat down and write
novels, write books about different things, theologically. Didn't
have any interest in doing that. He wrote letters to the saints
of God by inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God. And we're
still gleaning, aren't we? Here we are 2,000 years ago,
gleaning from these words as the Holy Spirit illuminates them.
And then we find out, I didn't even know that was there! Oh
my! Isn't that wonderful? This book is alive. Isn't it? Oh, it's authored by the Holy
Spirit of God, beloved. So persecutions couldn't stop
him. He preached the whole counsel
of God. And we see in verse 20 here,
look what he says in verse 20, that he kept nothing. I love
this. He kept nothing from his ears. Nothing. I love that. We don't have to hold back as
God's preachers, and we never should. We put it out there and let the
Lord, the Lord's the one who's gonna make it work, right? Make
his word effectual, isn't he? Yeah, look at, this is beautiful.
And now I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you. There
was nothing that was profitable to them that Paul said, well,
maybe this doctrine here might be a little hard for them. He
just preached it. That's wonderful, isn't it, Chris?
He just sat there and just proclaimed the gospel to them. Hey, Brother
Brian. And what did they do? They smiled
and they rejoiced in the wonderful truth of the gospel. Isn't that
awesome? I love it. Look at this. But
have showed you and have taught you publicly. So again, he didn't
just, he just didn't say, well, he didn't say this. He didn't
say, well, this is what we teach in the church, but I can't really
tell you about it outside of the church. Because it might
offend some people that are around us. No, he didn't. I was involved
in a landmark church. These guys are wild. They were
Calvinistic and they had all these landmark stuff. They believed
they were the only true church, okay? Now get this, but they
don't tell you that. They don't tell you that publicly.
You're listening to their doctrine, you're going, oh, right on. This
is awesome. They're preaching the doctrines
of grace. This is wonderful. This is wonderful, right? Because
the doctrines of grace are wonderful to God's sheep, right? And then
you get into the church and they say, well, we're the one true
church and you have to be baptized by one of our preachers or your
baptism doesn't mean nothing. And you're going, what? What are you talking about? And
then they say that everyone else, Chris, your brother is, everyone
else, so we here, we're just friends of the bride of Christ.
They're the true bride of Christ. That's a bunch of hogwash. That's
a lie from the pit of hell. All the elect from all the ages,
from Adam all the way to the last sheep are the elect of God. Isn't that wonderful? And we're
all the bride of Christ, aren't we? Praise his mighty name. See now, so God's people, when
we read the scriptures, we go, that's wrong. Right? When we read the truth, we realize.
And you know what set me free? I was reading the Spurgeon sermon
on the bride of Christ. All the elect of all the ages.
And he had a truck full of scriptures and I was turning it. Oh my gosh. All the elect. Spurgeon said
error is like a bad fish. You can chew it, you can't swallow
it. You ever had something in your mouth that tastes awful,
you can't swallow it? That's like error. That's false
teachings like that. You can't swallow it as a believer.
You can't. My oh my. So he's preaching Christ
and he's not preaching in secret, is he? He's preaching in public. Oh, I love this. He didn't hold
back the doctrine of election. No, he preached it. He didn't
hold back limited atonement. He preached it. He didn't hold
back total depravity. He preached it. He didn't hold back perseverance
of the saints. He preached it. And he said,
it's all of Christ. It's all of Christ. Isn't that
wonderful? We're totally dead in trespasses
and sins. We must be born again. And God
gives us faith to believe, doesn't he, on the Lord Jesus Christ.
It's a miracle. Oh my. No, he delighted in telling people.
He delighted in telling people that God the Father, in love
and predestination, He predestinated His chosen people, listen to
this, unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ Himself according
to the good pleasure of His will, Ephesians 1, 5. He just put it
right out there, didn't He? He didn't hold it back, Brother
Eric. Let it fly. It's wonderful. That's wonderful. Paul boldly, and then he boldly
declared to both Jew and Gentile that Christ is the promised Messiah.
He's the one who's to come. He's the one who would save his
people. He's the one the Old Testament
prophets declared, they wrote about him, and he kept back absolutely
nothing from his hearers, because all he had to preach from is
the Old Testament. He's preaching Christ from Isaiah.
He's preaching Christ from Hosea. He's preaching Christ from Genesis,
Exodus, Leviticus, Deuteronomy, and just keep on going. He's
opening up Song of Solomon and proclaiming Christ. Oh, my. Isn't that wonderful? Isaiah, oh, he was wounded for
our transgression. That's the Messiah. That's the
Lord Jesus Christ. He was bruised for our iniquities.
That's Christ. God shall see the travail of
his soul and shall be satisfied. That's Christ. And how do we know that? Well,
God said about Christ, this is my beloved son in whom I'm well
pleased. And how do we know that God is
satisfied with the sacrifice of Christ? He rose him from the
grave for our justification. My, what a Savior. What a Redeemer
is Jesus Christ our Lord. And he also declared that Jesus
Christ perfectly fulfilled the law of
God in our room and place. Perfectly. Perfectly. Like, I mean, it's done. Now,
something I heard this week, and I totally agree with this
100%, we still desire to be obedient
to Christ, even though we know we're not under the law. A true
antinomian has no desire to be obedient to God. They'll say,
well, I'm not under the law, so I can do whatever I want.
We don't believe that. We're not under the law, praise
God. He's redeemed us out from under the law. The law doesn't
have a claim on us anymore. But we desire to be obedient
to our King, don't we? And the only way we can do that
is by the grace of God. Right? That's it. It's wonderful. Goes all back to him. We give
him all the glory. It's wonderful. Absolutely wonderful. But praise God, we're not under
the law anymore. We don't have to practice the
law. Isn't that wonderful? Now, do we want to go against
it? Do we want to murder people?
No. Do we want to commit adultery? No. You go through the law, we
don't want to break it, but unfortunately, we're lawbreakers by nature.
Praise God, Christ fulfilled it all in the room and place
of his people. Hallelujah, what a savior, what
a redeemer is Christ. He's amazing, beloved. Oh, how
I love to proclaim him. He's wonderful. He's the fairest
of 10,000 to my soul. My, I wish I could tell you how
I feel about him. I really do. My. You know, a million words wouldn't
even come close to describing him to us, would he? He really
is true. He's just incredible. And he
declared the perfect obedience of Jesus Christ is the only righteousness,
too, that makes any sinner acceptable in God's sight. So because of
his perfect obedience to the law of God, The believing sinner
now has that righteousness counted to them. And the only reason
we are accepted before God is because of the righteousness
of Christ and his perfect sin atoning work, period. And his blood redeemed us, right?
That's it. And so that angers self-righteous
people. They say, well, I don't believe
that. It's the truth. I pray that God
will reveal it to you. Because it's the truth. There's
only salvation in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus
Christ is the end of the law for righteous, to everyone that
believeth. Isn't that wonderful? The question is, have you believed
on Christ? If you be led by the Spirit,
you are not under the law. Galatians 5.18. So Paul boldly declared that
Jesus Christ by himself purged the sins of his people. They're
gone. They're gone. Oh, my. By his own blood, he
obtained eternal redemption for us. My. He preached repentance
before God, faith towards God. And we know that's a gift of
God, right? Not of works, lest any man should boast. My. He didn't hold back anything. Well, what a charge to preachers
today. What a charge to we who proclaim
the gospel. Hold back nothing. Hold back
nothing that's profitable to our hearers. If you get offended at what I
preach, I'm not going to apologize. I'm not. It's not my intent to
offend you, but I'm not going to apologize. The gospel offends. It offended me before I was saved,
but now it's the most glorious thing I've ever heard in my life. And don't get mad at the preacher,
because again, we don't, we don't, we're not trying to get you mad.
We're not trying to make you angry. But I'll tell you, as an unbeliever, I sure got
angry with God when I heard it, did you? I'm not a sinner. How can anyone
tell me I'm a sinner? I'm not that bad. Oh, I found
out I'm worse than the worst. I ain't getting any better, are
you? My, my, oh my. This is a biblical God-honoring
truth, beloved. We are to hold back nothing,
nothing. And he came with all humility
of mind. What kept Paul humble? What kept Paul humble? The biblical
doctrine of God's distinguishing grace? The biblical doctrine
of divine mercy shown to sinners, chosen sinners? The biblical doctrine that Paul
had absolutely nothing in himself to glory of? We only glory in Christ, don't
we? I got nothing to be proud about.
The way I preach is the Lord's doing. He's taught me. He's made
me into the preacher I am. I can't take no credit at all.
I just get, I'm still amazed that I get the honor of preaching
Christ every week. What a blessing. What an honor
to study the word, to preach Christ. And first and foremost,
as I said in Sunday school, I am called right here to feed you
guys. And as you're feasting on what
I've learned, I've already been fed by the Lord, and I'm just
telling you what I learned. And you're, let's think of this,
we're both feasting in the field going, man, that's good food,
isn't it? Well, that's really good. That's sheep food, isn't it,
Brother Travis? There's a lot of goat food out there, isn't
there? There's all kinds of goat food out there. Tell you what
you got to do, no profit for your souls. And they hold back
on things. I remember Brother Henry saying
one time, a preacher came to him. A Southern Baptist preacher
came to him and said, well, Henry, I believe in everything you believe,
the doctrines of grace, but I can't preach it to my congregation
or I lose them all. You know what Henry said? That man's a traitor to the gospel.
Traitor. He knows the truth and he won't
declare it. That's not a preacher, beloved.
That's a hireling. That's a hireling. My, I know,
that's awful harsh words, Wayne. Well, it's true. Sad, but it's true, isn't it?
Now let's read verses 22 to 24 of Acts chapter 20. And remember this, he just preached
Christ and his accomplished salvation, his accomplished work on the
cross for his people, for the elect of God. Look at this, 22
to 24. And now behold, I go abound in
the spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things which shall
befall me there, save that the Holy Ghost witnesses in every
city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide me. So the places he'd
been going, he'd been hearing from different saints, you're
gonna have affliction. You're going to have bonds. They were prophesying. That doesn't
happen anymore. It happened during the times
of the apostles, but that does not happen anymore. Preaching
is basically prophesying, but we preachers, we don't look at
ourselves as prophets, but that's just proclaiming the word of
God. That's all that is. I ain't no prophet, and there
ain't no prophets in this world. Someone tells you that, they're
lying to you. They're lying to you. But none of these things moved
me. Look at that. He's hearing all this. He's hearing you're
going to go through some afflictions, Paul. It didn't move him. Why didn't it move? Why wasn't
he anxious and afraid? Because of the grace of God in
Christ. Don't ever think, well, what am I going to do if I get
in a situation? God will give you grace to go through that situation.
Have we not as believers all gone through specific things
where we thought, oh my goodness, what's going on? And it's not
the Lord giving us grace and mercy to endure those trials
and tribulations, heartaches, heartaches like no one can imagine. And He's given us grace, hasn't
He? He's given us mercy. And He will continue to do that
for His people. Someone says, I don't have dying
grace. Well, you're not dying right now. He'll give it to you
when you need it. He will. Well, I fall apart when
I have a trial or a tribulation. How do you think you get through
it? He carries you, doesn't He? Oh
yeah, He does. It's amazing. But none of these
things move me, neither can I my life dear unto myself, so that
I might finish my course with joy in the ministry which I received
the Lord Jesus Christ to testify the gospel of the grace of God.
Now look at that. He tells us right here, what's
his ministry? Is his ministry to go and debate
people and do all this other stuff? No, his ministry is to
preach the gospel of the grace of God. That's what preachers
are called to do. I am sent here to Almont, Michigan
to proclaim Christ to you, to lift up Christ and present him
in front of you. That's it. And rejoice with you
all. And I keep my eye out, I keep
my eye out like we are to do for error that creeps in. Right? We all do that, don't we? But my main mission here is preach
the gospel to whoever comes and sits in these seats. That's first
and foremost. Now, the message goes out into
the world. We praise God for that. But first and foremost,
I'm called right here, and I want Michigan. That's important, isn't it? Yeah? Now, Paul was an evangelist.
He traveled all over the place. But do you notice there's elders
in the cities that are called to those specific parts of the
city to preach the gospel? You know, I know Travis never
thought of this, but God ordained that you would fill in for me
when I'm gone. Isn't that amazing? You never even thought of that
before, did you? No. Neither did I, being a preacher. Isn't God amazing? God's so amazing,
beloved. Just incredible. So we see he's
bound in the Spirit. He's bound in the Spirit to go
to Jerusalem. And he'd been warned what was going to happen. And
look what he says, none of these things move me so I may finish
my course with joy in the ministry. He just wants to preach. Look
at that, in the ministry that I have received of the Lord Jesus,
to testify the gospel of the grace of God. That's what he
was called to do. He was called to preach Christ, to testify
of God's grace and mercy. That's what the preacher's called
to do. Isn't that amazing? I remember someone said to Scott
Richardson one time, this was amazing. Scott Richardson was
one of our finest preachers. Travis and Karen had the honor
of sitting under them. But I remember listening to a
message of his and he said, somebody came to him and said, man, all
you do is preach Christ. Lady came to him, all you do
is preach Christ. You don't get into the deeper
things. And I'm sitting there as I'm listening to this thinking,
is there anything deeper than Christ? And you know what he said? You
know what his answer to? You might have heard him say this.
Put that on my tombstone. He only preached Christ. Put
that on my tombstone. I love that. Isn't that wonderful? He preached Christ. Oh my. So this was Paul's ordained mission.
He went around proclaiming Christ. It's wonderful. It's simple,
isn't it? We get it so convoluted. You have your friend there down
in Ecuador, right? He just wants to preach Christ. Let it fly. Let it fly. Don't worry about
all the other stuff. Just preach Christ. Just let
it fly, right? My. And he didn't speak with arrogance.
He spoke with a confidence in Christ. We preachers don't ever
try to come across as arrogant. We don't want that. My confidence
is in Christ. Is yours? He's my confidence. He's my Savior. Oh my. And Paul had carefully done what
God had called him to do. He preached Christ. Now let's
read verse 25. And now behold, I know that Y'all
among whom I have been gone preaching the kingdom of God shall see
my face no more." Oh my. He knows. He's like, I'm never
going to see you again. Hmm. I was thinking about that. And he's not talking about, he's
not going to see them in heaven. He's not talking, he's talking
about, I'm never going to see you again on this earth. That's
what he's talking about. Think of our dear ones, our brothers
and sisters, as I mentioned earlier, who've gone home to be with the
Lord. Think about if you guys go and something happens to me
or something happens to you. It's the last time we ever see
each other. We don't know. We don't know the day of our
departure. We know that it's in God's hands.
It's appointed unto man once to die, and after this is the
judgment. We know that. But Paul here, he knew he wasn't
coming back. I don't know how, God showed
him, spoke to his heart. He's like,
you're never going to see me again. I imagine there was tears flowing,
saying, well, you men don't cry. Oh, yeah, we do. I remember Ma
Bell telling me one time, I was out there in Tennessee staying
with Donny Bell and Norm Wells. Norm and I had flown out there
and we spent, oh, we must have spent two weeks with Donny. Just
so sweet. I'm sitting there with my two
mentors. I was in, man, I was in a hog oven. It was amazing.
And Mary, I called one time to, about a week later I called to
talk to Donny and Mary answered and she said, he cried like I've
never seen him cry after you guys left. We just had the sweetest
time, beloved. Just the sweetest time in Christ. Fellowship and around the world,
talking about our King. It was wonderful. Man. Now I don't know if I'll ever
see Donny again. I hope I will. But I know last time we saw him
was when he was up here preaching for us. It was a wonderful time,
wasn't it? So Paul here, though, he's learned that he'll never
see them again. He knew his departure was at
hand. He knew his departure was at hand. He didn't know where
he would be leaving this earth or how he would be leaving this
earth, but he knew that his time was short on this earth. And
he spent three years preaching to them. So they were really
close, beloved. They were really close. They
were really close. You know, there's an old saying,
parting is such a sweet sorrow. Well, beloved God, I don't know
how sweet this was. I imagine there was a lot of
tears. There was sorrow. There was heartbreaking sorrow.
Three years he'd been with them. I've been with you 10 years now.
But three years, and then he departed. Oh, my. Now let's read
verses 26 to 27 of Acts chapter 20. Wherefore, I take you to
record this day that I am pure from the blood of all men, for
I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God. Look at that. He held back nothing
profitable. He declared to them the whole
counsel of God. Isn't that wonderful? He showed
them that Christ is the Messiah. He showed them that Christ is
the only Savior of sinners. And they understood when Paul
said, I'm pure from the blood of all men in Acts 18.6. He told some unbelieving Jews,
your blood is upon your own heads. I'm clean. And this is true of every hell-deserving
sinner who turns a deaf ear to the one true gospel, the Lord
Jesus Christ, through the merits of Christ alone. The preacher's
free. That's why I declare to you,
everyone, the whole counsel of God, right? Christ, I don't hold
nothing back from you. I don't declare the whole counsel
of God all at once, but I don't hold nothing back from you. My And when I don't understand
the scripture, I tell you, I don't understand that yet. Right? Though I preach the gospel, I
have nothing to glory in, for necessity is laid upon me. Yea,
woe unto me if I preach not the gospel. 1 Corinthians 9, 16,
Paul wrote. I understand what he's saying.
Woe unto me if I don't preach the gospel to you. My. Let's read Acts 20, verse
28. This will be our last verse.
Well, we see here God's preachers are referred to overseers. It's bishop
in the Greek. Our text tells us that God the
Holy Spirit is the one who makes certain men overseers and bishops.
God the Holy Spirit made me a preacher. It's nothing I sought after.
It's nothing I wanted. God did it. God did it. He makes men preachers. Not women. Men. You see a woman preacher, That's
so wrong. Only men are called to preach.
Well, that's old-fashioned. That's sexist. No, it's not.
That's what God says. That's what God says. You got
a problem with that? Take it up with God, right? You got a problem with something
I preach from the Bible? Take it up with God, right? What old Scott Richardson say,
put that in your pipe and smoke it. He was a character. Oh, I love
that guy. I never met him, but I love him.
My. So all of God's preachers, we're
just sinners saved by the grace of God. We're united to Christ
by the same life-giving power as you are as a believer. Again,
I went to a baseball game with Joshua on Friday, and I remember
Norm telling me one time, he said, well, the preacher's like
that pitcher's mound. I was looking at that pitcher's
mound. We went to a minor league game. I'm looking at that pitcher's
mound, and I thought, no, I ain't on no little bump like that.
I'm on the field with everybody else. We're all on the same field,
aren't we? We're level. I love that, I'll
never forget, never stop saying that. The ground at the foot
of the cross is level, what Scott said. It's level. There's no
pitcher's mound for preachers. No, not at all, not at all, not
at all. And Norm said, that's just so
we could see things a little better. I love Norman. He'd probably be laughing at
me right now. Oh my. So as we mature in the faith,
the same way as all babes, the called preacher matures in the
faith the same way as all other babes in Christ. We don't know
we're gonna be preachers when we're young believers. We don't
have any desire. We don't know that. God might give us a zeal for
evangelism or to speak to people, but it's not something that we're
seeking, right? My. And He makes the preacher. He gives the gifts. So that we
can't boast in anything but Christ. But Christ in Him alone. And
then look at our, look what our text refers to God's, God's saints
are called the flock. The flock. Singular. All believers
of all ages. All the elect of all the ages.
The flock. He's the shepherd, right? We're the flock. My, oh my. And the overseers
are not the Lord over God's flock. No, we're part of it. We're to
proclaim the gospel. We're to feed the church, right?
Well, don't forget, we're feasting too. We're feasting on the Word
of God and just telling you what we learned. I'm learning stuff every day
now that I never saw before. It's wonderful. It's wonderful,
beloved. It's absolutely wonderful. And as a sheep, we're all born
again by God's almighty power under the preaching of his gospel.
And then what do we do? We flock together, don't we? We come together, don't we? It's
like a bunch of sheep. Oh, at the appointed day of worship
or times of worship. We feed in the same pasture,
don't we? I eat from the same pasture as you do, the Word of
God. This is green pastures. The preaching
of Christ is a feast of sheep food. Clover! God's people go a long way to
eat clover, won't they? Oh yeah, they will. The clover
of preaching Christ and him crucified is the only hope for sinners.
So we feed on the same pasture, we feast on Christ who is the
true bread from heaven, which the preaching of his gospel,
this is heavenly manna, isn't it? This is heavenly manna for
us. My. And all the flock of God
feast upon Christ who is the bread of life. And the preaching of the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit increases
our faith. Everyone do that? Do you wonder,
and we don't even see it, but all of a sudden you're like,
you're falling in love with Jesus even more? I've even had people who've come
up to me who sat here and said, you know, I never heard this
until you got here. Well, That's the glory of God. That's Him doing that. That's
Him moving. That's Him working in people's
hearts. That's Him giving ears to hear and eyes to see Christ.
Right? And then to watch them grow afterwards,
and to see how they're getting stronger and stronger in the
faith, I see our guy's growth. It's amazing. I think we've grown
much in the last five years as a congregation. You might not
see it, but I see it. It's amazing. And don't we love
to hear the gospel now? Don't we love to come be with
our family? It's wonderful, isn't it? We're
just a bunch of sinners gathering together. This is a hospital
for sinners. Do you know that? I had one guy tell me, he said,
he said, I can't come over there, Wayne, because if I come over,
the roof's going to fall down. I said, well, I've been in there, and
the roof's still really good. Right? We're just a bunch of
notorious sinners who the Lord saved, aren't we? That's just self-righteousness.
That's all that is. My, oh my. And notice here in this text,
this is amazing in this text what it says here. It says, feed the church of God,
so that's the elect, look at this, which he hath purchased
with his own blood. This text is telling us about
the deity of Christ. This text is telling us that
Christ was God. Not just a mere man. He's fully
God and fully man. And it says here that he purchased
us with his own blood. He redeemed us with his blood.
Isn't that glorious? That's amazing. Absolutely amazing. Our Lord
asked Peter these questions. He said, lovest thou me? Three
times Peter said, yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee.
Jesus Christ followed Peter's confession of his love for Christ
with these words, feed my lambs and feed my sheep. Just preach
Christ. How are we fed? By the preaching
of Christ. That's how we grow. That's how
we, that's how we, we feast is the preaching of Christ. I could
sit up here and go through all different kinds of theological
things where that, that would, we go, what those, what do those
words mean and define those words. I could do all that for you,
but I won't do that. I'm preaching Christ. I'm called to preach what the
text says. Do you love it? Now, do we get
into deep things? Yeah. We get into the Greek sometimes
and the Hebrew. We look at that. But my main
mission is to hold Christ before you. And I'll tell you what. There's
no theological seminary that has ever gone deep enough to
know all the deep things about Christ. We've talked about that,
Eric, haven't we? No one. You want to talk deep
things in the Bible? Let's start talking about Christ.
Let's start talking about God became a man and purchased us
with his own blood. Whoa! That's truth. And I'll
tell you what, there's enough in just that little statement
that God saved his flock with his own blood to keep me preaching
for thousands of years. It'll never get old, will it? I've had more, but I'll just
add that on to next week's sermon. Praise God for his mercy and
his grace towards us in Christ, eh? Isn't he wonderful? My goodness. He's so wonderful to us. Brother
Travis, do you mind closing us in prayer?