Open your Bibles, if you would,
to Acts chapter 18. Acts chapter 18. The name of the message is, Apollo
Preaches Christ. Apollos Preaches Christ. This is a wonderful portion of
this scripture. Lord willing, we will finish
chapter 18 today. And Lord willing, next week we'll
be entering into chapter 19. It's been a wonderful journey
with Paul as the New Testament church is established. And I
said New Testament church because the saints in the Old Testament
are the elect and they're part of the whole church too, aren't
they? We forget that, that the church
is comprised of saints in the Old Testament and saints in the
New Testament. That's the church. That's the
church. So we're seeing the birth of
the New Testament church here and how it's moving forth. It's wonderful. Absolutely wonderful. Let's stand up and read verses
24 to 28. This will be our portion for
today. Acts chapter 18 verses 24 to
28. "'And a certain Jew named Apollos,
born at Alexander, "'an eloquent man and mighty in the Scriptures,
"'came to Ephesus. "'This man was instructed in
the way of the Lord, "'and being fervent in the spirit, "'he spake
and taught diligently the things of the Lord, "'knowing only the
baptism of John. And he began to speak boldly
in the synagogue, whom when Aquila and Priscilla had heard, they
took him unto them, and expounded unto him the way of God more
perfectly. And when he was disposed to pass
into Achaia, that's Greece, the brethren wrote, exhorting the
disciples to receive him, when he had come helped them much
which had believed through grace. For he mightily convinced the
Jews that publicly, in that publicly, showing by the scriptures that
Jesus was Christ. So what that last verse means
is he showed them that Jesus was the Messiah. And when we
see scriptures there, there's no New Testament scripture at
this time, so he's preaching Christ to them, from the Old
Testament. He's preaching Christ to them
from the Old Testament. And remember this, too. Remember
this. That Christ said that the law
and the prophets, they testify of him, right? He said of me.
Me. I was thinking about that this
week. And I listened to a message I mentioned in Sunday school by Henry Mann, and he brought
forth how we're to be Christocentric, but we're to look at scriptures
and to study the scriptures from a perspective of looking to Christ
and seeing Christ. And keeping in mind that the
scriptures testify of Him. Now, we love theology, right?
God's people like theology. But let us have a Christocentric
theology. Right? Let Christology, that's
what Henry said, I can't pronounce it, Christology, so instead of
saying theology, he said Christology, let that be our main theme. Let everything that we look at,
whether it be doctrine, whether it be theology, whether it be
our lives, let it all be Christocentric. Let it all be Christ-centric. Let our aim as we study scripture,
let our goal as we study theology, let our goal as we study the
scriptures, let the goal, let the finish be to know Christ
more. To know Him more. Because that's
where our peace comes from, beloved. Our peace doesn't come from knowing
more knowledge. Our peace comes from knowing
Christ. And knowing the more we know about him, right brother
Brian? The more we know about him, the more we can get up in
the morning praising his mighty name for what he's done for us.
No matter what's going on in this world. Knowing that he is in control
of everything. Everything. It's magnificent. My, oh my, it's wonderful. And
we see here in Acts 19, let's go back. We looked at 24 to 28. Let's go back a little bit. We
saw in verses 19 to 21, we saw the context of the verses we
just read. Let's read verses 19 to 21. And he came to Ephesus
and left them there. This is Priscilla and in Aquila. He left them there. But he himself
entered into the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews, so he
went and preached Christ as the Messiah from the Old Testament
Scriptures. This is Paul. When they desired
him to tarry any longer time with him, he consented not. Remember,
he says, I'm going to Jerusalem. There's a Passover going on,
and he's not going there to observe the Passover. He's going there
because he's going to be able to preach Christ as the Messiah. That's his whole goal. He's going to tell them that
the Passover has already been fulfilled and Christ is my Passover.
Isn't that wonderful? It's wonderful. But he bid them
farewell, saying, I must by all means keep this feast that cometh
in Jerusalem. But I will return again unto
you, if God wills, so Lord willing, that's what we should say about
our plans, Lord willing, right? Lord willing, we're going to
do that. Lord willing, we're going to do this. But he bade
them farewell. I must by all means keep this
feast that cometh in Jerusalem, but I will return again unto
you if God will. And he sailed from Ephesus. Got
in a boat and sailed from Ephesus. And he sailed to Caesarea. Paul
leaves Corinth, sails to Ephesus, and now we see he leaves Ephesus. But those who had heard the gospel
preached by him were generally interested, right? They wanted
to hear more. They wanted to hear more. But
Paul, we see, being led by the Holy Spirit, he left there. He
left there and sailed to Caesarea. And Paul knew that Jesus Christ
was his Passover. Again, he's not going to Jerusalem
to observe the feast, not at all. He's going there to preach
Christ. He has no intention of observing
the feast. But he knew there'd be many opportunities
to proclaim Christ there. And he's led by the Holy Spirit
there, isn't he, ultimately? He's led there by the Holy Spirit
of God. And what's he going to do? He's going to preach Christ.
He's not going to open a seminary up and start teaching theology,
is he? No. He could have, though, couldn't
he? The guy was a genius. No, he says, I'm going to preach
Christ. I'm going to preach Christ. My,
oh, my. What a blessing, what an encouragement
to we believers. What an encouragement to this
body of believers as we gather together and we rejoice over
the gospel together, then we send it out into the world. Isn't
that wonderful? It's wonderful, my. So he bids farewell to the Jews
at Ephesus. And again, think of this too,
Think of how it's been when Paul's left other cities. Think of how
the Jews were. They were getting them out of
there, weren't they? These Jews, they don't want them to leave.
What's that tell us? There's something going on. There's something going on. Right? These ones have actually heard
something. And they want to hear more. What happened to us? Chris, you told me, you know,
the Lord, you've been saved for a year. You want to hear more
about Christ. That's so encouraging. That's
so encouraging. They wanted to hear more. They
didn't want Paul to leave. They were like, tell me more. Tell me more about our Savior. And you know, when people want
to hear more, that's a good sign, isn't it? Because there was a time in my
life when I didn't want to hear nothing. I was so stone cold against the
gospel. Just didn't want to hear it at
all. And now it's the best news I've
ever heard in my life. It's the most glorious news in
my life. Christ saves sinners. Praise his mighty name. Because
I'll tell you what, I know. Brethren, do you know you're
a sinner? We know we're sinners, don't
we? Even now, we know we're saved sinners now. We're not a bunch
of holier-than-thou people. We know we're sinners saved by
grace, saved by mercy. And I mean the pure mercy of
God. Isn't it wonderful? Isn't it
so wonderful? And that's only in and through
Christ and Him alone. So look at verses 22 to 23 now. And when he had landed at Caesarea
and gone up and saluted the church, he went down to Antioch. And
after he had spent some time there, he departed and went over
all the country of Galatia and Perga in order strengthening
the disciples. Now I wanted to touch base on
these two verses again because of Caesarea. Caesarea was built by Herod before
Christ even came to this world. This is a pretty incredible place.
It was built in 22 B.C. It started in 22 B.C. And remember,
B.C. goes backwards, right? And it
was finished in 10 B.C. And this is on the coast, I believe
it was, it's in between Tel Aviv and another city, but on the
coast of Israel. There's just ruins there now.
Did you guys ever visit that when you went over there? No.
But it's just ruins right now. But at one time, listen to this,
at one time it was a city over 100,000 people. Huge, huge. It's located on Israel's Mediterranean
coast, about halfway between Tel Aviv and Haifa. So if you
want to look that up in the map, it's in between Tel Aviv and
Haifa, about halfway in between. And it sat along the historic
Via Marius trade route that connected Egypt and Syria. So you ever
look at a map of the Middle East and you see Egypt over here and
Syria over here and Israel's right in the middle, right? Well,
there was a trade route that went all the way up. And it was
called the Via Marius trade route. So this port is right in the
middle. Right in the middle. It's amazing.
And as I started, the reason I wanted to bring this up is
because here, this king, who's not saved, builds this huge port. This huge port. The harbor alone, looks at this,
could accommodate over 300 ships. And from what I read, you ever
see when they make a harbor and they put great big concrete blocks
to keep the sea out? And so that inside, they had
that, huge blocks. How'd they do that? I don't know,
they did it though, didn't they? They were engineering geniuses
back then. They really were. People say,
oh, those folks, they didn't know nothing. They were engineering
geniuses. They were. So in the harbor,
they had these huge concrete blocks out to keep the sea from
coming in. And this huge harbor could fit
300 ships. And we know those ships aren't
little, are they? You're talking grain ships. You're talking warships. like the Roman warships and stuff
like that. My oh my, that's a big harbor. 300 ships and handle a large
cargo bound for cities across the Roman Empire. So it became
a hub, it became a hub for trade within the Roman Empire. So say
we have a business in Syria, we want to ship our stuff to
Rome, it goes up through Caesarea and off it goes. All this was done before the
Lord even came to this world. All this was done. And you know who used this to
go on his missionary journeys? The Apostle Paul. Do you see
the providence of God at work? Do you see how his hand moves?
See, some people say, I don't believe God's in control. It
don't matter if you believe it or not. He's in absolute control.
I don't believe God. Well, God says he laughs. He mocks your calamity. He's not up there rubbing his
hands going, oh, I'm so sorry you don't believe. He's not doing
that. He's a sovereign king who rules and reigns. That's the
God of the Bible. He's a holy God. He's a righteous
God. And the only reason we sinners
are allowed to be in his presence is because he sent his son, the
Lord Jesus Christ, to die in our room and place to shed his
precious blood for us. That's the only reason. Oh my. God is so merciful. He's so good. This also had, now get this,
the Romans were geniuses with aqueducts. This had an aqueduct
that brought water from six miles outside the city. Fresh, clean
spring water. Well, they didn't know nothing
back then. Okay. That's amazing. Fresh, clean
water from six miles away. My, oh my. And earlier in our
study in the Book of Acts, you know who was at Caesarea? Well,
there's a fellow named Peter went down to talk to a guy named
Cordelius. Remember him? Remember that centurion that
we love to look at? That centurion, Roman centurion,
that pagan idol worshiper? And he says, Peter gets a vision
that he's supposed to go down and talk to Cornelius, and he
shows up thinking he's just gonna talk to Cornelius, and he shows
up and the whole house is full of people. And what's the scripture say?
He preached the gospel of Christ crucified to him and salvation
through Christ alone, and the Lord saved a whole bunch of them. Now think of this, he's in that
port. Cornelius is in that very port. that was built, finished
in 10 BC, 10 years before Christ is even born. For that little sheep to be right
there, and not just that little sheep, a whole bunch of them. See how sovereign our God is?
If you're here in church today, it's not by chance. You're here
according to the gods, even though you say, well, I want to go to
church. You're here because God ordained that you be here to
hear this message. Isn't that amazing? And that's
incredible, isn't it? Oh, God's so good. He's so good. He's so merciful. And how little did Herod know
that God in his providence, again, would send a Roman centurion
named Cornelius to Caesarea, and that God would save him by
his grace by sending a preacher to that very spot. And what did that preacher preach?
Christ as the Messiah. And by the grace and mercy of
God, brethren, by the same Holy Spirit that saved us, Cornelius
was born again. Isn't that wonderful? I had someone
ask me this week, they said, I was talking with a friend of
mine, and we were talking about Abraham. And he said, well, Abraham
believed, but he didn't have the Holy Spirit. And I said, well, then how did
he believe? Because if you're not born again,
you won't believe. I didn't believe before I was born again, did
any of you? But when we were born again, what? We believed. And so we were talking back and
forth, and I just finally said, you must be born again. And if
you look at John 3, 16, when he's talking to Nicodemus, He
told him, you must be born again. And then in 14 to 16, we have
the famous words, right? Even as Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
right? And then we see the result. For
God to love the world, people take that world and say, well,
look, that's everyone. No, it's not. It's people from all different
tribes and tongues and nations. It's God's people. that he gave
his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him, now that, there
we go, whosoever believeth in him, the question is, do you
believe on him? Do you believe on him? Whosoever
believeth in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. Oh, isn't that wonderful? So
the question is, for all of us here, believers and unbelievers,
what think ye of Christ? Who is he? Is he God? Is he in
control of everything? Or is he just a historical figure? Well, I'll tell you what. Some folks say, well, he's just
a historical figure. You know who they're going to
meet on the Day of Judgment? You know who's sitting upon that
throne of glory and a day of judgment? When the dead will
rise, when saved and unsaved are all gathered together, you
know who's sitting on that throne? Someone tell me, who's sitting
on that throne? Christ, amen, brother Travis. The Lord Jesus
Christ, He's God. He's God, He's God and man. And
the only way we sinners can be saved is by the sacrifice of
the God-man, shedding his precious blood to redeem us from all our
sins. Because I can't pay for one of
my sins, can you? And how many billions do we commit
in a lifetime? Oh my. Praise God, they're under
the blood. Praise God, our sins are washed
away. So Herod had no clue, he had
no clue that Cornelius would be sent there, no clue at all.
He's just like, you know why he wanted to build this? He wanted
a port that rivaled the port in Alexandria. He wanted Israel to have a port
just like what was up in Alexandria. And he built, it's a magnificent
port he built. But God gave him the material,
God gave him the desire, and he didn't even have a clue. He
was just trying to fulfill his own little grandeur, wasn't he? And little did he know that there'd
be a man named Cornelius that would be stationed there. Little
did he know that God would send him a preacher named Peter. Little
did he know that Cornelius would have a whole house full of people
there to hear Peter preach the gospel. And little did he know
that God would save a bunch of his lost sheep that had been
gathered together there. And then little did he know that
Paul would use this very port as a ramp to go to all different
places over the Roman Empire. Now isn't that amazing? Because in order for Paul to
go to Alexandria, he had to go through Caesarea and back up
to Syria. And that's what we're going to see he did. He did that. It's amazing. But Herod had no
clue. So Paul traveled from Caesarea
to Antioch, we see in our text, and he went all over the country
of Galatia and Pergia, preaching the gospel and strengthening
the saints. So we see Paul's love, his love for the brethren,
Oh, he has a great love for the brethren that are scattered all
over the place. Look at, uh... Look at verse 23. And this is
after he had spent some time in Antioch. He departed and went
all over the country, Galatia and Pergia, in order, strengthening
all the disciples. So we see there his care, his
care for the churches, his pastoral care for the saints of God. And how are they being strengthened?
By preaching of Christ and Him crucified. Right? My, oh my. And what's he manifesting
here? He's manifesting the great description
that says, faith worketh by love. The love of God that's shed abroad
in our hearts. Now let's look at verses 24 and
25, the section that we're going to look at today. We're introduced
to a new character, New man. He's called Apollos. Apollos
is a learned man. I'll tell you what. He's very
eloquent in speech. He's a learned man. He's what
Southerners says, he's got education. He's got education. Look at this, I love this. And
a certain Jew named Apollos, born out of Alexandria, an eloquent
man, and mighty in the Scriptures, came to Ephesus." So again, there's
no New Testament, right? He's mighty in the Scriptures.
He's mighty in the Old Testament. It means that he's learned. God
has taught him. He's not learned of himself.
God's revealed the Scriptures to him. Look at, this man was
instructed in the way of the Lord. The early Christians were
called the followers of the way. Christ is the way, the truth,
and the life, isn't he, Brother Kevin? We're followers of the
way. We're followers of Christ. So
we see there, he's instructed in the ways of the Lord. He's
a believer. He's a believer. And being fervent
in the Spirit, well, he's born again then, right? We can't be
fervent in the Spirit unless we're born again. Right? He taught diligently the things
of the Lord, knowing only the baptism of John, which is the
baptism of repentance for sins. So this is the next scene that
the Holy Spirit unveils to us in the early New Testament church.
We're introduced to this man named Apollos. We see he's an
Alexandrian orator. He spoke very, he could use those
million dollar words. And he knew what he was saying.
We can use million dollar words, but we gotta look up the definition.
He already knew the definition of them. He was an orator, but
that doesn't matter. What matters is he preached Christ
mightily. That's what matters. But he was
a very eloquent speaker. And do you notice a certain Jew?
Have we noticed that word certain in our study in Acts, haven't
we? A certain man. Just a certain Jew. See, God's
people are certain people. Brother Brian, you're Brian,
but you're a certain person who God saved. There may be other
Brian Edwardses in this world, but you're a certain person. Right? You can type in our names
and like, oh, wow, I typed in Wayne Boyd one time, there's
some English race car driver. I said, that's not me. But see,
we can, same name, but not the certain person, right? So this
is done to identify God's people, a certain person. And every one
of us, we're sheeps, we're certain people of God. It's wonderful. certain Jew named Apollos, born
of Alexandria, an eloquent man, mighty in the scriptures, came
to Ephesus. So we see here that Luke was moved by the Holy Spirit
to introduce this man to us. And he has deep respect and admiration
for Apollos. Some commentators said he used
more respect and deeper admiration to present Apollos to us than
he has for any other man. Because he went into a little
bit about him. He's born out of Alexandria, he's an eloquent
speaker, he's mighty in the scriptures. He's given us a little bit of
a description of him. And this is all by inspiration of the
Holy Spirit of God, right? Remember, not many mighty are
saved. Well, here's one. Right? Here's one. And we see Apollos is set before
us not as an example of an eloquent speaker, but as an example of
one who preaches Christ. We're given that information
about him, but what's the key portion of the scripture? That
he preached Christ mightily. Now this man could have probably
went toe-to-toe with any professor at a seminary. But what's he
doing? He's preaching Christ. And he's
preaching Christ mightily. Mightily. And he's very eloquent in his
speech. We'd probably sit there and be in awe of how he presents
Christ. But the message he presents is
the same message that Norm presents. Same message Donnie presents,
same message I present, same message Travis presents when
he comes in, right? This guy could just, he had a
very eloquent way of speaking. But he still preached the same
message. My, oh my. And he was instructed
in the ways of the Lord, so God had taught him that Christ was
the Messiah. He's fervent in the Spirit, so
he's been, he's been, he's born again, and he spoke and taught
diligently the things of the Lord to the understanding that
he had. To the understanding that he
had. See, we preach what we know, right? I preach what I've learned about
my King. Now, in ten years, if the Lord
lets me tarry on this earth, or if he takes me home, which
could be a blessing, right? But either way, all the time
that we're on this earth, we learn more about Christ as believers. What we know now about Christ
is more than we knew 10 years ago, is more than we knew 20
years ago. And if we think that we haven't
grown and learned, then we're in trouble. Because none of us have arrived,
right? Let us always have a teachable spirit. We're going to see here,
Apollos is a preacher, and I love this. He has a very teachable
spirit. This is amazing. He has a very
teachable spirit. Apollos was a Greek name, but
he himself was a Jew. He may have been a Hellenistic
Jew, we're not sure. which means that he grew up in
Greece, but we're not told that. But he was called, we see, and
equipped by the Lord Jesus for preaching the gospel of Christ.
He was born in Alexandria, which was a metropolis of Egypt. It's
been built by Alexander the Great, hence the name. And we see here
that Apollos was an elegant speaker. In other words, he's a well-educated
man. He's a well-educated man. I'm just a Canadian hick preaching
to... And I don't mind that. I love
it when Peter, I love it. I was thinking about this in
light of this, where it says he's an eloquent man. And I was
thinking this in light of when the apostle John and Peter were
before the Sanhedrin, and they said, who are these uneducated
men? That's us, right? That's me! See these, but see
now here's one who is very intelligent, very smart, very, and I'm not
saying we're not smart, I'm not saying that. We're just common
people. I'm just a common guy, right? But here's a man who's
very, very smart, and I believe Paul was too. But he doesn't
vault himself up. We're going to see in the text
that he doesn't vault himself up. And he's even teachable.
He's very teachable, which shows a different spirit. A different
spirit. My oh my. It's beautiful. So he's a well-educated man.
He's a very gifted speaker. He's capable of holding the interest
of his hearers. And the text says this certain
Jew was mighty in the Scriptures, which, of course, is reference
to the Old Testament. Apollos had been raised by godly
parents, who in all probability were disciples of John the Baptist.
And his parents had taught him from youth the Holy Scriptures.
And what does the Scriptures do? They're able to make us wise
unto salvation, aren't they? Yeah. When God the Holy Spirit
takes that word, makes it effectual, makes us wise unto salvation.
I'm sitting in front of a bunch of wise people. If you're saved,
you're a wise person. We don't feel wise, do we? But
we're wise unto salvation, aren't we? Only because God revealed
himself. And it's wonderful. It's just
beautiful. So he not only Did he know where
to find certain passages in difficult books of the Old Testament? Paul's
preach was such authority and was such a spiritual understanding
that even the Jewish leaders of the synagogue could not give
any biblical argument against what he preached. We're going
to see that at the latter part of the text. He was God's ordained
preacher. You know, God made the preacher.
Man didn't make the preacher. God made the preacher, and that's
so true. God makes the preacher. I'll tell you why. Just because
a man goes to seminary, right, doesn't mean he's called to God.
I can't tell you how many preachers I've talked to, preachers in
religion, who they just look at it as a job. This is not a
job. This is a calling. A job is something
I go out and I work for. This is a labor of love. My buddy Rick, who I told you,
he went to RTS, Reformed Theological Seminary, and he said, Wayne,
the amount of people that went in there Baptist and couldn't
find a job in the Baptist churches and took jobs in Presbyterian
churches was unbelievable. And they took jobs. One of our missionaries ran into
someone, you guys know Moose Parks, he'd been up here before,
right? When Jim was here, I believe, I think he was up here. He is
a missionary down in St. Croix. When he was in Bible college,
he felt called to be a missionary. And someone he knew who was going
through to be a preacher said, well, I can't be a preacher,
so I guess I'll just be a missionary. And that didn't sit right with
him at all. Do you know a missionary is just as called? David is called
to be a missionary to his grandson. He's called to be a missionary. That's a calling just like being
a preacher is a calling. It's not a job. So this man was
God's ordained man. He was ordained by God. Man can
do all kinds of ordination and the fellow might not be ordained
by God. Why do preachers quit? You ever
seen preachers in religion quit? You know why they quit? Because
they never called. And I'm not talking circumstances
like what Colin went through. I'm not talking about that. I'm
talking about guys that just walk away and just walk away
from the Lord. Well, Chris, you experienced
that. You said you weren't even saved. Talk to Chris about what he went
through. It's amazing. And then you find out later on
that the Lord saves you and you're just rejoicing. You're just rejoicing. This man
was ordained by God to preach the gospel. And him meeting Apollos
and Priscilla was ordained by God. Isn't that magnificent?
That was ordained by God. So Apollos was God's ordained
preacher, equipped by the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Lord made
him mighty in the scriptures. It's not him. It's not his learning.
It's the Lord that made him mighty in the scriptures. It's the Lord. The Lord made
me who I am as a preacher. I can't take any credit for it.
It's his work. Now, he's given me a desire to
study the scriptures. I love it. And to talk with others
about it, man, I get all fired up. But that's all him, right? That's all him. And listen to this. And how shall
they preach except they be sent? Apollos was a sent man of God.
Jim was a sent man of God. Donny's a sent man of God. Sent
to Croswell, sent to Ashland. I'm sent here. Isn't that amazing? God's preachers
are sent to where they are. And we can't keep our mouth shut.
We have to preach Christ. We have to. How shall they preach
except they be sent? As it is written, how beautiful
are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, that's peace
through Christ and Him alone, and bring glad tidings of good
things, salvation for sinners in and through the Lord Jesus
Christ. So God's the one who instructed Paul in the way of
the Lord. He's the one who had built him up. He was a certain
Jew. He was fervent in the spirit
and the spirit that was within him. Do you know fervent there
in the Greek? It means to be hot. Did not our hearts burn within
us? Remember those two on the way
to RMS talking to the Lord? Did not our hearts burn within
us? You ever been sitting with a
brother in Christ and your heart's just burning in joy? You getting excited about the
Lord? Eh? Oh, your heart just burns. That's
being fervent in the Spirit, beloved. It means to boil over
in the Greek. For liquids, it means to boil.
For solids, it means to glow. Oh, my. It gets so hot. You ever
seen a coal in the fire? It gets so hot, it just glows,
doesn't it? That's what it means to be fervent in spirit. He was
excited. He was lit, like we used to say.
He was lit up. He was excited about what he
was talking about. And why shouldn't we be excited?
Christ has saved us from all our sins. He's done that which
we could never do. Why shouldn't we be excited? Oh my, that's why I say don't
let the charismatics steal the word hallelujah. It means praise
ye the Lord. It's a wonderful word. It's a
wonderful Lord. So it also means to be figuratively,
to be earnest, to be zealous. That is, he had a burning desire
within him to declare the truths of God. He wanted, remember Paul
said, I'm poured out for Christ. He wanted to pour his life out.
That's how we preachers feel. Just pour our lives out for Christ.
That's how believers we feel too. Oh my. And this is true of every
sent gospel preacher. And then look at verse 25, our
text tells us, our text tells us in Acts 18.25, this man was
instructed in the way of the Lord, and being fervent in the
Spirit, he spake and taught diligently the things of the Lord, knowing
only the baptism of John. So he'd only received a certain
measure of light. You know, when we're babes in
Christ, we don't know everything, do we? No, we don't know much,
but we know this, Christ saved me. Little, little, little, the little,
Joe's the little one. He's little right now. He's,
everything's in him to be an adult. He don't know that, right? But it's all there. When we're
babes of Christ, everything's there. We don't know it, though. And
then as we learn, we're like a child as they grow. Flynn will
grow up. He'll start to grow. He'll start
to get bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger. Now we see
Gavin. Remember when Gavin was just a little guy? Yeah. Remember when Rowan was
just a little guy? Now they're growing up, but everything in
them to be an adult is already there. It's like Brother Henry
used to say, when a chestnut tree drops a chestnut, everything
is in that chestnut to become a chestnut tree. Those little
helicopters that fall off the maple trees, right? Everything's
in that little helicopter that's a seed that will eventually,
if you plant it and you take care of it and you water it,
will grow to a mighty maple tree if the Lord wills. Isn't that
beautiful though? It's all in that little seed.
So Apollos, he only knew what he knew. The light that God had
given him, he knew Christ was the Messiah. He's born again. He's got faith in Christ and
he's teaching what he knows. And Apollo and Priscilla hear
him teaching. They hear him teaching. They hear him declaring the truths. And he spoke freely and fully,
and taught the people with great zeal, we saw in that verse, with
all the exactness that he could, to the limit that he knew, the
things concerning the person, the offices, and the grace of
the Lord Jesus Christ. We see in verse 25 he had a spiritual
understanding, But Apollos was limited to the baptism of John.
Not just water baptism, but bringing forth fruits fit for repentance.
And John preached the Messiah, didn't he? He said, there's someone
coming. There's someone coming. The Messiah
is coming. He taught his followers to believe
in the Messiah. Now look at verse 26. And he
began to speak boldly in the synagogue, whom when Aquila and
Priscilla had heard, they took unto him and expounded unto him
the way of God more perfectly. So look at this. Paul was sent
by God to Ephesus. And he goes into the synagogue,
and he's preaching in the synagogue, and he's preaching what God has
taught him, that Christ is the Messiah. But little does he know
that in order to better equip him, God has sent the very two
who had been with Paul, hearing Paul preach the whole time in
Corinth. They'd probably really grown in the Lord, hadn't they? God sends the Pauls to the very
place that they are, all so that they could bring him in and teach
them what they knew about Christ. Now isn't that amazing? Paulus
didn't know them before he came there. He had no clue who they
were. He had no idea at all. My! So here they are. Paulus needed
a better understanding in the way of God, in the true gospel
truths concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. And the husband and wife
team, their two faithful servants of the Most High God. Note they
didn't openly rebuke Apollos. They didn't openly rebuke. They
didn't say, well, Apollos, you're preaching the wrong thing. Or
you need to have a better understanding of that. They didn't do that,
did they? No. No. They took him aside. They took him into their home. They expounded unto him the way
of God more perfectly. And I love this. You talk about
a teachable spirit. Oh, may God make us like this.
He didn't rebuke them. He didn't get angry with them.
You notice that? I'll tell you what, I've known
some preachers, you pull them aside and you tell them something,
and they'll get awful mad at you. I think it right, is it? Lord,
give us a teachable spirit. Give us a teachable spirit. You
know, Gary Shepherd, you guys know Gary, he's been preaching
for almost 45 years. I'm talking to him on the phone,
he's like, Wayne, may we keep having teachable spirits. May we never be above correction.
If I say something wrong from the pulpit, I wanna hear it,
because then I can fix it. And you know, if I start saying
stuff that's really wrong from the pulpit, you know it's time
to get another preacher. Because I probably lost my mind. Right? Oh my. But notice this. He doesn't get
angry. He doesn't strike back at them.
He doesn't, with hateful pride, say, who do you think you are?
He doesn't do that. This is iron sharpening iron.
That's what this is. He didn't say, well, do you think
you know more than me? Did he? Marvel. God's preachers and people were
to have a teachable spirit. This is what we're to have. We
see Apollos. Quite to the contrary, instead
of getting mad, he received the instruction. He received the instruction.
And you know what? That's how Christian love works. You know that stuff that went
on with Colin? If they had come to him and talked to him instead
of going all around through, it could have been resolved just
like that. Because God's preachers, we have
teachable spirits. And we do. And God's people do,
too. Now, in this fellowship, in all
grace churches, some have left because they did not agree with
our doctrine, or because they had something personal against
the preacher. And instead of going to that preacher, they
go to members. And they start stirring dissent
up. That's what, it always happens
like that. Somebody starts grumbling, and
gets a burr, and next thing you know, they're talking against
the preacher, or they're talking against what the church believes, and it's all pride. That's what
it is. And they go to other members,
they try to discredit the preacher, But you know what their motive
always is? And they don't even know sometimes this is their
motive, is to cause division. Because that's all that's going
to do. That's going to cause division. Now, there could have
been a divide here, right? Paul could have said, what? No,
I'm out of here, man. What are you talking about? He didn't, though.
He didn't. He received the instruction. And what is Satan's tool that
he uses? Do you know what it is? He turns us against each other.
If he can turn you against me or turn me against you, he's happy as a lark. The whole goal of the enemy and
false teachers is to cause confusion and to cause division. Now sometimes it causes division
and sometimes it fails. But you know what true Christian
love is? It's the super adhesiveness that keeps us together. It's
like super glue, beloved. It keeps us together. It keeps
us bound. It's in Christ. It's all about
Him. That's what we're bound in. We're
bound in Christ, aren't we? We're bound by His blood. And you know what true Christian
love does? Remember this too. covers a multitude of sin, doesn't
it? Doesn't play the blame game,
does it? True Christian love covers a multitude of sin. Chris and I were talking about,
we see folks, what'd you say? I'm not gonna say, but we can
look at the worst person in the world and say, that's me, but
for the grace of God. Yeah, we can, can't we? Oh, we know we're just a bunch
of sinners saved by grace. And so what do we do? If love
covers a multitude of sin, we'll overlook the faults of our brothers
and sisters, won't we? Yeah, we will. We'll encourage
one another. We exhort one another, and if
necessary, we're even rebuke an Aryan brother or sister, but
we always do it in love. Love. That's the key. That's the key. And it's always in a private
conversation. Always. So let us marvel here. Let's
keep reading here. Let's marvel how this Christian love works
here. He didn't react the wrong way. He receives what our dear
brother and sister talks to him about. Look at verse 27 and 28.
And when he was disposed to pass into Archaea, which is Greece,
the brethren wrote, exhorting the disciples to receive him,
who, when he was come, helped them much which had believed
through grace. For he mightily convinced the
Jews that publicly showing by the Scriptures that Jesus was
Christ. He's mightily preaching Christ,
beloved. He's proclaiming Christ. God
the Holy Spirit had given the Pauls a better understanding
of who Christ was, better understanding of the gospel truths. And all
Aquila and Priscilla did, they were instruments used by God,
right? Preacher's just an instrument. You get a doctor, right? Doctor
uses a scalpel. Right? We're all believers. We're just instruments in the
hands of God. And here's Priscilla and Aquila. They're not preachers.
They're just brethren in the Lord. And they're an instrument
that God used to expound. Remember, they were with Paul
for so long. And they expounded to him the gospel. And just like
every born-again, blood-washed child of God, the saints at Corinth
now, they believe through grace, and they're rejoicing as Apollos
preaches Christ. Now, look what he's preaching.
Jesus was the Christ. Jesus was the Messiah. That's what he's preaching. He
didn't preach how to be a better Christian. We preach Christ. And no man in the natural state
can believe these precious truths. And Christ Jesus our Lord said,
this is the work of God that you believe on him whom he hath
sent. And then Peter wrote this under
divine inspiration. Grace and peace be multiplied
unto you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ, our
Lord, according to his divine power, hath given unto us all
things that pertain unto life and godliness through the knowledge
of him, that being Christ, that hath called us to glory and virtue. 2 Peter 2 to 3. So marvel, beloved of God, that
it's by divine revelation that God the Holy Spirit gives us
faith to believe on Christ and his glorious truths. Paul, thus,
by the grace of God, now had a better understanding of who
Christ was. As we grow in grace, what happens?
We have a better understanding of who Christ is, don't we? Better understanding of who we
are, sinners in need of Christ. More and more each day, but a
better understanding of the King of glory, who redeemed us with
the shedding of his precious blood, gave his life willingly
for sinners. My. And we see when he arrived
at Corinth, that's where he is there at the last verse, he arrives
at Corinth. And he met with our Lord's disciples.
And he had letters from the folks at Ephesus, speaking of who he
was. My. And he mightily convinced
the Jews that publicly, by showing by the scriptures that Jesus
was the Christ, that he was the Messiah. The word publicly there
has reference to the gathering of the people for public worship
in the Jewish synagogue. Just like what we have here.
We're publicly worshiping. And we see, we know it's by the
power of God, the Holy Spirit, that Apollos mightily proclaimed
Christ, that the Jews were convinced by the power of God, the Holy
Spirit, and were shown by him that Jesus was the Christ. And
notice what we see. Notice what he didn't use. He
didn't use human logic. He didn't use human reasoning. So many times we think, well,
if I could just logically get someone to understand this. Don't
do nothing. Right? Eric's laughing because
we've talked about that before. But it's so true. It's just logic
can't save anyone. It's the Holy Spirit. Look at
this. Where did he take him? To the Old Testament, the scriptures.
And he proclaimed Christ, beloved. Mightily there is by the power
of God the Holy Spirit. He's just an instrument in God's
hands. He's the ordained instrument
that God sent to Corinth for those sheep to hear the gospel
at that time. It's beautiful. It's beautiful. It's absolutely
beautiful. So beloved of God, God's word,
his gospel is our sword. It's our sword. It's the only way of proving
and defending what we believe. Don't ever look for human logic
or human reasoning to defend what we believe. Always defend
what we believe from the scriptures. That's the truth, isn't it, Brother
Travis? That's the truth. What we believe comes from the
scriptures. Not because someone said it, but because it's from
the scriptures. That's the key. We speak not
in the words which man's wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Ghost
teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual, 1 Corinthians
2.13. So what does it mean to compare
spiritual things with Scripture? Because God's preachers don't
debate what we believe is the truth. We know it's the truth
by revelation, by God teaching us that, right? We declare the
truth. We declare it. And those who
believe always believe through grace. They're born again of
the Holy Spirit of God. And unbelievers have no argument
with those who preach the truth. No, actually, their argument's
not with me. If you're an unbeliever listening,
your argument's not with me. Your argument's with God, who
you will one day face and find out that He's real. Arguments not so think of that
when people are talking to us, and they're against what we what
we teach They're not arguing with you and I beloved They're
arguing with God and what his word says I know cuz I argued with God.
Did you before we were saved? Oh, yeah, we did oh Yeah Might
not have just came out with it, but we were shaking our fist
one way Oh, yeah. Praise God for mercy and grace.
And those who believe always believe through grace. And think of this, those who
argue against God will never win. They'll never win. It'll lead to their destruction.
The Word of God declares, doesn't debate. Here's some things that
the Word of God declares. They're not up for debate, because
the Word of God declares this. that Jesus Christ is God, our
creator. Declares that. The word of God
declares that Jesus Christ, who is the word of God, clothed himself
in a human body. The word of God declares that
Jesus Christ, God incarnated in the flesh, established a perfect
righteousness for his chosen people. He did that. Praise his
mighty name. And how did he do it? By his
perfect obedience to the law of God. The Word of God declares
that Jesus Christ, by the supreme sacrifice of himself, the shedding
of his precious blood to save us from our sins, obtained eternal
redemption for us. That's not up for debate, is
it? It's a declaration. And the Word of God declares
that Jesus Christ has risen from the dead and is right now seated
at the right hand of glory. And he's on the sovereign throne
of power. He's not waiting to reign, is
he, Brother Brian? He reigns and rules right now. Sovereign king. Isn't that wonderful? To know that's who holds us in
his hands. And here's another one. The Word
of God not only declares that he's risen from the dead, he's
now seated at the right hand of the throne of power, but the
Word of God declares that he's every believer's surety. He's
the guarantor of our salvation. The word of God declares that
by Jesus Christ, all who believe on him are justified from all
things from which we could not be justified by the law of Moses,
which means which we could not be justified by our works. We
can never be justified before God by anything we do. But the
word of God declares that all who believe on him are justified. Oh, that's wonderful. And the
Word of God declares this, contrary to what people say and think,
Christ is coming again. He is coming. No man knows the
hour, no man knows the day, no man knows the season, but He's
coming again. Because the Word of God declares
it. Declares it. And the Word of God declares
it all, look to Him, shall he appear the second time without
sin unto salvation. In God's preachers, we have the
honour and the privilege of declaring these wonderful truths. I do
not debate scripture, I declare it. Period. It's not up for debate. So may
our great Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ, be pleased to give
the increase to his word, to his gospel. Every time we have
the opportunity to preach it, every time we have the opportunity
to hear it, may God give the increase to that preaching and
to the hearing of his wonderful word. Praise his mighty name. Isn't he so glorious? He's just
so glorious. Brother Travis, can you close
us in prayer?