Open your Bibles, if you would,
to Acts chapter 14, or continue our study in this wonderful book.
Let's stand up together. We're going to read verses 7
to 10 in Acts chapter 14. Acts chapter 14, verse 7 to 10. And there they preach the gospel. And there sat a certain man at
Lystia, impotent in his feet, being a cripple from his mother's
womb, who never had walked. The same heard Paul speak, who
steadfastly beholding him, and perceiving that he had faith
to be healed, and said with a loud voice, Stand upright on thy feet,
And he leaped and walked. Oh my, I'm excited today. I'm excited all the time, but
I'm excited about this portion of scripture. This is wonderful. Oh, look what we get to see today. We get to see in this wonderful
chapter, our sovereign God at work in the ministry of Paul
and Barnabas, And we're going to see, again, we're going to
look at this a little more in depth, that our great God going
to heal this impotent man. And note what the text said.
He'd never walked. He's been crippled from his mama's
womb. He never walked ever. He didn't
know how to walk. We had to learn how to walk,
didn't we? And if you've ever had an accident
or had surgery where you couldn't walk, you have to learn how to
walk again. Right? This man had never walked. Never walked from his mom's womb. Oh my. Not only was he physically
impotent, he was also spiritually impotent. Which is how we're
all born into this world, right? We're lame from a fall, crippled
from a fall, a fall out. We're dead in trespasses and
sins when we come into this world. We're just like this man. We're crippled from the womb. We may come out physically doing
okay, but spiritually, we're just like this man. And you know,
this man couldn't heal himself. And you know, no doctor alive
at that time, or even now, even now, this man never walked. Could heal him. My, oh, my. If he'd been around
nowadays, he'd be spending his whole life in a wheelchair. My, oh, my. And back then, he couldn't work. He couldn't do
anything. And here he is. He's a beggar. What are we spiritually? We're
a bunch of beggars. And even after the Lord saves
us, what are we now? We're mercy beggars now, aren't we? Oh, yeah. I'm just a mercy beggar telling
other beggars where to find bread. I'll tell you why. Are you hungry? I pray God will give you hunger
and thirst for righteousness, which is the Lord Jesus Christ.
He's the Lord our righteousness. And think of this too, all miracles
performed by God's ordained preachers during the apostolic time were
purposed and executed by God. People get all hooked up now
thinking, oh, you can do this and you can do that, right? These
men could only do these miracles by God's power. Right? That's the only way they
could do them. We have no power to perform miracles.
Preacher don't have no power to perform a miracle. Paul and Barnabas had no power
to do it except the Holy Ghost gave them that power. And you got people claiming they
got the power now. Well, how come they're not at
the hospital wards then? How come they're not in places
where people need them? They say, well, we have to have special
meetings for it to work. No, you don't. Did Paul and Barnabas
say, well, we got to go over here and sit right here because
only can do it right in this place right here. No, because
it wasn't them doing the miracle. It was God doing the miracle. And you know what? If you're
born again, I'm looking at a walking miracle. You're seeing a walking
miracle right here. Know that? Because think of this, Travis. We never sought God. Scripture
says we'd never seek him. Kevin, Scripture says there's
none righteous, and yet the Father declares us righteous in Christ. We'd never confess Christ. Remember what he says? He says,
he said, I've chosen you. You're not chosen me. Why don't we just believe what
the Bible says? I'm amazed that God chose me.
Are you amazed that God chose you? It's a miracle of God's
grace, isn't it? Ain't that amazing? People say,
well, I don't believe in that election stuff. Well, Christ
himself, who's God in the flesh, said, you've not chosen me, but
I've chosen you. So are you calling Christ a liar? Call me whatever you want, I
don't care. I've been called things that you'd never even
imagined, but that's okay. But you're gonna call Christ
a liar? Christ is God. Remember who people
are dealing with, eh? So these miracles are done by
the power of God. They're done by the power of
God. And they were purposed by God. This is here for our learning,
beloved. This is here for our learning.
The healing of the lame man, which we'll look at today, was
used by God to prove that he had sent Paul and Barnabas. They were sent to preach the
gospel. And notice in our text today,
these people in this city are gonna seek to glorify Paul and
Barnabas and watch what Paul and Barnabas do and say. No preacher of the gospel wants
the glory. We want you along with us to
glorify God. He gets all the glory. He's done
the mighty work, hasn't he? He's redeemed our eternal souls.
Not we ourselves, we couldn't save anyone, not even ourselves. Look at verse seven again. I
know we touched on this last week, but I'm just gonna use
this as an introduction. And there they preach the gospel.
So we see in verse seven, Paul and Barnabas are going around
doing what God has called them to do. which is what? Preach the gospel. So many churches have all these
entertaining things that you're supposed to be doing, all these
things. I was listening to a couple of preachers this week that are
preaching at Donny's conference, and Donny got up and said, what's
the one difference with our church and other churches? Is we focus on preaching Christ. The music's wonderful. but it
all has to center around Christ. Preaching of Christ and him crucified
is the most paramount thing that we gather to do, to listen to
the preaching of Christ. That's what it is. Jail playing
the piano is to glorify God. And it sets the tone, doesn't
it, for the preaching of the gospel. They go hand in hand. They go hand in hand. They prepare
us for worship. The singing that we do prepares
us to hear the word, which is paramount. Someone said to me
one time, well, do you guys sing four or five songs? I said, no,
we sing one song, and we have a special. Whenever the ladies
are going to do a special, then we preach, and then we have one
song, and we're done. I can only do two songs? Yeah.
I love singing, but preaching is more important than singing,
isn't it? And we see here, what do they
do? And there they preach the gospel. They preach Christ and
Him crucified. They preach the one thing needful,
right? What's the one thing needful for sinners? Christ. Christ. My, so they're doing what they're
called to do. And the glorious gospel is made effectual when
the gospel preacher preaches. The glorious gospel is made effectual
by the power of God, the Holy Spirit. It's his work. Just like
regeneration is his work, just like this healing was his work,
right? He takes the word of God, preached,
and applies it, regenerates, gives us faith to believe it.
It's all him. Salvation's of the Lord from
beginning to end, in the planning, the purposing, the execution,
and the application. Isn't that amazing? So who do
we give the glory to then? Give it to God, don't we? Look
what he's done. Let's read verses eight to 10
here. And there sat a certain man at Lystia, impotent in his
feet, being a cripple from his mother's womb, who never had
walked. The same heard Paul speak, who
steadfastly beholding him and perceiving that he had faith
to be healed, said with a loud voice, everyone heard this. He
didn't just whisper it. They all heard it. Stand upright
on thy feet. And he leaped and what? Walked. Look at this in verse 8, being
a cripple from his mother's womb who had never walked. That's amazing. Did we just come
out of our mother's womb and start walking? We had to learn,
didn't we? First we crawled on our little
hands and feet, our little knees. So precious to see little ones
like that, isn't it? And then they grab ahold of a,
you remember this, our kids? Grab ahold of something. Right? And then eventually their
balance comes. And then when we see them walk,
oh, they're walking! Right? This man never went through any
of that. This is amazing. And notice these words. Don't
let these words slip by. Don't let these words slip by.
A certain man. God's distinguishing him right
there out of all the other people that are there. We've seen this
word in our other studies, haven't we? Remember at the Pool of Bethsaida? A certain man. Even in our studies
and acts, a certain man. A certain woman. Distinguishing them from all
others. Oh, our Lord identifies, the
Holy Spirit in this text identifies one particular man. Now, Vicki
and I were talking about this this week, and I said, do you
notice his name's not mentioned? And Vicki said something profound.
She goes, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter what his name
is. You know, this man pictures all
of us, spiritually crippled, unable to help ourselves or heal
ourselves. A certain man. No title. We don't
know who he is. We're going to meet him one day.
We who are the redeemed of the Lord. But, it doesn't matter what his
name is, does it? He's one of the Lord's sheep.
A certain man, though. Distinguishing him from all others. And again, remember the pool
of Pisidia? There's multitude of unpotent folk there. And our
Lord goes to a certain man. Goes right by everybody else. Heals that guy and then walks
away. Oh my. Remember the guy, remember
the man at the gate called Beautiful? There was probably other beggars
sitting around there too, wasn't there? Peter fastened his eyes upon
that one man. Silver and gold have I not, but
such as I have, I give thee in the name of Jesus Christ. Rise
up and walk. What'd that guy do? It says he
was leaping, leaping and jumping for joy, going into the synagogue. Healed just like that. It's wonderful, beloved. What
a picture of us. Remember, no man could help this.
No doctor could help this fellow. No other man could help this
fellow. He couldn't. Could he even help himself? Couldn't,
could he, Travis? Couldn't even help himself. Not
at all. But God could heal him. What a picture. We're dead in
trespasses and sins. We can't save ourselves. We can't
even make ourselves become alive. We're dead, the scripture says,
in trespasses and sins. And when God the Holy Spirit
comes along, we're born again, we're made alive. And we worship God, don't we?
We rise from the dead, don't we? And Brother Brian, we leap and
praise God now, don't we? Oh my! The ones lame from the
fall by God's mercy and grace can walk. It's beautiful. It's believed that the important
man in our text, along with many others, sat close to the entrance
of the Jewish synagogue. And they'd cry for help when
people went by. They'd cry for help, hoping people
would have mercy upon them. Hoping people would help them. And think of this. Think of this. I mentioned this in Sunday school.
I want to mention it again. God's eternal, right? He's eternal. He has no beginning
and no end. In Him being eternal and we being
chosen in Christ in eternity, there has never been a time when
Christ didn't love us. Never. When we were dead in trespasses
and sins, He loved us. When we as believers have, and
I've done it many times, when we've sinned, we've fallen, does
His love for us change? Never. You ever heard someone
love you like that? I don't know about you, but sometimes
when people wrong me, and even though I love them, I get pretty
upset. Is it so for you? Or if someone who I trust dearly
and I count as a dear close friend wronged me, it hurts. And sometimes will cause me to
pull away. Is it so for you? Let's be honest. How many times have we sinned
against God before we were saved and after we're saved? Well,
we're saved 2,000 years ago, but before we're born again and
after we're born again, how many times have we sinned against
God and he's never pulled away from us? As a matter of fact,
in Sunday school, we looked at the verse, he says, all power
has been given to him in heaven and earth, and lo, I'm with you
always, even until the end of the world. That's love. This man was one of his sheep.
This man was one of those he loved for eternity. He's called
a certain man. A certain man. And like all of God's born-again
blood-washed sheep, the eye of God's sovereign mercy is fixed
upon him. You ever think of that? Right
now, the eye of God's sovereign mercy and love is fixed upon
every one of us as individuals who believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's incredible. I'm a saved sinner, but yet his
eye is still fixed upon me, and fixed upon you, who believe, fixed upon all the
sheep of God. Remember, he don't sleep. And we have to go to sleep for
eight hours, or six hours, or five hours. His eyes never leave us. Isn't that comforting? Whether
we be in the bed of affliction, whether we be going through trials,
or tribulations, or sorrow, his eye never leaves us. And Brother Brian, we're the
apple of his eye. We're His jewels, Scripture says,
in Malachi. Oh, my. And you know that precious
in the eyes of the Lord is the death of His saints? Precious
there means valuable. What did we just sing? We're
bought with a price. Not silver or gold, though, but
with the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's a price. That's more valuable than anything
in this world. Anything. Oh my. And we see here, look
at this. This man's lame from his mother's
womb. He's never walked. He's never
walked. And our Lord stresses this man's
helplessness and hopelessness. His condition is helpless and
hopeless, right? In the eyes of man. Our Lord
stresses this. revealing to us that the man
could not heal himself, nor could he be healed by any man, even
the very best of physicians during that time could never be healed. And marvel at how this man's
hopeless and helpless condition points to the doctrine of man's
total depravity. We can't help ourselves. We can't
save ourselves. Spiritually, we're in this same
position. Helpless and hopeless when we're
born into this world. That's from our perspective,
right? God's eye of love is set upon us. You ever think about
the second we're conceived? Even before that, even before
that, even before we're conceived. His eye of love is set upon us
for eternity. So as I said, there's never been
a time when His eye of love has not been upon us. That fills my brain with a whole
lot of fizzing, but it's true. If we're loved with an everlasting
love, everlasting means everlasting, doesn't it? Oh my, it's amazing. It's amazing. Turn, if you would, to Luke chapter
19. Luke chapter 19. So marvel at how the total depravity
of man is brought forth here, revealing to us that all sinners
are just as helpless and hopeless, spiritually speaking, as this
certain man who was in need of physical healing. Now, we see
in the text, too, that, look at verse 9, this man had heard
the gospel. And then we see in verse 9 that
Paul, perceiving, again, by the Holy Spirit's power, that this
man had faith. He'd been given the gift of God. Look at that. I'll read that
again. The same heard Paul speak who steadfastly beholding him and perceiving that he had faith
to be healed. He was staring at Paul. He wasn't asking for no money.
He was steadfastly listening to what Paul was saying about
the Messiah. And the text brings forth that the Holy Spirit had
regenerated him. He'd been given faith to believe. Oh my. He'd heard the gospel. He'd heard
Paul preach the gospel of God's sovereign grace, and God's providential
hand of grace was upon him. And like all unregenerate, hell-deserving
sinners, the impotent man wasn't even seeking Christ. God brought
the gospel to him. God bought the, think of that,
God bought the gospel to us, beloved. We weren't seeking it. He bought it to us. It's wonderful. He will make
sure every one of his lost sheep will hear the gospel and shall
be saved. This shows us God's irresistible
grace too. This man's steadfastly now listening
to Paul. So it shows our total depravity,
we can't save ourselves. It shows God's irresistible grace
too. It's wonderful. Look at verse
nine and 10 of Luke chapter 19. Look at this. And Jesus said
unto him, this day is salvation come to this house for as much
as he also is a son of Abraham. This man, remember, is the son
of Abraham. Now, somebody says, well, he's
not Jewish. Okay. Yeah, he's not Jewish. He's Gentile. He's Gentile, isn't he? How can
you say he's the son of Abraham? How can you say that? Well, the
Lord said it here. Look at this. For the son of
man is come to seek and to save that which is what? Lost, amen
sister, lost. They didn't come to seek and
save those who think that they're self-righteous and think they
can save themselves. Heaven's full of folks who've
been saved because they were lost. Dead dog sinners such as me and
you. Now, turn if you would quick
to Galatians chapter three. Look at this. How can you call
him the son of Abraham? Well, who's the true sons of
Abraham? Oh my. Look at this. Look at verse 29. And if ye be
Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed. and errs according to the
promise. This is written to Gentile believers. And Paul tells them, by inspiration
of the Holy Spirit of God here, he says, if you be Christ, then
you're Abraham's seed. Now there's a physical seed of
Abraham. This is talking about the spiritual seed of Abraham. And there's according to the
promise. Now look down a little bit in chapter 4. Look at verse 6
and 7. And because ye are sons, God
hath sent forth the spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying
what? Abba, Father. Wherefore thou art no more a
servant, But a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.
Now before that, in chapter, or verse one of chapter four,
he said, now I say that the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth
nothing from a servant, though he be Lord of all. You can't
tell, you can't tell one of God's sheep when they're lost from
a goat. You can't tell, we can't tell.
We don't have that discernment. But God knows, doesn't he? He
knows every single one of his lost sheep. And they must and
they will hear the gospel. And they must and they will be
born again. And they must and they will be
in heaven for eternity with Christ Jesus our Lord. Praise God the Son of Man came
to seek and save that which is lost. So like all of us, this
certain man in his lost state of spiritual death would never
have gone out of his way to hear one of God's preachers. So God
sent him a preacher. Somebody says, well, what about
somebody in the middle of the ocean in an island? Oh, I've
heard this before. In the middle of an ocean, and
they've never heard the gospel. God will send a missionary to
them and preach the gospel to them. If he's one of the Lord's
lost sheep, he's going to get them. It don't matter where they
are in this earth. I don't care where they are,
God's going to get them. Because Christ said he wouldn't
lose one of them. And if he says he wouldn't lose
one of them, and I'm one of them, praise God, he won't lose me. Isn't that wonderful? Isn't that
comforting to your soul, beloved? Doesn't that bring you comfort?
My. My oh my. So marvel at this.
Our sovereign God, our sovereign Lord, sent his preacher in the
way of that impotent man so that he could hear God's gospel. Because the preacher of the gospel
is the instrument that the Lord uses when he delivers his people. The Holy Spirit takes it and
he regenerates the believer or the unbeliever to the believer,
and gives us faith to believe what the preachers say. And people use all kinds of excuses.
All kinds of, well, I'm not ready yet. I'm not ready yet. I'm not worthy. Well, none of
us is worthy. Are you worthy for salvation?
I ain't worthy. See, all of these things are
a form of self-righteousness. That's what they are. They're a form of self-righteousness.
That's inbred in us, isn't it? But when we, by the power of
God, the Holy Spirit, realize that there's no one worthy, there's
no one good, then we marvel that he saved us. We marvel that we're
born again. But we are bound to give thanks
always to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because
God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification
of the spirit, belief in the truth. Belief in the truth. Where unto he called you by our
gospel to the attaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ,
2 Thessalonians 2, verses 13 and 14. They're a bunch of idol
worshipers. They're a bunch of pagans, just
like I was, just like you were. Gospel came to us because we're one of God's
sheep. Isn't that amazing? Why did it come to us? Because
God had from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification
of the spirit and belief in the truth. One second we don't believe,
the next second we do. Praise be to God. It's wonderful. And in his irresistible call,
I like to call invincible call, whereunto he called you by our
gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
It's amazing. Our Lord also said this, no one
can come to me except the Father draw him, and I will raise him
up the last day. Every man therefore that had
heard, see this man heard, didn't he? He didn't just hear audibly,
he heard with spiritual ears, didn't he? Just like every one
of God's born again bloodlust saints. Every man, therefore,
that hath heard and hath learned of the Father cometh unto me.
That's Christ saying that in John chapter 6, verses 44 to
46. See, we won't come to Christ
unless God does a work in us. So that we who are the born-again
blood-washed saints of God marvel at the purpose of God and his
sovereign power in the healing of this certain man. Again, this
was recorded to teach us the doctrine of total depravity and
irresistible grace. My, oh, my. Did this man say,
well, you know, wait a second, I got to make a decision. Let's
see if I can walk. Oh, wait, I can't walk. I got
to wait and see. Oh, wait, he couldn't walk. But God saved him without him
even moving his muscle. Because it's a hard work. It's a hard work, isn't it? It's
a work of God, it's an operation of God, Colossians says. This certain man heard Paul speak,
he heard him preach, and he was steadfastly beholding him, and
Paul perceived that he had faith to be healed, and then he says,
stand up right on my feet, and he leaped and walked. Oh my goodness. Our Lord gave
Paul spiritual discernment, in Barnabas, so that when Paul fixed
his eyes upon this certain man, he perceived that God the Holy
Spirit had already given the lame man faith to be healed.
And so Paul spoke loud enough so that the impotent man and
those surrounding him, because there'd be people talking like
they do. You ever be in a place and you
hear people talking? You ever just sit and listen to all the
voices mixed in? It's wild. It's amazing. And so this would
have drawn their attention to what was happening. He says,
stand up right on thy feet and let us pay close attention to
this divine healing as this impotent man had never walked a day in
his life. He had never walked. He had absolutely
no strength in those legs. They'd have been all shriveled
up. He had no strength. One second the muscles were useless,
and the next second he's leaping for joy. Sister, you're a nurse. Is that
even possible? Human speaking, we can't make
ourselves do that. This is a miracle of God. This
is a miracle of God. Muscles are useless one second,
and he's leaping the next second. Our Lord had miraculously healed
this man by his almighty power. And think of this, too. Infants
don't come into the world and come out of the mama's womb and
say, you know, they don't walk or talk right away, do they?
Can you imagine a bunch of babies walking down the hallway in a
hospital all of a sudden? Those little legs are moving
around. But parents with hopeful expectation,
and we patiently teach our children to take their first steps. And
it's a wonder we don't fight them to death when we're like,
oh, they're walking, right? Because that's how we all react. They're walking. You remember
when your kids first walked? Oh, yeah. You'll never forget
it, will you? And every one of them, too. You'll remember that. Remember your grandkids, when
they visit you and the first time they're walking? You might
not have seen them walk right away, but you're like, oh, he's
walking. Right? Oh, my. My, oh, my. He leaped. And he's filled with excitement,
this fella. He's so filled with excitement, he's leaping. My, oh my. Let us be filled with
excitement as much as when we first see our children walk,
when we first see a babe in Christ walking by faith. My, look at
that. Lord save them. I remember when
we got word that your dad was saved. Oh my, we were all crying
and rejoiced. Kevin called me on the phone.
I got the best news that anyone could ever get on Father's Day.
I'll never forget that, Kevin. That was amazing. His dad called
him on Father's Day. The Lord saved my soul. Oh my! Isn't that wonderful? Oh, it's
exciting. My, oh my. So not only did our
Lord Jesus Christ give him strength to leap to his feet, this man
was walking like he'd walked his whole life. He leaped, look it, and he leaped
and what? Walked. Could you imagine? My legs are
working. Do you imagine how amazing that
is for me? He's never walked in his life. He's seen people
walk in their whole life. They go by him. Boy, that must
be nice. See, let us not take these little things in life for
granted. Such even as walking. My, oh, my. This man is walking. So not only, again, did the Lord
give him strength to leap to his feet, he gave him, he gave
him, he taught that man to walk expertly and instantly. It's
amazing. And take note, when it says a
certain man, it doesn't, again, it doesn't tell us if he was
a Jew or a Gentile. Imagine he was a Gentile, because
they were in a Gentile city, but it doesn't tell us that,
because it doesn't matter. It doesn't tell us his name, because
it doesn't matter. Right? The body of Christ is
comprised of Jews and Gentiles, born again. Look at verse 11 now. Acts chapter
14, verse 11. And when the people saw what
Paul had done, they lifted up their voices saying in the speech
of Lycania, the gods are come down to us in the likeness of
man. Now before we judge these guys too hard, we'd all be the
same way if we were there and we were Gentiles. The excitement has went through
this whole crowd. They just witnessed a miracle.
But we also see that sin cursed their eyes. Their eyes needed
to be enlightened, didn't they? Sin cursed their eyes to who
really did the miracle. God did the miracle. They're
seeking to give glory to these two men, thinking that they're
the gods. They're very gods who come down and are walking among
them. They're not giving glory to God.
Who are they praising? They're praising the gods of
their own imagination. That's what we do in our natural
state, don't we? Oh my. This is typical of all,
and think of this too, this is typical of false religionists,
self-righteous religionists. They have their own religion,
they're worshiping idols, right? The Jews weren't the only religion.
There's hundreds of different religions going on, right? Their
religion was, they looked at Mercury and other gods as their gods. But this is typical of all self-righteous
religious people. They say that the, they don't
say that the miracle, the new birth is a miracle of God. They
even contribute so-called miracles to their own sinful decision
for Christ, to the Jesus of their imagination. Is the Jesus who has to wait
for you to make a decision to come to him, is that the Jesus
of the Bible? I'm just being honest. Is that the Jesus of
the Bible? That has to wait upon man to
make a decision to come to him? Now, do we come willingly? Absolutely. Because we're made willing. That's another Jesus, beloved.
And people say, might say, well, that's kind of harsh to say that.
It's true. My Jesus, my God, my Savior,
the scripture says, has all power. All power. Right? To do what he will. And He gives
eternal life to as many as the Father gave Him. I don't have
a clue who they are, so I preach to everyone. And God does the
saving. Oh my. See, people saying that
they save themselves, and I was in this. I was in the Lord saved
me out of this. People saying that they can save
themselves by something they do, they're not giving God any
glory at all. Really, they're making themselves
sovereign. Scary place to be, isn't it?
Look at verse 12. And they called Barnabas Jupiter
and Paul Mercury because he was the chief speaker. So the word
Jupiter was the name the Greeks gave to their supreme God. And
the name Mercury had reference to the messenger of their supreme
God. And these ungodly men believed
Barnabas was the supreme God, and that Paul was their messenger,
because Paul was preaching. And let us always remember that
God's preachers are mere men. We're just men, saved by the
grace of God. And we point our hearers to the
one true living God, the Lord Jesus Christ. I ain't seeking
a following. I want you to follow Christ.
I want you to look to Christ. I learned a long time ago that
Christ must get all the preeminence in everything we do here. Everything
we do here. He has to get the preeminence.
He must. Oh, that you'd follow Christ,
that you wholly trust your eternal soul to the Lord Jesus Christ.
And if you haven't, To anyone who will hear this message, I
pray God will give you grace to cast yourself upon Christ
and beg for mercy like we've all done, right? God be merciful
to me, the sinner. Oh my. And think here, the gods
they mention are gods of their imagination. They're not real. They're not real. Look at verse 13. Then the priest
of Jupiter, which was before the city, brought oxen and garlands
unto the gates and would have done sacrifice with the people.
So we see here that these false religionists, they had erected
a statue of Jupiter at the entrance of the city so that all who entered into
the city would take notice of their God. And the priest of Jupiter was
not the only religious leader of that city, but he was one
of the most prominent men, obviously, who governed the affairs of the
people of the city. And we see here he brought oxen and garlands
unto the gates and would have done sacrifice with the people
to Paul and Barnabas. Oh my, now when Paul and Barnabas
heard that the chief priests of the city was about to do what
they were about to do, we see in verse 14 that they rent their
clothes in an open show of their abhorrence of receiving any praise
and glory for what had been done. Their sincere desire was to glorify
God in the preaching of the gospel. Look at verses 14 to 18. Beloved, the one true and living
God, the Lord Jesus Christ, who they had the honor of preaching,
they preached Him alone. They glorified God by preaching
Him alone in His perfect sinatonic work in the room and place of
sinners. Look at verse 14 to 18. which when the apostles Barnabas
and Paul heard of that, they rent their clothes and ran in
among the people crying out, and saying, Sirs, why do ye these
things? We are also men of like passions
with you, and preach unto you that ye should turn from these
vanities unto the living God, which made heaven and earth,
and the sea, and all things that are therein. What a testimony!
He just called their gods vanities. Well, that's not very nice, someone
might say. Well, they're false gods. They called it like it was, didn't
they? Who in times past suffered all nations to walk in their
own ways. Nevertheless, he left not himself without witness in
that he did good and gave us rain from heaven and fruitful
seasons fill in our hearts with food and gladness. And with these
sayings scarce restrained they the people that they had not
done sacrifice unto them. So we see that these self-righteous
religionists believed that the impotent man was healed by the
power of their false god. And they were sure that Barnabas
and Paul were their supreme god in the flesh and their supreme
god's messenger in the flesh, which was the god of imagination.
They believed the gods had come down in their likeness. But Paul
and Barnabas are preaching the one true God who did come down,
took upon him the form of a servant, was made in the likeness of man.
His name is the Lord Jesus Christ. And they were about to offer
sacrifices and put garlands on their heads. Paul and Barnabas
are talking about, they're not going to let that happen, are
they? No way. They rent their clothes, ran
among the people. with a true testimony. Paul gave a true testimony,
didn't he? Look at verse 15. We also are
men of like passions with you and preach unto you that you
should turn from these vanities unto the living God, which made
heaven and earth and the sea and all things that are therein.
Oh my. God's preacher right there just
told them that their God is a figment of their imagination. Nothing
but vanity. My, oh, my. This is a pattern
for God's preachers here, isn't it? Oh, yeah. God's faithful servants told
them that their God was only a figment of their sinful imaginations.
Encourage them to turn from their vanities and turn to Jesus Christ. Turn from being ungodly, odd
adulterers filled with hatred and uncontrollable rage towards
the true God. and towards his servants. Look
at verse 19. And there came thither certain
Jews from Antioch and Icernium, here they are, those fellows
are following them, who persuaded the people, and
having stoned Paul, drew him out of the city, supposing he
had been dead. So those fellows, they followed
him all the way to the next place they went. And they got the people
so enraged, wouldn't have taken much, Paul just called their
gods a bunch of vanity, right? He just said, your gods are nothing.
They're figments of your imagination. They can't help you. So here
comes these Jews, these unbelieving Jews from Antioch and Iconium
and they persuaded the people and having stone Paul. They took
him so far they stone Paul and then they thought he was dead
and they drew him out of the city, left him on the ground,
supposing he had been dead. He ain't dead. Once again, we see them stirring
up the Gentiles against Paul and Barnabas. False preachers have no concern
for the glory of God. None at all. It's all about them. They have a sinful love and hunger
for the praise of man. God's preachers don't want the
praise of man. We want you to give all glory
to God. Give Him the glory. Give Him the honor and the praise.
He's the only one who's worthy. So that we who are the people
of God take great comfort that just as the Lord Jesus Christ
worked in their lives, He's still working in our lives and in the
lives of all believers in this world. Our sovereign Lord has not changed.
He's the same yesterday, today, and forever, isn't He? And our Lord Jesus equipped Paul
and Barnabas for the ministry. He called them, sent them to
where he had appointed them to go and preach. And this is how
our sovereign Lord works in every generation. I was out in Oregon,
thought I was gonna die in Oregon. I come back from going all over,
preaching all over the place, different churches looking for
a preacher. I went all over, I must have visited what, five
or six different churches, right? Several of them. Would you consider
being their pastor? I don't feel called here. And I went back
home, and I said, Vicki, I'm going to die in Oregon, I guess.
We're going to be here. It wasn't long after that that I
got a call. About a year later, wasn't it? No, a year or two
later, I got a call. Would you consider coming out
to Almonte? I said, why not? I was just listening to Jim. Would you consider coming out?
Yeah, I'll consider coming out. Nine years later, actually, no,
more than that now, because it was a year in between, Kevin
said, man, I thought you wouldn't want to come here after all that
stuff. And I said, God never changed my mind. And here I am, nine years later,
still preaching the gospel to you. Ain't it wonderful? Looking
forward to however many more years the Lord has in store.
Isn't it wonderful? It's wonderful. So he takes his
preachers and he puts them where he wants to put them. My, oh, my. Well, it's time for
Paul and Barnabas to leave this place, wasn't it? And I love, I love how, I love
how, how, how do you say it? How Paul and Barnabas were so
guarded with giving God the glory. and not taking it upon themselves.
They were so guarded that God would get all the glory. That's
how we should be, right? Give God all the glory. We can't
give him enough, right, for what he's done for us, but we just
keep giving him more and more and more, don't we? Isn't it
wonderful he saved us? Sister, he saved us all. Give
him the glory, won't we? Give him all the glory and honor
and praise. Oh my. Well, in our next lesson, we'll
hit that verse 19 again, Lord willing. And Lord willing, we'll
go to the end of the chapter of chapter 14. So, it's so wonderful. Brother Neil, would you close
us in prayer, brother?