So we'll continue our study today.
Acts chapter 13. Acts chapter 13. The name of
the message is our astonishing God. Our astonishing God. He's amazing. He's incomprehensible,
but what we can comprehend is astonishing. It really is. And to think that God himself
sent his son to die for sinners such as we, sent the word of
God, the Lord Jesus Christ, and as we looked at in Sunday School,
he was a willing servant, a bond servant. And he come and said,
I delight to do thy will, O God. He delighted to do the will of
the Father. What's the will of the Father?
Thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people
from their sins. We complicate things, don't we?
There it is! He came, he came to save his
people from their sins. And all who believe the gospel,
truly believe the gospel, and from different denominations,
that's where we need to come together. He saved us from our sins. Praise
be to God. It's wonderful. It's absolutely
wonderful. So last week, we saw at the beginning
of this chapter that the Holy Spirit has had Paul and Barnabas
now embark on a missionary journey to the Gentiles. to the Gentiles,
and we've seen there's been a church established in Antioch, Syria.
They were sent out from there, and we see this church sent them
out, right? That's just the born-again blood-washed saints. Who really
sent them out? God the Father. God the Father
really sent them out. They just acknowledged, the saints
just acknowledged the gifting that they had. But the Lord said,
the Holy Spirit said, separate unto me. Remember, personal,
the pronouns, me. Paul and Barnabas, for the work
which I have for them. Two personal pronouns. So we
see the Holy Spirit's a person as well, right? Father is God,
the Son's God, and the Holy Spirit's God in the three are one. Isn't
that amazing? It's amazing. It's incredible,
beloved. Oh my. So they've been sent forth
by the Holy Spirit of God. Now let's read in Acts chapter
13. They're going to go to Cyprus.
They're going to go to Cyprus. Look at this. Starting in verse
6, we'll read to verse 12. Let's stand up and read this
together. Acts 13, verses 6 to 12. Now, some of these names I might
mess up, so just have grace with me, please. And when they had
gone through the island of Pathos, they found a certain sorcerer,
a false prophet, a Jew whose name was Bar-Jesus, which was
with the deputy of the country, Sergius Paulus, a prudent man
who called for Barnabas and Saul and desired to hear the word
of God. But Elimeas, the sorcerer, for
so is his name by interpretation, withstood them, seeking to turn
away the deputy from the faith. Then Saul, who is also called
Paul, filled with the Holy Ghost, set his eyes on him, and said,
O full of all subduty and all mischief, thou child of the devil,
thou enemy of righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert
the right ways of the Lord? And now, behold, the hand of
the Lord is upon thee, and thou shalt be blind, not seeing the
sun for a season. And immediately, look at that,
immediately, there fell on him a mist and a darkness, and he
went about seeking some to lead him by the hand. Then the deputy,
when he saw what was done, believed, being astonished at the doctrine
of the Lord." My, oh, my. Astonished! He's astonished by
God. He's astonished at the doctrine
of the Lord. God is not only the God of the
Jews, but the Gentiles too. Now, we know in the text, it
says, in I think it's 1 Corinthians, not many wise, not many noble
are called, but God called the foolish things of the world.
Right? Foolish there does not mean dumb. It means common. I never forget
when I heard Henry Mahan say that one time in the message.
It means common people like you and I. Right? I'm a common Canadian
man. That's what I am. Right? And the Lord saved me. Gave me
a message. I'm going to preach it to everyone
now. Isn't that wonderful? It's wonderful. But we're common
folks. But here's a noble man. Here's a man of high learning. And the Lord saved him. Remember,
it didn't say, not any. It said, not many. Right? It didn't say, not any. It didn't
say, not any noble, not any. It said, not many. Well, here's
one. Here's one. Oh, my. And this man is powerful. He's
a governor over all the islands. The buck stops with this fellow. The only one who has higher authority
than him is Caesar. These governors ruled wherever
they ruled. They were in charge, beloved.
They were in charge. Now look in verse four. We see
the city of Seleucia is where they departed from. which is the seaport of Antioch, from where Paul and Barnabas
embarked on their missionary journey. And it's on the Mediterranean.
It's actually about 15 miles north of the River Orontes and
16 miles from Antioch. And there's still supposedly
a gateway there today at the southeastern corner of the city
through Paul and Barnabas may have passed through it. We don't
know. We don't know. In Acts 13.5, we see that
they sailed to Samalis, meaning that it's actually a seaport
town with a harbor on the eastern coast of Cyprus. It's directly
across. So they sailed directly across
to Cyprus. which is in the Mediterranean.
And it was a famous city, and again it was opposite of Seleucia,
where they departed from. The city was at one time the
capital of Cyprus. And as we looked at last week, there was a large Jewish population
who had built synagogues there. Look at Acts 13.5. When they
were at Salamis, they preached the word of God in the synagogues
of the Jews. And they had also John to their
minister. So Paul and Barnabas went into
the city and went to the synagogues, obviously it's plural, there's
multiple ones, and they preached Christ. And John Mark was ministering
to their needs. He went along with them. Now, note in Acts 13, verse 6,
we see Barnabas and Saul have journeyed through Cyprus to the
city of Pathos. That's on the other side of Cyprus. What were they doing when they
were traveling, brother Brian? They were preaching the gospel,
weren't they? They went from one side of Cyprus to the other
side of Cyprus, preaching Christ and Him crucified. Right? They didn't get messed up in
other stuff. They had one message. And they have one card. Isn't
that wonderful? Oh, my. Look at that. And when they had
gone through the isle unto Pathos, they found a certain sorcerer,
a false prophet, a Jew, whose name was Barbed Jesus. So they
went through the whole island, right across it, preaching the
gospel. And Pathos was a city on the
seacoast, on the island of Cyprus, but it was opposite of Somalis. Somalis. I'm sorry. And it was
about 100 miles away. So they didn't just jump in a
taxi and head off or Uber and head off. No, they journeyed
through, didn't they? They walked. Or they may have
got a ride on a cart or something. But I'll tell you what, whoever
they ran into, they were talking to them about Christ. They were
preaching Christ. And the city here. This pathos
was a bastion for worship of the goddess Venus. They had a
huge temple there. So where are they going? They're
going right into the den of iniquity, aren't they? And what are they going to do
there? They're going to preach Christ,
aren't they? And the Holy Spirit's going to
move as he's pleased. My oh my. Just as he always does. Remember Paul said that we don't
preach ourselves, but we preach Christ and him crucified. That's the mission of the preacher.
Do you know that? The mission of the preacher is
to get you to sign on to the doctrine that I believe. Although
I believe what I believe is very sound doctrine. I believe it's
the truth. But the mission for me is to
preach Christ to you. And not getting tangled up in
all that other stuff. That's why preachers, you know,
we had those issues a while back, years ago on both sides. We had
two sides going at each other. And people always say, you're
not involved in any of that, Wayne, are you? I said, nope,
and I will not be at all. Because I have friends on both
sides, and I ain't getting involved. And I'm still not involved in
any of it. It's pretty well died down now, but I have nothing
to do with that. I'm here to preach Christ to
you. Right? And rejoice with you. Isn't that
wonderful? That's what the mission is. So
Paul, what's he doing? Barbaras, they're preaching Christ,
beloved. Oh my, it's wonderful. And so here they go, they're
going into the city, and it's full on idol worship. We were
driving down the road the other day, and we had to make a turnaround. I wanted to buy some carrots
for the deer out here. And so we had to do a turnaround. Well,
we turned around in some, what is it called? Columbus? And I said, look at that. They
got the big old statue of Mary. They're worshiping her. They're
not even worshiping the true Mary. They're worshiping some
idol. Because Mary would say, listen to him. And so imagine that. Imagine
Paul walking into a place where there is thousands of statues
of Venus. They're probably selling. It's
probably a place where people come to get their little statues
of Venus and take them home to their mantles. Right? And I'm not talking, mocking
them. I had those kind of statues when I was in Catholicism. I
even had one of them stupid little metal things that they put on
for luck. You know, it's God that kept
me, preserved me all those times, not some little piece of shiny
metal. Right? Look back in your life and go,
look what God protected me from. Look what he delivered me from.
It's amazing. So imagine that. Imagine walking
into it. We're all walking into this city, right? And there it's
just lined with worship, idol, different, not just Venus probably,
but all different Greek gods. And these are Gentiles, right?
They're like we were. They're idol worshipers, right? That's why the Jews were so shocked.
So shocked that the Gentiles were brought in. Because they
were nothing but a bunch of dogs to them. So here's Paul and Barnabas. Now Paul's got a whole different
perspective now, and so does Barnabas on the Gentiles, don't
they? They're sent by God to preach the gospel to them. Right? Now they could have, Paul,
I believe Paul was a genius, I really do. He could have argued
with all those folks about their different stuff. I'm going to
preach Christ to him. I got one message. It's glorious. And as we saw,
it's an astounding message, isn't it? Our God's astounding. He's amazing. And they're sent by God to go
into the city, to go into these places. If God before us, who
can be against us? Let's hold that and believe it,
right? Because it's true. If God justifies us, who can
condemn us? No one. You ever think of that? You ever think of that? If God's
justified us, no one can condemn us. Let them say what they want to
say. I'm going to just keep preaching
Christ, the one who there's no condemnation in, for those who
are in Christ Jesus. Isn't that wonderful, sister?
No condemnation. Brother, no condemnation in Christ Jesus. My, it's wonderful. So here's these Gentiles. This
city is full of pagan worship, like full of pagan worship. Not only is it full, it's a hotbed
for Venus worship. They got a temple there. People
make pilgrimages there. And here they go. And they walk
into this city. And there's a certain sorcerer,
a false prophet, whose name was Bar Jesus. Now, this city's filled
with idols, every idol that man could imagine in their state
there. And idols are but false gods
of our imagination. Calvin said that our hearts are
factories for idol worship. They just keep manufacturing
idols to worship, including ourselves. Right? The heart's deceitful,
desperately wicked, right? And this city had frequent earthquakes,
it said, and it's now in ruins. It's now in ruins, having been
destroyed by the earthquakes that occurred. Now let's read
verse six again. And when they had gone through
the isle and the pathos, they found a certain sorcerer, a false
prophet, a Jew, whose name was Bar-Jesus. Darius and Saul, they're
not on vacation, are they? They're not on a short-term missionary
work, are they? No. They're going there to preach
the gospel. Aren't they? They're going there
to preach the gospel. That's what they're going there
for. My oh my. They're not on a sightseeing
tour. No. They're there to preach Christ. Brother Eric told me when he
went down, where did you go that one, and you met that young fella?
Paraguay. And there's a young fella down
there, just wants to have the gospel go forth. And Eric and
him hit it off, and they were talking about the gospel, and
you know, that's what, you're talking about Christ, that's
what's most important. It's amazing. And here, Just like there, too. And remember, all those South
American countries, just like Canada and the US, it's full
of Catholicism. I don't worship, beloved. Ain't
nothing more under the sun, is there? Nothing. So here they are. They're going
to preach Christ. And they continued their way
all through the island, preaching Christ. Preaching salvation for
sinners through Christ alone and nothing else. Through his
redeeming blood. And then, after traveling through Cyprus
and preaching Christ and him crucified, they come to Parthos.
and they become acquainted with a certain sorcerer. He probably
introduced himself to him. A false prophet, a Jew whose
name was Bar-Jesus. Now, even though this man was
a Jew, he's a child of the devil. How do we know that? Well, that's
what the Holy Spirit calls him. You ever notice that? Who's the
true words here? Who's the true author of the
scriptures? Holy Spirit of God, hey, brother. Marvel that you're a child of
God. Marvel. His name was Bar-Jesus, which
means son of Jesus. But remember, Jesus is the same
name as Joshua. common name used among the Jews
long before Jesus our Savior came to this earth. Well, Jesus
was a son of a Jew whose name was Jesus, Joshua. The man in our text is called,
notice this, a certain sorcerer. Remember a certain man, Cornelius? We've seen that a certain quite
a bit. He's being magnified to show the judgment
of God. Magnified not in a good way.
A certain sorcerer. So called to distinguish him
from other sorcerers. Sorcerer was a magician. That's
all they were. They're a magician. One who pretended to have magical
powers. And he was evidently a good pretender. Because he had deceived many
by his so-called magic tricks. And God himself declared this
bar Jesus to be a false prophet. We see that in our text, don't
we? Look at this. Remember, the true author of
these words is God the Holy Spirit. In 1 Nate verse 6, and when they
had gone through the aisle on the pathos, they found a certain
sorcerer, a false prophet. That's what he is, a Jew. We
have lots of false prophets among us now, don't we? Turn your TV
on. A fellow gets mad, gets so mad
at me when I say Joe Olsteen and all them guys are false prophets. They are. I'm not, I'm not. They're
false prophets. That's what they are, beloved. Right? The Holy Spirit called
this fellow a false prophet. Paul said the Galatians were
preaching another gospel. Let them be anathema. Read Jude. See what happens to those fellows.
Oh my. So the Holy Spirit tells us here
that this man is a false prophet. He's a pretender. God himself
is declared by Jesus to be a false prophet. According to the law
of Moses, he should have been stoned. He should have been stoned. But our Lord preserved him. You
know why? So that he could, by his sovereign
power, could reveal Barnabas and Saul as his true prophets. See, we don't understand what
God's doing. Oh my. See, that man's day is
coming, isn't it? It's already come now. Oh my. but that he could reveal
by his sovereign power, Barnabas and Silas, the true prophets,
his true preachers. There's no prophets today. Preaching
the gospels is prophesizing the gospel, but that's just preaching.
We're just preaching. Now, if someone tells you that
there's prophets today and there are apostles, they're lying to
your face. Because that ain't so. It ain't so. And number one, what do they
supposedly teach? See, that's what we got to do. We need to examine what these
fellows teach. Right? And if they claim to be
a prophet and it doesn't come to pass, what's that mean? They're a false prophet. Bottom
line. How many books have been written
on the late, great planet Earth? Christ is coming back. When did
he say, like the 80s or 90s? There's this fellow on TV, I
can't remember what his name is, Haggy or something, right? The blood man. He's raking in a lot of money,
beloved. But you could use that paper
for starting a fire. It would be the best thing. Just false preachers. We still
got them around. They're all over. They're all over. Talking to
my buddies this week, I said, and I flat out told them, I said,
you know, if you have a Jesus who's done everything he can,
and now the rest is up to you, you don't have the Jesus of the
Bible. Caused a little stir, but that's OK. Right? That's truth, isn't it? That
is not the Jesus of the Bible, is it, Travis? If God's done all he can do and
the rest is up to me, I'm in a heap of trouble. But praise
God, salvation's of the Lord from begin and end. And that's
what Paul and Barnabas are preaching. They're preaching that Christ
accomplished the work. It's already done. He's rose
from the grave. And he's seated at the right
hand of the Father right now. Well yeah, right now too. And he's coming again. We don't
have a clear when, don't even speculate. But he is. He's coming again. Oh my. Sure as the sun will come up
tomorrow if he wills, right sister? He's coming again. Oh my. And look at this, this encounter,
remember, this encounter was ordained by God to manifest His
power. To manifest that He is the astonishing
God. And for His glory, the glory
of the Lord Jesus Christ, the exalted God-man. Look at verse
7. So this, by Jesus it says, which
was with the deputy of the country, Sergius Paulus. So this Bargesus
was somehow trying to influence Sergius Paulus. Maybe by his
magic tricks or whatever, make him think he's something. Oh my. This man was a deputy
of that country. Now a deputy is what the Romans
called a proconsul. a pro-council, which was a person
sent as governor into a Roman province. So Sergius Paulus was
a Roman governor of the island of Cyprus. He'd be a well-learned
man, come from the higher echelons of Roman society, well-learned
man, and there's no man of greater authority on that island than
him. Now Caesar was above him, but
there was no one else who was above him on that island. So he's a man of great authority,
isn't he? And by the time Barnabas and Saul had reached Parthos,
Sergius Paulos had heard of them. News travels fast, doesn't it?
They heard of them. He heard of them. And look at
this, who called for Barnabas and Saul and desired to hear
the word of God. Something's going on, beloved. He's desiring to hear the word
of God. Who put that desire in him? Amen,
brother, the Holy Spirit. Amen. Oh, he's being drawn, beloved,
by the irresistible power of God, the Holy Spirit. And we're
going to see God, the Father, has his preachers come to the
same path as one of his lost sheep. And what's going to be the result?
He believes. Isn't that wonderful? Isn't God
astonishing? And he's working all this out
at the same time as he's working out all things that are occurring
in the world at that time. And he's working this specifically
out for this lost sheep for us to look at and go, this is amazing. Did God have a preacher cross
your paths? Did you desire to hear what he
was saying? Were you born again then? And
now you desire to hear it all the time. Who made you to differ? God and God alone. Isn't it wonderful? It's astonishing, isn't it? It
really is. It really is. That during that time of that
happening to us, he was also having all things work out for
all the elect that are on the planet at that current time. Our God is God. Our God is sovereign. Our God reigns. Rejoice, beloved. Rejoice. So here's this man,
he desires to hear the gospel. Again, we see the drawing power
of God the Holy Spirit. The Lord Jesus Christ has manifest
his power under the preaching of the gospel by Barnabas and
Saul, the sinners, being saved and the word had reached Sergius
Paulus, and now he, this Roman governor who couldn't care less
about the Jews, Couldn't care less about the
things, other things going on. He's in his own little world.
The guy's got more power than we would know what to do with. I got a desire to hear what these,
who are these two men? Call them, I want to hear what
they have to say. I desire to hear what they, it
says he desired it, didn't he? I desire to hear what they're
saying. Oh, isn't God amazing? I could
just sit here all day and look at this and just keep preaching
on this. Forget about the rest of my notes.
I'm going to sit there. It's beautiful. It's absolutely
beautiful. Oh, my. Paul and Barnabas are going to
have an interested audience. Someone who desires to hear what
they have to say. That's a blessing from God for
a preacher. When I come here, I know you
guys desire to hear the word. It's a blessing. We preachers
talk about that all the time, how it's wonderful to see folks
who want to hear the gospel, week after week after week, who
desire to hear about the things of Christ. It's incredible. It's actually an honor and a
privilege to preach the gospel. And we know that there's folks
in here and off to the internet who do not know Christ, and we
pray, oh, Lord, please, please reveal yourself to him if it's
your will. Draw him like you drew Sergius
Paulus, a Gentile. Oh, my. So he desired to hear. He asked
to hear the message that Paul and Barnabas were seeking, which,
again, was the gospel of salvation in and through the Lord Jesus
Christ alone. How greatly this would have encouraged Paul and
Barnabas and John Mark. Man, that's like saying sickum
to a dog. You'd be excited. Let's go. Let's go. He wants
to hear. Let's go. This is wonderful. And again, all
this was purposed and planned by our great God. And we'll find
out later in verse 12 that, again, Sergius Paulus is a lost sheep
of God, for whom Christ shed his blood on Calvary's cross.
He's one of the ones that Christ claimed it is finished. His salvation
was finished at Calvary's cross, just like ours was. It's wonderful. This is one who the Father gave
to Christ in eternity. And this is one for whom Christ
was sent into the world to redeem his eternal soul. And you can
put your name in there, too. And I put my name in there if
we're believers. Isn't that wonderful? Oh my. Now let's read verse 8.
But Alimaeus, the sorcerer, for so is his name, by interpretation,
withstood them, seeking to turn away the deputy from the faith. Now we see opposition coming
to the gospel. We've seen it before in Acts.
Now we're seeing it again. Opposition from this man called by Jesus, who was a sorcerer. And this sorcerer, like all who
make this claim, is a false prophet, who pretended to have magical
powers. And he was with Sergius Paulus, probably trying to influence
him in some way, trying to gain favor with him in some ungodly
way. And we see in the text, he's a false prophet. He's withstanding
God's ambassadors. He's withstanding them. He's trying to turn the Roman
governor away from the faith. It's not going to end well. See, men try to turn other men
from the faith and women. Who's going to win, God or man?
It's not even a competition, is it? It isn't a competition. Men are just creatures created
by God's creation. This man is trying to withstand
the power of God. These men are sent by God. His
will will be accomplished. No matter the opposition from
men. No matter what. Nothing that this man does or
says and nothing that no man does or says will hinder the
purpose and will of God from being accomplished. Period. It's just so. And we're living
proof of that, aren't we? God saved us despite ourselves. You know, We were made willin'
in the day of his power. But we were unwilling before
he made us willin', weren't we? Praise God he made us willin'
in the day of his power. Oh my, and none of God's servants
labor in vain. Some believe not, and some believe,
but either way, the gospel's preached, right? The results
are not in my hands, or yours. They're in God's hands. And it's obvious by this statement
there, seeking to turn away the deputy from the faith, that our
Lord Jesus Christ had given Sergius Paulus a new heart. How do you turn someone away
if they don't have faith? Isn't it amazing? God's already
regenerated this man. Seeking to turn him away from
the faith. Well, how do you get faith? He
didn't say a word. No, he didn't say nothing, did
he? Oh, bow your head and repeat
this prayer, now you're saved. Paul didn't say that, Barnabas
didn't say that. The Holy Spirit regenerated that man just like
that. Oh, he heard the word. Oh my! God gave him hearing ears,
didn't he? Oh, oh my. It's not possible to turn
away someone from the faith if they don't have faith. And it's impossible to turn someone
away who has true faith from the faith because it's God who
keeps us, not ourselves. Now if you have something that's
not real, then you could be turned away. See, if man's talked you into
something, he can talk you out of something. But if God saves
you, oh my, he's going to keep you to the end. Rejoice, beloved of God. This
is wonderful. Our God's astonishing. He's astonishing. Oh, it's amazing. Look at verses
9 to 11. We see here that the Holy Spirit
is marked. Elemaus is a real character. He's a real person. And we see that the Apostle Paul,
under the almighty influence of God the Holy Spirit, called
him a child of the devil. Then Saul, who also is called
Paul, filled with the Holy Ghost, set his eyes on him and said,
O full of all subtlety and all mischief, thou child of the devil,
thou, look at this, I almost called the message this, thou
enemy of righteousness. False preachers are an enemy
of righteousness. Isn't that, that's something,
eh? Who's our righteousness? Christ,
amen, brother, Christ. And the gospel reveals Christ.
False prophets are enemy of righteousness, enemies of Christ. Oh, what a man, what a statement. Will thou now cease to pervert
the right ways of the Lord? Oh, my. And now behold, the hand
of the Lord is upon thee, and thou shalt be blind, not seeing
the sun for a season. And immediately there fell on
him a mist and a darkness, and he went about seeking some to
lead him by the hand. So Alamis manifested his true
character, beloved, in his opposition to the child of God who's preaching
the gospel. and his opposition to God by
trying to turn the deputy, Sergius Paulus, away from the faith. He manifested his opposition. Oh my. In doing so, he gave decisive
proof that he belonged to a different kingdom. What kingdom were we
taken out of? the kingdom of darkness? Where are we now as believers? We're part of the kingdom of
God's dear son. Isn't that amazing? Oh my! The father of Alamais, the devil,
knew both of the conversion and ordination of these two servants
of the Lord. He's aware that Paul and Barnabas
are sent by God. You know the devil bleeds and
trembles. He knows God's real. Oh my. Robert Hawker says this, that
all hell was up in arms to withstand their preaching to Sergius Ballas. And Alimaus was one of the serpents'
brood. And he stood up to oppose the
preaching of the gospel. And this event is recorded here
for our learning, beloved. We still face opposition, even
today, for preaching the gospel. You tell people that salvation
is in Christ alone, plus nothing, not even their obedience, and they're going to freak out
on you. But it's true. Now, as I mentioned in Sunday
School, we're obedient because now we're servants of God. We
desire to be obedient to the Lord. But we're still sinners
saved by grace, aren't we? But we desire to serve Him. We're
willing bond servants. Willing, made willing by the
power of God. But I'll tell you what, nothing we do before we're
saved, nothing we do after we're saved can gain us merit and favor
with God. It's all through Christ and his
perfect sin atoning work and not alone. That's it. And that's what Paul and Barnabas
are preaching. Isn't it wonderful? It's wonderful. It's absolutely
wonderful. And nothing's changed, beloved.
Nothing's changed. There's nothing new under the
sun. We still have false preachers and teachers among us this day.
And it'll go on till the end. This holy war, which is what
it is, will go on till the end, between the seed of Christ and
the seed of the serpent. And the enmity must be eternal.
Turn with me, if you would, to 2 Corinthians. 2 Corinthians
chapter 11. Do you know that the false preachers
are actually under the influence of the enemy. They're preaching the false gospel.
They're preaching that which is not true. Anyone who preaches salvation
by anything man does is preaching, I'm gonna declare this, is preaching
a false gospel. That's why I said I can align
with folks if they say salvation's by grace alone, through faith
alone, through Christ alone, period. Yay, come on, let's have
wonderful fellowship together. Right? We may differ on this, we may
differ on side issues and stuff, end times and other things, but
hey, we agree on the gospel, don't we? That's what's most
important. Right? That's the key. That's
the key, beloved. My, look at this. Now, remember
this, too. You know, when I was growing
up, and I was in my rebellious years, and I was going places
I shouldn't go, and I was always told, oh, you're going to those
dens of iniquity. They're wickedness. And they were. They were wicked.
They were. OK. But Satan's not operating
in bars and places like that. He operates in the religious
realm. He operates with false preachers. You see? Man is doing all that stuff because
of our sinfulness. When I was going out and carousing
and doing all this stuff, I was doing it because my flesh wanted
to do that stuff. It's awful. But look what it says here. 2
Corinthians chapter 11. For such are false apostles,
verse 13, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into
the apostles of Christ. These false preachers and teachers,
how many times you turn the TV on and people claim to be an
apostle. Have you ever heard this? I've
got a word from the Lord. I got a word from the Lord right
here. Right here. This. That's enough,
isn't it? That's enough. Oh, my. Look at this, though. False apostles,
deceitful workers. Oh, you have to be baptized to
be saved. Oh, you have to come to our church
to be saved. Transforming themselves into
the apostles of Christ and no marvel for Satan himself is transformed
into an angel of light. What? Do you know One of the tricks
that Satan has done is to make man think that he and God don't
exist. I ran into a fellow years ago.
I got myself in trouble. But I ran into a fellow years
ago. I was at a family reunion. Vicky's family didn't talk to
me for probably, what, five years, something like that? Still don't
talk to me because of it. But I was doing street evangelism
and all that, so I was pretty jealous of stuff. And this Vicky's
aunt's boyfriend said, well, there's no evil in the world. I couldn't keep my mouth shut,
beloved. I said, are you crazy, man? Her family's over in the
other picnic table. I'm facing the way. I said, you're
crazy, man, like this. And he kind of looks at me, and
their family, like their heads all shooting up. And I said,
there's evil everywhere. I said, you're full of evil,
and so am I. No, that's just not so. I said,
well, how do you explain murders? Well, no. But people believe
this. That's a deceiving spirit. They've
been deceived, beloved. They'd been deceived. So I just
preached to them the gospel. That's what we're to do, right?
Preach Christ. Her family didn't talk to me for a long time and
still don't, but that's okay, right? That's okay, that's okay.
They heard, they all heard that day. But look at that. Okay, so look,
here we go, look at this. Do you know Satan has his own
ministers? Satan has his own preachers? And they peddle a works gospel. And remember, just a pinprick
of works, just a pinprick. Oh, but my obedience, oh, but
these things I do, just a pinprick, it's no more grace. It's either all grace or it's
not grace at all. It's either all salvation by
grace alone through Christ alone or it's not salvation at all.
Plain and simple. It's black and white, isn't it?
People don't want to hear that, though, do they? Look at this. And no marvel, for Satan himself
is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore, it is no
great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers
of righteousness. Oh, they say Christ, right? They say this and they say that.
It sounds good. But then they say this, but you
have to do this. You have to keep being, you have
to keep in the faith. I'll tell you what, if God don't
keep me, I'm gone. Is it so for you? Praise God for his preserving
grace. Praise the Lord. Oh my. Do I desire to be obedient
to the Lord? Absolutely. I never did before. Now I do. But it's God working
within me and by his mercy and grace that keeps us in the way. It's not complicated, is it? The water's not muddied. See,
men mess it up. Men make the waters of grace,
they make it muddied by saying, oh, you've got to do this, or
you've got to do this. It's hard enough for me just
to rest in Christ. Is that hard for you? Don't put more rocks in my backpack. It's been empty. All the rocks fell out at Calvary's
cross, didn't they? Remember Pilgrim and the burden
fell off his back? Yep. At the cross. It's wonderful, isn't it? So
let's just look to Christ. Let's just rest in Christ by
the grace and mercy of God. So marvel not that Satan himself
deceives men and appears as a messenger of light and truth and righteousness,
pretending Pretending friendship. He designs to ruin under a cloak
of religion and morality. He promotes evil under a show
of partial truth. There's always partial truth
mixed in. Because otherwise, people go, that just ain't true.
So he mixes it. You know, he's had 6,000 years
to study mankind. You not think he knows how to
make every one of us trip? But God says, you can't touch
him. Remember what he said to Job? You can do anything, but
you cannot take his life. He said, you got a hedge around
Job. Remember when we looked at, I can't remember what Psalm
it was, but the city had all these bulwarks all around it.
And when we were studying that psalm, we were in the city, in
the city is Christ, with all these bulwarks all around it.
And the enemy comes against the walls and the bulwark, and they
are destroyed. Praise God for the Savior, the
Lord Jesus Christ. You know, too many people look
for Satan in bars and nightclubs and dens of evil, but that's
more of his deception, beloved. That's more of his deception.
He does his most effective work in the pulpit. That's where he
does his most effective work, in the pulpit of false religion
that promotes self-righteousness. Do this to gain merit and favor
with God. Nope. But people go for that, don't
they? Because we're wired for works. We're wired for works,
beloved. That's why, as Joe Terrell, our
dear brother who now is rejoicing in heaven and in his eternal
rest with Christ, said the hardest thing for us to do is just rest
in Christ. Just trust him. So he promotes, the enemy promotes
self-righteousness, tradition, substituting any hope other than
Christ's righteousness. to gain merit and favor with
God. Because only Christ, think of this, only Christ in his sin
offering is the only offering God will accept, right, as salvation
for us. So he promotes, the enemy promotes
through preachers, self-righteousness. He's deceptive, isn't he? I was
caught up in it. It's only by the grace of God
that he took me out of it. My, oh, my. He pretends to be what he's not. And his ministers did the same.
They seek their own profit. They do not seek the glory of
God. Nope. They don't seek man's salvation.
They pretend to be what they are not. And if you see a dear brother
who's preaching the gospel fall, it doesn't mean they're lost. It
means they fell. And we are to say, there go I,
but for the grace of God. Right? Measure a man by what he preaches. If I was to stop preaching tomorrow
because I've died, then someone else would come in by the grace
of God and preach the same gospel to you. And you measure him by
his preaching, right? Yeah. Is he telling me the truth? If he's not, well, he's not going
to be in the pulpit, right? Paul and Barnabas told the truth
to Sergius Paulus. Tell him the truth. Oh, my. And the Lord saved him. The Lord
saved him. Listen to this. For we preach
not ourselves, but Christ Jesus our Lord, the Lord, and ourselves
your servants for Jesus' sake. For God who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness has shined in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. that we have this treasure in
earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and
not us, saved by the mercy and grace
of God alone. In verse 12, look at verse 11,
look at this. And now behold, the hand of the
Lord is upon thee, and thou shalt be blind, not seeing the sun
for a season. And immediately there fell upon
him a mist and a darkness, and he went about seeking some to
lead him by the hand. Paul declared it, but it was
by the power of God that it was accomplished. We declare the gospel, but it's
by the power of God that people are saved. We preach as just
a mouthpiece. Let us not get into a higher
thinking than we are. We're just a mouthpiece. I'm one of you. Saved by the
grace of God called to preach, but just a sheep saved by the
grace of God. Right? My, oh, my. Look at verse 12.
Yeah, verse 12. This is wonderful. This is wonderful. Then the deputy, when he saw
what was done, believed, being astonished at the doctrine of
the Lord. The miracle that God had performed right before the
eyes of the deputy is not what gave him faith. It's not what gave him faith.
No. Faith doesn't come by signs and
miracles, does it? Faith comes from God. Faith comes
from God. By hearing the word of God, by
the preaching of the gospel, he had heard that. And then this wicked sorcerer
tried to turn him away from the faith. My, oh my. Sergius Paulus, the Roman governor,
was convinced by what he saw happen to Bar Jesus, he was convinced
that Paul and Barnabas were the true servants of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Because the power of God was
on display right before him. Right before him. He'd already
been given saving faith, and now he was fully convinced. Could
you imagine that? Oh, God's God! It's wonderful! It's astonishing! And look at it, it says he was
astonished at the doctrine of the Lord, the doctrine of the
divine trinity, yet one God. It's astounding. The doctrine
of the virgin birth, it's astounding. The doctrine of God becoming
a man to save his people from their sins, it's astounding. The doctrine of salvation based
upon the perfect redeeming work of another, the Lord Jesus Christ. alone with men and women contributing
absolutely nothing to their salvation. It's astounding. It's astounding,
beloved. The doctrine of the resurrection
on the third day of Christ rising from the grave. That's astounding,
isn't it? We serve an astounding God, don't
we? We serve an amazing God. He's amazing. And then think
of this. The fact that he's seated upon
his sovereign throne right now is absolutely astounding. Ruling
and reigning. I know a lot of folks worried
about the election. I know. But God's going to put in power
whomever he will. And he's going to take care of
every one of us. You know that? Now, do your civic
duty. but God can take care of us.
Know that. And know this, that his promised
return to take all his loved ones, whom
he purchased with his own precious blood, to be with him in the
state of eternal bliss is absolutely astounding. It's gonna happen. He take us home at our death,
Or if we're alive when he comes again, he'll take us home then. Either way, we're going home
to be with him forever. My, oh my. So let us marvel this
week as we leave at just how astounding the one true God of
the universe is. And I'll tell you something that
astounds me all the time about our great God is the eternal
love he has for his people. I just can't get over that. I
just can't get over the fact that he's loved us with an everlasting,
unchanging love. That's honey to my soul. Is it
to yours? Let us meditate upon our astounding God this week. No matter what we go through,
let us remember that. Our God reigns. He reigns. My oh my. Brother Eric, can you
close us in prayer?