Acts chapter 28. Acts chapter
28. Now I will say in this introduction
that Paul is a prisoner. He's not going. This is not a
missionary. This is the later part of his
life. This is the end part of his life.
He is a So he's not able to go to Ephesus with Timothy, and
he's not able to move freely about. This is the latter part
of his missionary, not a missionary journey, the latter part of his
life. Acts chapter 28, and let's start reading in verse 11. And
after three months, we, because Luke is writing this, and Luke
was with him, departed in a ship of Alexandria, which had wintered
in the isle, whose sign was Castor and Pollux. And landing at Syracuse,
we tarried there three days, and from thence we fetched a
compass and came to Radium. And after one day, the south
wind blew, and we came the next day to Petulia, where we found
brethren. and they were desired to tarry
with them, and we were desired to tarry together and fellowship
seven days, and so they did. And then after that, they continued
to sail towards Rome. And from thence, when the brethren
heard of us, these brethren from Rome, they came to meet us as
far as Apiphorum and the three taverns, whom the brethren, when
Paul saw, He thanked God and took courage. And when we had
come to Rome, the centurion delivered the prisoners to the captain
of the guard, and Paul, who was a prisoner, was suffered to dwell
by himself with the soldier that kept him. So he's under house
arrest. What I wanna look at is the latter part of verse 15.
The latter part of verse 15. when Paul, whom these brethren
that came from Epiphorum, I'm sorry, came from Rome as far
as Epiphorum and the three taverns, these brethren, when Paul saw,
he thanked God and took courage, or they helped him in his faith,
confidence, courage, and faith. So this is what I'd like to look
at. I'd like to look at these two graces that he specifically
mentions here. He thanked God and took courage. These two graces acknowledged
and received. These two graces, their union
is not only admirable, but they most certainly recommend and
adorn one another in every child of God. You show me a person
who's not thankful and I'll show you a person who's not a believer.
You show me a person who doesn't have faith and doesn't walk by
faith or have courage, and I'll show you a person who does not
believe the gospel. And I ask all of us here this
morning, when are we not to show forth thankfulness and faith,
thankfulness and courage? That's what we do because of
the new heart implanted by the sovereign grace of God. Here
in Acts 28, we have Paul's journey to Rome. He's under arrest. He's to stand trial for his crime
of preaching a sovereign and resurrected Savior. That's his
crime. That's his crime. He appealed
to Caesar, and they said to Caesar, you're going to go. Now, the
Caesar that's there is Nero, historically Nero, and he is
a Christian murderer, and Christian hater. So these are the things
that he's going to walk into. But before he does, in this trip,
some brethren hear that he's going to be there, and they come. That before them
is 51 miles from Rome. The three taverns, and these
places, I've looked them up, these places are still there.
They're not called that, but they're still there, is 23 miles. They sought him out. They heard
he was coming, and they sought him out. They sought him out. The hymn writer says, through
many dangers, toils, and snares, I have already come. It's grace
that brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home. This is Paul's, he's coming through
dangers, toils, and snares. The late pastor and a very good
friend of mine, Scott Richardson, said that the life of the believers
is threefold. You're either heading into trouble,
or you're in it, or you've just come out of it. I thought, well, okay, so be
thankful for the brethren and take courage. That's what
we're going to look at. We're going to look at just these
two graces. Notice the particular language
of our text in verse 15 in the latter part. when Paul saw whom? Like-minded believers. When Paul saw, he thanked God
and he took courage or confidence or walked in faith. And I have
a side note here. Is any distance too great to
gather together and to help one another? You've got friends and
I have friends outside of the church. I have no issue with
that. But you can't have fellowship
with them because fellowship denotes around a person, the
Lord Jesus Christ. So you have friends, and like
I said, that's good. The gospel's gotta get out. You're
gonna talk to people, invite them. But there is something
special about the flock of God, the flock of God. So there's no distance too great
to travel. I pray that we would be given
this morning a hunger and thirst, a hunger and thirst for the righteousness
of Christ. May we be given this hunger and
thirst all to worship him, to honor and glorify him. And that's
all I want to talk about, two points, giving thanks and taking
courage, or a spirit or attitude of gratitude, thankfulness, or
indebtedness. We are indebted to the grace
of God. We have not been dealt with according
to, well, we have in one sense, but it's according to our sins. We have been gracious. He's been gracious to us, merciful
to us. And encouragement to faith by taking courage in knowing
our God does all things well in time, in space, and in providence. So let's look at the first point.
Whom, when Paul saw, he thanked God. What can be more honorable
and more reasonable than to look back at his travels? We look back in this life, our
life's journey. Look presently and give God all
the praise. That is very reasonable and very
honorable to do. I'll turn one page over to Romans
chapter one. This was written before all this
took place. Paul's writing to the Romans,
the church there in Rome. Look with me at chapter 1 in
Romans 1, starting in verse 8. First, I thank my God. I thank my God. through Jesus
Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout
the whole world. For God is my witness, whom I
serve with my spirit in the gospel of his son, that without ceasing
I make mention of you always in my prayers, making request
if by any means at length I might have a prosperous journey by
the will of God to come unto you, for I long to see you that
I may impart unto you some spiritual gift to the end that you may
be established. Verse 12, Lord, that is, excuse
me, that is that I may be comforted together with you by the mutual
faith, both of you and me. Now, I would not have you ignorant
brethren, how often I had a purpose to come to you, but was hitherto
that I might have some fruit among you also, even as among
other Gentiles. I am a debtor. both to the Greeks
and to the barbarians, both to the wise and the unwise. So as
much as is in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that
are at Rome. For I am not ashamed of the gospel
of Christ, for it, the declaration, the proclamation, assisted by
the Holy Spirit of the living God, is the power of God unto
salvation to everyone that believes, to the Jew first and also to
the Greek. For therein, through this truth,
is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith, as it is
written, the just shall live by faith. Now what I see in this
is the root and substance of Paul's thankfulness for the brethren
The root and substance of Paul's thankfulness is God in Christ
Jesus in and through the gospel of the grace of God. I'm sure
just like this church, just like our church, we have members who
do different things and probably would never cross paths in the
real world. Personalities are different,
ages are different, all these different things that are truisms.
The generation gap, it's true. But why do we continue for 30-something
years with us to gather together? Because it's centered not around
politics, not around the weather, not around this or that, the
economy. It's centered around the gospel, which is the righteousness
of God. We preach to you the gospel. We preach the gospel. This is
what we do. This is what fellowship means.
The gospel, who God is. I had somebody asked me years
ago, a very religious person. He said, sovereign grace. You
keep talking about sovereign grace. And I like to simplify
things, I'm not a complicated man. He says, what are you talking
about? Sovereign, that's who God is. Majestic, immutable, cannot change,
does not change. Sovereign, grace, that's how
he saves. He's sovereign and that's how
he saves, by grace. You can't do anything. The widow with the issue of blood,
she tried all, and so like religion, we try all these different things.
We go from one church to the next, or listen to the radio,
or listen to this and that. No, we grow worse. I do believe Karl Marx had one
thing right. Religion is the opium. Without
Christ is the opium of the people, but with Christ, That's makes
all the difference. His blood, his righteousness,
he's doing for us what we cannot do ourselves. Stop, I remember
one pastor's made a comment, just stopped me, he said, stop
working. Stop working and look to the
Lamb of God, look and live. Like those serpents in the Old
Testament, they bit those people. They weren't to look at the bite
mark, they were simply to look up at that serpent, look to Christ. How does that work? I don't know. The spirit moves how he wants
to move. But we direct you. And Paul's
thankfulness, and not only this, but this proved that the letters
that he had written took effect. When he's walking and he's, I'm
sure, bummed out and disturbed and distressed, he looks and
he sees these people that have traveled 50 plus miles. and gave
thanks. Why? First and foremost, because
they believed the gospel of the grace of God. They believed the
gospel of the grace of God. This is no small matter, brethren.
We cannot have fellowship with darkness. It's impossible. We
are made to agree with God regarding that he's the I am. Tell him I am that I am. I'm
the immaculate one. I'm the one in whom there's no
sin. And my son is as I am. He's pure, spotless, lamb of
God, who took away sin by the sacrifice of himself, not the
sacrifice plus your decision or minus your decision, by the
sacrifice of himself. Amos 3.3, how can two walk together
unless they be agreed? We're not agreed. As we heard
last night, we're stiff-necked. We're not agreed with God from
being born. From the womb, we agree with
God about what we are. We're vile, we're corrupt, we're
polluted from birth, nature, and practice. This is what we
are. And if you think you're going
to get any better, in a sense, he makes us better. But that
old nature, it's still there. It's gonna be there until we're
buried. So the believer struggles hard
with sin. Everything Paul is giving thanks to is tied up in
and with Christ and him crucified. The truth was not an afterthought
with Paul. The truth was no side issue with
Paul. The truth was no matter of minor
discussion with Paul. The gospel. and Christ is our
all in all. The believers meet and drink
and life is centered all around the beloved. As songs of song,
he is altogether lovely. That's what he is to us. Surely
in him, says the writer, we live and move and have our being.
So I repeat, the first thought is when he saw these men, he
gave thanks, give thanks. Be grateful for one another. I can imagine, looks up and they
say, hey, we read your letters and we believe, we trust the
Lord Jesus Christ. And the fellowship began. Give
thanks for one another. Give thanks and help one another
in time of need. Iron sharpening iron, that's
what we were to do. How good and pleasant it is for brethren
to dwell together in unity. Unity of what? Unity of the gospel. Unity of the blood. Unity of
the sovereign grace of God. Unity that we don't think much
of ourselves. We're less than the least. This
is unifying. You know, strife in church is
usually, there's usually something with self. Elevating self. This
very place here in Allmont, Michigan, Be thankful he has sustained
you for another year. When Paul saw these brethren,
he now knew that his letter to the Romans was not in vain. The
gospel will have its effect. Perhaps there are more elect
in this county. One man told me, sheep beget
sheep. Go talk to some other people. Sheep beget sheep. Secondly, give thanks. for past
mercies and present comforts. We do not deserve the least of
his mercies, but he has loaded us daily with benefits. Sing
clearly and loudly, great is thy faithfulness, Lord unto me. Has it ever been seen like this?
I just get amazed when I come and see these groups, these churches,
these gatherings together. And I always tell myself, has
it ever been seen like this, that worms of the dust can shout
hallelujah to him who sits on the throne? It's only possible
by the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Brethren, let us not play church. Let us not be unaffected by the
prayers and the hymns and the declaration of his gospel week
in and week out. But let us ask Paul, Every time
we see the brethren, every time we visit the flock, and it happens
to be in this local body, let us thank God for keeping us worshiping around the throne.
Let us be thankful. I like a hymn that Mr. McShane
wrote, a Welch preacher from years ago. We're indebted to
the grace of God. When this passing world is done,
when has sunk yon radiant sun, when we stand with Christ on
high looking over life's history, then, Lord, shall I fully know,
not till then, how much I owe. When I hear the wicked call on
the rocks and hills to fall, when I see them start and shrink
on the fiery deluge brink, then, Lord, shall I fully know, but
not till then, How much I owe. When I stand before the throne,
dressed in beauty not my own. When I see thee as thou art,
love thee with unsinning heart, then, Lord, shall I fully know,
but not till then, how much I owe. When the praise of heaven I hear,
loud as thunders to the ear, loud as many waters' noise, sweet
as harps' melodious voice, Then, Lord, shall I fully know, but
not till then, how much I owe. Chosen, not for good in me, wakened
up from wrath to flee, hidden in the Savior's side by the Spirit
sanctified. Teach me, Lord, on earth to show
by my love how much I owe. We have so much to be thankful
for. So much to be thankful for. Our second grace, whom he saw,
he took courage. He took courage, or he had faith.
He was given increase in faith, strength in faith. Paul knew not what lay ahead
of him. He just knew he was going to
Rome. Nero was there. Nero hated Christians. But he
was confident he who entrusted in him who holds all things by
the word of his power. Nero, well, what does the scripture
say? The king's heart is in the Lord's
hand. And he turns it however, whichever
he pleases. Take courage, brethren. For our
Lord has said to you in his word, I will never leave you or forsake
you. Take courage, brethren, in the church of the living God. Let me read you something out
of Isaiah, Turner, if you want to. Isaiah 27. Isaiah 27, and
verses two and three. In that day, sing. Ye unto her a vineyard, a vineyard,
that's the church, of red wine, the choiceless wine. I, the Lord,
do keep it. I will water it every moment,
lest any hurt it. I will keep it night and day. There's a promise to the church
of the living God. Red wine, choiceless wine. I
don't know exactly what they talked about, but I can guess
it had to do with the heavenly Jerusalem and the lamb upon his
universal throne and dominion. I'm sure they didn't discuss.
I'm sure Paul would have been discouraged and disappointed
that they talked about the weather or the latest sports scores or
whatever. And we do that. And I enjoy these
things, but that is not why we gather together. Let the world
do these things. I was asked years ago, are we
going to have a basketball team or this or that? I said, that's
what parks and recs are for. Keep it out of the church. There's
too much of the world in the church anyway. Keep it out. So when we gather together and
I see Marcus, or I see familiar faces, give thanks. And may we iron sharp, may we
encourage one another in the faith. I will also say this as a side
note, be an encouragement to each other, especially to your
pastor. And from what I can tell you
are. For we are only sinners as well, and we need much prayer
and help, if not more. I don't know about Wayne, but
I'm up and down. I'm up and down. Somebody's here,
you get all excited, then they're not here and you get discouraged.
It's so easy to get discouraged because this road's narrow. It's narrow. It's not broad. There's many
other Gospels. That's why Paul was so adamant,
so vehement. In Galatians, if anyone preached
any other gospel, that's not another gospel. He wasn't saying it to be mean
to other people, but there's something peculiar. This is the Lord's, you're His
peculiar people, and you can take it how you want to take
it. We are His people. There may be harsh days ahead,
there may be harsh days for me ahead, for you ahead, for this
church. Trials unseen or anxieties unknown, but he never sends a
trial without the benefit that he will bring with it in time.
The vessel fit for the finer, bring it through the fire. Matter
of fact, most of the old writers said the most a Christian grows
is during time of affliction. David said that. You don't have
to look at old writers, David. It was good for me that I've
been afflicted. Now, who says that? Who says that? Trust Him. Take courage. Seek out one another. March on, Christian soldiers,
to Zion with one mind, with one spirit, looking unto Jesus, the
author and finisher of our faith. Is there anything too hard for
the Lord? Jeremiah 32. Is there anything too hard for
the Lord? It comes back to, is there anything? Nope. So I close with these thoughts.
Brethren, anywhere, at any time, any way, whether you look, whether
it's past, present, or future, give thanks and take courage. He's on the throne. He successfully
completed every jot and tittle against us. He successfully,
Christ, completed The Father's demands that we could not satisfy. He suffered and bled and died. There was no visage marred more
than any man. So yeah, well, he suffered. No,
he suffered more than any man. Scripture says more than any
man. Why? It's a wonderful day, but it
was a hard day. when I realized I put Christ
on the cross, my sins. I know the Father did, but it
was very personal. As a matter of fact, it made
me so mad I threw the book I was reading that told me that, you're
guilty. I didn't want to hear it. I did not want to hear it. But now I give thanks. I give
thanks. In Genesis chapter nine, This
is the way of grace, this is the way of it. Genesis chapter
nine, looked at this a couple weeks ago, the language, very
particular, talks about the rainbow. I love rainbows. But he says,
the first thing you're gonna see is a cloud. And then, the rainbow. And I got to thinking, I've never
seen a rainbow where there hasn't been a cloud or rain or thunder.
May he bring thunder and rain upon your and my self-righteousness. Because when he does, the rainbow, and that rainbow
is Christ. That rainbow is Christ. I tell
you, the shepherd cares for his sheep. The father cares for his
lowly yet dear children. And if you're not certain of
his mercy, I implore you to flee to Christ. As a poor lost sinner
in need of pardon and full, pardon, full and free. I pray that God
would have grace upon us all here. And when we come back next,
the Lord brings us back. You see somebody. Give thanks. And take courage.