amazing. Oh my. Turn if you would
to the book of Acts. The book of Acts. The book of Acts. Chapter 8. Last week in our study we finished
chapter 7. It was wonderful. Stephen's sermon
to the unbelieving Jews. He'd been bought before. And here in Acts chapter 8, It
continues the narrative. Remember after they stoned Stephen,
they laid the coat of Stephen at the feet of a man named Saul. Saul. So there we're first introduced
to Saul. Saul of Taurus. Let's read. We're going to read
verses 1 to 8 together. And remember this, the church
was in the Old Testament. They were believers. And this
narrative is about the church in the New Testament. The church
has been from eternity, beloved. Chosen in Christ from eternity.
So this is the beginning of the New Testament church. Those who
died before look to Christ, look to the Messiah, right? Look to
the coming Messiah. And we who are New Testament
saints, we look back to the cross. We look back and see the Messiah
suffering for us and bleeding and dying for us. So let's stand
up. We're going to read the first
eight verses together. Acts chapter eight, verses one
to eight. And Saul was consenting unto
his death. And at that time, there was a
great persecution against the church, which was at Jerusalem. And they were all scattered abroad
throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. Now note that, except the apostles.
And devout men carried Stephen to his burial and made great
lamentation over him. As for Saul, he made havoc of
the church, entering into every house and hailing men and women,
committed them to prison. Therefore, they were scattered
abroad, went everywhere, preaching the word. Then Philip went down
to the city of Samaria and preached Christ unto them. And the people,
with one accord, gave heed unto those things which Philip spake,
hearing and seeing the miracles which he did. For unclean spirits,
crying with loud voice, came out of many that were possessed
with them, and many taken with palsies, and that were lame,
were healed. And there was great joy in that
city. My, okay. So here we are. We're in the eighth chapter of
the Book of Acts, and this is a historic narrative. It records
a brief but important portion of church history. It shows us
how the early church endured persecution from the beginning.
Now, we've seen that with the apostles, right? They've endured
persecution for preaching the resurrection. bought before the
Sanhedrin. Remember Peter and John were
whipped and beaten because they preach Christ and preach the
resurrection. And now we're going to see persecution is now going
to hit the whole church. The whole church. And I paused
there at verse 1 because it said except the apostles, they remained
in Jerusalem. They remained in Jerusalem. And
this chapter also shows the rapid spread of the gospel. The rapid
spread of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ from Jerusalem to
Samaria. And this inspired historical
narrative. Remember, it's a historical narrative
we're reading. This really happened to real
people. Right? And it's an inspired narrative. God, the Holy Spirit, has chosen
to preserve this for us, for our learning, too. And for the
learning of all the saints that came before us and will come
after us that have read this wonderful book. And it wasn't just designed by the Holy Spirit to
simply satisfy our curiosity about the history of the church,
of the early church. Just like, again, all other parts
of the Holy Scripture, this narrative here was written
to give us spiritual instruction, right? To teach us, to teach
us. And it's spiritual instruction
in the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, right? And today we'll
look at the first of five lessons in these first 25 verses of this
chapter, which again demand the attention of all of us, all believers,
all who are concerned for our mortal souls or the souls of
perishing sinners that we rub shoulders with all the time.
Right? Our care is not just for our
own soul, but our care is for the souls of others around us. My oh my. And the reason we're
concerned for that is not for any glory that it would bring
us, but for the glory it would bring God, right? What is man's
chief end? The old confession say. What's
the chief end of man? To glorify God and to enjoy him
forever. Right? To glorify God. That's
why we're here. To glorify God. We're here. This
church, I've said it many times, is here for the furtherance of
the gospel. It's been here before I got here. There was multiple
preachers. And it's here for the furtherance
of the gospel. It's still here for the furtherance of the gospel.
Isn't that wonderful? It's wonderful. I'll tell you. God keeps the
church where there's sheep. Isn't that wonderful? I'll tell
you. You guys are stuck with me. I'm
going to be here until I die, Lord willing. So. Oh, I love you guys. But here's
five lessons taught in this chapter. Number one, the gospel of Christ
is an offense to man. We're going to see that in today's
study. It's an offense to man. All you have to do is proclaim
the gospel and it will offend men. I don't seek to offend anyone. But I seek to preach the truth. His brother Brian said, preach
the truth, preach it. Preach the true gospel. Salvation
is only in and through Christ alone, not by any works of man.
And that'll offend man. That'll offend their pride, their
self-righteousness. It'll offend man to the core.
Because we are all self-righteous by nature. And just because we're
born again doesn't mean our self-righteousness suddenly disappears, does it?
No, we can still be self-righteous. Now we're aware of it. See? You know what the difference
is between a saved sinner and a lost sinner? We're aware of
our sin. We know what it is. Right? We know who we've sinned against,
God. And we own our sin. You ever notice unsaved people,
they've never done anything wrong? Sometimes even we think that
as saved people. We never do nothing wrong. That's our nature. That's our old nature. You know,
I see my son here do something, I'm like, yeah, he's my son.
Or my daughter, yeah, she's my daughter. Right? It's just, they got their sin
nature from their dad, just like we did. My, oh, my. We're children of sinners. Therefore,
we'll be sinners. Actually, we got it from our
mom and dad. But we're children of sinners. So therefore, we
will be sinners. And our children will be sinners.
But the difference between the saved and the lost person is
now we're aware of the iniquity that we've committed. Now we're
aware of the sin. how we've, again, we've sinned
against God. We were never aware of that before. Scripture says
we drank sin like water. And see, that's why the people
we talk to, they don't understand. That's why they take offense
when you say salvation is by grace alone, through Christ alone.
They take offense of that because they think there's something
they have to do. Remember, I'm going to say something that I
used to hear Henry say, and it's from Isaiah. I don't know the exact
reference right off here, but never forget the rock you were
hewn from. Right? Let us not forget where we came
from. We came from sinners. Therefore, we are sinners. But
praise God, we're sinners saved by grace. Right? And we're in a world full of
sinners. And God's got people out there, we don't know who
they are. So when someone gets mad at you because you tell them
the truth, pray for them. Don't get mad at them. If they
call you names and say stuff about you that's not true, see
our natural reaction is to go right back to them, right? You
tell people the truth, they're gonna get mad at you, but you
know what? At least you told them the truth,
right? At least you told them the truth.
That's why we tell our kids the truth, right? We love them. My kids, I don't hold nothing
back with them. Neither of them profess Christ.
I don't hold nothing back from them. Now, I don't have to bang
them over the head with it. They already know exactly what
I believe. But I'll tell you what, when I get the opportunity
to tell them, you must be born again, I'll just drop it in there. I'll just drop it in there. You
have to be born again. You have to trust Christ. That's the key,
right? My oh my. The second point we're
going to look at through the study of this chapter is the
Lord God has a people whom he will save. He has a people. We don't know who they are. We
have no idea who they are. I heard one preacher say a long
time ago, I'm fishing in a stock pond. I know what he means. You
ever fished in a stock pond? I fished in a stock pond with
my dad. You're almost guaranteed to catch a fish. Well, God's elect are out there,
right? I understood what that preacher said. He said, I'm fishing
in a stock pond. Yeah. Henry Mahan used to say,
we're on the trail of God's sheep, preaching the gospel. I like
that, too. That's wonderful. And then listen to this one,
too. The other point we're going to look at is God always causes
the sinner he purposed to save to hear the gospel of his grace.
He will. He will. Because they have to
be, faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God, right?
And you must be born again, and God, the Holy Spirit, uses the
preacher of the word to regenerate us, right? My oh my. The other point we'll look at
is all supernatural apostolic gifts ceased with the apostles.
There's a group out there, they think there's still gifts and
all this, and they call themselves apostles. They're not apostles.
They're not apostles. They've ceased. There's no need
for them. The sign gifts were for unbelieving Jews. Does God
still do miracles? Of course he does. You're a miracle
if you're saved. We don't feel like miracles,
do we? We're miracles of God's grace. Right? My oh my. And wherever the gospel
is preached, both true believers and those who make a false profession
of faith will be found. They will be found wheat and
tares no matter where you're at. No matter where you're at. And we don't have to look and,
oh, you know what happens in a lot of churches? I'm going
to say something. You know what happens in a lot of churches? You got
the gospel preacher or the preacher, he's up there saying, you got
to do this and you got to do that and you got to do this to
be saved and you got to do that to be saved, right? And so all
the people are looking at him and then they start here and
then they start becoming self-appointed fruit inspectors. Right? And they start looking at everybody
else and going, was that person saved? Is that person saved? Is that person saved? I don't
think that person's saved. And then the preacher, he starts
looking at the folks, too, going, oh, they're not doing what I'm
telling them to do. They're not doing, they're, this is true.
I've been in a religious church like this. I've been, I've experienced
this. I've even been the self-appointed
fruit inspector. Right? Yeah, you're laughing,
sister, because it's true. It's true. It's totally true.
Right? And you know what? Everybody's
looking at each other, right? The preachers look at the folks.
The folks are looking at each other. Who's looking at Christ? No one. I'll stand here and tell
you to look to Christ. You look at me, you're going
to find tons of faults. You look at each other, you're
going to find tons of faults. But if we look to Christ, there's
no fault there, is there? Oh, his name is wonderful. Counselor. Oh, the Prince of Peace. Hey,
Brother Brian. Oh, we just look to him. And
what does the Bible tell us to do? Make your election and calling
sure. We need to look inward rather
than look outward. Oh, isn't it wonderful? Just
trust Christ. Look to Christ. Look to Him. You'll find no fault in Him.
He's perfect. He's spotless. He's sinless.
And you know what? If you're in Christ, in God's
eyes, you're blameless. And so is your brother and sister
you might've been fruit inspecting with. You're not? Oh my. Oh my, I'll tell you why. Praise God for grace. And you
know what? There's a fella here, Saul. We're
going to hear a little bit more about him today. And this fella,
he's destroying the church. And I mean, I read several commentators
on this. John Gale brought up this. He
goes, you know, people think, well, persecution, you know, somebody
calling you names or somebody's doing this and that. Paul was
destroying the church. And we're gonna find out that
when they laid the coat at Paul's feet, Saul's feet, he delighted
in that. He delighted in the killing of
Stephen. That's what the Greek brings
out. He delighted in it. And so did all those other people.
See, the magnitude of this is, this is, and then when we hit
chapter nine, The miracle, the miracle, the one who's doing
that is a chosen vessel. Oh, it's wonderful. I'll tell you what, God's grace
is incredible in Christ. It's absolutely incredible. May
God the Holy Spirit give us an understanding and teach us today
the wonderfulness of this grace and this mercy that we have in
Christ. It's absolutely wonderful. Let's read verses 1 to 4 again
of Acts chapter 8. And Saul was consenting unto
his death. So we're still continuing with
Stephen's death here. He's consenting unto Stephen's
death. And at that time, there was a great persecution amongst
the church. Now again, this persecution isn't
just people calling them names. We're going to see, they're hauling
Christians out of their houses and stuff. Paul's going house
to house and pulling men and women out of their homes. separating
them from their children and casting them into prison. And
he's delighting in this. See, he thinks, you remember
the Catholic inquisitions? Millions of people killed. Millions
of our brothers and sisters. The Vicky is, she is a ancestors,
her ancestors were Waldensians. You've heard me say this. They
were, the Catholic church was hunting them down like animals
in the mountains in the Alps. Literally hunting them down and
killing them. My ancestors were Huguenots.
In one day, 25,000 of them, French Calvinists, were slaughtered
in Paris and the blood ran like a river through the streets. Again, the Catholic Church in
action. So just like the Catholic Church
thinking they were doing good, Paul's going around rounding
up Christians and having them thrown in prison,
delighting in their deaths. Oh my, look at this. And at that time there was a
great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem
and they were scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea,
Samaria, and Samaria except the apostles. And devout men carried
Stephen to his burial and made great lamentation over him. As
for Saul, he made havoc of the church. That's destroyed it. Entering into every house and
hailing men and women committed them to prison. Therefore, they
were scattered abroad. Therefore they that were scattered
abroad went everywhere preaching the word. So God is actually
using this persecution to spread the gospel. They are now leaving Jerusalem
and going into the world. And remember the world then was
the Roman world, but I'll tell you what, they were everywhere
they were going. What were they doing? They were preaching the
word. Oh, it's amazing. What happens
to a fire when you put your foot in and you stamp like that in
a fire? You've heard me say this before. There's like 10,000 sparks
that come out, right? Paul stamps on the church and
they just scatter everywhere. All according to the determinant
counsel and foreknowledge of God. So there goes the gospel. It's starting to spread, beloved.
You know, the more the church is persecuted, the more it grows.
It's amazing. It's amazing in this time. And it's obvious that the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ was an offense to these unregenerate
religious Jews during this time in the history of the early church.
Again, last week we looked at the stoning of Stephen. Let's
go back there, Acts chapter 7, and we'll see here in verses
54 to 60, the stoning of Stephen here.
When they heard these things, remember that wonderful sermon
that Stephen preached about how he just pictured Christ all through
the Old Testament being with them, but he also brought forth
how their fathers were stiff-necked, and they didn't believe God,
and they rebelled against God, and even the law that they were
holding precious, they didn't keep it. And then he turned around
and said, and neither do you. And that just set them off like
cannons. And that is the self-righteousness
attack, right? And see, God in the Holy Spirit
cuts us to the bone, doesn't he? I like what one of our preachers
said, we're all recovering Pharisees, right? We were all Pharisees. We're all recovering Pharisees
now, right? Because we were all self-righteous,
and we can still be self-righteous. But here, praise God, we're forgiven. But here, When he said that about
them not keeping the law, look at the response. When they heard
these things, they were cut to the heart and they gnashed on
him with their teeth. Oh, they were spitting mad. They were so mad. They were angry. They wanted to kill him. Look
at this. But he, being full of the Holy
Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven and saw the glory
of God and Jesus standing on the right hand of God and said,
Behold, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing on
the right hand of God. Then they cried with a loud voice
and stopped their ears. I could just see them sticking
their fingers. You remember when we were kids? You throw a little
tantrum, you stick your finger. I can't hear you, Mom. You know,
you stick your fingers in your ears or somebody, right? We all
did it or cupped their hand over our ears, right? Oh my, that's
what they did. That's what they did. They cried with a loud voice,
stopped their ears and ran upon them with one accord and cast
them out of the city. Where was Christ crucified? Outside
the city, wasn't he? Oh my. And stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their
clothes at a young man's feet, whose name was Saul. Saul. And they stoned Stephen,
calling upon God and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.
And he kneeled down and cried with a loud voice. Look at this. This is amazing. Lord lay not
this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he
fell asleep. Now Saul, he was a very prominent
Jew. He was a Pharisee of Pharisees. We can see that he consented
to Stephen's death. Look at our text right here.
in verse 1. So that continues right after
there when it says, And he kneeled down and cried with a loud voice,
Lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he
fell asleep. And right away in verse 8, And Saul was consenting
unto his death. And at that time there was a
great persecution against the church, which was at Jerusalem. And they were all scattered abroad
throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles.
So here's Saul. See that word consenting? It
not only means to allow, it means to be pleased with, to take pleasure
in. He took pleasure in this. See,
there's so much more in the Greek for us, isn't there? We see consent,
and we say, oh, well, he just consented to that. No, he was
pleased with this. My, oh, my. He took pleasure
in it. He enjoyed it. He enjoyed going
house to house because he thought in his zeal, he thought he was
stamping out a sect that was against Judaism. He had zeal
without knowledge, didn't he? As the scripture says. My, oh my. And so to him, this
is his duty. He thinks he's doing this, he's
serving God. He thinks he's doing a good thing. And those who stoned Stephen
and even Saul, what they're doing is by taking pleasure in this,
they're manifesting their hatred for the Lord Jesus Christ and
their hatred for his followers. It's bought right to the forefront,
isn't it? And Saul consented, he enjoyed,
he took pleasure in the death of Stephen. This is a barbarous
act. And yet he's taking pleasure
in it. And how do we know? Well, the
scripture says he consented to it, which means that. And then
they even laid the clothes of Stephen at his feet. Left him
there naked and dead. My oh my. Again, the word not
only means consent, but consent with pleasure and delight. See, we just let that sink in. And he was pleased with what
they did to Stephen. He enjoyed it. It rejoiced his
very heart. Look at the depths of depravity. That's natural man. That's us
before the Lord saved us. And he joined, he even joined
in others in the sin. What did we do before the Lord
saved us? We rejoiced in our sin and we joined with others
in sin. And we still struggle with sin
even as believers. But we don't take pleasure in
it anymore. Now, see, this is another difference. The lost
sinner will take pleasure in sin. Now we're convicted. It doesn't please us. Do you sin more than you want
to? Yep, we do, don't we? Yeah. So Saul, before he was converted,
he took pleasure, he took pleasure in wasting the church, destroying
the church. No wonder our dear brother Ananias,
when told to go and seek Saul, he said, Lord, I've heard by
many of this man. Remember the Lord told him, go
and pray for him? He said, I've heard of this man. How much evil he had done to
the saints of Jerusalem. Word's getting out. Word's getting out about this
murderer and killer. One who takes pleasure in destroying
Christians. Word's gotten out. And here he hath authority from
the chief priests to bind all that call thy name. That's in
Acts chapter nine. Turn if you would, one chapter
over, Acts chapter nine. Look at this. Look at this, verses
13 and 14. So this is after Paul's, Paul
had been converted, right? Remember, look at the very beginning
there. Look at verse four. He struck,
he knocked right off his horse, right? And look at this. He fell
to the earth, verse four, and heard a voice saying, Saul, Saul,
why persecutest thou me? Who's still persecuting? Church, amen, brother. He's persecuting the church.
He's going out and hear the Lord saying, why are you persecuting
me? He's the head, we're the body. Right? You hit your finger with
a hammer by mistake, and your head will send a signal. That
will send a signal to your head, and you're going to go, oh my
goodness, that hurt. Hopefully you say it like that. It's going to hurt, isn't it?
It hurts. Oh my, look at that. Why persecutest
thou me? And he said, Lord, who art thou?
And he said, who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus,
whom thou persecutest. See, when you persecute the Church
of God, you're persecuting Christ. Again, He's the head, we're the
body. It is hard for thee to kick against
the pricks. Now look down in verses 13. Ananias
here, he's told by the Lord. Let's actually read in verse
11. And the Lord said unto him, saying to Ananias, Arise and
go to the street, which is called straight, verse 11, and inquire
in the house of Judas. For one calleth Saul of Taurus,
for behold, he prayeth. Now look at that. Oh, he's praying
now. And I've seen in a vision a man
named Ananias coming in and putting his right hand on him, that he
might receive his sight. Then Ananias answered, remember
what we read in verses 1 to 4, he's wrecking the church, he's
laying havoc, he's destroying the church, right? Then Ananias
answered, Lord, I have heard by many of this man how much
evil he hath done to thy saints in Jerusalem. And here he hath
authority from chief priests to bind all that call on thy
name. Now look at this. Now here he
is. He's going around, he's murdering Christians, consenting to their
murder. Would you think that's someone
the Lord saved? Ah, isn't God good? Isn't God wonderful? Remember
I said heaven's not full of good people? Now, heaven's full of
safe sinners, isn't it? Yeah, it is. My, oh my, it's saved with the
worst of the worst. Look at this. This is absolutely,
this is wonderful. My, oh my. But the Lord said
unto him, go thy way, for he is a chosen vessel unto me. Do
you know every believer is a chosen vessel unto the Lord? That's humble, isn't it? To bear
my name, here he has a mission from God, to bear my name before
the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. For I will
show him how great things he must suffer for my name's sake.
Remember, he's in Rome in our study of Philippians. He's in
Rome. He's going to speak to the emperor, which is just like a king. My, oh my. And he's the first
one that went into Philippi, which is the first European city
the gospel goes to. Paul's the one who took it there. Oh my. Saul, the one who Folks
probably think, wow, my. I'll tell you what. The Lord
says all who come to him. The Father says all who come
to him through Christ Jesus our Lord. He's able to save to the
uttermost, right? I don't care how black your sin is. I don't
care how dark your past is. We all have dark, black past,
don't we? He's able to save. All who come
to God through Christ Jesus our Lord. And we know by scripture
that those who come to him are his people, those he redeemed. But that doesn't stop the call
from going out saying, flee to Christ. He's the only hope for
sinners. Right? He's the only hope. My oh my. The only hope for sinners. So Paul, in our chapter here, he's going about destroying the
church. And then in chapter 9, we see
he's a chosen vessel. When did he become a chosen vessel?
Somebody tell me. In eternity. Amen, sister. In
eternity! He didn't become a chosen vessel
when he believed because, well, faith's a gift from God, isn't
it? Right? He's born again by the Holy Spirit
of God and then given faith to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
but he's a chosen vessel from eternity. And if you're born again blood-washed,
saint of God, so are you. Why do people get upset about
that? I think it's marvelous. I think it's wonderful God saved
me and that he chose me, because I never would have chosen him,
would you? Brother Tom, would you have chosen Christ? We would
never have chosen Christ, would we? Because we know the scripture
says there's nothing secret after God. He sought after you and
I, brother. Oh, this is wonderful. And then we find out, we don't
know this right away. Then we find out, well, he chose
me in Christ before the foundation of the world. And then our mind
just goes, boom, because we're finite beings and he's infinite.
And we can't understand this wonderful grace. We can't even
fathom this wonderful mercy. And it's all because of a great
love. Now, I'm gonna really hit this. This love that God has
for his people is an unchanging, eternal love. It never changes. Even when we were dead in trespasses
and sins, he loved us. My, even when Paul's destroying
the church, God's love is still set upon him. And he has no clue. He has no clue. He's going to
find out, isn't he? Then he's going to write about
that, like we looked at with the Philippians, the brotherly love this morning. And then he's going to find out
his heart's going to get knit with a whole bunch of people.
And he's going to have a love that he's never even fathomed
before for God's people, and more for the Savior than anything.
Oh my, the very one he went and was slaughtering the people,
he's gonna fall in love with Christ. Because God's gonna give
him a new heart that hungers and thirsts after righteousness.
And he's, who's the fairest of 10,000 to our souls? Christ is,
isn't he? Christ is. Wasn't like that before
we were saved, was it? No, no, no, no. So marvel at God's providence,
beloved. Marvel, marvel at God's providence
here. And then look down at verse 19.
Go turn back to Acts chapter 9. Look down, look down a little
bit more down here. Look at this. Let us marvel at
this. Let us marvel at this. This is
incredible, really. When you're stopping, as I was
putting this message together, I was just struck with this.
How incredible this is. He's literally destroying the
church, cursing God, right? Well, the true God, and hauling
off believers, having them killed, consenting, enjoying, delighted
in the murder of Stephen, right? And then look at this. This is
a miracle of grace. That's why I said miracles still
happen. We're proof of that, right? God's people are monuments and
miracles to the grace of God. I'll tell you what, look at this.
This is what I was about shouting yesterday when I was reading
this. Look at this, Acts 9, look at verses 19 to 22. Now, the
destroyer of the church in chapter 8, he's going around delighting
in that, and all of a sudden, he's born again now, in chapter
9. He's born again near the end
of the chapter. He's born again in the Holy Spirit of God. He's
been given faith to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And look
at this. And when he had received meat,
he was strengthened. Verse 19. Then Saul saw certain
days with the disciples which were at Damascus. So now he's
fellowshipping with the very ones he was sent there to slaughter. And straight away, he eats with
them, he's strengthened. And does he just sit around and
go, well, I think I'll just sit here for a few days. And straight
away, he preached Christ in the synagogues. My beloved, he went
from destroying the church to fellowshipping with believers
and preaching the gospel. That's a miracle of the grace
of God. Look at this. But all that heard him were amazed.
Could you imagine? They were amazed. Both Jew and
God's people, right? And even probably the Gentiles
who didn't know. Because they had heard about
this guy going around, and he is murdering people. He's consenting
to their death. And he may not have done it physically
by himself, he might have, but he was doing it through proxies,
wasn't he? Oh my. But all that heard him were amazed
and said, Is this not he that destroyed them which called on
this name in Jerusalem? Well that name is Christ, right? And come hither for that intent?
So now we see the whole intent of him coming to Damascus was
to again destroy them that called on the name of Christ. that he might bring them bound
unto the chief priests, haul them all the way back, all the
way back to Jerusalem. But Saul increased the Moor in
strength and confounded the Jews which dwelt in Damascus, proving
that this is the very Christ, the one he hated, now he loves."
What a miracle has just happened before us, beloved. Isn't that
wonderful? The church he destroyed, now
he loves to be with the people. Only God can do that. Only God can take a sinner and
turn him into a saint. And saint is just a name of believers. It just means to be made holy,
to be set apart. That's all that means. It's not
some It's not something a man can
do. Man can't make other people saints.
Only God can make a sinner a saint. And I'm looking at a bunch of
saints. Saved by the grace and mercy of God. Isn't that wonderful?
That's right, Saint Brian A. Right? That's what we are. Oh my. It's wonderful. My oh my. Let's read verses 1
to 3 again and see this great persecution that came upon the
church. And Saul was consenting unto his death, and at that time
there was a great persecution against the church, which was
at Jerusalem, and they were scattered abroad throughout the regions
of Judea, Samaria, and Samaria, except the apostles. And devout
men carried Stephen to his burial and made great lamentations over
him. As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering into
every house and hailing men and women and committed them to prison.
So it's obvious that the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ was
an offense to these early unregenerate Jews during this time of history. In Saul, we see he's making havoc,
and we saw that earlier in Acts 9, that his whole mission to
go to Damascus was to destroy the church, to haul back our
Christian brothers and sisters to Jerusalem, to stand before
the high priests. See that word havoc? In the Greek
it means destruction to ravage, to waste. Like an army going through, the
Roman legions used to go and they'd go through and if a town
didn't surrender to them, they'd always send a man in and say,
if you surrender, you're all going to live. They would do
that. They were merciful that way.
But they also in that same note said, if you refuse, we're going
to kill you all. We're going to destroy the town. And that's what this means, to
lay waste, to just absolutely destroy it. And if it came back,
we're not giving in to you, they would go in there and if they
could defeat that city, there would be nothing left. They'd
take the cattle and the young people and the women and turn
them into slaves, but they would kill all the men above 14. That's what they did. Paul was
literally ravaging and wasting the Church of God. His whole mission was to absolutely
stamp out this sect. Because that's what the Jews
thought. The Jews just thought it was a sect. So his mission was to
stamp them out. My oh my. Note in verse One, it says, and they were all
scattered throughout the regions of Judea, Samaria, except the
apostles. Except the apostles. Well, our Lord had said. Our
Lord had said that his people. Would be witnesses. In Jerusalem. And Samaria. And here we go. They're witnesses
in the regions of Judea, Samaria, and Jerusalem. All the places
that the Lord said they'd be a witness to. My, oh my. And Saul treated and laid waste
to the church continuously with cruelty and violence. He had
men under his command. He could just tell them, you
go and do this. And they'd go and do it. My, oh my. Force their way into
the houses of the Lord's born again, blood washed saints and
drag them out viciously too. This isn't like, come on, let's
go. This is viciously. Dragging them
by whatever means, whether it be by their hair or whatever,
they didn't care. Drag them out, bind them up and
take them back to Jerusalem. But let us never lose sight of
this glorious, comforting truth, that all things work together
for our good and for God's glory. Even this persecution we see
here. They always work for our good
and God's glory, for every born-again, blood-washed child of God, the
Lord Jesus Christ is on his sovereign throne. And let us remember that
the risen, exalted God-man is right now, as we're reading this
text, he was on his throne while they're going through all this
persecution. His eyes upon them, isn't it?
So much so that he says, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? My, oh my. Just as our hands
is attached to our body, right? If something happens to our hand,
we're going to feel it. My oh my, this is the body of
Christ that Saul's persecuting, wasting, destroying. And the events we're reading
about here in Acts chapter 8, like all things that happened
in time, were purposed by God. were purposed by God and executed
by God for the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ and for the good
of his people. What happened? They were scattered
and the gospel went with them. And it spread like wildfire,
beloved. Spread like wildfire. My, oh my. And like in all the
ages before and all the ages after, our Lord Jesus Christ
was given his born-again, blood-washed saints, preserving grace. He
preserved them through all this. He kept them through all this. And even now he does the same,
doesn't he? For we who are his people. Let's read verses two
and three again. And devout men carried Stephen
to his burial and made great lamentation over him. As for
Saul, he made havoc in the church, entering into every house and
hailing men and women and committed them to prison. We see the love
of the brethren here in action. They had a deep love for Stephen. A deep love. And this was also
manifest by their boldness in going and getting the body. and going and getting the body,
retrieving the body. Then we see they carried Stephen to his
burial and they made great lamentation, great mourning over him. Their love and affection was
being manifested as they grieved over the loss of their dear brother
Stephen. Not with ones without hope, no. Just as when a saint of God leaves
our presence to go home to be with the Lord, We mourn because
they're no longer in our presence. We would never want them to come
back if they're in glory. No, right? No, but we mourn over
the loss of their presence amongst us. And they were mourning over their
loss of his presence, but they knew, they knew they had a hope
just as Stephen had a hope. He was in the presence of the
Lord. But again, they just grieved
over the loss of Stephen in their presence. Look back at verse
one, it says, they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions
of Judea and Samaria except the apostles. Again, Saul, in verse
1, and Saul was consented unto his death, and at that time there
were a great persecution against the church, which was at Jerusalem,
and they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea
and Samaria, except the apostles. So there goes the church. It's
now spreading. Scattered abroad by the providence
of God into Judea, into Samaria, and their love for Christ and
their love for the gospel, those who were scattered, was manifested
as they went forth, they preached the word. They preached the word. Everywhere they went, everywhere
they were scattered to, they preached the gospel of salvation
in and through Christ alone and by his perfect work alone. and
that he raised from the dead. Three days after, he had died. He redeemed his people by his
precious, precious blood. They proclaimed the truth about
who Christ was. He was the Messiah, sent by God
to save his people from their sins, and he did it. He did it. My, oh, my. You know, nothing's really changed.
Ungodly men still hate God's gospel and his saints. I hated
the gospel before the Lord saved me. I was a Catholic. But when confronted by someone
coming to me and talking to me about the Bible or giving me
even a gospel track, I just cuss them out and keep
walking on. So in those actions, I was manifesting
my hatred for the gospel. I wanted nothing to do with it.
And I was a Catholic who never went to church. I was what they
call a two-four. Christmas and Easter. That's
it. Those were the two days I went.
But I held on to that, right? because they teach that salvation's
in the church. Salvation's not in, let's get
this straight. Salvation's not in a church?
Salvation's not in doctrine, right? Oh, Wayne, careful. No, it's not. Now, there's doctrine about true
salvation, but who's salvation in? Christ and Christ alone,
right? Ask who salvation's in. Here's a question for all of
us. The question for the ages. What think ye of Christ? Who is he? Is he just a man? Or is he your savior? Is he just a man? Or is he God
incarnate in flesh? Is he just a man? Or did he save
his people from their sin? Is he just a good prophet, or
is he the prophet sent by God? King of kings and Lord of lords. See? If you can answer the latter
to all those, and you believe in your heart
that Jesus Christ is the savior of sinners, and how do we believe
in our heart? You must be born again. Oh, my. It's all God's work,
isn't it? It's wonderful. It's wonderful. My. So, salvation's only in Christ. I remember reading a good article
by one of our preachers, and he went through that. He goes,
salvation's not in the church. Salvation's not in this. Salvation's
not in that. It's not in something you do.
It's not in baptism. It's not in doctrine. It's in Christ. Christ is our
salvation. Now do we learn doctrine? Of
course we do later on. The doctrine of Christ, which
speaks about Christ, the scripture says. Right? And we rejoice in that. Those
wonderful truths of redemption and sanctification and justification
and adoption and all these wonderful truths. We rejoice in those as
we learn them. We don't know them right off
the bat, no. But I'll tell you what. when you have an encounter
with the one true living God, and you're born again, you're
never the same. You're never the same. You're
a new creature in Christ, aren't you, sister? Oh my, you're never
the same, I'll tell you. So nothing's changed. Ungodly
men still hate the gospel of Christ. And those who live godly
shall suffer persecution. Believers shall suffer persecution.
And don't be surprised when men hate us. They hated our king
before they hated us. You see, they can't get at him,
but they can get at us, right? You ever think of that? They
can get at the messenger, but the messenger is protected, isn't
he? Don't be a, you know, people call you names and things because
of what you believe. Just remember where we were. Just remember the rock we were
hewn from. Right? I had someone tell me, you're
going to face a judgment. a few months back. You're going
to face judgment for what you believe. And I said, well, I
believe that Christ saved me from all my sins and there's
therefore now no condemnation to those in Christ Jesus, which
means there's therefore now no judgment to those in the Greek.
So, no, you're wrong. I'm not going to face judgment.
And I praise God for that. Do you, beloved? Isn't it wonderful? Oh, my. It's absolutely wonderful. So persecution will come, the
Lord told us persecution will come. But note, the apostles,
they stayed in Jerusalem. But many of the Lord's disciples
who were saved under the preaching of the gospel were scattered,
were scattered. Turn, if you would, to Acts chapter
one. Acts chapter one. Now look in the, again, I'll
read this here again. the latter part, and they were
all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria
except the apostles. That's Acts chapter 8 verse 1.
So we know from that that there's now God's believing saints in
Jerusalem, in Samaria, in Judea. Look at this in Acts chapter
1 verse 8. But ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost
has come upon you, And you shall be witnesses unto me, both in
Jerusalem, and in Judea, and in Samaria." That what the Lord
told them is coming true right there. And then he says, in the
outermost parts of the earth. Well, here we are in Almont,
Michigan now. And the gospel's here, isn't
it? I'll tell you what, it just gets
better and better, doesn't it? It's just amazing. Oh my, it's
just amazing, I'll tell you. So the apostles stayed in Jerusalem,
but the rest scattered in the very places the Lord said they
would go, Judea and Samaria, and in the other parts of the
earth. Well, next thing you know, Paul, he's in the first European
city in Philippi. Now, then later on, he's writing
the Philippians from Rome. And the Gospels went all down
through Africa and all that. Oh, my. Oh, my. And now it's in the US and Canada
and all over the world, right? It's absolutely amazing, to the
outermost parts of the earth. The words that our Lord said
are coming to pass exactly as our Lord proclaimed. Now let's
remember too in verse four here, look at this. Remember earlier
I said that God always causes the sinner to hear the gospel.
The sinner that he's purposed to save will hear the gospel.
Will hear the gospel. We're not looking for it when
we hear it. But God will bring us to a place to hear the gospel. That's why I'm so thrilled with
the message going out all around the world. People download it
and there's the message. There's the gospel, right? Look
at this, verse four. Therefore they were scattered
abroad and went everywhere preaching the word. So God has purposed to save his
people, right? And they will hear the gospel.
They will hear it. There's some in Judea, there's
some in Samaria, and there's some in the other most parts
of the world. So the gospel must go forth,
right? And we see it going forth by persecution. It has to go
forth. Because God has purposed, remember
that Sumerian lady? Our Lord said, I must need to
go to Sumeria. I have to go to Sumeria. And there's that lady at the
well. Oh, my. I love it when she says, well,
we know the Messiah cometh. And he says, I that speaketh
unto thee am he. And she said, come and hear a man who told
me basically everything about my life. Well, yeah, he's God. He knows everything about you.
You're one of his chosen sheep, and you didn't even know it.
My, oh my. If the salvation of God's elect
is according to his eternal purpose, and his holy word plainly declares
that it is, it should not be difficult for us to believe that
he also purposed all things pertaining to those he's pleased to call
out of darkness, including us. God at his appointed time, he,
think of this, think of this too. This is just incredible.
God at the appointed time formed us in our mother's wombs. formed us in our mother's wombs
at his appointed time. Formed us in our mother's wombs
and then brought us into this world. Do you know also he appointed
all the places we live? Where we live. Not only when
we came into this world. I was born in Brampton, Ontario,
Canada. and raised in Bolton, Ontario,
Canada. All God purposed, all that. And
then I went down to, when I got older, I moved down to Oregon
to meet a lady I'd met on the internet. Ended up marrying her. And then we spent 18 years in
Oregon. And then God moved me down to
Mont Michigan. All those places were purposed by God. Isn't that amazing? And you can
look in your life and see that too. Oh my. Listen to this. Turn if
you would, Acts chapter 17. Look at this. I was talking to
Jake about this the other day. And we were talking about what
I put together for the message. And we were talking about this
verse. I took him to this verse. Look at this. This settle it right here. Acts
chapter 26. Paul's on Mars Hill, he's preaching
to the Greeks about the unknown God. And he says this in verse
26, about the unknown God. And hath made of one blood all
nations. Look at that. We're all one blood. We may have
different pigmentation of skin, but we're one blood. We're what's
called, now this is not politically correct, but I'm gonna say it
anyways. We're called the human race. We're one. We're all sons and daughters
of Adam. All of us. And hath made of one
blood all nations to dwell on all the face of the earth, and
hath determined the times before, look at that, appointed and the
bounds of their habitation. Where we will live. My oh my. Isn't that amazing? That's absolutely
amazing. And our Lord, he knows the end
from the beginning. Listen to this, God who saved us and called
us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to
his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus
before the world began. My, he knows the end from the
beginning. And you know what his purpose
will come to pass? Listen to this from Isaiah chapter 46. Remember the former things of
old, for I am God and there is none else. I am God and there
is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from
ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, my
counsel shall stand and I will do all my pleasure, no matter
what man says. He's not consenting men to do
his pleasure, is he? No. Calling the ravenous bird
from the east, and a man that executes my counsel from a far
country, yea, I have spoken it, I will bring it to pass, I have
purposed it, I will also do it. Hearken unto me, you stout-hearted,
that are far from righteousness. I bring near my righteousness,
that's Christ. It shall not be far off, and
my salvation shall not tarry. I will place in Zion, for Israel,
my glory. My oh my. Marvel at this, that
God always causes the sinner whom he's purposed to save to
hear the gospel of salvation in and through the Lord Jesus
Christ. And this is not just a truth to give us spiritual
instruction, which it does in the gospel of Christ, but it's
a truth that gives all the glory through our great triune God,
God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And with a sincere
desire of every born-again blood-washed believer is to give God all the
glory and honor and praise. Isn't he wonderful? Look what
he's done. My, oh my. Brother Neil, can
you close us in prayer?