Cleave unto the Lord

Q: What does the Bible say about cleaving to the Lord?

The Bible exhorts believers to cling to the Lord with purpose of heart, emphasizing a steadfast relationship with Him. In Acts 11:23, Barnabas encourages the church in Antioch to 'cleave unto the Lord' with a purpose of heart. This concept of cleaving speaks to a deep and abiding attachment to Christ, indicating that believers are to maintain and nurture their relationship with Him continually. In Christian life, this is not merely an initial act of faith; it represents a sustained commitment to Jesus as the source of strength and salvation. The church’s growth depended on this continual devotion, as the hand of God empowered their witness and transformed their lives.

Q: How do we know that salvation is by grace alone?

Salvation is by grace alone, as evidenced by God's sovereign hand working in the hearts of sinners, turning them to Christ. The Scriptures teach that salvation is entirely God's work and not based on human effort. In Acts 11:21, it states that 'the hand of the Lord was with them,' illustrating that conversions occur through divine intervention. This aligns with the doctrine of sovereign grace, which affirms that before the foundation of the world, God chose those who would be saved (Ephesians 1:4-5). The transformation of lives, as evidenced in Antioch, highlights how God's grace compels sinners to turn to Him, evidencing that our faith is not self-generated but a result of the Spirit’s work.

Q: Why is it important for Christians to be devoted to Jesus?

Being devoted to Jesus ensures that Christians stay grounded in faith, safeguarded from worldly influences, and able to fulfill their calling. Devotion to Jesus is essential for every believer as it lays the foundation for a fruitful Christian life. In Acts 11:23, Barnabas encouraged the believers to remain in a devoted relationship with Christ. Keeping Jesus as the focal point of faith prevents spiritual drifting in a world filled with distractions. By cleaving to Him, Christians receive guidance, strength, and sustenance necessary for obedience, enabling them to reflect Christ in their actions and decisions. Such devotion fosters a vibrant testimony for others, drawing them to the life-changing power of the Gospel.

Q: How should Christians respond to God's grace?

Christians should respond to God's grace with gratitude and a commitment to cleave to the Lord in daily living. In Acts 11:23, Barnabas’ exhortation to the early church reflects a common response to experiencing God’s grace: to cling to the Lord with determination. This response is grounded in recognizing the unmerited favor God has shown through Christ's atoning work. As believers grasp the depth of God's grace, their hearts are filled with gratitude, compelling them toward obedience and a lifestyle reflective of Christ's character. Therefore, an ongoing response to grace involves an intentional commitment to spiritual growth, participating in the body of Christ, and sharing the Gospel message with others.

Q: What does it mean to be 'called Christian'?

'Called Christian' signifies a believer’s identification with Christ and His teachings, reflecting a life transformed by faith. The term 'Christian' in Acts 11:26 indicates that the disciples in Antioch were recognized as followers of Christ, embodying His teachings and representing His character. This is significant because it reflects an observable change in their lives due to their faith in Jesus. Being called a Christian implies more than a mere label; it denotes a commitment to live in accordance with Christ's commands, demonstrating love, service, and obedience. The early church's transformation into 'Christians' illustrates how genuine faith results in a deep sense of identity aligned with Christ's mission.

Now before we turn to the reading
and the preaching of the Word of God, since this is the only
opportunity I have had to address primarily the assembly of God's
people who meet in this place, Trinity Reformed Baptist Church,
I do wish to take this opportunity, since it will be a gathering
of many churches again tonight, to express on behalf of my wife
and myself our sincere gratitude for the many kindnesses shown
to us in our time in your midst, for the graciousness of the brethren
who offered to pay my wife's airfare and to have her accompany
me during this visit, for the opportunity that God has given
me to increase and deepen my friendship with your pastor,
whom I have known for many years, but with whom, in the providence
of God, we have not had many opportunities for intimate, face-to-face
fellowship. And it has been a great delight
to be in their home, to be the recipients of their love. And
when I say theirs, I mean Mrs. Blackburn, along with Caleb. They have made us feel very much
at home And we are deeply grateful to God for all that our eyes
have seen of the work of God amongst you, your present unity,
what God has given you in your new facilities, the leadership
he has raised up. And it is biblical when one sees
not only an ongoing faith in Christ and love for the brethren,
but order in Christ's church. For in Colossians chapter 2,
Paul mentioned that very thing, that he was full of joy beholding
the love and the faith and the order of the church at Colossae. And so I sincerely thank you
for your many expressions of kindness and love, your prayers
for me, for the ministry of the Word. I believe that God has
heard and answered our cries in granting us the sense of his
felt presence when we have gathered for the public ministry of the
Word of God. And now will you turn with me
in your own Bibles to the portion of God's Word that will be the
focus of our study this morning. I shall read just one verse from
Acts chapter 9 and then we will turn over to a paragraph in Acts
chapter 11. Acts chapter, I said nine, I
meant chapter eight. Chapter seven contains the account
of Stephen facing the Sanhedrin, ultimately stone the first Christian
martyr, put to death for his faith in the Lord Jesus. And we read in verse one of Acts
eight, and Saul, that is Saul of Tarsus, was consenting unto
his, that is Stephen's death. And there arose on that day,
the day of Stephen's martyrdom, a great persecution against the
church which was in Jerusalem. And they were all scattered abroad
throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria except the apostles. So we see the picture. The church
is scattered upon the occasion of this intense, this mega, this
great persecution that began on the occasion of the martyrdom
of Stephen. But what men intended for evil,
God intended for good. And follow as I read one aspect
of that good from Acts chapter 11, Acts chapter 11, And I shall read verses 19 through
26. Verses 19 through 26. They therefore
that were scattered abroad upon the tribulation that arose about
Stephen, traveled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking
the word to none save only to Jews. that were some of them
men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who when they were come to Antioch,
spoke unto the Greeks also, preaching the Lord Jesus. And the hand
of the Lord was with them, and a great number that believed
turned unto the Lord. And the report concerning them
came to the ears of the church which was in Jerusalem, and they
sent forth Barnabas as far as Antioch, who, when he was come
and had seen the grace of God, was glad. And he exhorted them
all that with purpose of heart they would cleave or remain in
the Lord. for he was a good man and full
of the Holy Spirit and of faith and much people was added unto
the Lord and he went forth to Tarsus to seek for Saul and when
he had found him he brought him unto Antioch and it came to pass
that even for a whole year they were gathered together with the
church and taught much people and the disciples were called
Christians first in Antioch. Now the focus of our attention
this morning will be upon these good words of a good man full
of faith and of the Holy Ghost. Words that are called an exhortation
to this infant church found in verse 23. and he exhorted them
all that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord. Now, in handling the text this
morning, let me first of all give you what I will call, without
any fanfares or frills, a brief exposition of the text. Then, secondly, an expanded pastoral
application of the text, and then thirdly, a concluding observation
in connection with the text. First of all then, a brief exposition
of the text itself, and I will attempt this under three headings. The occasion of the exhortation
of Barnabas, the substance of the exhortation of Barnabas,
and the rationale for the exhortation of Barnabas. First of all, then,
the occasion of the exhortation of Barnabas. Why was this exhortation
recorded in verse 23 given at all? And why was it given by
a man named Barnabas? Well, the occasion is very clearly
set before us in the passage. God had moved these unnamed preachers
who were scattered abroad upon the occasion of the persecution
elicited by the martyrdom of Stephen, and some of them had
gone as far north as Antioch, And while others preached only
to the Jews, these men whose background was from the Isle
of Cyprus and from a place called Cyrene on the northern coast
of Africa, they did something that up until now was entirely
novel. They branched out in their gospel
preaching and began preaching to non-Jews. Notice how clearly
this is stated in verse 20. Some of them, men of Cyprus and
Cyrene, who, when they were come to Antioch, spoke unto the Greeks,
preaching the Lord Jesus. And as these men began to preach,
As they began to proclaim the truths that clustered around
the person and work of the Lord Jesus, they were not preaching
the latest pop psychology. They were not preaching a message
of self-fulfillment and self-actualization. They were men who were preaching
the Lord Jesus. They were heralding the message
concerning all that God had done in the person and work of His
Son on behalf of needy, hell-deserving sinners. And the passage says
that as they preached the Lord Jesus, the hand of the Lord was
with them, and a great number that believed turned unto the
Lord. The success of their preaching
is not attributed to their eloquence. It is not attributed to their
cleverness. It is not attributed to their
persuasiveness. It is not attributed to their
ability to be so market sensitive that they could adopt the gospel
in such a way that it lost all of its offense and men could
very easily, without any divine intervention, be brought to pray
the prayer and make a decision for Jesus. The text says, the
hand of the Lord was with them. And that phrase, the hand of
the Lord, is a Hebraism. The hand of the Lord means there
was an outgoing of the mighty power of the living God Himself. The hand of the Lord speaks of
the imminent, present, direct intervention of the mighty power
of the living God. When it speaks of God's hand
is not shortened that it cannot save, it means there is no want
of power and divine energy in God to save the neediest of sinners. And so as these men preach, God
sovereignly, God graciously attended their preaching with power, and
notice it says, a great number that believed. In other words,
their faith was the result of the putting forth of the hand
of God, and the manifestation of that faith was they turned
unto the Lord. That is, their whole souls turned
in the direction of the Lord Jesus, who was the substance
of the preaching, and they gave themselves up to the Lord to
be saved by Him on His terms. This is not an account of a deeper
life conference where after people had trusted Christ as Savior,
Some preachers come along and tell them, now you need to get
fully surrendered and fully yielded, and you need the baptism in the
Spirit, and this, that, and the other, and then the Lord worked
in power, and they turned to the Lord as a subsequent experience. No! This is baseline conversion. Anything less than this is bogus
Christianity. And as the hand of the Lord was
with them, and caused a great number to believe and turn to
the Lord, the report of this came down to the Jerusalem church,
which is likened to a body that had a set of ears. The text says,
and the report concerning them came to the ears of the church
that was in Jerusalem. And you'll remember from the
Acts 8 passage, the apostles, the divinely appointed guides
and leaders in the church, they were not scattered upon the occasion
of Stephen's persecution. The apostolate was still there
in Jerusalem. And so hearing this report, They
select this man Barnabas to represent them, to go up to Antioch and
to see if indeed the report which they have heard was an accurate
report. And so Barnabas is not some self-appointed
prophet. He is not somebody who had established
his own parachurch ministry called Strengthen the Antiochian Churches
Incorporated. He was a man whose life was embedded
in the church at Jerusalem. At the end of Acts 4, there is
a beautiful description of how much he was an integral part
of the life and ministry of the church at Jerusalem. And so the
church, through its appointed leadership, sends forth Barnabas. Do you see that in verse 22?
And they sent forth Barnabas. He didn't wake up in the middle
of the night one night and say, I have felt a divine twitch in
my left ventricle. God has called me to go up to
Antioch. No one dare question my call. Nonsense. When you think God's
speaking through a twitch in your ventricle, your problem
is you probably need to have an EKG and find out what's wrong
with your heart. When you think God is speaking
to you in night visions, my friend, you just better check what you
eat before you go to bed. God speaks in His Word and God
works by the instituted means that He has established. And
here the church, a proven man like Barnabas, with a background
of a more cosmopolitan spirit, is sent up to Antioch. And what happens when he comes
there? Verse 23, Who when he was come, and had seen the grace
of God, When he got up to Antioch and began to observe these who
had professed to have turned unto the Lord in faith, he saw
the grace of God. Now let me ask you this. Is the
grace of God a commodity like a glass of water, like a pulpit,
like a microphone, like a Bible, like a suit that one can see? I thought the grace of God was
the kind, beneficent disposition in God's heart to show mercy
to the ill-deserving. I thought grace was a spiritual
commodity, not something that could be seen. Yet the text says,
who when he saw the grace of God. Well, the meaning is obvious.
It is telling us that he saw things that defied any other
rational explanation, but that God in grace had worked in the
lives of sinful men and women at Antioch. He saw things for
which there was no rational explanation, But that God in grace had indeed
put forth His hand, not in displays of His power that merely astounded
people, and filled them with temporary amazement and wonder,
and gathered the crowds, No, after the dust had settled and
there was sufficient time to evaluate the lifestyle and the
perspectives, the conversation and the family life and the personal
lives of these people, Barnabas came to the conclusion, there's
no explanation for what I see but the grace of Almighty God. And what did he experience when
he saw it? The text says, look at it, who
when he was come and had seen the grace of God became squinty-eyed
and cynical and jealous because he hadn't been there to be a
part of it. Alas, that's the way a lot of
modern preachers are. They can't rejoice in God's work
any other place but where they are. and let God work somewhere
else, and they're immediately suspicious and squinty-eyed with
cynicism, or worse yet, green-eyed with envy. But here, this leading
man from Jerusalem, with a great reputation of spiritual stature
in the mother church of Jerusalem, he comes and sees the fruit of
the labors of some unnamed preachers. Not big shots, little shots,
unnamed. But through them God worked and
he was glad. He was glad. One of the great
texts of whether a man is a true man of God is whether or not
he can rejoice with holy joy when he sees the grace of God
even though he has had no part in the working of that grace.
He's glad when God's grace is manifested and displayed. And so the occasion of his giving
this exhortation was his being sent to Antioch, his seeing the
clear manifestations of the grace of God that had actually brought
to birth a company of true Christians there at Antioch. God's hand
had been with them and the preaching of the Lord Jesus had resulted
in great numbers that came to faith and were now living in
dependence upon Christ and under the sovereign rule of Jesus Christ. That was the occasion of the
exhortation. Now look at the substance of
the exhortation with me. Having considered the occasion
as we expound the text, what was the substance of the exhortation? And here I want you to note two
things. What he exhorted them to do and how he encouraged them
to do it. What did he exhort them to do?
Look at the text. He was glad, and he exhorted
them, and the form of the verb means he was continually exhorting
them. Whatever his text was, whatever
his theme was, It always came down to this fundamental theme. He was continually exhorting
them, encouraging them, motivating them. All of that is bound up
in the Greek verb to exhort. He was continually exhorting
them all, and this is what He was exhorting them to do. To
cleave is the old authorized rendering, the rendering of the
1901 American standard, to cleave unto the Lord. Some of the newer
translations say to remain in the Lord. Some very inaccurately
render it to remain true to the Lord, but the very sense of it
is captured in the older versions. He was continually exhorting
them to be remaining in the Lord. He was continually encouraging
them, motivating them to go on in this cleaving to the Lord
to whom they had turned in their conversion. The emphasis of verse
21 was they turned unto the Lord. Now Barnabas comes along and
is continually exhorting them to remain in this posture of
attachment to the Lord, to cleave to the Lord, to be continually
abiding in the Lord, to be remaining in the Lord. Their conversion
had brought them into real, vital, saving union with the Lord Jesus. You see, they were not a bunch
of moralists who simply had given up some external gross sins to
more refined sins. They were not formalists who
were simply doing the right thing at the right time, in the right
place, in the right way, and therefore thought they were right
with God. And they were not hypocrites
who were covering their true state with a mask. They had truly
turned to the Lord. And when Barnabas is convinced
of this, he says to them, you must understand now, that in
the Christian life you don't go from Christ to something else. You don't begin with Christ and
go on to someone else. You don't begin with Christ and
the grace of God and proceed to some higher level, no. As
the hand of the Lord was present to show you your desperate need
of Christ, And as Christ was preached to you as the Savior
sufficient for the vilest and the neediest of sinners, and
as you turned unto the Lord, so Barnabas said, I exhort you,
I entreat you, I seek to motivate you to go on continuing to remain
in the Lord, to go on continuing to cleave. to the Lord. That was the substance of his
exhortation as to what he exhorted them to do. But now notice in
the substance of his exhortation how he encouraged them to do
it. He did not encourage, exhort,
and motivate them to cleave to the Lord in any old way, but
look at the text. And I say to some who may be
visiting and are not part of a church where this is what a
preacher does week after week, take you into your Bible, open
up the language of the Bible, get out of that place. If all
he does is occasionally quote a phrase of the Bible and then
make you laugh, and quote another phrase and tell you stories,
and quote another phrase and tell you his own notions. For
the sake of your soul, go where this book is opened up, week
after week, as the meat and potatoes, our brother said, of the ministry. Don't be led away with charismatic
personalities and with people that make you feel good and stroke
you and make you laugh and fill you with stories and anecdotes
of their life. Go where men do, what I'm attempting
to do this morning. Unpack the scriptures. Let the
message of the Bible come out of the Bible and into your mind
and by the grace of God into your heart and then out into
your life. So what did he exhort them to
do? To cleave to the Lord. But how? There was a specific
way he told them to do this. And the text tells us it was
this. He exhorted them all that with purpose of heart they would
be cleaving unto the Lord. With purpose of heart. Now this word purpose is an interesting
word. It means settled, resolute, determined
action. It's the word used in Romans
8.28. For we know that all things work together for good to them
that love God, to those who are the called according to, here's
our word, purpose. When God calls a sinner to himself,
is it that he just wakes up one morning and says, oh, I got a
few more sinners to call. Let me see now, who shall I call?
Oh, I think I'll call that sinner. No, no. The scripture tells us
that when a sinner is called out of darkness into marvelous
light in his own space-time history, it is but the unfolding in time
of that which God had a settled, distinct, determined purpose
to accomplish from all eternity. He hath saved us, Paul said,
and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but
according to His own, here's our word again, purpose and grace
given to us in Christ Jesus before times eternal. His purpose as
its top roots in eternity, that's the word that is used. So when
Barnabas was telling them, cleave to the Lord, remain in union
with the Lord. He is saying, do this with settled,
determined, resolute purpose of what? Again, look at the text.
With purpose of heart. Of heart. And when the word heart
is used in a context like this, it's not used in a technical
sense. It means from the very depths
and the seat of your being. What you are in your heart is
what you really are. What has your heart has you.
The scripture says your life is the exegesis of your heart. Chapter and verse, Proverbs 4.23. Guard your heart above all that
you guard, for out of it are the issues of life. The streams
of your life are the revelation of the deep well of your heart. Can't see what's in your heart,
but I'll watch the streams of your life and I'll know what's
there. Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. Your words exegete what's in
your heart. The streams and patterns of your
life are the revelation of the deep well and pool, the subterranean
pool of your own heart. And so when Barnabas was exhorting
these young Christians, he said, look, this is no light matter. This is not something you're
supposed to think about once a week or once a month. He says
to these Christians, with settled, resolute determination, rooted
in the very depths of your being, with purpose of heart, you are
to continue to cleave to the Lord, remain in the Lord, be
attached to the Lord. Now, in expounding the text,
we've seen the occasion. of the exhortation of Barnabas,
secondly, the substance of the exhortation of Barnabas, but
now thirdly, in expounding the text, note with me the rationale
for this exhortation of Barnabas, or for you kids, rationale is
just a big reason for saying why you do something. So let's
say why he gave such an exhortation, all right? And the text tells
us. he said what he said because
he was what he was look at verse 24 begins with the connective
for a logical word of connection he was exhorting them all that
with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord for he was
a good man and full of the Holy Spirit and the faith in other
words His exhortation was what it was because he was the kind
of man that he was. And a form of the verb to be
is used that speaks of the prevailing character of Barnabas. When it says, for he was a good
man, it doesn't mean he was and no longer is, but he was continually
being in the status of one whom we could call a good man and
full of faith and of the Holy Ghost. Now what do the words
mean? Well they mean that he was first
of all morally good or ministerially competent and he was spiritually
mature. He was morally good. It could
mean just that. He was a good man, not good in
himself by nature. Barnabas was what all of us are.
wretched, vile sons and daughters of Adam. And Barnabas would be
the first one, if we could resurrect him and say, Barnabas, a preacher
came and opened up a passage where it said you were a good
man. Now Barnabas, tell us, were you always a good man? He would
say, no, no, a thousand times no. By nature I was a sinner,
evil, lost under the curse of God. Well, how did you become
a good man? I became a good man by the good
and gracious operations of the Holy Spirit, who pointed me to
the Lord Jesus as the one who would pardon and forgive me,
and who by His Spirit would transform me, and put the law of God within
me, and give me both the desire and the power to please God. And if there is any moral goodness
in me, it is goodness that is the fruit of grace, and not the
fruit of nature. But he was a good man. And that's
why he sought only the good and the well-being of these Antiochian
Christians. You see, when he came and saw
the grace of God, he knew many things that the grace of God
would do for people. He had been down at Jerusalem
when the grace of God had worked so powerfully. And this is the
last time we hear of Barnabas until this chapter. He was part
of that movement where voluntarily people were giving up title to
lands and possessions and voluntarily putting them at the disposal
of the apostles and the deacons to be distributed according to
need. Now if he knows the grace of
God can make people so generous that they're willing as it were
to throw their checkbooks down at the feet of the apostles and
say use them however you need them just Let me know what the
accurate balance is once a month so they don't bounce. It says
that there was this tremendous spirit of benevolence and open-heartedness. Had he seen the grace of God
at work, you see what he could have done? He said, well, if
God's grace is at work, here's the people now who are generous
and open-handed. And he could have begun to manipulate
them to line his own pockets. Hear me now. Every televangelist,
every preacher that manipulates people in whom the Holy Ghost
is given a spirit of generosity to line his pockets, to build
his mansions, to buy his boats, is a false prophet on his way
to hell. He is not a good man. I don't
care if he claims to raise the dead and heal the sick. He'll
split hell wide open as a covetous man who is an idolater, who has
no inheritance in the kingdom of God and of Christ. This was
a good man. So he didn't tell people, open
your pockets and help the servant of God. He said, hang on to Jesus. Hang on to Jesus! Cling to Jesus! He was a good man, morally good,
who sought only the well-being of others. But then he was spiritually
mature, notice what it says, and full of the Spirit and of
faith. Well, what's the connection between
his exhortation? His exhortation was not, give
me seed money and the Lord will bless you a thousandfold. It
was cleave to Jesus. It wasn't, send me ten bucks
and I'll send you back a prayer cloth that I've anointed. No,
he was a good man, not a charlatan, not a thief. And therefore, being
a good man, he was exhorting them with purpose of heart to
cleave to the Lord. But he was also full of the Spirit
and the faith, and that's why he told them to cleave to the
Lord. And do you see the connection? When a man is full of the Spirit,
He is under the power of that person whose most delightful
ministry is to point to Jesus Christ. You remember what Jesus
said about the coming of the Spirit? When he has come, he
will not speak of himself. He shall take the things of myself
and shall reveal them unto you. He will take the things of myself
and reveal them unto you. May I say it reverently, the
Holy Spirit is the modest member of the Trinity. He delights,
as it were, to be in the wings, behind the folds of the curtain,
manipulating all the lights so that they shine upon Jesus. And in seeing Jesus, Jesus said,
he that hath seen me hath seen the Father. And when a man is
most full of the Holy Spirit, the mark will be this, he is
most anxious that people be attached to Jesus Christ. Not to himself,
not to his cause, not to his church, not to his peculiar doctrinal
formulations, his greatest is that people will know and see
and appreciate the sufficiency and the glory of Christ and be
more and more attached to Christ. He was exhorting them to cleave
to the Lord for he was full of the Holy Spirit. And then it
says of faith. Well, what's the connection between
faith and the exhortation he gave? Just this. Antioch was
no Garden of Eden. Like any city in the Greco-Roman
world, Antioch was full of sin. And you had people who had all
of the vulnerability and all of the remaining propensity to
sin that you and I have living here in what I call Main Street,
Sodom, West Coast. We live Main Street, Sodom East
Coast, out in the New York, New Jersey metropolitan area. We've
got something in common. We both live on Main Street.
These young Christians were living in Main Street, Sodom and Gomorrah,
in the Greco-Roman world, as were the saints at Corinth and
Colossae and Thessalonica. But because he was full of faith,
He was convinced that had they truly turned to the Lord, that
Christ was enough to keep them Main Street Sodom. And therefore
he was exhorting them to cling to the Lord Jesus. To cleave
to the Lord Jesus. Why? Because he had faith to
believe that Christ was enough He wasn't exhorting them, get
all you can from Christ and then go to the local psychological
clinic and go to the local gurus who will tell you that they are
the experts on this, that and the other. He did not tell them
to go from Christ to some other place. He said, having gone to
Christ, cling to Christ, because he was a man of faith, confident
that all whom Christ brought to himself, Christ could keep. and Christ could bring them safely
home to be forever with Him. Well, there's the text, opened
up relatively briefly, but I trust accurately. Now, having given
this exposition of the text, I want to give an expanded pastoral
application of the text. We've looked at the text, and
if I were now to say, now Lord, bless your word and go home,
I would not be doing my job. How do the words of a good man,
full of faith and of the Holy Ghost, spoken nearly 2,000 years
ago in a totally different cultural and religious setting, there
in Antioch, how do those words leap over the 2,000 years and
come and arrange themselves on your plate, sitting on your lap
this morning, for you to feed upon and assimilate to yourself?
There the plate is on your lap. How do the words come over the
years and translate into the stuff upon which you are to feed
your soul? Well, as time permits, let me
make several pastoral applications of the text, and the first is
this, and I speak particularly to this assembly. You visitors
with us, we welcome you. And I trust there'll be something
on your plate as well, but I think particularly of the members in
adherence of Trinity Church here. And the exhortation is this,
that with purpose of heart, you cleave to the Lord himself as
the sole object of your trust for every part of your salvation. with purpose of heart, cleave
to the Lord Himself as the sole object of your trust for every
part of your salvation. For most of you who have, because
the arm of the Lord has been put forth with power, and you
have believed and turned to the Lord, there are many years between
you and the door of death. Should the Lord delay His coming?
Many of you will face many besetting sins that need to be overcome. You will face many sins that
will need daily cleansing and pardon. You will face a whole
spectrum of duties in the home and in the shop and in the classroom
and in the neighborhood and in the shopping center and in all
of your circumstances of life, many duties to be performed,
many ministries to be undertaken. You parents, There will need
to be great supplies of moral courage when the time comes when
you need to take God's side against your own children. You'll need
the wisdom of Solomon in sorting out the naughty problems of being
a godly parent who on the one hand does not provoke his children
to wrath, but on the other hand nurtures them with assertive,
loving, chastening and admonition. And what is my exhortation to
you with purpose of heart? Cleave to the Lord Jesus Christ
alone as the sole object of your trust for every part of your
salvation. In Colossians 2, 6 and following,
Paul sums it up in these words, As you have therefore received
Christ Jesus the Lord, So walk in Him. Root it and build it
up in Him. And established in your faith
as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving, then He gives
a warning, take heed lest there be anyone that makes spoil of
you through his philosophy and vain deceit after the traditions
of men and the rudiments of the world and not after Christ. For in Him dwells all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily, and in Him are you made full or complete. Dear people of God, in this assembly
I would hide behind the good words of this good man, full
of faith and of the Holy Ghost, and say to you with purpose of
heart, plead to the Lord Himself as the sole object of your trust
for every part of your salvation. Don't look to yourself, don't
look to the church ultimately, don't look to the servants of
God. Remember the exhortation of Hebrews
12, in the light of the marathon race that is the Christian life.
Lay aside every weight and the sin that does so easily beset
us and run with endurance the race that is set before us looking
off unto Jesus the author and the perfecter of faith. One of the joys when I come out
to a place like this where I've not been for years and see people
I haven't seen for years is to see this marvelous truth before
my own eyes. There's a dear brother now teaching
down at Westminster. I hadn't seen him in years. And
when he came through the room where I was preparing to minister
and his eyes met mine and he walked across the room and we
embraced, you know my first words to him were, my dear brother,
I'm so glad to see that Christ is still keeping you in the way. I know that man well enough to
know that he's got a thousand fifth columns within his own
heart, and that he no doubt has faced a thousand pressures from
without that long ago would have taken him out of the way. But
there he was, looking me straight in the eye with a good conscience
before God and man, embracing me as one who was still in the
way. And I in turn could embrace Him
as one who was still in the way. And we stood there embracing,
rejoicing, not in our great strength, but in the grace of Christ who
has kept us. As we have kept Him, the sole
object of our trust for every part of our salvation. Bunyan understood it well, didn't
he, in the well-known hymn, Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that
saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now am found,
was blind, but now I see. T'was grace that taught my heart
to fear, and grace, my fears relieved, and grace will always
teach you to fear before it relieves your fears. How precious did that grace appear
the hour I first believed, but through many dangers, toils and
snares, I have already come. Tis grace has brought me safe
thus far, and grace will lead me home. And how does grace operate? in the orbit of clinging to Christ,
Christ Himself, Christ alone, Christ plus nothing else. And that's my exhortation to
you, dear people in this assembly, from the words of Barnabas, that
with purpose of heart, and you need purpose of heart, a thousand
voices will call you to Christ, plus something else, or something
in the place of Christ. With purpose of heart, settle,
determine, resolute disposition of your whole inner being, cleave
to the Lord Himself. as the sole object of your trust,
for every part of your salvation. My second pastoral application
is this, that with purpose of heart you cleave to the Lord
Himself, hear me now, as the supreme object of your affection
and loyalty. Cleave to the Lord Himself as
the supreme object of your affection and loyalty. When God laid hold
of these Antiochan people, it says, the hand of the Lord was
with them, that is, the gospel preachers, and a great multitude
that believed turned unto the Lord. Now follow me closely.
Whenever the hand of God accompanies the preaching of the gospel of
God, and people turn unto the Son of God, hear my question
now. In what light does the Holy Spirit
always reveal Christ to the heart in which he is working, saving
grace? He always reveals him according to the words of Jesus
in those kingdom parables of the field and of the pearl. You remember Jesus said, the
kingdom of heaven is like unto a man who found a treasure in
the field. And having found it, he went
and sold all that he had, that he might purchase the field and
have the treasure. The kingdom of heaven is like
unto a merchant seeking goodly pearls, who when he had found
one pearl of what great price, sold all that he had, that he
might purchase it. The Holy Spirit never savingly
reveals Christ in such a way that He is embraced with a divided
heart. He is at the point of conversion
embraced as the pearl of great price. That's why He turned in
His own earthly ministry. Luke 14.25, great multitudes
were going out after Him. It was a time of great popularity. There was no big deal to be said,
to say, oh, I was following Jesus for a couple of weeks, listening
to his teaching, watching his miracles. And Jesus said, there's
great danger here. People may mistake the nature
of what it means to be my follower. In Luke 14, 25 says, seeing the
multitudes, he turned and said unto them, if any man come to
me, and hate not father, mother, brother, sister, Yea, in this
own life also he cannot be my disciple." He didn't mean hate
in the sense that you had a negative disposition of ill will. The
parallel passage in Matthew 10 says, He that loves father or
mother more than me, son or daughter more than me, is not worthy of
me. When the Spirit of God savingly
reveals Christ, He never reveals Him as a Savior worthy of only
half of your heart. That's why the great majority
of modern evangelism stands condemned by Scripture. because you've
got multitude praying the prayer, walking the aisle, professing
Christ, who have never seen Him as worthy of an undivided heart
of love and affection. But whenever God truly saves
a person, that's how He reveals Him. But the great difficulty
is maintaining that heart. of undivided affection. One of
the old Puritans said it this way, the most difficult work
in conversion is winning the heart entirely to Christ. And the greatest difficulty of
the Christian life is keeping the heart entirely with Christ. That's it. That's it in a nutshell. The greatest difficulty in conversion
is the winning of the entirety of the heart to Christ. And the great difficulty of the
Christian life is keeping the entirety of the heart with Christ. Therefore I exhort you with purpose
of heart, cleave to the Lord Himself as the supreme object
of your affection and loyalty. Don't allow any romantic interest
to rival his place in your heart. Boys, girls, men or women, I
don't know what setting I set it in. If I set it here, forgive
me for repeating it. The past ten days are one blur. I tell our people when they're
wrestling with this thing of their kids and boy-girl relations,
I say, well, be prepared. Your kids are going to pass through
three stages. There's a stage where when you're around little
girls and you say boys, they go, yuck. If you're around little boys
and you say girls, they say, yuck. Then there comes a stage
when you're around little girls and say boys and they go, vice versa. Then there comes
a stage when you're around girls and you say boys and they go,
hmm. And you say to boys, what about
girls? And they go, hmm. So they go from the yuck to the
to the yummy stage. Now, some of you kids here, you're
still at the yuck or maybe the. But there may be some of you
beginning to be at the yummy stage. And don't let anyone try
to tell you when you get that first crush on that guy or girl
that that ain't real. It's real. I can remember crying
my eyeballs out. And that little four-foot-eleven
gal with big, doe-like eyes told me it was all over. I'd cry myself
to sleep at night. She had my heart. It was a teenage
heart. It was teenage love. But I tell
you, it was real. And you listen to me. Whether
it's teenage crushes or adult romantic interests, Jesus Christ
will brook no rival to your heart, not even your wife or your husband. He who loves husband, wife, father,
mother, brother, sister more than me is not worthy of me. It can be romantic involvement. It can be things. It can be career. It can be personal ambition,
whatever it is. Remember Jesus' words in Revelation
chapter 2, to that healthy church at Ephesus, I have someone against
you. You have left your first love. Oh, dear people, in the name
of the God of heaven, I plead with you, hear the words of Barnabas. Hear them coming over the centuries
now on your spiritual plate to be cut up and assimilated and
masticated and swallowed until they become part of your spiritual
system with purpose of heart. Plead to the Lord determined
that he will not only be the sole object of your trust for
every part of your salvation, but he will have the place of
unrivaled affection in your heart. A third pastoral application
is this. With purpose of heart, cleave
to the Lord as the single-eyed object of your obedience. with
purpose of heart, cleave to the Lord as the single-eyed object
of your obedience. And what do you mean, preacher,
by single-eyed? I'm using Jesus' words from Matthew
6, 22, where he said, If your eye be single, your whole body
shall be full of light. In other words, if your purpose
is narrowed and focused like the laser beam, Like that beam
of light that went in on the back of my retina a couple of
months ago and put sixty little tacks to attach a torn retina
to the back of the eyeball. That beam of light pointed, concentrated
what I'm saying with purpose of heart, cleaved to the Lord
with single-eyed obedience. As you grow in the awareness
of your duties, you must remember that your duties never become
detached from your Savior. You must see your growing awareness
of your duties as the outflowing of the heart of the will of your
Savior. And so when Paul speaks to wives,
he says, Be subject to your husbands as unto the Lord. Husbands, love
your wives as Christ loved the church. To church members, he
says, Remember them that are over you in the Lord. To servants, he says, Render
obedience to your masters as unto Christ. Remember the commission
teaching them to observe whatsoever I have commanded you. Dear Christian,
listen to me. You must grow in your understanding
of the details of the obedience required of you as a disciple.
If you're not, You're not reading your Bible and you're not under
a biblical ministry. Jesus said, baptize them, teach
them to observe whatsoever all things whatsoever I have commanded
you. All things extensive whatsoever
intensive. And you must be under a ministry
that is giving you an ever-growing corpus of understanding of what
God requires of you. But the danger is We can by degrees
detach his commandments from his person. And the Christian
life becomes sterile and drudgery. But Jesus said, if you love me,
you will keep my commandments. He that hath my commandments,
and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me. And therefore Barnabas,
understanding this, said, with purpose of heart, cleave to the
Lord. He realized they had much more
to learn. He went and sought for Saul,
and for a whole year they were there, teaching them the truth
of God, the ways of God, the will of God. But in the midst
of it all, they were with purpose of heart to cleave, to remain
attached to, in vital union with the Lord Jesus Christ. With purpose
of heart, cleave to Him as the sole object of your hope. I have
no time to open it up. With purpose of heart, cleave
to Him as the sole object of your boasting. You see, you can
take it out in all kinds of directions, but having expounded the text,
having given this pastoral application of the text, let me now complete
our study by very briefly considering a concluding observation in connection
with the text. Did these people at Antioch do
what they were told to do and did they cleave to the Lord?
I believe the Holy Spirit has given us an account following
the exhortation to make it abundantly clear that they took Barnabas'
words to heart. Look at your book, look at your
Bibles, look at the passage and what does it say? It says that
after this exhortation, he went forth to Tarsus to seek for Saul. And the Greek word is very intensive.
It pictures what happens when you're just about to go out the
house Sunday morning. You women know, you just know
that both of those shoes that were part of your matching outfit
were together in the closet. But when you went to slip them
on as the last thing you're going to do before you went to church,
lo and behold, only one of them was there. And the whole house
was turned upside down. Gotta find the other shoe. Don't
have time to change my dress, change this, change that. Gotta
find it. You seek, you seek, you seek. That's the sense of
the bird. He went to Tarsus. He didn't
have any revelation as to where Saul was. Nobody apparently knew.
So he sought up and down until he found him and brought him
to Andea. Why was he so anxious to get
Paul? He recognized in Paul a greater endowment of gift and knowledge
and understanding. And these people were so cleaving
to the Lord Jesus that Barnabas apparently had taken them as
far as he could go in the knowledge that they desperately needed.
So he seeks for Saul and brings him that they might be taught
more of the ways and the will of God and the worth and the
glory of Christ. And what was the result? There
was God-given increase and fruitfulness, verse 24. He was a good man,
full of the Holy Spirit and of faith, and much people notice
was added to the Lord. Not much people made decisions,
much people made professions. They were added to the Lord.
That's what real conversion is, when people get attached to Christ
by faith, by the Holy Spirit. Anything less is bogus Christianity. And then there was God-given
additional ministry and stability. Saul comes and teaches them,
but now look at the closing words. There was God-given consistency
and credibility, verse 26. It says, and the disciples were
called Christians first at Antioch. Disciples had always just been
called disciples of Christ, or peoples of the way, as you read
in Acts. First time they ever called Christians.
You know what that word Christian is in the original? It's a Latinized
Greek diminutive of the word Christ. Christianos. It means they were called little
Christs. You Hispanics know how the diminutive
can come in. Teresa becomes Teresita. Olga
becomes Olgita. Oscar, Oscara. Christianos. They were called Little Christ.
Now we don't know whether it was called as kind of a diggy
term or a complimentary term, but one thing is clear. They
took Barnabas' exhortation so seriously and they were so cleaving
to Christ that as their impact was felt in Antioch, And people
interacted with them. They'd say, what in the world's
happened to you, man? You used to be the guy who'd
come in Monday morning with the best string of the latest 630
jokes. Now you don't tell them. You
don't listen to them. What's happened to you, man?
The gospel has come. And I have embraced Christ as
my Savior and my Lord. And my tongue is His to speak
only the things that are pure and true. And then they watched
the guy, when he went to his bench, he was the guy who always
took off two minutes early before coffee break time, always back
three minutes late. Now he was the last to leave
his bench, the first back at his bench. And they say, hey,
what's happened to your work ethic? He said, I now serve the Lord
Christ. And then they watched him. When
he'd go to his home, he used to talk roughly to his wife and
treat her like a chattel. and used to be brusque with his
kids and now he would treat her with dignity and honor and treat
his children with tenderness and compassion and his neighbors
say, what in the world has happened to you? Say, Christ has changed
my life. Now you multiply that by the
great number that believed and the great number that were added
and all through Antioch were people who were telling others
that the change has come by Christ. I am what I am. by the work of
Christ until finally they said, let's give them a new name, Christianos,
Little Christs, Little Christs. Dear people, dear people, what
a marvelous thing when a church is comprised of people so cleaving
to the Lord Jesus that whether by their friends or their enemies,
they must be designated Little Christs. Not that they have power
to save or they are to be worshipped or they are to be trusted, no.
But that they so represent Him and reflect attachment to Him. That's the only word they could
give for Him. What a prostituted, diluted word
it is in our day. Anybody that taps, tips his hat
to Jesus in one way or another, is ready to be called a Christian
and take the name Christian. Think of all of those big overgrown
boys that this day will cause millions in our nation to break
the fourth commandment who claim to be Christians. Christ's ones
while they defy Christ's day. Only two things are given that
peculiar designation of the Lord's day and the Lord's supper. The day, particularly the Lord's,
and the supper, particularly the Lord's, and if you love the
Lord, the marks will be eminently that you love His day and you
love His institutions particularly. that which reminds you that all
that you have flows from His cross. Well, these are the words
I wanted to speak to you people at Trinity Church this morning.
The words of Barnabas, a good man, full of faith and of the
Holy Ghost. But I'd be foolish to think that
everyone sitting here is one who has turned to the Lord in
faith. And if you're not a Christian, my final word to you is this.
If you've gotten nothing else out of the message, I hope you
got this. If you ever become a real Christian, Christ is going
to be central in your life. If you missed everything else,
I hope you got that. It will be Christ to whom you
look for forgiveness and pardon and acceptance of God. It will
be Christ the Lord to whom you turn and whom you trust and to
whom you plead. and whom you obey, and whom you
seek to have in your heart as the Sovereign Lord, loved with
unrivaled affection and devotion. And as you seek to obey Him,
it will be out of attachment to Him, independence upon Him. May God grant that if the Lord
delays His coming, the fruits of the Antiochian Christians
obeying the exhortations of Barnabas Those fruits will continue to
be manifested in this place. Much people added to the Lord. Additional servants of God raised
up to feed and to lead and to guide you. Until this community
knows there's a difference between just saying you belong to Jesus
and you are one of those Christianos. May God make it true for His
glory. Amen.

Cleave unto the Lord

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about cleaving to the Lord?

How do we know that salvation is by grace alone?

Why is it important for Christians to be devoted to Jesus?

How should Christians respond to God's grace?

What does it mean to be 'called Christian'?

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About Albert N. Martin

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Cleave unto the Lord

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about cleaving to the Lord?

How do we know that salvation is by grace alone?

Why is it important for Christians to be devoted to Jesus?

How should Christians respond to God's grace?

What does it mean to be 'called Christian'?

Sermon Transcript

About Albert N. Martin

Comments

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