And open your Bibles, if you would, to Acts chapter 28. The name of the message is Paul in Rome. Now, the Lord had told Paul, you must go to Rome. You must go to Rome, and you're going to testify of me. You're going to testify of me. You're going to tell people about me. You're going to testify. And for Paul, testifying about Christ was preaching the gospel, wasn't it? That's what he was sent to do, to preach the gospel. Do you know that every one of us, as God's people, are ambassadors for Christ? You ever think of that?

I said to Vicki the other day, I said, someone asked me, what do you do for a living? I'll say, nothing. And she said, what? And I said, yeah, what I do is a calling. You guys give me a love offering, but it's not a job. Preaching's not a job. And you know what our real titles are? We're ambassadors. So what do you do? I'm an ambassador. You're an ambassador?

For Christ. I know we don't go around talking like that, but it's true though, isn't it? We're ambassadors for Christ, beloved. We're in this world as ambassadors for Christ. And the preacher's got one message, and I'm gonna brag about our king, our leader. See, heaven is a far-off country, isn't it? We're ambassadors, just like we send ambassadors to countries all over the world, don't we? And they're a representative, aren't they?

Of our country. We're representatives of Christ. Do you ever think of that? Isn't that amazing? Set in this world, in the exact place where we are, we're ambassadors for Christ. It's glorious. It's absolutely glorious. Amazing. And Paul, he's got one desire, to preach Christ. To preach Christ.

Let's stand up and read verses 16 to 19 of Acts chapter 28, to get the starting context of our verses for today. God's word declares, and when we came to Rome, the centurion delivered the prisoners to the captain of the guards, but Paul was suffered to dwell by himself with a soldier that kept him. And it came to pass that after three days, Paul called the chief of the Jews together, and when they were come together, he said unto them, men and brethren, Though I have committed nothing apart from the people or customs of our fathers, yet was I delivered prisoner from Jerusalem into the hands of the Romans, who, when they examined me, would have let me go, because there was no cause of death in me. But when the Jews spake against it, I was constrained to appeal unto Caesar, and not that I ought to accuse my nation of." My, oh, my. Paul's now arrived in Rome. He's now arrived in Rome. We see in these verses, Paul's come to Rome, and so what does he do in the third day? He calls the chief men, the Jews, chief men of the Jews. He wanted to talk to them personally, didn't he?

I always say, when people are saying something about somebody, go to that source, go to that somebody and ask them what happened. Because a lot of times people will misconstrue the truth, won't they? They say, well, this fellow's doing this, or this fellow's not that, and then you go to the person and they go, I don't know what you're talking about.

It happened to to a preacher. One group of preachers said, that fellow's not preaching the gospel. And you've had that fellow up here to preach before, before I came. And he preached the gospel to you. But some folks over here were saying, well, he wasn't preaching the gospel.

And I was talking to Norm one time on the phone. And Norm said, yeah, I've been told that fellow doesn't preach the gospel. I said, have you called him? I said, he's been up here preaching. I said, I don't know him a whole lot, but he's been up here preaching. And I listened to the message. It was pretty clear he's preaching the gospel. And so Norm picked up the phone and called Bill Parker. And said, man, Wayne, that man's preaching the gospel. He's preaching the gospel. I'm like, oh, yeah. He's preaching the gospel.

Well, there you go. Go to the source. Go to the source. Don't just take someone's word for it. You know, even good people can be wrong sometimes. Right? Yeah. Yeah. My, oh, my. So Paul goes to, he's the source, so he calls them to him. Let's get this straightened out. And what's happening here? This is all happening according to the good pleasure of God's will, right? Just like even that event, I was just thinking that happened according to the good pleasure of God's will. It all worked out. It all worked out, didn't it? My oh my.

So he comes to Rome. He gets the leading Jews together. And he tells him how he was delivered as a prisoner. He says, I was taken prisoner by the Roman proctate in Jerusalem and then sent to the governor, the Roman governor. And then when the Roman governor was replaced with another one, him and another guy got together and they said, there's no fault in this guy. Why is he even here?

And then the Jews got all upset, and you know what? Eh, politicians, man. They like to keep everybody happy, don't they? Yeah. So they thought, well, you know what? We need to appease the Jews here. So maybe we'll put him to death. But God wouldn't allow that to happen, would he?

Nope. Because the Lord said to Paul, you must go to Rome. And his overruling providence will overrule all the thoughts and intents of man to accomplish his will and his purpose. And then in the exam they found that they had no wrongs, so they were going to let him go because he'd not committed a crime.

Told the Jews. Jews spoke against the Romans. releasing Paul, and then Paul, what did he have to do? Well, he appealed to Caesar then. As a Roman citizen, he had that privilege. Remember I said, citizenship is really big to Romans, and it comes with all kinds of benefits.

You know, a Roman citizen couldn't be crucified. They could have their head chopped off, but they could never be crucified, because that was for a common criminal. Oh my, they crucified our king, didn't they? They looked at him as a common criminal, yet he's the sinless, spotless lamb of God, shedding his blood to redeem his people from all their sins. My.

So Paul appeals to Caesar. Well, the Roman governor has no, he, he, he's got no authority to overrule that. So off he sends him to Rome. Well, and then here now he's delivered to Rome. He's a prisoner. And he's speaking to these men. And again, this is all according to the providence of God. Paul told them exactly why he'd be brought to Rome. My. And why was he brought to Rome? For preaching Christ. That's all he did. He preached Christ to them. My. And he called Christ the Lord Jesus Christ. And notice he says here, notice what he says in verse 20 of Acts chapter 28. Notice this little phrase here that he says in the next verse. There's a whole message just in this verse. There's a whole gospel message just in this verse. For this cause, therefore, have I called for you to see you and to speak with you, because that for the hope of Israel, I am bound with this chain. What's the hope of Israel? Who's the hope of Israel? Someone say it?

Yeah, Christ. And His name in the Old Testament is the Messiah. See, the Jews today, in Romans, Paul writes that the Jews today are enemies of the gospel. They've rejected the Messiah. They've rejected the Messiah. Now, there will come a time that their eyes will, the veil will be lifted. But right now, they're enemies of the gospel.

For our sake. For the Gentiles' sake. My, oh my. And that's Paul writing that. My. And we see how in the first century, the first part of the New Testament church, they manifested that fact that they were enemies with God by the willful rejection of the Messiah. My.

And The only hope for them, and notice it's called, this is the title of Christ, the hope of Israel. You notice that? That's one of our king's titles right there. The hope of Israel. Who's our hope? Christ. Who are we? The Israel of God. The hope of Israel.

Listen to this, in Jeremiah it says this, Jeremiah 14 8 if you want to write it down This title is used to the Messiah. Oh The hope of Israel the Savior thereof in time of trouble Why should this thou be a stranger in the land? And it's a wayfaring man that turneth aside to tarry for a night notice the hope of Israel a Savior Speaking of the Messiah Messiah who has come in who Paul preaches the hope of Israel. Isn't that wonderful? The long expected Messiah has come.

And then over in Jeremiah 17, 13, O Lord, the hope of Israel, all that forsake thee shall be ashamed. And they that depart from me shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken the Lord, the fountain of living waters." What did Christ say? I'm living waters. Anyone who drinks of this fountain shall never thirst again. And in Zechariah it says, there's a fountain open for uncleanness and sin.

That's Christ. The hope of Israel. And we know Paul wrote that not all Israel was of Israel. And we know that even those who came out of Egypt, there was true believers and there was unbelievers as well. I love how Neil prayed about, you know, if there's someone here that doesn't know Christ, that the Lord will save them. Right? Oh, yeah. And that's our prayer continuously, isn't it, for the gospel as it goes forth. Oh, Lord, use it for your glory. Use it to save sinners. Use it to save sinners. My.

And in Joel 3, verse 16, the Lord shall roar out of Zion. And Zion's the church, isn't it? And utter his voice from Jerusalem, and the heavens and the earth shall shake. but the Lord will be the hope of his people. That's the Messiah. The Messiah shall be the hope of his people and the strength of the children of Israel.

He says, without me, you can do nothing. He's all our strength. He's our hope. In Christ, we have the hope of eternal life. This is the title of Christ. This is the title of the Messiah. So as he's talking to them, he's preaching Christ to them. Now, in the New Testament, if you want to write these down too, the Israel of God is the hope of his people. Or, I mean, the Messiah is the hope of the Israel of God. Listen to this.

Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the commandment of God our Savior and Lord Jesus, which is our hope. Who's Christ the hope for? The Israel of God. And in Colossians 127, to whom God would make known what is the richest of the glory of this majesty among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, Christ in me, Christ in you, the hope of glory.

Oh my, isn't this wondrous? So we see in the Old Testament, he's called the hope of Israel. In the New Testament, he's called every believer's hope. So Paul just calls him the hope of Israel. Isn't it beautiful? And who does every born-again, blood-washed child look to?

Christ. Our hope. Christ, our hope. And it's from Him we expect, by the hope we have within us, because of the hope within us, we expect grace and mercy. And He freely gives it. We only expect it because God's promised it, but then we're in awe because He pours mercy and grace upon sinners such as we. Just pours it out freely.

Daily loaded down with benefits. You got a car to drive to work every day? Praise God. You got clothes to wear? Praise God. You got a home to live in? Praise God. You got food on the table? Praise God. You like your coffee in the morning? Praise God. That all comes from the King, doesn't it? Everything. Everything. My. Give Him all the glory and honor and praise. And it all comes from He who is our hope.

See, we're loaded down with benefits that we just use every day and not even thinking they're benefits. But they are. I like my Diet Coke. Lord put a McDonald's right across the road. It's great. I get my Diet Coke every day. My. I can't drink coffee because I'm allergic to it. So it's great. I just get my Diet Coke and I'm good to go. But to me, that's a blessing. It's a blessing. It's wonderful. My.

And also, you know what else is a blessing that we don't even think about? You ever pull into You ever pull into a shopping thing and there's no parking spots? And you're thinking, oh my Lord, there's no parking spots. And all of a sudden, there's one primo parking spot right up front waiting for you.

Don't overlook that stuff. Give God the glory for that. That's a blessing. But we don't even think that way, right? We just zoom in the parking spot, get out of the car and go do it. No, praise God. Thank you, Lord. This is wonderful. I don't have to walk as far as I would have in the cold. See, all little things that we don't even think of, we don't even think of. And this is amazing.

Paul is talking about the hope of Israel. The hope of Israel is the one who finished the work of salvation for us. He's the Lord Jesus Christ. And I mean, it's done. It's finished. There's nothing we contribute to our salvation before we're saved or after. Nothing.

Now, do we obediently obey the Lord? Of course, out of love, right? Out of love. We desire to live for Him, of course, out of love. Do we still confess our sins? Of course, out of love. Knowing that our Lord has already washed our sins away, but we still confess them to Him. My. It's amazing. This grace is amazing. The whole work of salvation was finished for us by the Lord Jesus Christ's obedience to God in His life and in His death. It is absolutely finished. It's complete. And you know what? We're complete in Him.

That's sure the opposite of religion that tells you there's something you gotta do, isn't there? You know, a lot of problems could be solved by just us keeping our eyes on Christ and looking at each other, too, in Christ. I desire for us to look at each other in Christ. If we didn't look at each other in Christ, we won't find any faults with one another, will we? I'm just a sinner saved by grace. I look at you, sister, you're a sinner saved by grace. I look at you, brother, you're a sinner saved by grace, just like me.

And we see each other in Christ. And it's wonderful. Yeah. Say, Brother Tom, the Lord had mercy on us. Isn't it wonderful? It's beautiful. And we didn't even deserve it. But he had mercy on us. My. Makes you want to shout, doesn't it, Exodus? Oh, my. Oh, my. I'll tell you what. Oh, it's done. It's finished. And we believe the same way Abraham believed, by faith. By God-given faith. Born again in the Holy Spirit of God and given faith to look to the One who is the hope of Israel. The true Israel. The Israel of God.

Sinners. I was talking to Dustin, I mentioned this in Sunday school, I was talking to Dustin, Betty's grandson, and I said, you know, hell's full of good people, good Baptists, good this and that, good this and that, all these good people. You know what he said to me? He said, yeah, Jesus hung out around with sinners, didn't he? And I said, yeah, and what are we? Sinners.

And I said, that whole church over there is full of sinners saved by grace. And heaven's full of sinners saved by grace. Isn't that amazing? The only difference between those in heaven and those in hell is the grace of God in Christ. And that He saved us according to the good pleasure of His will. That's it. Nothing in us. No merit. As Tim James says, no merit, no merit, no merit. The only merit for our salvation is found in the Lord Jesus Christ, God incarnate in the flesh, who freely offered himself up as a sacrifice for our sins.

Did he do it? Yep. It is, let's say it together, finished! It's done. Oh my, isn't it glorious? I'll tell you what. In every true Israelite, the Israel of God, every true believer lives by faith in Christ. In Christ. In the hope and expectation of eternal life that only comes through him. He is our hope. We hang all, everything we have, we hang on Christ, don't we?

Remember we talked about the nail in the sure place? Your dad ever have any of those, Tom? My dad had a few of those around where he'd put a nail in a beam and then hang stuff on it. That's what they call a nail in the sure place. And you can hang some heavy stuff on that. Christ in the scripture said to be a nail in the sure place. And we can hang our eternal souls upon him. Isn't that wonderful, Brother Brian? It's wonderful, I'll tell you why. What a Savior. What a Savior is Jesus Christ our Lord. Now we've not yet been glorified, but we will be one day. We still have sin here with us in our bodies. But one day, you know, we're going to be perfect.

You ever think of that? You know, it's funny because sometimes men perceive themselves to be perfect. Right? My dad was a perfectionist. And he thought he could do, you know, he never hardly said sorry to my mom because he didn't think he did anything wrong. But you know, we're in perfect pains. There's only one who's been perfect, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ. And one day, because of what he's done for us, shedding his blood, redeeming us, we're gonna be perfect. Because he's gonna make us so. See what Brother Neil read? With man it's impossible to save ourselves, but with God all things are possible. We can't make ourselves perfect, we're imperfect beings, but God's gonna make us perfect one day.

Can you imagine never sinning again? Can you imagine how glory it is for the saints in heaven to never have a sin thought or an action or anything? That's what they are right now. They're experiencing no sin. Brother Robin is experiencing no sin. Like, I mean nothing. Mom, Sister Kathy experiencing no sin. It's amazing. Brother Joel is experiencing no sin. My! Not a thought or word or deed. Perfect! Because of Christ.

And this is who Paul preached. And we have a confidence that we shall be in glory with our King because he said it's finished. The work of our salvation's finished and he's gonna take us home. Now let's read verses 21 to 24 of Acts chapter 28 together. Now here we go. So Paul, he's preaching the gospel to them, he's telling them, this is why I was in bonds, because of the hope of Israel. Because I was telling them the Messiah's come. Now look at this. Now this is a door opened by God here, look at this.

And they said unto him, We neither receive letters out of Judea concerning thee, neither any of the brethren that came or showed or spake any harm of thee. So Paul gets there, and none of the Jews who accused him even show up. Now some people say, what a waste of time.

Nope. Because God said, I'm going to send you to Rome, and you're going to testify of me. There's no time wasted in God's will and purpose, is there? None. None. Now, we may need a break every once in a while, sit in our easy chairs, and go have a little nap, right? Those are really nice. But God doesn't have to do that. He neither slumbers nor sleeps. He's all present, all the time, and all powerful. And none can stay his hand or say, what are you doing? No one. He doesn't need no counselors. He surely doesn't need our advice.

Right? People say, well, I think. Well, that's your problem right there. You're talking about Scripture saying, well, I think you better stop right there. What's the Word say? You know, when we preachers, we're to preach as clearly as we can what the Scripture says. I'm to preach Christ to you as clearly as I can. My. So look at this. Nobody came. Nobody showed up. None of his accusers. But now look what happens here. Now look at this.

So here's Paul. Now the Lord told him, you have to go to Rome and you have to testify of me. You're going to tell them about me. And I'll tell you what, and we've all had this happen, when the Lord opens the door, my, it's such a liberty to talk about him. Look at this. And these are Jewish men, leaders. But we desire to hear of thee, what thou thinkest. For as concerning this sect, look at this, we know that every word is spoken against.

Oh, my. Nothing new under the sun, is there? True Christianity will be spoken against by the world, by religion. And as you said, Tom, years ago, the reason being is because the gospel allows man to bring nothing to the table for salvation. It says we're all a bunch of sinners and we need to be saved. And there's only one hope. for sinners, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ. And let us try to grasp this. God, God, the everlasting God, Jehovah, the one who needs nothing or no one, becomes a man to save us from our sins. That which is impossible with man, to save ourselves, is possible with God. And the God-man Redeemed his people from all their sins 2,000 years ago at Calvary's cross My It's amazing And notice that this sect back I was talking to Josh yesterday and I was telling them that before We were ever called Christians.

We were called the people of the way or followers of the way That's the sect they're talking about. The followers of the way. Isn't that beautiful? Christ said, He is the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by Him. We're followers of the way, aren't we? The way, the truth, and the life. The Lord Jesus Christ. My, oh my. And when they had appointed him a day, they said, OK, this day we want you to tell us about this sect, this man.

There came many to him in his lodging. They came to his home. And remember who else is there? A Praetorian guard. Because remember, every six hours there's a new guard showing up. And Paul was allowed to have whoever he wanted. This is all by the grace of God. To where he was living, he was allowed to have anyone he wanted. Look at this. And they came into his lodging, into his home. To whom he expounded and testified the kingdom of God, persuading them concerning Jesus. Look at this.

Both out of the law of Moses. All right, the Pentateuch. First five books of the Bible. and out of the prophets from morning till evening." You guys want to try a morning to evening service? Or have Travis come up and preach, and have me preach, and get some other folks up here preaching? Could you imagine that? Morning till evening.

They wanted to know about Christ. And God opened the great door, didn't he? And look at this. Here's the result of every time the gospel is preached, even as it goes out into the internet. First and foremost, though, how it's preached here, and then it goes out into the internet. And some believed, by the grace of God. Some believed the things which are spoken, and some believed not.

Who made them to differ? God. They both heard the same message. Both groups heard the same message, didn't they? From the same preacher. Some believed and some did not. Every time the gospel is preached, some believe and some believe not. Because even we as believers, when we hear the gospel, we're built up in our faith, aren't we? We lay hold of Christ even more. Right? Oh, yeah. Always something going on by the Holy Spirit when the gospel is being preached. And faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

And how shall he hear without a preacher, right? And how shall he preach except he be sent? Who sent Paul? God himself. Here I am preaching to you. God made me a preacher. God gave me a message to preach, and God sent me to you. And here I am preaching the gospel to you. And that's the same for every single, Marvin, for every single gospel preacher in this world. Not just the ones we have here, but in the world. And God's got a remnant, beloved. He's always got a remnant according to the election of grace. Don't despair. God's always got a remnant according to the election of grace. Always. Always.

That's why I say, you know, we're not the only ones preaching the gospel. There's other churches out there all around the world preaching the gospel. My. It's wonderful. We're here, though, in Almont as ambassadors for our King. Ambassadors for the Lord Jesus Christ.

So, some believed by the grace of God, according to the will and purpose of God, and according to his good pleasure, some believed. According to his sovereign will and purpose, Paul was bought to Rome, to preach Christ. He's a faithful man, isn't he? He preaches Christ. He preaches Christ. And the only reason he's faithful could God making him faithful. He's the same guy who wrote, oh, wretched man that I am, who can deliver me from this body of sin? Which we all cry out to, don't we? Oh, yeah. Praise God for salvation through Christ.

Oh, now we see again a separation here. Some believed the things which were spoken. And wherever Paul went, he had one desire. One desire. I was looking at this fellow that's traveling around preaching. And he goes around preaching. And gets money from all these different places. Pedal in the book, too. Oh, I got a book. You need to buy my book. That's called making merchandise out of people.

That's called, Paul didn't preach to them for money. Paul didn't preach to them to become famous. Paul preached to them because he loved souls. and because he had one message from God, to preach Christ and him crucified. That's what I'm here for, beloved, to preach Christ to you.

Every opportunity I have, whether it be Sunday, Wednesday, whether it be short sermons, whether it be texting with you, we're gonna give all God all the glory, aren't we, in praise for what he's done. Praise God for the Lord putting a hand upon Marvin, And we pray to keep a healing hand upon Marvin and recover him. But whatever he chooses to do, God's still good, isn't he?

He's still good. So Paul's a messenger. He separated him to the gospel. He didn't allow things to turn him to the left or turn him to the left or turn him to the right, did he? He kept his focus on Christ. And we saw in Philippians, he wanted to pour himself out for Christ. Yeah. Oh my.

He said, I'm determined not to know anything among you save Christ and Him crucified. I'm not going to get caught up in apologetics. I'm not going to get caught up in all this theology over here. Although he preached the theology and he preached apologetics when he bought the gospel before the Galatians, didn't he? He said, those Judaizers are preaching a false gospel.

And this is how you know, because they're adding something to the finished work of Christ. Yeah? But his main center was preaching Christ and Him crucified. Preaching Christ's perfect sin atoning work for the salvation of sinners, such as we. My. And he considered nothing of equal importance, nothing of equal importance to preach in the gospel. Nothing. That was his primary mission. Brother Tom, when you were in the forces, they gave you a mission. You sought to accomplish that mission, right? Paul had been given a mission to preach Christ. And that's what he did.

You know, and we could say, well, imagine what it was like talking to Paul. We don't have to imagine. We have his letters. And did you notice something with Paul's writings? I think Paul was a genius, probably. That's just my own opinion. But have you noticed that he speaks in words that we can understand? Look through the words of Christ and notice how many times he speaks to us in one syllable words. Isn't that amazing? Paul considered nothing more important than preaching Christ and setting Christ before his ears. And that's the heart of every true gospel preacher. There's nothing more important. Nothing.

Lord, use me. Use me to spread your gospel. Use me to tell others about you. Because my heart's bursting, overwhelmed with love for you because of what you've done for me. Is it so for you? Isn't it wonderful? And we hear a gospel message, and it just stirs that love up even more after a whole week of all the stuff in the world.

Oh, just tell me about Christ. Tell me about what he's done. So, Paul's preaching to these folks. He considered it his solemn duty, wherever he was and whenever he preached, to preach the gospel. He was a man of one subject. Preaching Christ. Now, in his writings, he talks about different things, but who's the centre of all those things?

See, we veered away from the simplicity of the gospel. It's profound, but yet we are to speak it in simple words. Look to Christ and live, or perish in your sins. And I know if you look, it's by God giving grace. flee to Christ. He's the only hope for sinners. And we who are saved sinners, we're just looking to Him, aren't we? In rejoicing and marveling in the fact that He saved us according to the good pleasure of His will in eternity.

I can't get over that. But it's true. Listen to what Paul wrote in Galatians 6, 14. He's closing up the letter to the Galatians. Judaizers had come into the churches there and were saying, you have to be circumcised to be saved along with faith in Christ. And he writes this. I preached on a short sermon on this on Thursday, and this is a wonderful verse, Galatians 6, 14.

But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. God forbid that I should glory in anything except the cross of Christ. Isn't that amazing? He's all our glory.

And you know, we're saved according to the will and purpose of God, right? To the praise and the glory of His grace, Ephesians 1, 5, and 6 says. That we should be accepted in the beloved, that's Christ. See, why does God save sinners? to the praise of the glory of his grace. That's why. It's amazing.

In this passage before us in verses 21 to 24, Luke is giving us an example both of Paul's message, he preached Christ. He preached the Messiah. And his method of preaching, look what he did. He expounded, he expounded, right? So he expositionally preached Christ to them from the law of Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible, and the prophets. And there was one subject, Christ.

He didn't have the New Testament, did he? It hadn't been written yet, right? All people who say, well, the Old Testament's for the Jews and the New Testament's for the saints, they don't know what they're talking about. Because the apostles and Paul all preached from the Old Testament, and they preached Christ.

And even Christ himself, on the road to Ermaus, to two of our brothers, expounded to them The thing is concerning himself from the law and the prophets. Oh my. See the importance of preaching Christ? There's thousands of churches, millions of churches around this, just in North America alone. Probably millions, I don't know if there's millions, but where they're preaching, something you gotta do. And totally missing Christ. And here we are rejoicing over the wondrous gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And it's all according to God's good pleasure. Every person here is here according to the sovereign will of God. Every person who's listening is listening according to the sovereign will of God. Every person who will listen to the messages of the Lord is according to the sovereign will of God. To the praise of the glory of His grace. It's amazing. So Paul, this is Paul's, this is Paul's one mission. One calling is to preach Christ. My.

And it's not possible for anyone to trust Christ until we've been taught by Christ. Until we've been born again. I tell you, you can go to seminary, ask Chris. You can go to seminary, You can read all kinds of books. You can memorize chunks of the confessions and all this and still miss Christ. My, we have to be taught of God. We can't be educated into the kingdom. We must be taught of God. Now I'm not saying don't read good books. I'm not saying don't read books on stuff. I'm not saying that. I'm just saying we can't be educated into the kingdom. You must be born again.

And then God's our teacher, isn't he? He teaches everything we know about Christ. All come from God the Holy Spirit. It's amazing. Oh my. The message of the Bible is this. Rune. Man is runed. In Adam we fell. In Adam we fell. When he died, we died. Now all humans bear the image of our father Adam.

The message of the Bible is this too. Redemption. Redemption through the blood of Christ. Regeneration by the Holy Spirit of God. In the same way we were made sinners by Adam's disobedience, All God's elect are made righteous by Christ's obedience. We were all made sinners by Adam's disobedience and were made righteous by Christ's obedience. God's people. Isn't that amazing? So Adam's the federal head of mankind and Christ is the federal head of his people. He's the second Adam, right? Glory to his name. My, oh my.

And by that righteousness, by being made righteous by Christ, we are completely justified in God's sight. Our works have nothing to do with our righteousness. We are justified by Christ's work and His righteousness being imputed to us. Period. End of story.

It's wondrous, isn't it? By the pouring out of His life's blood, Under death, our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, made a complete atonement for our sins and for the sins of all his people, absolutely satisfying the law and justice of God fully. And he did it freely according to his own will. He did it because he loves us with an everlasting love. And there's nothing in us that caused him to love us. My, oh my. It's absolutely amazing, I'll tell you. And all who believe on Him, all who believe on Christ, God freely forgives. All who trust His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, oh my.

The guilt, the sins being removed from us and the curse of the law. We've been saved out from under the curse of the law. What's the curse of the law? The soul that sins, that must die. Death is just a doorway for us now, isn't it? Just a doorway for us into glory. Oh my. Now let's read verses 25 to 29 of Acts chapter 28.

And when they agreed not among themselves, they departed. After that, Paul had spoken one word, Well spake the Holy Ghost by Isaiah the prophet unto our fathers, saying, Go unto this people and say, Hearing ye shall hear and shall not understand, and seeing ye shall see and not perceive. For the heart of the people is wax gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have they closed, lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them. Be it known therefore unto you that salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles, and that they will hear it. had said these words, the Jews departed and had great reasoning among themselves."

Now, look at that. He starts quoting Isaiah to them. He's quoting Isaiah to them. Well, we see here God's method of grace, don't we? When God saves sinners, it's necessary that they will see with their eyes Christ. The eyes of faith. The eyes of faith. and hear with their ears, the ears of faith, right?

Because naturally you're like, I don't want to hear anything and I don't want to see anything. Don't tell me about that stuff. Nope. My oh my. That's how we are by nature. You know, faith's not a leap in the dark. It's a response of the heart to the word of God. Our great God will cause the chosen of God to be instructed in the gospel. He will give us seeing eyes and hearing ears.

And you know why? You know why when you're reading the Bible and all of a sudden something lights up to you and you're like, I never saw that before. Well, that's because you didn't need it before, but now you need it. And you know why it lights up? Because the same one who's the author of the scriptures is in you. The Holy Spirit of God. That's amazing, isn't it?

And we now have seeing eyes and hearing ears, beloved, to things we never even thought of before. We had a God of our own imagination that we could twist around like a pretzel and get him to do whatever we wanted, and we find out he's absolutely sovereign. That's just a God of our imagination.

Or the God of, I'll wait when it's time I'll wait. I'm gonna wait for a little while. I'll live a few years. I've been reading in the papers. Young people just drop them dead. We don't know the hour of the day, do we? We don't know the time when God will call us. Saved and lost.

But Amos says this, prepare to meet your God. You know, we can be prepared is through Christ, right? Yeah, praise God for his saving grace. And we see, what we see here is both groups came in unbelievers, right? And now you have two groups leaving, believers and unbelievers. You know what grace does? Grace conquers the unwilling. and makes the unwilling willing to come to Christ. Hey, doesn't he, Brother Brian? We were unwilling, weren't we? And he made us willing, praise his mighty name, gave us faith to believe. We're born again by his Holy Spirit, given faith to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And now we proclaim salvation to the Lord.

It's all his doing. I'm just a receiver of this wondrous grace and mercy. Why? Because we're chosen by God the Father in eternity to the praise of the glory of God's grace according to the good pleasure of His will. It's glorious, isn't it? It's glorious. And at the appointed time of love, God the Father sends the Holy Spirit and we're born again. And we cry, Father, oh Father, when we never did before. It's glorious.

Look at the last two verses now. Look at this. This just totally sums up Paul's ministry. Paul dwelt two whole years in his own hired house and received all that came unto him. What'd he do? What'd he do in those two years? write books so that he could become famous. Oh, he wrote letters to his dear church brothers and sisters that now we have in Scripture. Look what he did.

This is a good lesson for all of us. It's a good lesson for preachers. Preaching the kingdom of God and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ. With all confidence no man forbidden him God opened a door wide open didn't God tell him you're gonna be you're gonna be You're gonna testify of me Now some commentators believe that shortly after this he got his head chopped off But look what the Lord did and why'd he lose his head preaching the gospel Because the Romans believed in a plethora of gods, didn't they? And he preached the one true living God.

The Lord Jesus Christ. Here are five things, quickly, five things which must never be overlooked from the book of Acts. Number one, the providential rule of Christ. Our Lord Jesus rules over everything. Everything. Number two, the mission of God's church in the world. What is it? Will be witnesses unto him, unto the uttermost part of the earth. Preach Christ. Tell others about Christ.

Number three, the offense of the cross. We've seen in this book, the world will come against the preaching of the gospel. Religion will come against the preaching of the gospel. But we must preach on. And that's a great lesson for us, just to keep our eyes upon Christ, right? And do you notice who Paul points all his hearers to? Christ. Believers or not, Christ.

Number four, the vital ministry of the Holy Spirit of God. Our Lord said, without me, you can do nothing. And we can't do anything of Him without Him. We can't regenerate ourselves without the Holy Spirit. We can't save ourselves without God having chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the world. We can't do anything to save ourselves, and we can't do anything to regenerate ourselves, but salvations of the Lord. He saved us, and we're born again by His Holy Spirit and given faith to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Number five, the immutability of God's purpose. No one will thwart God's purpose.

You want to know what God's will is for today? Read about it tomorrow. It'll be in the headlines. And somehow all those things are happening according to the will and purpose of God for our good and for his glory. And that's where the article today I put in the bullet, we just need to trust Christ, just to look to him.

Even when we can't understand what's going on, which is 99% of the time. Right? We're people of faith. God-given faith. And we trust in him. We're shaking our boots, still trusting in him, won't we? Not understanding what's going on, but still trusting him by the grace of God. So those he saves, he keeps too. It's beautiful.

Here's three things we can learn too that are good for us. Let us learn to trust in God's providence. Whatever comes, let's learn to just trust in Christ. And we can see that from this book, right? Paul just kept trusting Christ no matter what. And when you know that's God giving it to us, and he will too. Because he said, without me you can do nothing. Number two, let us learn to do what God gives us the ability to do and the opportunity to do.

For the glory of Christ and for the good of immortal souls around us. Remember, when we're talking to someone, that's someone who has an immortal soul. I preach, I'm a dying man preaching to dying men. Yeah? And number three, let us learn this too, that all who honor God shall be honored by God. Listen to this in 1 Samuel 3, or 1 Samuel 2, verse 30. Wherefore the Lord God of Israel saith, I said indeed that thy house and the house of thy father should walk before me forever. But now the Lord saith, be it far from me, for them that honor me I will honor. My, oh my. Let us praise and honor our great God and Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Isn't it wonderful? He saved us according to his grace and mercy in and through Christ and Christ alone. Glory to his name. Brother Exodus, do you want to close us in prayer?