Turn back to Acts chapter 13. I took the title from the message
or from this Scripture here in verse 12. Then the deputy, when
he saw what was done, he believed. And being astonished, he was
amazed at the doctrine of the Lord. And I titled the message,
I Stand Amazed. And I believe that is the heart
of everyone whom God saves. They stand amazed. When this
man heard the gospel and he realized that this man that was with him
all that time was a liar and a cheat and a false prophet,
he thought, I'm amazed. God saved me from that. But let's
look at these verses as we go down through here. We have now
come to a turning point in the church. Up until now, the gospel
had been preached mainly to the Jews around Jerusalem, and Peter
had been the chief spokesman. But now, right here in chapter
13, there's a turning point. The Gentiles are now going to
have the gospel preached to them all out that region. And Paul
is going to be now the chief spokesman. God had greatly blessed this
church here at Antioch. It was a good-sized church, and
God had greatly blessed it. They had prophets. We saw this
last week. They had prophets. They had teachers,
men gifted to preach the gospel. Barnabas and Paul, I thought,
here's their Here's their teachers now, Barnabas and Paul among
them. You know, Barnabas and Paul spent
one year there at that church, establishing that church and
others there. But there was another person
here that just stood out to me as I read this. It just jumped,
divine sovereignty just jumped out at me. Look back here in
verse 1. And it says that certain prophets
and teachers, as Barnabas and Simeon, that was called Niger,
and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manan. Manan, you know who that is?
That was Herod's foster brother. Manan was Herod, the one who
cut off James' head, the one who started persecuting the church,
reaching after the one who put Peter in prison. If you look
over in your margin there, it tells you he's Herod's foster
brother, brought up in the same house, educated with the same
education. And I thought to myself, here
is a man where divine sovereignty reached in and just plucked him
out. And not only just plucked him
out and saved him, but God used him as one of the teachers and
preachers in this church. This is Herod's foster brother.
That's amazing to me. That just stood out to me. Herod
dies. You saw that. God killed Herod. And He said he was eaten with
worms. And yet, here's his foster brother over here preaching the
Gospel. Teaching God's people. He can save whom He will, can't
He? God can reach in wherever He will and pluck a man out and
save his soul and use him and let his brother go on to hell. That just amazed me. I've never
seen that before. The only time I've read that,
I never realized that was his foster brother. But it says here
also, they ministered to the Lord. And that's written right. That's written the right way.
They ministered to the Lord. In ministering to the church,
and me ministering to you as we've done this morning, I'm
ministering to the Lord. They went about preaching the
gospel and serving the church, and in doing so, they ministered
unto the Lord. Our Lord said, Whatsoever you
do to the least of these, you do unto Me. I'll tell you this, these men
were not lazy men either. They were not lazy men taking
advantage of new converts, new untaught converts. They were
laboring men. And Barnabas and these men that
went out, the apostles, they labored. They forsook all they
had and labored in God's vineyard. They labored. And then here we
have their call. The first missionaries were sent
out at Antioch. Antioch sent these men out. But
I notice this here. I want you to notice. The church
did not choose them. God chose them. That's very important. You know, we live in a generation,
I think, of just raising up preachers, putting them in seminaries and
just putting them out on the street. And God has nothing to do with
it. God's hand's not in it at all. God chose them. The Holy Spirit said, separate
me, Barnabas and Saul. He said, you separate me, Barnabas
and Saul. The man whom God separates belongs
to God. He's God's man. He's not the
servant of men. He's the servant of God. The
Scripture says this, the man whom God separates to the ministry
is not to entangle himself again with the affairs of this life,
but is to please him who called him. Not to separate yourself
again to the affairs of this life, but you are separated to
God, as these men were. And he said, separate me Barnabas
and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them, preaching
In ministry, I'm telling you this, it is a work. This is a real work. Someone
called me this week. One of the reasons just kind
of stayed with me. Someone called me about 10 o'clock this week,
not anyone here, and said, are you up out of bed yet? I said,
well, I got up at 530 this morning. He said, well, I thought since
you were retired, you'd be sleeping in. I said, oh, no. I could have
said a lot more, but I didn't. I said, no. I said, I'm working. I was in my study. He said, yeah,
I thought you might, since you're retired, you might sleep in.
It's a work. This is a work. I'll tell you this, plowing and
sowing is a work. Anybody ever plow a garden? So
that's work, isn't it? That's a work. Caring for a garden
is a work. It's a labor. It's a labor of
love. I love doing this more than anything
I've done. I've often told Vicki, working
in plants, I've worked in machine shops, two or three machine shops,
and I've told her, I said, I feel like a fish out of water. I said,
I've always felt like a fish out of water in those places.
But this I love doing. I enjoy doing this. But it's
labor. Done correctly, it's labor. labor. When we labor in the Lord's vineyard,
you are the Lord's vineyard. You know what a responsibility
that puts on those who labor in it? You are the Lord's vineyard. And then he says this, whereunto
I have called them. The church did not call them
to their work, the Lord called them to it. I thought this morning,
I jotted this down as I was going back over these notes. I thought
the Lord had better call the pastor before the people do.
I'm telling you, the Lord better call that man before the people
call him. This matter of preaching the
gospel is a real calling of God. It's a real calling. Now, I know
this. I know that whatever you are
doing, whatever God's given you to do, that's a calling. Because
Paul said this, Abide in the calling wherein you were called. In other words, stay with what
you are doing. Do not just get up and leave
what you are doing. When God saved you, He says,
stay with what you are doing when God called you by His grace.
If He opens the door and shoves you in, Paul said, He put me
in the ministry. But I tell you this, I don't
know if we should use the word shove, but we should have that
attitude. We should be that Serious about
it. We should be that sober-minded
about it. Paul said, God put me in the
ministry. He wasn't looking for it. Moses
was not looking for it. He said, God put me in the ministry. A desire to preach does not constitute
a call to preach. All the Lord's people want to
make Him known. all of them. And being able to
say the right things doesn't constitute a call to the ministry.
When God calls a man to the ministry, He gives him his gifts, supernatural
gifts, and He gives him a hearing, and the church will recognize
it, probably even before the band does. Let me read to you
something. I want to read to you an excerpt
out of a letter I have. Henry wrote this to me in July
23, 1979. I was 23 years old. Can you believe that? I didn't
have enough sense to know what I was doing. I'm going to read
you an excerpt out of it. He says, thirdly, and you're
probably going to wonder all day what the first and second
is, but I'm going to start with thirdly, I understand your desire
to preach the gospel. I believe that every redeemed
child of God would like to make known the good news of Christ
Jesus and his mercy. However, as you indicated in
your letter, a love for Christ and a desire to preach the gospel
does not necessarily constitute a call to the ministry. I believe
in reference to a call to the ministry you might consider three
or four things. First of all, there will be a
deep and sincere love for Christ. There will be ability and gifts
supernaturally given to present the message. There will be a
door open, effectually, by God for one to preach, and God will
give us a hearing. That is, people will indicate
that they want to hear us preach. In other words, I believe that
ministers are not only called by God, but they are sent. And
we see this by Antioch sending these men out. They are sent
by the church. The people of the church will
recognize their gifts. That was 28 years ago. And now, 28 years later, I'm
standing here. That's amazing. That's amazing
to me. But that's what will happen.
That's what will happen if God calls a man to preach the gospel. A.D. Mews said this. He said
that God would have to kill our natural talents in order for
Him to use us. Just because a man has natural
talents doesn't mean he's called to the ministry. God has to give
him supernatural gifts to do it. And then secondly here, the
church recognized Paul and Barnabas. They did not equip them, they
did not call them. God called them, but listen,
they did recognize them. The church will recognize them
as God's ministers, as God's preachers. They'll do that. The church did not give them
their powers. The church didn't give them the message. God did.
God did, but I'll tell you this. They did recognize it, and that's
important. That is important. If you, as
a church, thought, well, he doesn't have it, I sure don't want to
stand here. I wouldn't want to stand here, because I tell you
this, God works through his church. He works through his church.
And I want you to notice something else here in verse 3. Much prayer. was given over this situation
and over these men. They sought the Lord about this
matter of preaching and sending these men out with prayer and
fasting. They fasted over this. This is
how serious it was. I look at it today. I'm not talking
about our circle, but you look out here today and there's no
seriousness in this matter of going out and preaching God's
Word, handling things like life and death and eternity. He's
just cranking them out. And it says here the church fasted. They fasted and prayed. And after
that, they were sent by the Holy Ghost. The Scripture says, How
shall they preach except they be sent? This is the only way
to go. This is the only way to go out
and preach the Gospel is to be called of God and to be sent
of God. Called and sent to the Word. There's a work out there. God
has his man for the work and a work for the man. He has it
for him. And they went, it says in verse 5, and they preached
the word to the Jews first. They went out and they preached
the written word. They preached the living word.
They can't be separated. They preached the Lord Jesus
Christ. He was, as I said this before
and we'll see this as we go through the book of Acts, He is the message.
Christ himself is the message. And they went to the Jews first.
God left them without excuse. They have no excuse. God sent
the gospel to them first. Here's what happened. They were
called of God. They were recognized by the church.
They were separated unto the work. They were filled with the
Holy Spirit. There's their power. And they
went preaching the word. That's the order it should be
in, right there. We're given that order. I tell you this,
God uses means and men in preaching the gospel to save sinners. And
God's eternal purpose is being fulfilled every day through the
church, through the preaching of the gospel and the calling
out of His sheep. There's no other reason for us
to be here than to call out His sheep. Everything else is taken
care of. Everything else is done. When
that last one is brought in, this will be over. This will
be over. But as they went out and they
preached the gospel to these different places, God opened
these doors, they met Mr. Trouble. Never without trouble. Never
without it. He lives in every community.
You can't get around him. It says in verse 6, they preached
in the isles of Paphos and then they ran into a sorcerer named
Bar Jesus. You know what that means? He
called himself Son of Jesus. He went around pretending, play-like,
that he's the Son of Jesus. A false prophet that he's called.
He claimed to speak on behalf of God. He claimed to be able
to tell the future. It's amazing he didn't see this
coming, did he? He didn't see what was coming
here. In verse 7, listen, he was with
the deputy of that country. That means he was with the governor.
That would be like him being with Governor Fletcher. A false
prophet at his right hand. That's who he's with. False prophets
always try to get close to the most influential people for their
good. That's who they try to get close
to. But listen, Satan does it for the most damage. The false
prophet does it for financial advantages, or whatever advantage.
Satan moves them in to get an advantage over the church. Just
like trying to keep this guy, this Paulus Sergius, from believing
the gospel. Trying to turn him away from
the faith. I want you to look in Matthew chapter 7. These things are real. Matthew chapter 7. These people
are real. Matthew chapter 7 and verse 15. Beware, he says, of false prophets,
which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are
ravening wolves. But they don't come that way.
They never come in that way. They come in in sheep's clothing.
Look over in Matthew 24. In Matthew 24, in verse 24, Matthew
24, 24, he says, For there shall arise false Christs and false
prophets, and they shall show great signs and wonders, insomuch
that if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.
I thank God it's not possible. But he's saying they're so close
to it that if it were possible, they would deceive God's own
elect. But God's not going to allow it. God is not going to
allow His elect to be deceived, not throughout the rest of their
lives. They may at first, but not throughout their lives. It's
not possible. Look over at 2 Peter. In 2 Peter chapter 2 verse 1, he said, But there were
false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be
false teachers among you, who privately shall bring in damnable
heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon
themselves swift destruction. To deny the gospel, to preach
any other gospel, is to deny the Lord the Father. Anything
else? Now, this Sir Gaius Paulus, it
says, was a prudent man whom the apostles are going to preach
to. He's a wise man. But wise men are not always wise.
They're not always wise. He had this false prophet that
kept following him around. And God gave this man an interest
in the gospel. He gave him an interest in the
Lord Jesus Christ. And he called for Barnabas and
Saul for to hear the word of God. He wanted to hear the gospel. God creates an interest. He always
creates an interest in the heart of his sheep when he's going
to save them. That interest is created by God. That's who creates
that interest in the Lord Jesus Christ. And he begins this work
in a man. And this man begins to be interested
in this message. He begins to be interested in
the Lord Jesus Christ. He begins to hear something.
He begins to hear God's voice in the message. He begins to
hear the Gospel. He begins to see. I remember
when I first heard the Gospel, it was like someone turned this
light on. I'm telling you, it was that
evident to me. It was like someone flipped the light on. I could
see. I could see what the Scriptures and who the Scriptures was talking
about. And that's what happened here. God created an interest
in this man. And here's something I thought was so interesting,
and this is so providential. God saved this governor of that
country, which opened a door for Pauls and borrowers to go
throughout that country freely and preach the gospel. God saved
that man, and it's opened the door wide open to that whole
country. His providence is marvelous. Here's what happened. when God
creates an interest in the heart of a sinner. That sinner becomes
interested in how God can be a just God and have anything
to do with me. How can God be a just God and
save my soul? How can He do that? How can God
put away my sin? How can God be God, have anything
to do with me, and put away my sin? That becomes a real interest,
doesn't it? That's not just a fleeting fancy. That's a real abiding interest. That interest will last you the
rest of your life on this earth. There's a real interest in who
this man Jesus Christ really is. For the first time in your
life, you become very, very interested in the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul said, I might know Him and
the power of His resurrection. That interest is in everyone
who believes God. He gives that interest. He creates
that interest. You become interested in judgment and eternity. You become interested in those
things. Your work is not nearly as interesting now as the gospel,
as Christ. And as His sheep hear the gospel
preached in power, It meets their needs. Does Christ not meet your needs?
If Christ is enough, then you've heard the gospel in power. If He's enough and He meets,
He meets all our needs. Christ, who is the sum and substance
of the gospel, is everything we need. Everything. We find in Christ That which
we cannot find in religion. Peace, joy, forgiveness, we find
that in Christ. We don't find that in religion.
You find that in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's where you find
that. But Elimus, you know what that
word means? Wise. He called himself Elimus. Wise. He pretended to be wise. Don't they all? It says here,
withstood them. They were a threat to his income
and popularity with the governor, and they withstood him. He withstood
them. Then Paul filled, it says here,
with the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost. This is why we
should pay real attention here. The Holy Ghost is the one who
is going to reveal who this man is. This is the one who is going
to reveal him. Paul was not acting here out
of a fleshly impulse. Paul was under the influence
of the Holy Spirit, and he's going to reveal who this false
prophet is and the marks of him. So let's look at it. Let's look
at what the Holy Spirit reveals here. And he's saying, O fool
of subtlety and all mischief, here's your true character. Paul's
revealing here, the Holy Spirit's revealing through Paul, the true
character of this Elias, this one who went around with this
governor. He's this subtle. He's subtle. He said you're full
of all subtlety and mischief. A true prophet of God is not
full of subtlety. He tells the truth. And he's
not full of mischief. He's not out to create trouble
or problems for God's sheep. I look this word up. Subtlety. Subtle. One of the words meant
this, elusive. It meant deceitful, crafty, elusive. That's what Paul's saying here.
He said, you are elusive. You cannot be pinned down. You
can't pin him down. He changed his collar like a
chameleon to fit his background. You ever see that? You ever see
them change their collar like that? I watched that on a Discovery
Channel one time. They were showing a chameleon.
Absolutely changed the colors of that tree it was on. They
changed colors to fit their background. It makes them hard to detect.
He said, you're elusive. You're subtle. You think, how
did this prudent governor, this wise governor, how did he not
see him? If he's prudent, how did he miss
him? I'll tell you two reasons. Number one, because he never
revealed his true self. He never revealed his true self.
And then secondly, in this governor's case, he was spiritually dead
and under the power of Satan. And he didn't see, he was lost.
Lost people can't see until God gives sight. You can't see it
until God gives you sight. And then this false prophet,
listen, false prophets never come in with a sign on their
back saying, I'm a false prophet. Have you ever seen that? You
ever seen one of them wear a lapel that says, I'm a false prophet?
Subtle, crafty, deceitful, elusive, that describes him. As I read
to you there in Matthew, they come in sheep's clothing. Do
you know what that is? Do you know what sheep's clothing
is? It's the gospel. Our covering is the gospel we
preach. It's the righteousness of the
Lord Jesus Christ. He said they come in sheep clothing.
Here's what they do. They dress themselves in gospel
language. That's what happens. Or this. At least they dress themselves
in the language of the people they're deceiving. He dressed himself in the language
that that governor spoke. That's how he fooled him. That's
exactly how he got him. He spoke in the language that
governor spoke. This, I'm telling you the truth,
this is what they do. They dress themselves in the language of
the gospel and they deceive the people. I told Todd this, I was
talking to him yesterday, I said, I'm trying to write an article. Chumming with the truth and killing
with the lie. Now anybody that knows fishing
knows what chumming is. You take real bait, you throw
it out in the water, and then it brings them in. You've seen
them do this with sharks. They'll cut a fish in half, put
a string on it, put it out there. When that shark comes in, they
throw that lie out there, that lure. They throw that lie out
there. And what they do, they chum them with the truth. And
when they get them in, they kill them with the lie. That's what
these false prophets do. That's exactly what they do.
Now listen here what else he calls him. Thou child of the
devil. You might not want to say that.
That's pretty hard. That's who they are. That's who
they are. He said you child of the devil.
This is who he really is. Even though he wouldn't admit
it and he may not even recognize it himself. Judas wouldn't have
called himself a child of the devil. But that's who He is. If you're not, now listen to
me, if you're not a child of God, you're a child of the devil. There's only two places. You're
not on middle ground. You know, we're not standing
on middle ground and God's on the right and the devil's on
the left and one's wanting me and both of them want me and
I've got to decide which way to go. No, you belong to one or
the other. You're either under the, well, of course, God's over
all. We know that. But you're either
under the influence of the Holy Spirit. He either indwells you,
or you're indwelled by another spirit. You're not your own. Ever. Ever. This is how dangerous
this is. You look for the devil in dives
and honky-tonks, and it's not where he's at. He's in pulpits.
He's in pulpits. Satan always has his sons among
the sons of God. Look over in Job chapter 1. Go
over in Job chapter 1. Look in verse 6. Now there was
a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before
the Lord, and Satan also. Satan came also. He came there
too. He always has either himself
or his sons. Right here in the midst, always. And then listen, here's the third
thing he says to this false prophet. You're an enemy of all righteousness. They proclaim righteousness,
but they're the actual enemies of it. You're an enemy of all
righteousness. You're an enemy against God who
is righteous. There is no such thing as righteousness
apart from God. You're an enemy against Christ,
who is our righteousness. You are an enemy against the
gospel that reveals his righteousness, even though you speak in the
language that they speak. You are an enemy against everything
that's right. Everything that's right. Elias
was against everything right, even though you couldn't condemn
him of anything, probably. I mean, he probably walked, well,
you know he's a law-abiding citizen or he's been in jail for it.
He walked right, but he was an enemy of everything that is right.
Everything that was a God he's an enemy of. And he was especially
an enemy of God's servants. He was a special enemy of Paul
and Barnabas. He did not want to lose Paulus,
Sergius, to the gospel. An enemy. An enemy. And he says here in verse 10,
Will thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord? Would
you not stop this? No. No, he won't. Not until God takes him out of
here. Will you not cease to pervert how God saves sinners? Will you
not cease to pervert the chief glory of God, His redemptive
work? Will you not cease to pervert
and quit lying on God Almighty? Will you not cease to turn the
truth into a lie? Will you not cease to pervert
mercy and truth, righteousness and judgment? Will you not cease
to do this? No, he won't. No, he won't, until
God either saves him or kills him, because he won't cease.
The most dangerous false prophets are the ones who are so close
to the truth that they would deceive the very elect if possible.
There are some people out here in the left field that's not
dangerous to the sheep. You know that they're so far
out there that they don't even know what's going on. But the
ones that are dangerous, and Satan is a master of divergent
tactics, he's a master of divergent tactics. He'll get you looking
at Jimmy Swagger, he'll get you looking at those men as false
prophets, and you'll miss the ones standing right in the middle
of the room. That's dangerous, dangerous.
And the Holy Spirit here brings judgment. We must be patient. The first
thought that hit me when I looked at verse 11, and he says, And
now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon thee, and thou shalt
be blind. He was going around keeping him
in his blindness, keeping that governor in blindness. Now God's
going to blind him. Not seeing the sun for a season. We have to be patient in these
things because God has a purpose in all that He does. God Almighty
has a purpose even with these false prophets. God Almighty
has a purpose. And when the deputy saw what
was done, here's one of the purposes. This man got close. He got close
to this deputy. And he thought he had this deputy
in his back pocket. And he did until God came along.
Until God came along, he did. But when the deputy saw what
was done, when Paul spoke, this man became blind. It says he
believed. He believed. He believed God.
He believed the gospel. He believed the message that
the apostles brought. And being astonished, amazed
at the doctrine of the Lord. He had been hearing a lie for
so long. This man had been hearing a lie
for so long, and realized that the son of the devil had been
with him all this time. And he looks at him, and the
message he heard, and he stood amazed at God's Savior in front
of him. Back when Vicki and I were first married, I flipped the
truck over. We had come home from a service
we'd been in, church service, but they didn't use the name
church. But we'd been there and it was ice and we'd come up on
the top of the road and I flipped that truck. Flipped it over right
on the side, right over the hillside there. We both crawled out of
it, not a scratch on us. As I walked away from that wreck,
I thought, man, I've got all my members, I mean, we're not,
we are not hurt. We are okay. I stood amazed that
I was not killed in that wreck. And if she wasn't killed or harmed
or hurt or... I stand amazed. Here I was, had
the son of the devil by my side. And God saved me. God sent the
gospel to me. I bet you old Monean was amazed
too, don't you? You think old Monean, when Herod
was eaten up with worms and he died, old Monean knew who killed
him. Old Monean, a foster son, probably never really feeling
like a son. Probably never really feeling like he fit in. I'm sure
he probably had some of those feelings. But boy, when he saw
what happened, he probably thought, I'm glad I was the foster son.
I'm glad I'm the one. I'm glad God adopted me. I stand amazed. If you do not
stand amazed that God Almighty has saved your soul, you've not
yet known the gospel. You've not yet believed on Christ.
I stand amazed. Think of that song Mike has on
his tape there. I stand amazed. God used this event for the good
of his sheep and the furtherance of the gospel. That man saw what
happened. He heard the gospel. opened a
door throughout that whole region and God's gospel went forth.
It ran well. He was amazed at the doctrine,
it says here, of the Lord. Doesn't the gospel amaze you?
Really. That letter was 1979. That's
when I heard Henry that year preaching the gospel. And 28 years have gone by. And
I'm serious. I stand more amazed now than
I did then. I stand amazed at that. He was
amazed at the gospel of God's grace alone. That's what it took.
It took grace alone. He was amazed at the gospel of
Christ alone. That the only hope he had was
in Jesus Christ. My soul, what a hope. What a
hope that we have in Christ. and probably more amazed that
God saved him, that God Almighty saved him. I stand amazed that God has saved
me and what He has saved me from and where I could have been a
wreck, I could have been a bad wreck, I could have been a mess,
a real mess. And yet the Lord saved us, called
us by His grace, revealed the gospel to us, enabled us to believe
on His Son, and we ought to stand in the man.