Turn back to Acts chapter 11.
Acts chapter 11. I'm glad someone straightened
that song up. That's a good song. Don did a good job with that.
You know, someday our history will
be written and our children's children will see the hand of
God in it more than we do now. And when we read the Word of
God, and we read, especially going through the book of Acts,
we see the hand of God in these churches and this persecution
that arose over Stephen. They couldn't see what all was
going on at that time like you and I can see now. Look what
we benefit from this. And our children some day will
benefit from this. Now, in verse 19, It says, they which were scattered
abroad over the persecution of Stephen, I thought as I was sitting
there, if we could, we would never have a bad day, would we?
The sun would always shine. It would always shine. We would
not have a bad day. But God, in His wisdom, in His
wisdom, He sends us those things which we need That's for our
good and for the spread of the gospel for generations to come
that are not even here yet. I think the providence of God
is so remarkable. You know, after hearing the gospel
and believing the gospel and maturing and growing up a little
bit, I now see that the providence of God in everything, not just
the big things, not just things that are so obvious. You say,
well, that was providential. But what is it? Everything's
providential. The temperature of the day out
there is determined by our God. That's a fact. It's so remarkable. And what looks like the end of
a thing may just be its beginning. It looked like they were going
to stamp that church out there in Jerusalem. But look what happened. We're going to see this. It wasn't
the end of it. Just like Joseph. When they sold
Joseph, that band of people that were going by, and they took
him down to Egypt. It looked like the end of Joseph,
didn't it? It looked like they'd gotten
rid of Joseph. But he said, what you meant for evil, God meant
for good. But what was meant for evil here
against Stephen turned out to be great, turned out to be good
for the church of God. Now, God used the persecution
of Stephen to spread the gospel throughout that region. and eventually
throughout the whole world. You know that church at Antioch,
that church at Antioch stood for about 500 years. I didn't
know that. I was reading this yesterday.
That church stood for nearly 500 years and it was gone when
Antioch was destroyed. But that church lasted that long,
for 500 years. And all because of that persecution
that came out of Stephen, And then they sent Barnabas down
there, and Barnabas preached the gospel, and look what happened
from that. We just don't know. Our God is
infinitely wise. Let's trust Him. Let's just trust
Him. And in His wisdom, He uses trials
to spread the gospel. In fact, the gospel seems to
fare better under persecution, doesn't it, than when it's fair
weather. Trials seem to be her birth pains.
And I know this about ourselves, I know this about me. We have
a habit of staying in our comfort zone. We would stay just like
this right here, just this little comfortable place. But God in
His wisdom runs us out of it. He breaks up that little comfort
zone and causes the gospel to be spread throughout the world.
Now it says they went about preaching to the Jews only. They had not
yet learned what Peter learned. For God said to Peter, what I
have cleansed, don't you call common. Don't you call common. But they were going to learn.
In time, they will learn. We grow by degrees, don't we?
Here a little, there a little. You know, when you're a child,
you start in kindergarten, you learn your ABCs, you learn something
about counting, then you go up, you grow, and you learn. Some
of us. Some of you. Calculus. in some
of the harder subjects. But you don't learn that down
here. We learn by degrees. And it says they went about preaching
the Lord Jesus. They did not go out preaching
healing or prophecy or the end of time. They went about preaching
the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ was their message everywhere
they went. And no matter how hot the persecution,
the message did not change. The message did not change, not
at all. We never change the message to
suit the crowd. The message stays the same. It's
God's message. We heard this morning, I am immutable.
God changes not, and the way he saves sinners never, ever
changes. If this world stands for another
10,000 years, the same gospel that we are preaching now will
be preached ten thousand years from now, and that's the way
God will save sinners. It does not change. They preached
his person, Lord. They set him forth on his throne.
Right now he's seated at God's right hand, ruling heaven and
earth. They preached his word when they
preached Jesus. The scripture says, Thou shalt
call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sin. And they preached His office,
Christ, the Anointed One, the Messiah. This is the Messiah
that they looked for. This is God's anointed Christ,
God's anointed Messiah. He's the one who is anointed
to save sinners and no one else. No one else. And they were not
ashamed of Him. They were not ashamed to preach
Christ. And they proved it by preaching
Him everywhere they went. They preached Christ. Every time
they had an open door, they preached Christ. And because of who they
preached, it says the hand of God was with them. Oh, I need that this morning.
We need that this morning. We need the hand of God with
us. I know this. His hand will not
be present if the message is wrong. If the message is not
Christ, His hand is not present. Here's what happened. They preached. They went about and they preached
everywhere they went. They worked. They sowed the seed. They plowed the ground. And God
gave the increase. God himself gave the increase. Don't look for an increase where
no seed has been sown. That's just simple, isn't it?
But don't look for an increase where no seed has been sown.
God's hand of power and grace, it says, was with them. We cannot
produce faith in the heart. This is the work of God. I tell
you, when it comes to making someone believe the gospel, I
am totally helpless. I cannot do that. That is the
hand of God. God can only produce faith in
the heart because He is the only one who can give a heart of faith,
a heart to believe Him. That's what I want. That's what
I want for you. I want a heart from God that
believes God. and that repents, a heart of
repentance. Only God can give that. He's
the only one that can give it. It says in Romans 10, but how
can you believe on him whom you've not heard? You can't believe
on someone you don't know about. You can't do it. And how shall
they hear, it says, without a preacher, and how shall they preach except
God send them? And if God sends them, if he
sends a man to preach to you, his hand will be on you. His
hand will be on that man, and it will be on that crowd. It
will be on that people. We cannot produce these things. We cannot
produce repentance in the heart, but God can. I know that. I know that God can do it. He
can reach down, and I had written here, He can reach down and touch
the heart, and He can do that. But really, He can reach down
and give a heart. Because that's what He says in Ezekiel 36, I
will give you a new heart. A heart, listen, to know Me.
heart to know me." That's what he does. He can reach down and
give a heart to know him and a heart to repent. This is also
our confidence in preaching, that his hand of power and grace
will be with us. That's my confidence standing
here this morning preaching, is that his hand of power will
bless you. I can't just bless you. He can. He can. He can do that. No man, the scripture says, no
man is sufficient for these things. No man. Who is sufficient to
handle things that has eternal life and death attached to it?
No man is sufficient for these things. God must attend our preaching
if sinners are to be saved. This radio program that we have
now, God must attend that. God's hand must be on that if
sinners are to be saved. I know that. I know that as well
as I know my name. And the message that we have
to preach here and on the radio is the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ
in Him crucified, Christ exalted, Christ risen. He's our message. And God must stop men and women.
I know this. I know this. He has to stop men
and women on their road to hell and show them His way. Show them
His way. And His way is his Son. His way is the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ said, I am the way, the
truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father except
by me. No man. In all our efforts, we
must have the hand of God with us. And if that's so, if that
happens, listen. Listen here to the results. And
a great number believed and turned to the A great number believed
and repented. That's what repentance is. It's
turning from and turning to. They turned from their idols.
You know, this city was about a city of 500,000 people. And
the idolatry that was going on in Antioch. It was the third
largest city of Rome. And the idolatry that was going
on there. And yet God sent the gospel to
them. And they believed the gospel.
And you'll see here what Barnabas saw when he entered that town,
when he came there. But these sinners that were in
Antioch, they believed the gospel that was preached to them, the
gospel concerning God's Son. They believed it. God granted
them faith. They believed the gospel of substitution. That's what they believed. They
believed the gospel of satisfaction. They believed the gospel that's
written in Isaiah 53. We heard that last Wednesday.
That's what they believed. The gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ. They heard and they believed
the gospel of reconciliation, the gospel of peace through the
blood and the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
what they heard. They heard the gospel and they
believed it. They believed God. They exercised
that same faith that Abraham exercised. And if you and I believe
God, we are exercising that same faith that Abraham exercised. No different. Maybe different
in degrees, but the same faith. And the good news, it says, reached
the ears of the church in Jerusalem. And you know what they did? They
sent Barnabas down there to Antioch. This Jewish church up here. They
were not Jews, but they were believers. But they were Jews
that believed. And they sent Barnabas down to
this church in Antioch. When they heard this good news,
they sent him down there to help establish and strengthen this
church in Antioch. We should always, always be willing
to send help to our brothers and sisters. No matter where
they are, if it's in Mexico or wherever it is, we should always
be willing to send help to those who are in need. Always. And
when Barnabas arrived in Antioch, this big metropolis, what did
he see? What did he see? It says in verse
23, he saw the grace of God. Where there used to be paganism,
idolatry. They worshiped all kinds of stuff
in Antioch. When he arrived there, he saw
the grace of God and listened and was glad. When our Lord healed
the sick and the lame, those Pharisees saw it. They got mad. They got upset with him for doing
this. But when Barnabas arrived there,
he saw the grace of God and he was glad. You cannot hide grace,
can you? You cannot hide the grace of
God when it's present. You can't do it. It will always,
always leak out on you. And the evidence of God's hand
on a people is grace. He's gracious to them. He's had
mercy on them in Christ. He saw people. He saw sinners. He saw pagans. He saw idol worshipers. Praising God from the heart.
For the first time they were praising the true and living
God. Not some sun God or some moon God, but they were praising
the living God. That's what he saw. He saw the grace of faith. He
saw people believe in God. That's what he saw. They believed
God. He saw the grace of love. He
saw people that genuinely loved each other. He saw people that
loved him and they'd never met him. He saw the grace of joy
and peace that comes through believing God. He saw, he said,
the grace of God. That's what he saw. He saw sinners
turn from their ignorance and idols to the living God. That's
what I see here. That's what I see here. The grace
of God. He saw grace in action. Not just
in talk. Well, I hear a lot of people
use that word You can turn the TV on and listen to these religious
programs or the radio. They use that word a lot, don't
they? Grace. He's talking about something
different here. He's talking about the sovereign
grace of God in action. That's what he saw. And notice
what Barnabas exhorted them to do. He didn't exhort them, don't
go to theater no more. Don't drink wine any more. Don't
do this any more. Don't do that. Here's what he
exhorted them to do, that with purpose of heart, they would
cleave to the Lord. You write that down. Put that
on your refrigerator. With purpose of heart, they would
cleave to the Lord. You know what that word cleave
means? You know what one of the meanings of that is, as it's
used here? It means this. That with purpose
of heart, they would get a death grip. It has the meaning of death
grip. You get a death grip on the Lord
Jesus Christ. I bet that's the same type of
grip Jacob had when he said, I will not let you go till you
bless me. Because if you don't bless me
and you leave here, my brother's going to kill me. He's going
to destroy everything I've got. Plead to Him with a death grip. Lay hold of Him who is eternal
life. Strive to lay hold of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Fix your heart. This is what
I'm saying. Fix your heart on Christ and don't let anyone entice
you away from Him. Don't you let anyone or anything,
whether it be a job promotion or a person, don't you let anyone,
he says, entice you away from Him. Get a death reform. Cling to Him just like Jacob
did. Our Lord said to His disciples,
will you also go away? And they said, to whom shall
we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life. Hang on to them. Lay hold of them. Lay hold of
the Lord Jesus Christ. As Paul wrote to the Colossians,
set your affection, listen now, set your affection on things
above. where Christ sitteth at God's right hand. Not on the
things of this earth. Don't set your affection, your
heart on these typical things. He says, set them on Christ.
Set them on Christ, for your life, he says, is hid with Christ
and God. That's where our real life is,
in Him. A true saving work of grace begins
in the heart. That's where it begins. It begins
in the heart. As a man thinketh in his heart,
it says so is he. I want you to look at some scripture. Look over in Proverbs chapter
3. Proverbs chapter 3. Has to do with the heart. In Proverbs chapter 3, he says,
look here in verse 1. My son, forget not my law, but
let thine heart keep my commandments. For length of days and long life
and peace shall they add to thee. Let not mercy and truth forsake
thee. Bind them about thy neck. Write
them upon the table of thine heart." Now turn over to chapter
4. Look in verse 4. He taught me
also, and said unto me, Let thine heart retain my words, keep my
commandments, he said, and live. Now look over in verse 20. My
son, attend to my words, incline thine ear unto my sayings. Let
them not depart from thine eyes. Keep them in the midst of thine
heart, for they are life unto those that find them, and health
to all their flesh. with all diligence, for out of
it are the issues of life." Now look over in chapter 7 of Proverbs. Chapter 7. He said in verse 1, My son, keep
My words, and lay up My commandments with thee. Keep My commandments
and live in My law as the apple of thine eye. Bind them upon
thy fingers, and write them upon the tables of thine heart. That
which does not touch the heart will not be in the life. If it does not touch the heart.
We're out of the heart. Our Lord said, a man speaketh. Out of the heart. God is worshipped. He's worshipped in the heart.
David said this in Psalm 45. My heart is inditing. Inditing a good matter. Is my
heart inditing a good matter this morning? Really, if my heart,
I tell you this, if so, I'll get something out of this. If
my heart is indicting a good manner concerning the Lord Jesus
Christ, if so, I'll get something out of it. Now Luke says here
in verse 24, he says that Barnabas was a good man. He was a kind
and generous man. That's what he's saying. This
is a man who has tasted of the grace of God. You ever hear the
old saying, it takes one to know one? It takes grace to recognize
grace. And Barnabas had tasted the Lord
and found him to be gracious. But he was a kind and generous
man. This man sold all that he had and laid it at the apostles'
feet and let them distribute it as they would. He went and
just sold what he had. This man was sold out to the
Lord Jesus Christ. He knew what he was talking about.
He knew the one he was talking about. completely sold out and
committed to Him and said that He was full of the Holy Ghost
and faith. This is a winning combination.
This is a winning combination. Full of the Holy Ghost and faith.
And He acted by faith and did as He felt led and God blessed
Him. You know, that's all we can do, is do as we feel led.
You know, we don't have some kind of written thing out here
that says, well, today this is what you'll do, tomorrow this
is what... No, we walk by faith. We walk by faith, we believe
God, and He'll bless. He'll bless. But here's another example of
grace. It says in verse 25, He went
after Saul of Tarsus. He went to Tarsus to find Saul,
that is Paul, to help him at Antioch. When I read that, I
thought, now here's an example of grace. hoarding this up to himself,
instead of him trying to get a following, instead of him trying
to do this, and everybody said, well, look what Barnabas, look
what the Lord's done to Barnabas. Barnabas, no doubt, was so humbled
at what he saw of the grace of God, not only in those people,
but in himself. He went to Tarsus, and he found
Paul, and he said, Paul, you've got to come down to Antioch.
You've got to see what the Lord's doing there. Paul, come down
here at Antioch and help me establish this church. When I read that,
I thought, what an example of grace. What an example of grace. You know, I'm jealous as to what's
preached in this pulpit. The gospel. Jealous over that. Nothing but the gospel to be
preached here. But I'm not jealous of having men stand here. I tell
you what, if you give me a man that preaches the gospel, I'll
put him here in this pulpit to preach the gospel to us. And
that's what Barnabas did. He said, Paul, come down here.
And he went down there and for a year he and Barnabas preached
in Antioch at that church. And the disciples, it said, were
called Christians first in Antioch. They had been called disciples.
They had been called Jews. They had been called Gentiles.
But now no matter, listen, no matter who or where they were
from, they were called Christians. a woman, unified under that one
name. They were called Christ followers. I'm sure the people there in
Antioch, all around that big town, they said, oh, that group
over there, they're Christians. They're Christ followers. And
we are. We are. I know this. I know that
name right now is abused. The name Christian is so abused
But the real true meaning of it is a good name to have. It's a Christ follower. Listen,
it's to be anointed of God. It's anointed ones. That's what
it is. It's anointed ones. We bear his name. It's not we're
Gentiles. No, we're Christians. We're Christ
followers. That's what we are. We follow
the Lord Jesus Christ. He's our husband. Just like when
a woman gets married, she takes her husband's last name. She
drops hers and takes her husband's name. We take His name, and we
take His name gladly. Glad to be called, and in the
true sense of the word now, glad to be called Christian. Christ
follower. Oh, they're Christian. They follow
after Christ. What a charge. What a charge. I like to have that charge. A
Christian is one who believes on Christ. He believes the Lord
Jesus Christ. He follows Christ. He bows to
his Lordship. He loves the brethren. And he
waits and looks for his Lord's return. When I read that and
I was thinking about those points, I thought, am I really looking
for his return? Am I looking for him to return
today or tomorrow? I'm looking for someone. You
are looking for someone to come and get you, aren't you? Looking for his return. And here's
another example of God's grace, and I'll quote it. There in verse 27 and 29, it
says, God sent prophets from Jerusalem to warn the churches
of a coming famine. God has always warned His elect,
hasn't He? He has always warned His elect of things to come.
He said, in the last days perilous times shall come. He's warned
us of those things. And it came to pass there in
verse 28, it came to pass just as He said it would. Don't let prosperous times blind
you to perilous times. It seems like one is set against
the other in this life. They are. But here's the example
of grace that comes out of this. Instead of laying up for themselves,
like Joseph laid up corn in Egypt. They laid up those seven plentiful
years. They laid up for those seven
bad years. But instead of laying up for
themselves, this time they gave out. They distributed. You know
what happened? This Gentile church sent to the
relief of the Jewish brethren in Jerusalem. I thought that
was so remarkable. They sent Barnabas down there,
and then when his family came, they sent help back up to Jerusalem. That's grace, my friends. That's
grace. God knows how to bring his family
together, doesn't he? God knows how to unite us. It
doesn't matter whether Jew or Gentile, black or white, it doesn't
matter. He knows how to magnify His grace among His children.
He knows how to do that.