We see, starting in verse 17
of Acts 20, Paul's farewell message and his
final address to the elders at Ephesus. And that starts in verse
17. This final direction or talk
from Paul, it's a good lesson for Gospel preachers. for gospel
believers, the church universal, the body of Christ at the local
ecclesia, the local church. This is for all of us who name
the name of the Lord. This is good instruction in here.
But he emphasizes, he keys in as he always does on one particular
thing preeminently. But we'll go through this. Let me read verses 17 And we'll
go through verse 35. And from Miletus he, that is
Paul, sent to Ephesus and called the elders of the church. And
when they were come to him, he said unto them, You know from
the first day that I came into Asia, after what manner I have
been with you at all seasons, serving the Lord with all humility
of mind, with many tears and temptations which befell me by
the lying in wait of the Jews, and how I kept back nothing that
was profitable unto you, but have showed you and have taught
you publicly and from house to house testifying both to the
Jews and also to the Greeks repentance towards God and faith towards
our Lord Jesus Christ. And now behold I go bound in
the Spirit unto Jerusalem not knowing the things that shall
befall me there, save that the Holy Ghost witnesses in every
city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide me or wait for me." But none of these things move
me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might
finish my course with joy, and the ministry which I have received
of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God. And now, behold, I know that
you all, among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God,
shall see my face no more. Wherefore, I take you to record
this day that I am pure from the blood of all men, for I have
not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God. Take
heed, therefore, unto yourselves and to all the flock over which
the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers to feed the church
of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood. For I know
this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in
among you, not sparing the flock. And also of your own selves shall
men arise, speaking perverse things to draw away disciples
after them or after themselves. Therefore, watch and remember
that by the space of three years, I cease not to warn everyone
night and day with tears. And now, brethren, I commend
you to God and to the Word of His grace, which is able to build
you up and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified. I have coveted no man's silver
or gold or apparel, Yea, ye yourselves know that these hands have ministered
unto my necessities and to them that were with me. I have showed
you all things, how that so laboring you ought to support the weak,
and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said,
it is more blessed to give than to receive." That's just good
instruction. That's good instruction. It emphasizes very clearly that I have received of the Lord,
Lord Jesus Christ, to testify of the gospel of the grace of
God. He said, I have determined not
to know anything among you, He said that to the Corinthians,
except for Jesus Christ and Him crucified. So that's what I think
he's emphasizing. Let's venture down this discourse
and ask God to teach each one here to take to heart the things
which he's saying. So in verses 17 to 23, he just
has some opening remarks. Verses 17, 18, and 19. He said,
I have been serving the Lord. He calls the elders together.
He says, you know from the first day I came from Asia, what manner
I've been among you, serving the Lord with all humility. Serving
the Lord. Any believer who's called, that's
what they're called to do. They're called first. I've heard
it said, well, I don't know what I want to be. I don't know what
I'm supposed to do when I grow up. Well, grow up. You were created
to glorify and honor God. We are called out of ourselves. We are called to serve the Lord
first and foremost. And that's what we're doing.
Is this not what we're doing every time we gather together?
We're serving the Lord. Every time we go to work, we're
doing this under the Lord. Every time we go out to play,
or be with family or friends, or just living as becometh believers. Everything centers around the
Gospel and the Lord Jesus Christ. We make our decisions based on
how we can serve the Lord. I've got this written down in
the back of this Bible for a long time. Matthew, Henry, and all
our choices, this principle should overrule us. That is best for
us is that which is best for our souls. That's serving the
Lord. No matter what we do, no matter
how we serve or we live, Desire to serve the Lord. When we gather
together, serving, serving. That word is actually, it's voluntary
slave. Now, we don't like to use that
word, but that's the scriptural word. The word serve has to do
with being a voluntary slave for the Lord Jesus Christ. It
says, unto God, he says, serving the Lord, that's the first thing,
with all humility, and then in verse 18 he says, after the manner
in which I've been with you. So it's serving the Lord first,
but it's not just serving Him in a monastery, not just reading
until you can't read anymore, or hearing until you can't, it's
serving one another. I've been in all manner that
I've been around you. We serve God first, and the church,
that we're with one another. That's what gathering is. And
he says, look at what he says in verse 19, serving the Lord
with all humility. That's modesty. That's modesty. The believer is kind of like
right in the center. As far as the things of the world.
Serving the Lord with all humility. He's not extravagant. He fits
in. He talks about in the New Testament
women doing all this stuff. You don't
need to do that stuff. You're attractive, you're inner
person. But you can do that, but don't go in excess. Don't
go excessive this way. He says in Proverbs, keep me
from poverty or riches. If I'm poor, I may steal. If
I'm rich, I'll forget you. That's where most believers,
that's where we need to be. Modesty. moderation in all things. And he says, also I've been among
you with tears and temptations which befell me by the lying
in the way of the Jews. There are people trying to kill
him because of what he believed and what he preached. Adversity
by the enemies of the gospel. He was tried back and forth.
They were watching him. When you go to work, they're
watching you. They're seeing how you're going to act. Your
neighbors, they see you. Is your car gone on Sunday? You
know, they watch these things. We don't do things to be seen
of men, but they're watching. They're watching. And in verse
20, he says, "...and how I kept back nothing that was profitable
unto you, and have showed you, and have taught you publicly
in the meeting house, and from house to house." If they didn't
have a place to meet, there were some churches, you know, Chloe,
they met in their house. We've met in a house. We've met
in Bruce's house for a number of years. It doesn't matter. The Lord is with His people.
But He's given us this building and we do try to take care of
it. He told them all things needful.
Needful. Verse 20, I kept nothing back
that was profitable. That was profitable. For their safety, Philippians
chapter 3, you don't have to turn there, Philippians 3, verse
1, "...finally, brethren, rejoice in the Lord, to write the same
things to you, to me. Indeed, it is not grievous, but
for you it is safe." You come here, and we're not talking about
politics. You come here, we're not talking
about husbands, how to work out the marriage. I'm not a counselor. That's not what preachers are.
That's what they are today. They're counselors and they tell
you how to live and how to spend your money and how much to give
and this and that. No. To me, it's not grievous to give up
here and to preach the same thing. Christ and Him crucified because
that's what's going to do you good in your marriage. That's
what's going to do you good at work. That's what's going to
do you good in life. And then we could go to specific
areas. There's nothing in this book that's not covered. In our
life, there's nothing in this book that's not covered. the
details. So it was for their safety, all
things needed for their safety, for their peace. The Bible says
Christ is your peace. And for comfort, Isaiah 40 verse
1, comfort ye, comfort ye my people. I'm not to get up here
and badger and hound you and be like in the Old Testament
those elders that peeped. You know, that's the one thing
I've got against most Reformed churches. Their doctrine may
be correct, but man, they're mean. The ones I've been dealing
with my whole life are mean. They always question you. They
think they understand your heart, question your motives. This Gospel
is freeing. And He says it in Galatians,
don't let them bring you under bondage. This Gospel that we
preach, that we believe about a person and work, of our lovely
Lord Jesus Christ. This membership is a free society. It's the only free society in
the world. Now, we encourage one another.
If we see something happen and you're doing something... Paul
did that with the 1st and 2nd Corinthians. Tim James, he's
more than halfway through 2nd Corinthians. He goes, I didn't
know whether I wanted to do it or not. It's just like he's barking
at them. exhortation and rebuke after
another. We got the flesh. We get out
of line. But this is a family. What do
families do? Don't do what our family did
last weekend, but it's not that kind of family. It's the family
of the living God. The church is the ground and
pillar of the truth. You come here to hear truth. As it is, this truth and this
safety and peace and comfort is centered around the person
of Jesus Christ. Without Christ, there's no safety,
there's no peace, there's no comfort. That's what we tell
our children. Live your life. Be successful. Be prosperous. But seek Christ. Spurgeon, a lot of these older
writers, they were... Seek Him at an early age. The
advantage of knowing Christ at an early age. And I know it's
all of grace. But as parents, we do what we
can. Every opportunity to pray and assist them and read the
Scriptures. This world's got so much that
glitters. And young eyes are attracted
to that, I know that. But there's no peace, safety,
or comfort, and there's no salvation, pardon, or forgiveness outside
of Christ. Christ is the hub, the center
theme of this whole book. Get to Christ quickly when viewing
any text. Not necessarily history, you
can get history in here, not trivia, or for knowledge or memorization. And all these things are good
in their own right, but we had a gentleman that came here and
he never brought his Bible. He's a Ph.D. from Michigan. Okay,
that's kind of impressive. It wasn't an ivory school. He said he could quote the entire
book of Ephesians. So? So I told him, I said, well,
I read years ago the history of the sect of the Pharisees.
And they didn't have books, they had scrolls. And so they could
lay a scroll, like four or five pages, and they could take a
needle and run it through, and at every page they could tell
you what letter, what letter, of the Greek or Hebrew that it
was. And they killed Christ. So, there's
no end of learning. And that's one thing I believe
in glory. We will spend eternity learning
more every day about Christ. That's the ticket. These are
things, and look at what it says again in verse 20, I kept nothing
back that was profitable unto you, but showed you. Now that
word showed is very interesting. What that word showed is, it
means literally to declare. Or an announcer. An announcer. And it also is in the New Testament,
one other place is the usage of speak, and one other place
in the New Testament is report. Now, what did He say in Isaiah
53? Who hath believed our report? That's what preaching is. It's
just the out-speaking, the verbalization. So when He showed them, He didn't
keep anything back. And it's applied in the context.
I don't know Greek or Hebrew, I've got good tools, but how
I kept nothing back that was profitable for you and have showed
you, taught you publicly. If there was a place to gather,
they gathered. If there wasn't, they went house to house. Verse 21, testifying to the Jews
and the Greeks, repentance towards God and faith towards the Lord
Jesus Christ. Why repentance? Because that word has to do with
guilt. This word guilty. All men and women, boys and girls,
are guilty. Romans 3, verse 19, that we all become guilty. Our
mouth may be stopped. We're guilty. So we need to repent.
And faith, that's towards the Lord Jesus Christ. That's that
conduit which lays hold of Christ, His promises, His forgiving sacrifice
for us. These are two cornerstones in
the salvation message. And you know what a beautiful
thing is? It's repentance. is a gift of God, and so is faith.
So as far as we're concerned, our puny works, it's hands off. We can't touch it. Because God
will not accept it. But we tell them to repent or
perish. And repent towards the Lord Jesus
Christ. Not only do we have to be guilt
free, But we have to have a positive righteousness, and that's the
righteousness of Christ. Read on. Look at the second portion. This is the ministry. This is
the only true ministry, no matter what the church is called, what
the name is. Verses 24 through 27. None of
these things move me. He said the Holy Ghost, verse
23, has told me what's going to befall me. The afflictions.
that had ever been a company, but these didn't move him, neither
did he count his life dear unto himself, so that he might finish
his course with joy. And the ministry, the ministry,
everybody talks about the ministry. What's the only true ministry?
Which I have received of the Lord. It's a calling. You don't
just work your way in, like it's not a job. which I received of the Lord,
to testify, to speak of the gospel of the grace of God." The gospel
of the grace of God. It was from the Lord. It was
not from men. So many today, most today, are
false teachers, false preachers, false brethren. He says they've
crept in unawares. They're on that broad road, not
that elected, selected, narrow way which is of God. But what
is this ministry? What is this ministry? This one
most essential, most important, must have for life everlasting
ministry. It's the gospel of the grace
of God. The gospel. That's good news.
That's the message. It's good news. And it has to
do with a person. Like I've told you, I'm not complicated. I don't want to over-complicate.
When I had somebody ask me, what do I mean by sovereign grace?
I said, sovereign is who God is, and grace is how He saves. And those are two basic talking
points. Well, it's not... It's the Gospel,
the grace of God. The. This word, well, you know,
it's the. This word, the, it's very singular.
It's one. I was talking to Bruce Crabtree,
and he said Spurgeon had a quote that it's not half-truth, it's
full-truth, because you can't get anywhere on a... He said
Spurgeon likened it to a bridge that's built halfway. You're
not going anywhere. You're just going to go at the
end and stop. That's what we're not talking about. We're not
talking about a bridge that's not far enough. And I always
like the illustration, I always use it, that Bruce gave as far
as describing the Gospel, describing the Good News, describing Christ.
Now, if I meet somebody new, and they're looking for Brian
Morrell, and they've never met Brian Morrell, and I say, he's
a short, stubby, A guy with blonde hair and he's not tan, he's white,
they're going to be looking for that guy. If I describe him,
they're going to be looking. If they don't know him, and when
sinners come into this place, if they're not redeemed, they
don't know Christ, they don't know who He is, anything about
Him. So it is my responsibility to describe Him to the best of
my ability. They're not going to find you.
They're going to be looking. They're not going to find you. But if
my description, the best that the Lord has revealed to me,
and that's all I can do, and as He's revealed Himself to you,
the same Christ may be better, may be more thorough, through
study of the Scripture, through prayer and exhortation, these
things, growing in grace. But if I describe Brian as he
is, that person who's never met him, is going to see Him and
going to meet Him. You got bit by that serpent.
You were to look at that serpent on the pole. Look and live. That salvation is look and live.
Look and live. So, we declare that wonderful, good
news of God's sweet, pure, holy grace without any cause in us
to facilitate it, Romans 3, 24. No, salvation, mercy, redemption,
conversion is all revealed to us without our insignificant
input by God in the face of Jesus Christ, revealed by God the Holy
Spirit, sealed unto us in His day of grace. This message, this
good news message, it's only good if you need Christ. If you're
thirsty, The kids, even the littlest kid here, if they're thirsty,
they know where they can go and get a drink of water. They know
that. If you need Christ, you can find
Him. This message is only good if
God is the author of it. If you're the author of salvation,
if you can save yourself, you don't need to be here. You just
go out and do whatever you want to do. And then when you think
you can come to Him, you will. But that's not how it works.
It's only good news if God's the author of it. It's only good
news if your sin has separated you from God and His Son. It's
only good news if you must have Christ and His salvation or you
die. It's only good news if it is
of grace and not of works, otherwise grace is no more grace, is what
Paul says. This message is only good news
if it changes your heart and attitude and conduct. We believe
that when a person meets Christ, they're changed. Now this nonsense
that's going around is, you know, after you get saved you've got
to have the Spirit and you've got to feel and experience all this,
or you can believe the doctrine and no change, I see that nowhere
in the scripture. That's not of God. When you meet
the Savior, and there's just so many examples, the pearl of
great price, they found that And they would not sell it. It
was so precious. And Peter talks about the precious
bread of Christ. These are terms of feelings.
These are terms of endearment. These are terms of love. It's
like marrying your wife. I may bring her flowers. I may
say hi. I may tell her I love her. I
may not. No. It's not going to last very long. It's only the
good news of the message of the grace of God if it changes your
heart, attitude, and conduct, holiness unto the Lord. Turn
with me to Psalms 85. In one quick verse we see the
Gospel explained. Psalms 85, well, in two verses,
10 and 11. What happened at Calvary? What
happened at Calvary? Why did Calvary happen? Psalms
85 verse 10 and 11. Mercy and truth are met together.
Those two are opposed. Justice and mercy. Justice and
love. Law and love. These are two opposites.
Mercy and truth are met together. Righteousness and peace have
kissed each other. Where? On the cross. Truth shall
spring out of the earth. That's the sinner. The sinner
broken and contrite. He's from the earth. And righteousness
shall look down from heaven. That's the righteousness of Christ.
But they've got to meet. God's law has to be honored.
We've broken it. So yes, mercy and truth are met
together. Righteousness and peace have
kissed each other. And I think Henry Mahan had a message on
this very text a long time ago. A long time ago. I recommend
listening if you can find it. That's how God can be just and
justify the ungodly. Well, let's go back to our text
in Acts 20. Verse 25 and 27. These are synonyms
for the gospel of the grace of God. He's just saying the same
thing. Verse 25, And now behold, I know you all among whom I have
gone preaching the kingdom of God. That's the gospel. It's
the same thing, preaching the kingdom of God. He wouldn't preach
anything else. And verse 27, for I have not
shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God. That's the
gospel. That's not how to win souls for
Jesus. No, it's the synonym. Contextually, you can see this,
it's the gospel. There's nothing in our life that
is not addressed in this book. It leads down one path, one way,
one Lord, one faith. That's the faith of Christ, or
simply Christ. Now, in the latter sections here,
verse 28 through 35, these are various concerns and exhortations,
but let's look at these. Verse 28. Take heed. He's telling this to the Ephesian
elders, but this applies to all believers. Take heed unto yourself
and to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you
overseers, to feed the church of God which He hath purchased
with His own blood. Two things. Take heed to yourself,
because only you... I don't want to phrase this. Salvation is personal. You can't
be saved for anybody else. As much as we want our children,
you can't be saved for them. Take heed to yourself. Joshua, which we're not there
yet, but as for me and my house, we'll serve the Lord. If you're
responsible, if you have children at home, you're responsible for
them. Serve the Lord with them, but
you can't save them. You can't save them. a little
tract that they ought to at least be respectable citizens. That's
what we can do for them. So take heed with the utmost
concern and care and love to yourself as unto God in the presence
of this world. Henry wouldn't go, when he was
at Ashland, he would not go to a picture show because people
were watching him. And they had a nickname, the
13th Street Angels. Everybody liked to pick on them. So he wouldn't do it. He wouldn't do it. Take heed to yourself and to
the flock by serving one another again in love. Remember, God's
Son purchased it by His blood. He said, take heed to yourself,
to feed the church of God which He had purchased with His own
blood." Christ died for you and for me. We need to treat one
another with care and concern. And then there's a warning in
verse 29-31, I know this, that after my departing shall grievous
wolves enter in among you, not sparing a flock. Also of your
own selves shall men arise speaking perverse things to draw away
disciples after them. Therefore watch and remember
that by the space of three years I cease not to warn everyone
night and day with tears." I noticed this, and this is from experience. We've seen it. Verse 30, taking disciples after
themselves. Now, what is it? A believer is
supposed to be a servant. We're all supposed to serve one
another in love. Not these guys. They want to take charge. They
want to take control. They want to sit in high places after themselves. They're truly
selfish. They're men-pleasers. They're
man-seekers. Their abominable look at diatrophies
in the epistles of John. So what are we to do? What are
we to do? Well, verse 32, this is what
we really can and must do. And now, brethren, I commend
you to God and to the Word of His grace. When it comes down
to it, after our children leave, we can talk to them as parents,
But really, we pray for them and we commend them to the Word. That means present. And I thought
this was really interesting. I have no idea how this got stuck
in the concordance, but this is what it is. We commend them,
we present them in prayer to the Lord for grace, for mercy,
as we do one another. You know, jobs. Nathan switched
jobs. What do you do? You just commend
Him to the Word of His grace. And everybody's going through
struggles at times. You commend them to the Word
of God's grace. The Word of God's grace. That
literally means, and like I said, I wrote this down, I got it circled,
food, truth. Food, truth. That's what the
Word of His grace is. I'm convinced, more so today
than yesterday, this is a living book. It's really alive. How can you read something and
read it for 10 or 15 years and then read it all of a sudden?
Oh, I never saw that before. This book is alive. It's the
only book that's alive. And so I encourage us that why
are so many weak and puny? Well, they're not feeding upon
God's Word. These books that we have here,
these commentators, they're all good books, but if they were
alive today, at least one or a couple of them are, they would
tell you that they have nothing more to say than what's already
been said in this book. I read something this morning,
Spurgeon said, before you meet the face of man for the day,
you should meet with God. Pretty good. Pretty good. I tried
to do that when I worked, but often times you get busy and
you don't. But that's a good little quote. And also he says in verse 32, Now, brethren, I commend you
to God and the Word of His grace, which is able to build you up
and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified.
We are made to know by the Word that we have an inheritance among
the saints. Isn't that good news? Isn't that
what he's talking about? The gospel? I've received this
in the ministry of the Lord to testify the gospel, the grace
of God, the good news of how God can save sinners. to good
news of telling you that you have an inheritance in heaven.
Many mansions, many rooms. That's good news. That's the
good news. Somebody said, if you want to
get your mind off yourself, serve. Do something for someone. I know
there's a bunch of do-gooders. We used to have a Sunday in Cape
called Save Our Sunday, and everybody would do something good. Come out, let's come out from
ourselves. Let's really do that. And then, in closing, 33 and
35, kind of sad, but, well, verse 33 through 35 is not sad, but
this is Paul speaking. I have coveted no man's silver
or gold or apparel. That seems to be, well, I'll
just leave that alone. Yea, yourselves know that these
hands have ministered unto my necessities and to them that
were with me." Now, however you read this, this is somebody who's
working. Okay? This is somebody who's
working. I'm not going to stand up here
and hammer on this. But I think we get too caught
up in pay everything for me. I'm the pastor, I'm the most
important. Christ said, I was among you, one that served. And I thank you for the support
that you have given me. Look at the next verse. I have
showed you all things, how so laboring, and that word means
hard work. You ought to support the weak,
And to remember the words of our Lord Jesus, how He said,
it is more blessed to give than to receive. Another thing I can
figure out here is that's why also in the book of Acts, they
sold everything. Can you imagine us selling everything,
bringing it here? It would be a knock-down, drag-out. And we'd really see how well
we were doing or how well we're not doing. It's none of my business. It's none of anybody's business.
But I could see how they could do that with that attitude. Because
they all had the common gospel. They all had things in common.
And I know it was different then, but is it? You know, let's just
serve one another. Let's just serve one another.
Well, I like what your dad said, if the church can support a pastor
full time, do it. If they can't, they can't. You
do what you can. We do what we can for one another.
And look at what he says, this is kind of sad. When he had thus
spoken, he kneeled down and prayed with them all. What a scene this
must have been. And they all wept sore, and fell on Paul's
neck and kissed him, sorrowing most of all for the words which
he spake, that they should see his face no more. And they accompanied
him into the ship. Now I talked to a dear brother
this week, I'd really like to see him once
more, but his wife said, and that's what she said, you probably
won't see us. That just killed me. That just killed me. But
it's a fact of life. We can't see all the brethren
all the time. We have a work to do. They're rebuilding the temple.
They wouldn't be discouraged. The people were the enemies.
They kept coming to... Nehemiah, those guys that were
rebuilding the temple, and they said, you've got to do this.
He says, no, this we've got to work to do here in Jackson, in
Sykeston, in Cape, in Illinois. We must tell the folks the ministry
which He has given all of us of the gospel of the grace of
God. That's what we do. We gather
together here. We enjoy one another. Worship
one another around the table and around Him. And I pray that
the Lord give us another many years together. We can serve
Him. And see the Lord do something
for our kids. And do something for our neighbors. Or maybe do
something for that guy that you can't stand. And change him. What a glorious thing that would
be. There's promises in here. Let us seek them. Let us find
them. And let's spend them. Bruce,
would you close us?