I invite you to turn back with
me now to Acts chapter 13. Primarily I want to speak from
verses 38 through 41. In Acts 13, Paul and Barnabas were
led by the Spirit of God. If you read the entire chapter,
you'll see where they went to a place and then were run out
of that place and then After going here and there, they wound
up at Antioch. And we would say, well, as luck
would have it, no. No, they were led there by God.
They were led there by God. Led there by the Spirit of God
to go to Antioch, and there he preached the gospel of Jesus
Christ. And this is just one of many
accounts of Peter and Philip and Barnabas and Stephen and
Paul preaching the gospel after the Lord had ascended back into
glory. After he'd given them the commission
to go. And in each account, they began
with the separation of God. They began where they were servants
and slaves and nobodies in Egypt. ruled by another people, ruled
by a force that they couldn't resist. And God, with a high
hand, went in and delivered them out of there, gave them glory
and honor, raised them up to a nation that was foremost in
the world. You think about that, foremost
in the world. They began with this deliverance
out of Israel and they worked their way down
to the coming of the promised Messiah and their intent was
this, it was to show clearly and accurately that Jesus of
Nazareth is the Christ. That's what they were doing.
This man came into this world, a very controversial person,
and he was examined, he preached, he did miracles, he did all of
these things, and he claimed to be the Messiah, the Christ. And Paul and Barnabas and those
who preach the gospel, they show clearly that he was the Christ. He was the Christ. And it bears
repeating that While these men were preaching, there was no
New Testament. You couldn't take them to 1 Corinthians
and show them something, or take them to Ephesians and show them.
There was no Ephesians, there was no Corinthians. There was
no New Testament. He had Genesis to Malachi. And
from Genesis to Malachi, he showed clearly that Jesus is the Christ. Now the Jews knew these Old Testament
scrolls and they knew them forward and backward. They didn't have
books like this, they had scrolls. I don't know how many scrolls
it took to make up the book of Isaiah, perhaps the whole book
was done in one scroll, I don't know. But when it says the book
was delivered to our Lord, that's what he's talking about. They
handed him a scroll and he unrolled that scroll and found the place
where it was written. And then he told them. But these old Jews, they knew
the Old Testament scrolls, forward and backward. They knew all the
messianic prophecies. And they could give you the facts
of creation. They could give you an accurate
account of the deluge of Noah. They could tell you all about
the calling out of Abraham out of Mesopotamia. They could talk
to you about Isaac and Jacob and Joseph. They could accurately
recite the genealogies and tell you whose father this was and
whose father that was. They could tell the story of
Moses and God's deliverance of Israel out of Egypt. They could
tell you about their wanderings in the desert. They could tell
you about the Tower of Babel. They could tell you all the details
set forth in the Old Testament scriptures. You put one on the
spot, he no doubt could take a piece of paper and draw you
an outline of the tabernacle and show you where the furniture
went and show you all about the tabernacle. All about the temple
in Jerusalem. These weren't ignorant men in
respect of the facts that they knew. They knew the scriptures. He said, you search the scriptures
for in them you think you have eternal life. But they are they which testify
of me. and you will not come to me that
you might have life. Where do you go? We go to the
facts. We go to the facts. We glory
in the facts. We glory in our knowledge of
the fact. He said you won't come to me. You won't come to me. For all their knowing, they knew
not the Lord Jesus Christ. They could tell you every Messianic
prophecy, and our Lord quoted it to them as they were being
fulfilled, and they still didn't recognize him. Our Lord looked into the faces
of those who were the most recognized scholars in Israel, and he said,
you neither know me nor my father. Ooh, that's tough, ain't it?
That's tough. These men were schooled in biblical
facts. They underwent years of training
and grooming under learned men. They were known as doctors of
the law, master theologians, rabbi. Some 2,000 years passed by, and
we, unlike they, are not preaching primarily to the Jews. but to
what the Bible calls Gentiles. Gentiles, that's what we are.
I don't think we have any Jews in here today. Gentiles, that's
who I'm preaching to. What's a Gentile? He's a heathenistic,
ungodly person. That's a Gentile. That's what
a Gentile is. And so Paul and Barnabas, they
preached to some just like this at Antioch. These men, I read
it to you a while ago, a lot of them were proselytes. The
Jews, our Lord said, he said, you search sea and land to make
one proselyte like unto yourself. They're gonna make a disciple
just like them. They're gonna make another them.
Another Baptist, another Nazarene, another Methodist. They're gonna
make another proselyte just like them. And he said, when you've
made them, they're twofold more the child of hell than you are.
Why? Because you're blind, you're
ignorant, and you don't know God. We have one father, even God.
He said, if God were your father, you'd love me. I proceeded forth
and came from God. We know the scriptures, we're
not ignorant, we'd be not born of fornication, we know the scriptures. Now if you knew the scriptures,
you'd recognize me. Because they are they that testify
of me. But you won't come to me. You
won't come to me. They preached to men just like
I do today, and they had submitted themselves to circumcision. A
lot of you have submitted yourselves in times past to religious whatever,
baptisms and who knows what. Rededications, dedications. They'd submitted themselves to
circumcision. And they attended the Jewish
synagogues, and they'd filled their minds with facts about
God, the sinfulness of men and the salvation of sinners. And
so it is today. False religion has been established,
and it goes by the name of God, the same as the Jews did. These
are the children of God. Children of God. They're well-schooled in the
facts. They can recite all the historical accounts of Israel.
They can tell you the story of Moses and Egypt and on and on
it goes. They can tell you all the circumstances
of the birth of Jesus of Nazareth. They're versed in his sermons,
the Sermon on the Mount, the Beatitudes. They're well versed
in these things. They talk about his miracles
and in detail they can tell you how he died on the cross. They
give full consent to his resurrection. and they confess that he now
sits at the right hand of God. And yet for all their knowing,
they know not God nor his son. Like the Jews, they've done all
these things and they've been proselyted by religion. They've
been given the facts, the facts, like taking a course in math. Start out here, you wind up here. Salvation is not in knowing a
lot of facts. You can know all the facts and
not be saved. All of them. And still miss Christ. It's not, salvation is not in
knowing a lot of facts. Salvation is about knowing a
person. Peter, James, and John, but especially
Peter, these men didn't really, they thought Jesus of Nazareth,
they believed that he was the Christ. Thou art the Christ,
the Son of the living God. Peter confessed that. Our Lord
said, flesh and blood didn't reveal that to you, Peter. My
father, which is in heaven, gave you that revelation. They knew that Jesus was the
Christ, but they didn't know what the Christ was. They thought,
eventually, he's going to rise into power, going to deliver
them out from under Roman rule, and going to raise them up to
that old standard of glory that Israel had back in the day. Why
did they believe that? Because that's what they were
told. That's what they were taught. and they carried those things
around in their mind. I tell people about salvation
today and they start, well, that ain't right, that ain't right.
What do we mean ain't right? Well, no, God's not willing for
anybody to perish. Who told you that? Well, I was
raised hearing that. Well, you were raised hearing
lies. If God wasn't willing for anybody
to perish, nobody would perish. God does his will. It's our will
that flips and flops around, not his. He does all his pleasures. Heaven, earth, all deep places. God does his will. Salvation's not in knowing a
lot of facts. Salvation is about knowing a
person. They knew this person. Now, in
time, They understood exactly what He come to do and they are
the writers of the New Testament. They knew exactly who He was
and why He came and what He did and where He's at. But salvation's about knowing
a person. Our Lord is called the Savior
because He alone can save. He's the Savior. I'm not trying to make Calvinists
out of people that are in here. If you ever come to know Christ,
you'll be a Calvinist. That's right. Your doctrine will
fall right in line when you come to know him. My pastor used to
tell me, you don't come to Christ by doctrine, you come to doctrine
by Christ. You can't understand the scriptures
apart from Christ. He's the revelation of God. He'd
God come, show us the Father and we'd be content. That's what
his disciples said. He said, if you've been so long
time with me, have you not seen the Father? I'm the revelation
of the Father. I'm the revelation of the Spirit.
There's no way to know God in any shape, form, or fashion except
through Christ. Christ is all we know about God. He manifested. God in the flesh. And that's my message to you
this morning, is about preaching Christ. There's a difference
in preaching Christ and preaching biblical facts. There's a difference. You can preach facts about election,
predestination, the fall of man, the death of Christ, his resurrection,
and not preach Christ. Election's not gonna do you any
good apart from Christ. See, when God chose a people,
he didn't just do that. Whom he did foreknow, he did
also predestinate. He chose us individually, all
his elect. He chose us in his son. That's what makes election beneficial. He chose us in a Savior. He chose
us in our priest, in our king, in our Savior, our Redeemer. All those offices given to Him,
He chose us in Him. He put us with Him in an eternal
union, a covenant union. He put us in His Son. And even
though Adam fell and the curse passed and we're recipients of
it, He couldn't overcome what God did in eternity past. He
put us in Christ. There's a difference between
preaching Christ and biblical facts. In fact, I go so far as
to say preaching is a useless exercise if it has not the preeminence
of Christ in it. It's just a useless exercise. Our Lord, he's the eternal word,
the word made flesh, the word of the truth of the gospel. Paul gives us a genealogy here
in Acts chapter 13, a little history lesson about Israel.
But he only gave it to show and establish that Jesus of Nazareth
is the Christ. He wanted them to know whom he
was preaching. If Jesus of Nazareth is not the
Christ, If he's not the Word made flesh, God with us, Emmanuel,
everything else is irrelevant. Isn't it? Everything else is
irrelevant. Don't matter if you believe in
election or not. Don't matter if you believe in predestination
or not. If he's not the Christ. The key to this whole thing is
Christ. It's Christ. It wouldn't matter how holy he
was, how good he was, how kind he was, or how wonderful he was.
If he be not the Christ, he can't do us any good. Salvation is a person ordained
of God, chosen of God, God himself coming in the likeness of sinful
flesh and doing for us what we could not do for ourselves. He
satisfied the justice of God. He satisfied the righteousness
of God. He's the end of the law for righteousness. You take that word end in any
way, shape, or form, he's the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believeth. Listen to this. And I want you
to hear what I'm saying. Biblical facts are important,
they're necessary and needful. but they're of no value without
an understanding of Christ. We know, John said, that the
Son of God hath come, now listen, and given us an understanding
that we may know him that is true, that we're in him that
is true, even in his Son, Jesus Christ. This is the true God
and eternal life. Now look with me at our text
here in Acts chapter 13 verse 38. Be it known unto you therefore,
men and brethren, that through this man, Jesus of Nazareth,
through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins. Now I have five things I hope
God will be pleased to use this morning. to feed his sheep and
to gather his own to himself. And the first is this. These
verses imply that all true preaching is addressed to sinners, to sinners. Now, if you don't consider yourself
a sinner, then these things are not written for you. He addresses
sinners always, always, when the gospel's preached. He addresses
sinners. Listen to this. Paul said, this
is a faithful saying. It's worthy of all acceptation.
Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners, of whom I am
chief. When he read the word of God,
he applied it to himself, the sinner. The sinner. This whole world, John said,
life and wickedness. There's not a soul born of Adam
who does not go astray as soon as he be born, speaking lies. Man at his best state, altogether
vanity. He's ruined by the fall, is by
nature a child of wrath. And the thing is, they don't
know it. Some of you sitting here this
morning, you've been listening to me now for a while. You still
don't know it. You still don't know you're a
sinner. You just don't know. Don't know. Why? Because you're born with it. That's right. You're born with it. You're surrounded
by it. And you've never known anything
else. If you compare yourself to other men, it's like one maggot
comparing himself to another maggot. He looks pretty good.
Looks pretty good. You compare yourself with another
human being, you can find one that's in worse shape than you
are. You can come out smelling like a rose, boy. At least I'm
not like him. Isn't that what that proud Republican
said when he went into the temple and looked right up into heaven?
No humility, no nothing. He said, oh, I thank God I'm
not like him. No, you're worse. You're worse
than them. They don't know it. They have
nothing to compare themselves to but other sinners. The scriptures,
it gives you pictures of the sinner. Leprosy. He's a leper.
He's got a disease that is working its way from the inside out.
Death. Living death, that's what they
call leprosy. Blindness. All those inabilities of man
where the Lord went in and healed them, all of those things together
picture the sinner. Demon possessed. I bet you never one time thought
of yourself following the devil, huh? You, Hathe Quicken, who were
dead in trespasses and sins, wherein time passed, you walked
according to the course of this world. Now listen, according
to the prince of the power of the air, who now worketh in the
children of disobedience. Demon possessed. Satan rules
over your thoughts. He manifests his religion in
your heart. I'm okay. I'm okay. If you ain't Christ, you ain't
okay. We have nothing to compare ourselves
to, except those things given to us in the scriptures, maggots.
That's what he compares us to, maggots. What are they? It's a worm that
feeds on corruption. That's what it is. That's what
we are. But you say, Preacher, we're
not murderers. I didn't kill anybody. I'm not an adulteress. I'm not an adulterer. I'm not
a thief. Well, you are spiritually. You
ever get mad at somebody and you say, I ain't speaking to
him anymore. You just killed him. That's what you did. You
murdered him. That's how our Lord talked about
murder. You shut him off, cut him off. And we would be physically, but
for the restraining hand of the Lord. The only reason you hadn't
killed somebody is because God held you back. He put you in
a circumstance. He put you in a restraint. He
put you under the influence of godly parents. He put you in
a position of restraint. He didn't let the circumstance
ever come to pass. If you'd have been there, you'd
have done it. But you wasn't there. You wasn't there. We're
sinners. We're sinners by nature. We're
sinners by choice. And we're sinners by practice.
The scripture said we drink iniquity like water. Like water. And we're ignorant of God and
ignorant of his character and his ways and his will, and this
dying flesh is on the broad road to destruction. It's running
headlong into hell. And like Korah, Dathan, and Abiram,
we piece together certain things from tradition and from our friends
and neighbors and all those things from natural reasoning and then
we try to establish things concerning God and salvation and we find
ourselves resisting the Word of God. And not only ends bad for us,
but also for all them who follow us. I preach to men and women
who have no natural ability, no desire, no heart to understand
or believe. I preach this person, this glorious
person of Christ, and I wait on God in his spirit to work
in you and cause you to see these things, to know these things
beyond a shadow of a doubt. Without Christ, I'm a goner. I don't care how good you live
in this life. I don't care. You can go through
this life without a care, without an illness, without anything,
and die and go to hell. I ask to be revealed to you.
And if God leaves you alone, that's all he has to do. He don't
have to do anything to you. All he gotta do is leave you
alone. Destruction and misery are in your ways. You're just
self-destruct. He just lift his hand. That's all he gotta do. We have no natural ability, no
desire, no heart to understand or believe. and I'm 100% dependent
on the spirit of the living God to make what I'm telling you
this morning effectual in your heart. I have no ability to do
it. And the text implies that our
preaching is directed to sinners, hopeless sinners, helpless sinners,
bankrupt sinners, sinners all. All have sinned and come short.
of the glory of God. And then secondly, these verses
declare a full, free, and complete salvation in Christ. Just as
we were totally depraved by Adam's fall in the garden, we're totally
complete in Christ, totally restored in Christ. Everything that God
demanded from the sinner has been accomplished by our Savior. He came into this world to save
sinners. He said, I didn't come into this
world to judge. He didn't have to become a man
to judge. He came to save. He came to save. This text talks about a full,
free, and complete salvation in Christ. He didn't come here
to inspire or to leave an example, although he does inspire and
he does, he is our example. But he didn't come to do that
or make an effort to save. I'm sorry if I repeat this so
often, but I had this old preacher and he used to just say, well,
God's done all he can do. Now it's all up to you. Now you
think about what that man said. God has done all he can do and
now he's gonna trust you to do it? That don't even make sense,
does it? Be like me looking at a dead
corpse and it's covered with maggots. I've done all I can
do and now it's all up to you. No, it's all up to him. In him we live and move and have
our being. Listen to the scriptures. Thou
shalt call his name Jesus. Who? Mary's son. Virgin born. The angels appeared
and told him, said, you call him Jesus. That's his name. You
call him Jesus. That word is Joshua. Old Testament
Joshua. You call him Jesus. For he shall
save his people from their sins. He's not trying to save, he saved. He came into this world as a
representative man, a federal head of a people given to him
by the father before the world was. He prayed that his life
and death should glorify the father. According as he had given
him power over all flesh that he should give eternal life to
as many as the Father had given him. He did not accomplish some
universal salvation made complete and effectual by man's decisions
and will. You can decide all day long,
it don't move God. It don't move God. Jesus Christ
accomplished a full redemption for all his elect. He was delivered
for their offenses and raised again for their, T-H-E-I-R, their
justification. Ain't that what the scripture
says? Through this man is preached
unto you the forgiveness of sin, and by him, by him, all that
believe, are justified from all things from which you could not
be justified by the law of Moses. What are you saying, preacher?
I'm saying this world is shut up to Christ. That's what I'm
trying to tell you. You shut up to Christ. It's Christ
or hell. If God does not intervene, you'll
just keep right on the broad road going just like you're going,
thinking just like you're thinking, doing just what you're doing,
whatever it is. And wake up in judgment. And when God intervenes, this
intervention comes by way of Christ, of Him. Now listen to this scripture. This is one of the most comprehensive
scriptures in the Bible. It's 1 Corinthians 1.30, listen
to this. Of him, that is of God, are ye
in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption, that according as it is written,
he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. And then thirdly, these verses
clearly tell us that this glorious person and the work that our
Lord Jesus Christ accomplished comes to dying sinners through
the preaching of the gospel. Through this man is what? Preached unto you. Forgiveness
of sin. How'd you get it? Through the
preaching of the gospel. That's how it comes. And preaching is always effectual
when Christ is preached, what Paul said, we're a sweet saver
unto God in them that perish and in them that are saved. The gospel's effectual, it'll
either expose your unbelief or it'll make known your election
of God, one or the other. To some it's life unto life,
to others it's death unto death. The Gentiles would have continued
on under the proselyting of the Jews in Antioch, but for the
preaching of Christ. They heard that, and them Jews
said, we've had enough of that. And them Gentiles said, uh-uh,
we want to hear this again. Come back next week, will you?
Come back. They might not hear you, but
we want to hear you. You come back. You think they
just went home and sat down? No, because almost the whole
city came out the next week. They was out knocking on doors,
man, you need to come hear this guy. You need to hear what he's
saying. He's saying things I never heard
in my life. You need to come hear this man.
And the next week, almost the whole city come out to hear him,
didn't they? The preaching of the gospel is the power of God
unto salvation. What can we do for our families?
What can I do for my neighbors and my friends? Do your best
to get them under the sound of the gospel. That's what you do. And pray God will open our mind
and heart to receive him. And then fourthly, who are the
objects of this wonderful blessing? Who are the objects? By him, now listen, all that
believe. All that believe. are justified
from all things. All that believe. Faith is the
gift of God, isn't it? We preach, God the Holy Spirit
reveals it, he gives us faith. He gives us faith. God's ordained
the salvation of some. Listen to what he says. Whom
he did poor know, He also did predestinate to be conformed
to the image of his son, that he might be the firstborn among
many brethren. And without a lot of explanation,
let me simply say that this image of the son has to do with how
he's set forth in the minds and hearts of men. That's what this,
you're not, you're not in this world gonna be conformed to his
person, his glorious person. You're not gonna walk here in
the perfection that he walked. Not ever, not in this world. That's not the conforming that
he's talking about. He's talking about who he is. When I was little, every church
I went to had a picture of Jesus hanging on the wall. I don't
know who that is, who modeled for that picture, some hippie
or something, I don't know. They point to that Jesus, that
Jesus, and in my little head as a child, I'd picture that
when I tried to pray. Well, we do the same thing in
our imaginations because we don't know God, and this pitiful God
that we know, we got an image of him in our mind and hearts.
But God's predestinated that all those he foreknew, they're
gonna be conformed to the image of Christ. They're gonna know
him, Russell. They're gonna know him. I know,
Paul said, whom I have believed. Before the flood of Noah, the
scripture says, God saw that he saw the wickedness of man
was great in the earth and that every imagination of the thoughts
of his heart was only evil continually. They had no real image of God. And God has determined that all
His elect be conformed to the image of His Son, who is the
revelation of God. And moreover, whom He did predestinate,
them He called. And whom He called, He justified,
and whom He justified, He glorified. He did it all in Christ. And then fifthly, let me close
with this. This is a warning. You'll look
with me back at Acts 13 verses 40 and 41. Now Paul's standing
here, the church is gathered just like you're gathered here
this morning. Synagogue, it must have been pretty good size because
that whole city gathered in it. So there was a multitude of people
there and Paul's talking to them. He's preached this gospel to
them. He told them that it's a person. It's not just a gathering together of facts,
it's a person. It's a person. And he said, beware therefore,
lest that come upon you which is spoken of in the prophets.
Behold, ye despisers, and wander and perish. For I work a work
in your days, a work which you shall in no wise believe, though
a man declare it unto you. Paul said there's some of you
here today, and this scripture gonna be fulfilled in you. You're
just gonna go like that, and you're gonna perish. You're gonna
perish in unbelief. You're gonna reject him. And
he goes on to tell us in verse 45 that when the Jews saw the
multitudes, they were filled with envy, spake against those
things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting him. Contradicting him, what did he
say? He said that Jesus of Nazareth
was the Son of God, our Savior. And they contradicted him and
they said, uh-uh, no he ain't. No he ain't. And they blasphemed
God. in their rejection of Christ.
And Paul said, well, seeing you judge yourselves unworthy of
everlasting life, and that's what you do when you reject his
gospel. You judge yourselves unworthy
of everlasting life. You put yourself over in the
camp of the enemy. You expose yourself for what
you are. So let me ask you something.
What about you? What about you? You've heard this preacher preach
Christ. Do you believe what I preached to you this morning? Do you believe this? Do you believe
what I've read to you from the word of God? Do you believe whom I preached
to you? Well, if not, I say beware. There's
an awful curse attached to unbelief. Go ye into all the world, preach
my gospel. He that believeth and is baptized
shall be saved. He that believeth not shall be
damned. That shall is just as certain
as that shall be saved. It's just a certain. And if you
read John chapter three and read those last four or five verses
of that chapter, if that don't make the hair stand up on your
neck, I don't know what will. They rejected him, the knowledge
of him, the preaching of him, they rejected him. And he said,
they shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on them,
on them. What's that mean? It means you're
gonna turn them over. You're gonna give them a strong
delusion. He's gonna turn them loose. Go out here and listen
to that man jumping around and getting people down the aisle
and showing pictures of wrecked cars and things, trying to scare
you into professions of faith. Go on down there. You go on down
there and listen to him. They'll make you a deacon down
there. You can sit on the front pew. They'll make a preacher
out of you. Only takes about a week. They
have you teaching Sunday school. I know, I've been there, I'm
telling you. There's a curse attached to unbelief. The gospel's
no game, no game. It's real, it's real. And so
are the curses, so are the blessings. May God be pleased to make it
a blessing to you.