Well, you know what today is.
Yes, it's Sunday. Yes, we gather together as the
Lord appoints, but it is July 4th, Sunday. I think the last
one was 1999, anyway. It doesn't happen, I mean, it
happens as the calendar, leap years and whatnot, but on a Sunday
and the 4th of July. And I tried to look up when the
next one was going to be, and it didn't tell me. It just told
me from when 1700s all the way to 2021. And it stopped there. I'm like, well, tell me when
the next one's going to be. But I don't know whether I'll
be here or not, or you'll be here or not. But we come together
today, and this is the 4th of July. And in this country, It's
important. It's a significant day. We call
this day Independence Day. Now they have another name for
it in Britain, it's called Treason Day. So that's how they viewed
it. But we here in this country,
it's Independence Day. It's a day of freedom celebration. It's a release from tyranny and
bondage. And I don't normally do this
and match it, you know, Christmas, all that kind. I don't normally
do that, but as I got to looking at these texts, there are going
to be three texts that we're going to look at, and they're all in
Acts, I thought this message is suited for such an occasion.
And if you haven't heard, We're in a direct from Cape Airport
to Scott. It's a direct. And there must
be something going on because there are helicopters, planes.
So every time you hear that, and seriously, every time you
hear that, you think we could be getting bombed. Okay? We could be running for
our lives. But we're not. This is Independence Day, a day
of celebration, and I believe this message is suited for such
an occasion. For the believer, for only in
Christ does the saved sinner have spiritual freedom and is
set free from our iniquity's hard bondage and the tyranny
of law, works, religion. And most of us were in law, works,
religion. Most of us were. But if you are
in Christ, you're free from the law. If you're in Christ today,
you're free. Stand fast, their forces, Galatians. Stand fast in the liberty wherewith
Christ hath made us free." We've been freed from the tyranny across
the pond, as they say, by our forefathers, and many people
died, and it was a bloody war, and all these different things.
And the history of it is our history. It's American history.
And if you're an American, I think it's worth a read. But you step
back and you look at the whole picture. God brought all this to pass. God
brought all this to pass that we could be here this Sunday,
this July 4th, maybe the last time, I don't know, to hear one
more time the gospel of the grace of God. We're going to look at
three texts. The first text is found in Acts
chapter 13. Acts chapter 13. Three texts. Acts chapter 13,
and Paul is preaching at Antioch.
He starts verse 16, we're not going to look at the whole thing,
but he talks about basically the sovereignty of God. He talks about the electing grace
of God. Verse 17, God and God of this people of Israel chose
our fathers. So I don't believe in election.
Well, you don't believe in the Bible. You don't believe in God. It's
in the Scriptures. It's in the Scriptures everywhere. The word
election may not be, but chose, remnant. He speaks of God who's
on the throne. He speaks of God who's made choice.
He speaks of the rulers in Jerusalem who killed Christ. The depravity of man is in there. And in verse 38, Paul makes this
statement, But be it known unto you, therefore, men and brethren,
that through this man is preached unto you, the forgiveness of
sins. And by Him, all that believe
are justified from all things from which you could not be justified
by the law of Moses. That's our first text. Verse
38 and 39. Be it known unto you therefore,
men and brethren, that through this man is preached Whatever
day it is, whatever month it is, whatever year we're in, this
then is what is to be preached. Behind this pulpit, Bible class,
in that other room, this then is what is to be preached. Now
that word preached, used here in verse 38, means proclaimed
to announce To declare, and like we saw last week, it means to
trumpet. To trumpet. Sound it clear, tell it often,
and speak of it always. What's the first thing He says?
He says, Be it known unto you, therefore, men and brethren,
that through this man... There's our first thought under
this first text. through this man." Now, I must
emphasize that this is inspired Word of God. Every Word of God
is pure. He says, through this man. I'm going to emphasize that throughout
the whole thing. Not a man. This definitive article, this
particular man. is preached through this man. Or the word through is the channel
of salvation. It's the channel by which Christ
Jesus, the only Christ, is salvation or forgiveness of sins known
through Him. Through this man, not Mohammed,
not the Pope, not Joseph Smith, not Confucius, not any of these
men. No, it is through this man, proclaimed,
announced, trumpeted, through or because initiated by the way
of, singular, Christ, the Messiah, Christ, the Anointed One, is
the forgiveness of sins. And we've seen it time and time
again, I like to quote Acts chapter 4, there is no other name given
among men, no other name in heaven given among men, whereby we must
be saved. That's the only name. One name. Oh, that's too narrow. This is what's called Christianity.
This is not Mohammedanism. This is not Islam. This is not
Confucius. Oh, they all have great teachings. It's just not the truth. It's
just not the truth. You're either for this or you're
against it. There's no middle, there's no,
it's like works and grace. You can't, you can't, you can't
mix them. You can't mix them. I don't care what. I remember
I went to see a long time ago when I, before I was, I've always
been religious, but before the Lord made himself known to me,
I saw, uh, Oh God, I think it was, uh, George, George Burns. I liked old George Burns. And
I saw that movie, and I thought, what? Because all these men were
coming, and he was supposed to be God. And all these rabbis,
and all these people came, and they asked him a bunch of questions.
And they said, well, who is Muhammad? Who is this? And he said, who
is the Son of God? And they gave all the figures in history. And
he said, they all are. No, no. I'll never forget that. And then once I started understanding,
the Lord started, I'm like, that's horrible. That's a horrible,
blasphemous show. This man. This man. By this man's life, by this man's
death, by this man's resurrection, he is the Alpha and the Omega
in God's destined plan of salvation. He is the first and last in everything
that God has for ruined and wrecked sinners. He, Christ, who knew
no sin, was made sin. So we, the elect, were made the
righteousness of God in Him. That's found in 2 Corinthians
5. Turn there with me if you would. I think with all the things that
are said about this particular verse, if you don't have the
last two words in verse 21, you've got nothing in Him, in Christ. If you don't have that, you have
nothing. But then look at me with that
verse 18. Verse 18 of 2 Corinthians 5,
And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to Himself
by, through, because of Jesus Christ. That's it. Everything is reconciliation.
That word reconciled is to be joined, or actually to be changed. And we need to be changed. Not
reformed. Not correct our doctrinal statements. Not correct our church and so
it'll more lines. No. There needs to be divine
operation. There needs to be a new creature
in Christ. And that's what it means to be reconciled. To change. Not go from one religion to the
next. I've heard it so many times, and I haven't heard it a lot
lately, but the doctrine of grace is a more pure form of the truth.
There is only one truth. One way. One life. One bread. One water. That's
Christ. Now, we grow in grace and understand
these things as the Holy Spirit reveals them to us. No. But what else does He say back
in our text in Acts 13? Brethren and brethren, through
this man, by the channel of this one man is preached, proclaimed,
announced, trumpeted unto you the forgiveness of sins. Now,
I ask you to draw your attention to the word THE. Unto you THE,
not A. Forgiveness of some of your sins. THE. forgiveness of sins. That means it's definite, it's
absolute, and it's complete. The word forgiveness here means
pardon, liberty, or freedom. Isn't that what we're going to
celebrate this evening? We saw some out at the big town
of Tilsit, shot a bunch of us. We got to see it last night.
But to me, it's just like the rainbow. You see the rainbow
and you think of No, you don't think about the pot of gold,
you don't think about the little leprechauns, and there's no such
thing as luck. I think about God's covenant
that He made, that He would never destroy the world. So I see these
fireworks, I enjoy them like everybody else does, but I think
of my independence from myself, from my sin, from tyrannical
religion and the law. That's what I think of. That's
what I think of. So through this man, the God-man,
the only man, the perfect man, the pure man, the holy man, is
preached unto you the forgiveness of sins. Oh happy day, we sing,
oh happy day, when Jesus washed my sins away. By Christ's singular
act, upon Calvary's tree, He forever settled all our debt."
And that's another thing, when the Lord begins to work on us
and begins to reveal Himself to us, we realize the debt, it's
just like, keeps getting bigger and bigger, and at first you're
like, I can pray, you know, and then it's like, then I can go
to church, and then I can give, and I can do this and I can do
that, but then when you begin to see who God is and His holiness
and His perfect law that we can't keep, you begin to, well, these
checks I'm writing, they're not going to cover anything. Basically,
what the Lord shows you is just like Adam and Eve. They took
fig leaves and you start to sow them on. Adam, where you at? He knew where he was at. He wanted
him to know where he was. And that's what the Lord will
do. He'll begin to show you that all of your, you know, whatever
family you grew up in, the family's not significant, your family
tree doesn't matter. None of these things matter in
the eyes of a thrice holy God. That's where we compare ourselves.
But He, by the singular act on Calvary's tree, settled all our
debt. He settled all the ordinance
of the handwritings which were against us. He took every single
transgression from us and simply, flat out, unquestionably forgave
us. Through Him is preached the forgiveness
of sins. Do you have sin? Do you have
sin? If you do, this is good news.
The Gospel is for sinners. and find in Him eternal rest,
eternal comfort. As he says in John 14, 6, He
is the door, the way, the truth, the life, and again, I cannot
emphasize enough, the, not a. He is the door, the way, the
truth, the life. Christ is the only answer I'm
sorry, this is the only avenue in which God has fully endorsed,
fully accepted, and is fully satisfied. Any other way is like
the songs of sinking sand. Sinking sand. And it says in
Isaiah 53, with His stripes we are healed. The second verse,
turn with me to Acts chapter 9. So how is this salvation, or
this full pardon, or this complete forgiveness, how does it come?
Well, we'll just see a little story here, and we'll see this
exactly the same way how salvation comes to us. Acts 9. And we'll get to it, but Paul is
breathing out threatenings and slaughter, He's getting letters
from the chief priests to find any of that way, of the gospel
way, to take them and put them in prison. And then he meets
the Lord on this road to Damascus. He was blinded. Verse 10, And
there was a certain disciple of Damascus named Ananias. And
to him the Lord said in a vision, Ananias, and he said, Behold,
I am here. And the Lord said unto him, Arise,
and go into the street which is called Straight, and inquire
in the house of Judas for one called Saul of Tarshish. For,
behold, he prayeth. He hath seen in a vision a man
named Ananias coming in and putting his hands on him, that he might
receive his sight. Then Ananias answered, Lord,
I have heard of this man, how much evil he hath done to Thy
saints at Jerusalem. And here he hath authority from
the chief priest to bind all that call on your name. But the
Lord said unto him, Go your way, for he is a chosen vessel unto
me to bear my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children
of Israel. For I will show him how great
things he must suffer for my name's sake. Verse 17, Ananias
went his way and entered into the house, putting his hands
on him. He said, Brother Saul, the Lord,
even Jesus, that appeared unto thee in the way as thou camest,
has sent me. How shall they hear? Except they
be sent. How shall they be sent? You know,
a preacher. That thou mightest receive thy
sight and be filled with the Holy Ghost. And here's the verse
I want to look at. How does this salvation come? And immediately
there fell from Saul's eyes as it had been scales, and he received
his sight, forthwith arose and was baptized." How does salvation
come? The scales got to be removed.
We're born in trespasses and sins. We're dead. Dead in trespasses
and sins. Like Bruce said this morning
in the Bible class, a dead man can't walk, a dead man can't
make one decision, a dead man doesn't have free will, This
is the same thing. Saul is blind. Saul, if you have
free will, Saul, if you are so great, remove the scales yourself. It isn't going to be done. He
sends somebody in, and the scales, through the preaching of the
Gospel, the scales are dropped. Which to me indicates this is
done apart from us, or any help from us, salvation. It is done
sovereignly. It is done without error. It
is done by God's choosing. It is done by God's grace, by
God's mercy. It's done all by Himself, not
us. When He had by Himself purged
our sins, by Himself purged our sins. The scales are removed. This is what every sinner needs.
We a sinner here this morning? This is what we need to have
our scales removed from outside of us. Every saved sinner wants
to see more of Christ. And even a saved sinner, if God
doesn't reveal himself to us, We have the Holy Spirit, but
like those two on the road to Emmaus, I've used this illustration
over and over again. They were believers. Christ was
with them. They didn't see who He was until
He opened their eyes. That's what I'm saying. I'm saying
salvation is divine revelation, not cooperation. It's divine
operation, not with our help. It's divine illumination. For
we're spiritually blind from birth and cannot see. Turn with
me to Matthew 16. Matthew 16, I'll start reading
in verse 15. And he said unto them, But whom
say ye that I am? Christ is speaking to his disciples.
And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the
Son of the living God. And Jesus answered him and said
unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon of Barjona, for flesh and blood,
your free will, your decision for Jesus. Flesh and blood hath
not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. That is the way every sinner
is ever saved. Christ must reveal Himself to
us. Flesh and blood, that's us, but
my Father. We are totally dependent upon
God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit to make this
truth known to us. The last text for this morning,
Acts chapter 13. Acts chapter 13. Start reading
in verse 44. And the next day came almost
the whole city together to hear the Word of God. I wish Jackson
had... I wish this would happen here,
but people are just too religious. They're just too religious. This
is the church that Mama and Daddy went to. This is the religion
I've always believed. Went to God. This would happen
among us. But when the Jews saw the multitudes,
they were filled with envy, which would be the same as today. If
the Lord started adding such, we'd be getting more persecution. And spake against those things
which were spoken by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming. But Paul and
Barnabas waxed bold and said, it was necessary that the Word
of God should first have been spoken to you, but seeing you
put it from you and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life..."
Oh, I hope I never hear those words. "...lo, we turned to the
Gentiles. For so hath the Lord commanded
us, saying, I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, and
thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth."
Now this is the verse I want us to look at. And when the Gentiles
heard this, when the Gentiles heard this, heard, faith cometh
by hearing, hearing the Word of God. I have nothing against
private study. I have nothing against private
devotions. I have nothing against a prayer
closet. But there is something unique, there is something special.
And there is something very, very important about public worship. The next Sabbath day, the whole
city came to hear the Word of God. And some heard and believed
and some heard and it was counted against them in the Day of Judgment
when the Gentiles heard this. So what do you do? What do I
do? What can I do for you? I do like I do every Lord willing,
every Wednesday and Sunday, preach the gospel. I preach Christ,
the light, the peace, the manna, the glory of God in flesh. And if you hear, well, let's
continue to read, and glorify the word of the Lord, and as
many as were ordained to eternal life, believe. No less. It's not up to me. I just speak. This book, according
to... Some people think it's not finished,
they've got to add this and add that. This is the full canonization
of the Scriptures. It's done. It's like an author. You write a book, he's got a
preface, front and back, it's done. I'm just reading this back
to you. I'm not adding to it. I'm just
telling you what's in the book. And that's how I can help you.
That's how I help myself. Read, study, and the Lord shows
them what I'm to preach so far every Sunday. What can you do? Listen. Perhaps God will draw
you unto Himself. And when the Gentiles heard this,
what did they hear? They heard the Gospel. They were
glad. That's what's going to happen.
The sad face, the stoic face, the prune face is going to give
way to glad. It's going to give way to glad. then when they heard this, and
you and I will be glad and glorify the Word of the Lord, they were
glad and they glorified the Word of the Lord, that's what's going
to happen. And it may not be outward always,
but it's going to be inward. How do you hide what the Lord
has done in your heart? And we're all different personalities,
we're all different emotional, So I'm not saying, I don't know,
glad, you tell me what glad means. When Sarah's mom came down, I'm
just glad, it's good to see her. A smile, that's it. Maybe that's
all you got. Maybe you're like me, you talk
too much. Glad, I don't know what that
means. You know what that means for you. And your desire now is to glorify
the Word of the Lord to anybody you see, everybody you see. And Melinda and I were talking
about this. saves you and calls you. Your wants are different.
Your wishes are different. Your desires are different. Everything
is different. And yes, we still have the world
in it. Yes, we still have to go to work. Yes, we still desire
certain things. But a lot of it is the flesh.
And the more we get, the older we get in grace, the stuff just
starts dropping off. It's just like, I don't care
about that. I don't care about this anymore. I don't care. Or,
it doesn't concern me. Maybe that's a better phrase.
It doesn't concern me. But I pray that that's what I would do every
time I'm up here, anytime we have somebody else up here, that
they would simply preach Christ and Him crucified, and that you
all would listen, and that we would be glad together and have
such in common. This is truly what every believing
sinner wants. And the Word of the Lord, verse
49, was published throughout all the region. Isn't that what
we want? Don't we want our parents? Don't we want our brothers and
sisters in the flesh? Our children, our grandchildren,
our neighbors? Isn't that what we want? It should be. The Word of the Lord was published
throughout all the region. But here you've got your religious
folk. But the Jews stirred up the devout and honorable women.
I wonder why they started there first. And the chief men of the
city and raised persecution against Paul and Barnabas. And they expelled
them. They kicked them out of their
coasts. But what did Paul and Barnabas do? Well, God's angry
with me. I don't know, everything's not
going my way. I'm an American, so I deserve
everything. They shook the dust off their
feet. and came to Iconium and the disciples were filled with
joy and went to the Holy Ghost." It doesn't matter. It doesn't
matter what people do to us. Our calling is more important. It is. Three verses in Acts tied together. how God saves a sinner, who God
is, where He's at now, and what He's doing. I pray that He would
do this for us, this little group, fear not, little flock. If we don't see any growth, may
we see growth in grace individually. But I believe He's got a people
out here. We just need to invite Him and
tell Him and leave it in His hands. To God be the glory. Matt, would you close us?