Verse 16 in chapter 20 of Acts,
we're told that Paul was determined to sail by Ephesus because he
would not spend the time in Asia. For he hasted, as it were possible,
for him to be at Jerusalem at the day of Pentecost. Now Paul
desired to be there at that time that he might observe that holiday,
legal day rather, because Paul knew and preached our freedom
from the law. But Paul desired to be there
because he knew that there would be great crowds of people there
that did observe it and he would take advantage of that to preach
the gospel. Verse 17, and from Miletus he sent to Ephesus
and called the elders of the church. And when they were come
to him, he said unto them, Ye know from the first day that
I came unto Asia. After what manner I have been
with you at all seasons, serving the Lord with all humility of
mind and 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 toward God and faith
toward 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, but none of these things
move me. Neither count I my life dear
unto myself, that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry
which I have received of the Lord Jesus, that testify the
gospel of the grace of God. And now, behold, I know that
ye 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. Also of your own selves also
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 you every
one 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 ye 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. And when he had thus spoken,
he kneeled down and prayed with them all. And they all wept sore,
and fell on Paul's neck and kissed him, sorrying most of all for
the words which he spake, that they should see his face no more.
And they accompanied him unto the ship." Our text will be taken
from verse 24. In this one verse of scripture,
Paul sums up his life's goal, his ambition, his obsession. And that's not too strong a word.
Before experiencing the grace of God that he speaks of in that
verse, he was obsessed in the very opposite direction, wasn't
he? Turn back, if you will, to Acts
chapter 7. We'll look at just a couple of
places, then we'll come back to our text. before what we're going to read
in two or three places. We have a picture of Saul before he became Paul the Apostle. We have a picture of him before
he had experienced the grace of God. I've heard someone say that the
first meeting we have with someone when we meet them for the first
time, that makes a lasting impression. The first time we meet this man,
Saul of Tarsus, we're impressed with his cruelty, with his hatred
for the Lord Jesus. In chapter 7, verse 58, there's
a man named Stephen being stoned to death, being stoned to death,
because he had preached the Lord Jesus. And the men who were stoning
him laid their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul.
He guarded them and he was in total agreement with what they
were doing. Saul said, he deserves to die. He deserves to die. And look
at verse 58 in that chapter. They cast him out of the city
and stoned him, that is Stephen. And the witnesses laid their
clothes at a young man's feet, whose name was Saul. Look at verse 1 of chapter 8.
And Saul was consenting unto his death. He was in agreement
with it. Saul said he had it coming. Verse
3 of chapter 8. And as for Saul, he made havoc
of the church, entering into every house, and hailing men
and women didn't matter to him, committed them to prison. Now look in chapter 9. This same young man, Saul of
Tarsus, verse 1 of chapter 9. And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings
and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high
priest. and desired of him letters to Damascus, to the synagogue,
that if he found any of this way, whether they were men or
women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem. My, how violent,
how obsessed was this young man named Saul with doing everything
he possibly could to erase the name of Jesus Christ off the
face of the earth. He considered Jesus of Nazareth
the greatest imposter, the greatest deceiver who ever lived. And every time I think of this,
I can't help but remember that all the while All the time that
Saul was murdering, arresting God's people, he was 100% convinced
that he was doing God service. He was sure, without a doubt,
that God Almighty looked down with pleasure at what Saul was
doing. Oh, how blind! But then, where
we just stopped reading in chapter 9. Paul's on his way to arrest
God's people. Then something happened. Something
happened that drastically, drastically changed Saul of Tarsus forever. Forever. That's right. He would never be the same again,
Mike. Saul of Tarsus, after what he
encountered this day on the Damascus road, after that he would never
be the same. What happened? What happened? I mean, this man did a complete
about-face. He went from hating Jesus to
preaching nothing but Jesus. What happened to him? but God. That's what happened. He had
an encounter with that one that Mike read about a moment ago,
the God-man. Not Jesus the deceiver, not Jesus
the imposter, But Jesus Christ, Lord of Lords and King of Kings,
the only God and Savior, bowed or came down and saw by sweet
restraining grace, was compelled to bow before him. That's what
happened to him. But God, look, are you still
in chapter 9? Look at verse 4. He saw. fell to the earth and heard a
voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And he said, who art thou, Lord?
And the Lord said, I'm Jesus. My, so can you imagine, can you
imagine the fear that must have gripped Saul's heart? When it
dawned on him by revelation that that one he was sure was an imposter,
a deceiver, was actually everything believers claimed that he was,
Paul bowed before the Lord of Lords and King of Kings, just
like you and I are going to do. Every one of us, or some of us
have already by God's grace, and all men shall. I'm Jesus,
whom thou persecutest. It is hard for thee to kick against
the pricks. And he trembling, trembling I
dare say, and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me
to do? What can I do? And the Lord said
unto him, arise and go into the city. And it shall be told thee
what thou must do. Look at verse 15 in the same
chapter. Ananias is a little hesitant to go to Saul of Tarsus. He'd heard of him. He knew what
he was coming there for. Verse 15. But the Lord said unto
him, Go thy way, for he is a chosen vessel unto me. O my soul, what
grace! What amazing grace. Saul of Tarsus
is a chosen vessel unto me to bear my name before the Gentiles
and kings and children of Israel. For I will show him how great
things he must suffer for my name's sake. And afterwards, turn if you will
to 1 Corinthians 15. Listen to this same man now. This is what grace does. The
true grace of God. In 1 Corinthians 15 verse 9,
Paul writing years after that encounter on the Damascus road
says, I am the least of the apostles that I am not meet to be called
an apostle because I persecuted the church of God but by the
grace of God. But by the grace of God, how
does someone come out of darkness, the darkness of spiritual death,
the darkness of religious blindness? How can anyone come out of such
darkness into light? How can anyone, and all men by
nature are in this condition, How can any sinner dead? And he doesn't need a little
propping up. That's what religion does. It
props him up. It takes a dead man and sticks
the Bible in his hand and drags him down the Romans road and
gets him to make a decision. That's not what happened to Saul
of Tarsus. And that won't give a man life. What can make a man
a new creation in Christ Jesus? What can do that? Can a preacher
do that for you? Can a priest? Can a church? Can anything they do or anything
you do do that? Absolutely not. Here's how. Verse 10 in 1 Corinthians 15, This is what I want for myself,
for my loved ones, for you, but by the grace of God I am what
I am. If you leave this world, If you
leave this world without experiencing the same grace that Saul of Tarsus
did, you'll leave this world unprepared to meet God. That's
just a fact. That's so. And oh may God make
you aware of it. You stand on the verge of eternity. Before the sun goes down tonight,
you may be called out to stand before God Almighty, and you
don't have a mediator. Oh, may God wake you up. Wake you up to cry from your
heart, give me this grace. Give me this grace. But by the
grace of God, Paul said, I am what I am. That's how. That's why. And His grace, His
grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain. It did what
nothing else could do. It made me a different man. It
put in me, Saul himself would write afterwards, the very life
of God. When he arose that day on the
Damascus road, he arose a new creation in Christ Jesus. That's why I said he would never
be the same. He would never be the same. In Galatians, again Paul says,
in chapter 1, I profited in the Jews' religion
among many of my equals, verse 14, in my nation, being more
exceedingly zealous of the tradition. Oh, precious tradition. Religious tradition. Oh, what
a powerful hold it has on people. The tradition of my fathers. But, but, when it pleased God,
Do you see that? But when it pleased God who separated
me from my mother's womb and called me by His grace to reveal
His Son in me, that's what happened to Saul. The true grace of God
does that. The true grace of God does exactly
that. It does what only the grace of
God can do. Look, if you will, in chapter
21 of Acts, and then we'll get to our text. Paul is still on
his way to Jerusalem, where no sooner than he arrives there
than he's arrested. And he's under arrest probably
for the next five years. He's under arrest. then on a ship bound, going to
Rome, then under house arrest, at least five years. He was under arrest until God
called him home. But look what he says here in
verse 11, or verse 12 rather, of chapter 21. And when we heard
these things, that Paul, if he went on to Jerusalem, would be
arrested, both we, Luke is referring to himself, and they of that
place, Philip, that's where they were, at Philip's house, besought
him not to go up to Jerusalem. Then Paul answered, what mean
you to weep and to break my heart? For I'm ready not to be bound
only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus. In the last chapter of this book,
just before the curtain closes on the life of this faithful
servant of God, we see him and Paul dwelt two whole years in
his own hired house, still under arrest, and received all that
came unto him, doing the same thing he said he was determined
to do in our text. None of these things moved me. I'm willing to suffer, to die
for this reason, this one reason. to testify the gospel of the
grace of God. And as the curtain draws on the
final scene of his life, he's still doing it, preaching the
kingdom of God and teaching those things which concern the Lord
Jesus Christ. Still doing it. And then after
that, he wrote to his beloved Timothy, and he said, Timothy,
preached the word. Don't be ashamed. Don't be ashamed,
because I'm not ashamed. Before he was taken out and executed,
beheaded most likely, he wrote these final words to Timothy. In his second epistle he wrote,
whereunto I'm appointed a preacher, and an apostle, and a teacher
of the Gentiles, For the which cause I suffer these things. Nevertheless, I'm not ashamed. I'm not ashamed. For I know whom
I have believed and am persuaded that he is able to keep that
which I've committed unto him against that day. I know whom
I have believed. The sum and substance of Paul's
message in ministry is in our text, in this one verse. And he said he received it from
the Lord Jesus Christ. Did you see that? The ministry
that I might finish my course, rather, in the ministry which
I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the
grace of God, nothing else. Now imagine that. Isn't that
a novelty? Isn't that a novelty, Joe? You
mean a preacher is only supposed to preach the gospel? You mean
he's not to be a marriage counselor? He's not to be a psychologist?
He's not to be a fundraiser? He's not to be a cheerleader? You mean to tell me if God calls
a man to preach, all he's supposed to do is preach? Yes, indeed.
Yes, indeed. And it is a novelty in our day. Three things there in verse 24. The gospel, grace, and God. And they cannot be separated. God and grace. There's none without
Him. The gospel, as Paul tells us
here, is a message of God's grace in Christ, period. Period. That's the message. First of all, remember, the gospel
is defined as good news. Glad tidings. Glad tidings, isn't
it? It's a message of God's grace
to sinners. Real sinners. Real sinners. What I mean by that, men and
women who have been made to believe, who have learned of the Father,
a lesson they cannot learn any other way. Not something that
they'll just give lip service to. Yeah, I'm a sinner. No, I'm
not talking about that. I'm talking about real sinners.
Sinners that have been stripped, that have no strength, no life
and are without hope. They're lost and they need finding. They're dead and they need life. Their case is hopeless and the
only thing that can help them is the grace of God Almighty.
It'll take a miracle to raise them up. My, that's strange too, isn't
it? Really? A miracle? It'll take
the grace of the triune God to save a sinner? All my life I've
been told it's easy. I've had the impression that
I could live like I want. I can part the expression, raise
all the hell I want, and then when I come down to die, all
I've got to do is make my decision for Jesus. Preachers have been
telling me that all my life, and they've been lying to you.
They've been telling you lies. It's not true. It's not true.
It's not easy. It's not easy. It requires a
miracle. It requires God Almighty to come
to you and do for you what you cannot do for yourself. It requires
His reigning grace. If the gospel is not the glad
tidings of real grace to real sinners, then it's not good news. If the salvation of a sinner
in any way in any way depends on anything good in them or anything
done by them, then it's not good news. It's not good news. Ask
a real sinner. Ask that leper. You remember
that? That poor dying leper. He was a walking death. cancer, just destroying him,
a little at a time, day by day. The priest looked at him and
said, you're unclean. Get out of the camp. Go out and
live in a leper colony. You can't go back home. You can't
be with your family. You're an outcast. You're unclean. You're unclean. Do you suppose
it would have been good news when he came to the Lord Jesus
Christ and fell down before him and said, if you will, you can
make me clean? Would it have been good news
to that poor man if our Lord would have said, well, if you
can do your part, then I'll do mine? Was that good news? Oh, no. That leper. And that's a picture
of our condition about nature. Leprosy is a picture of my sin. And just like that leper, sinners have got to be brought
to the place where they fall down before Him. And Mike, they've got to want this more
than they want anything. Trotting down an aisle is not
going to satisfy them. Saying the sinner's prayer is
not going to be enough. Giving them a Bible and telling
them they're eternally saved and don't ever doubt it. That
won't suffice. No, they want God. They want the Redeemer. They
want forgiveness. And with all their heart, with
all sincerity, that they can muster, they cry out to Him,
if you will, you can make me clean. Will you please make me
clean? I'm lost without you. I'm undone
without you. I'll go to hell if you don't.
And there's nothing I can do about it. Oh, will you make me
clean? You find a sinner like that and
you won't have to drag him to the front of a church and make
some kind of useless decision. No, you can't keep him away. You can't keep him like the woman
with the issue of blood. I've got to get to Him. If I've got to get down on my
hands and knees and crawl on my belly through this crowd to
get to Him, it'll be alright. I've got to get to Him. I've
got to touch Him. If I don't, I'm going to die. I'm going to die. I'm going to
open my eyes in hell if I don't get to Him. That's just the truth. if you will. And here's the glorious
good news of the message of the gospel. That message of the grace
of God. He says to every needy, bankrupt,
helpless sinner that comes to Him, I will bless his glorious
name. He did this sinner. I don't. God help me. not to despair of
any sinner I know being saved. Because I had the proof that
he's able to save the uttermost because he saved this rebel.
He saved this rebel. Oh, if the gospel is only an
offer of grace, or tales of a mere attempt by God to be gracious,
then it's not good news. Don't call it the gospel. That's
not it. That which makes this the glorious
gospel of the blessed God is that it's a message that says
salvation is of the Lord. And it's by grace alone. Aren't
you glad? Aren't you glad? Doesn't that
comfort your heart, child of God? Any other message, especially
one that tells sinners that salvation depends on them, is not the gospel,
and is not good news to anyone. Paul was willing to suffer and
to die, and he did suffer and die. Not for another gospel. Not for a message of free will
salvation. That's bad news. But for the
message that Christ committed to his trust and committed to
your trust. Believing sinner, redeemed child
of God. He's committed this precious
treasure to our trust. That's what Paul said to Timothy,
didn't he? That message that declares that salvation is by
grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, and that's good
news. And I won't pretend to believe
anything else. No matter who may profess it,
no matter who may want to hear it, Whether it's my mother or
my son or my daughter, you only have grace if you're in Christ.
Without Christ, without grace, it doesn't matter. Doesn't matter.
Brother Henry Mahan, in teaching young men who felt called to
the ministry years ago when he pastored in Ashland, Kentucky, had ten things. He wrote ten
things on preaching the gospel. And one of them was this. Tell
only what I know by experience. Everything else has no passion
of heart. And you've heard Henry say this,
haven't you? You can no more tell what you haven't experienced
than you can come back from where you've never been. You can't
do it. Why do some of you Joe and Abby
drive so far. From up near Atlanta, every Sunday,
Joe's here, every Sunday morning, driving a good ways. Why do you
do that? Man, you must pass a thousand
churches between here and there. Why don't you go to one of them?
John and Kay and Carol, same way. Drive a hundred miles every
Sunday morning. Why? Why? Because, and I'm so
thankful, to hear the glorious gospel of the blessed God. It's the only thing that satisfies
their soul. It's the only thing that fills
a needy, thirsty, hungry sinner. The message of God's free grace
in Christ. Tell it and tell it and tell
it again. Let me leave this world with
that message ringing in my ears. I don't want to hear nothing
else. Nothing else can help me. Nothing else can soothe an aching
heart. And certainly nothing else will
prepare me to leave this world. But the message of God's free
grace, I find that as the years go by, I made the feel to experience
the reality that this is the only thing that gives me hope
before God. More and more. This message of
grace, the grace of God in Christ, nothing else does. Nothing. I've probably told you this story
before. Years ago in a village where most of the folks bowed
before that idol of Rome, A man lay dying and his priest came to visit
him, the village priest. And this man was a wood carver,
a very good one. And the priest came into the
bed of that dying man and held up a wooden crucifix and said,
Behold your God. And the poor man looked up with
a moan and said, My God, I made that. I made that, he said. The psalmist said, they that
make them, these idle gods of their own imagination, they that
make them are like unto them. And God said, why do you pray
unto a God that cannot save? When Paul wrote, God forbid that
I should glory, saving the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. He
wasn't talking about the wooden cross. No. Next Sunday is Easter. My soul, you'll have crosses falling Crosses
everywhere. People be dragging crosses, carrying
crosses, hanging on crosses, wearing crosses, crosses in yards,
crosses in churches, crosses everywhere. That's not what Paul
meant. That's paganism. That's idolatry. No. Paul didn't go even in the
actual wood that Christ was nailed on. That's not what he's talking
about. Paul wouldn't have had it. He wouldn't have had it.
Can you imagine if someone could prove they found that today?
People would be bowing down to it. They'd be bowing down to
it. When Paul said, God forbid that I should glory save in the
cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, he meant his death. The death
of Christ and what he accomplished by it. His atonement that put
away sin. That redeemed my soul. That's
what Paul gloryed in. Hold thou thy word, thy promise,
thy gospel before my closing eyes. Shine through the gloom
and point me to the skies. Heaven's morning breaks, and
earth's vain shadow flee. In life and death, O Lord, abide
with me. This gospel of the grace of God
becomes more precious, as I said, with time. As we approach that
time when we shall depart this world, My son and his wife and
daughters came down Wednesday and spent a few days with me
and left yesterday. His youngest one, Allison, we
call her Allie, she's six years old. I was looking at her mic
and talking with her. It's like looking at my son Larry
Dale when he was that age. She looks just like him. He wanted
a son. It wasn't to be, but I declare
she looks as much like him as a son could. At least she does
for the time being. When I looked into her face,
it was like being taken back in time and seeing him at that
age. But you know what? It only seems like a couple of
days ago that it was, that he was that age. Oh my, how time
flies. No comfort in that hour when
I'm called to leave this world. God forbid that I seek comfort
in anything, not in my profession, not in my baptism, not in my
preaching. If that's what I depend on as
the grounds of acceptance before God, it's no better than a wooden
crucifix. Oh, no. This is all my salvation
and all my hope. I know whom. I know whom. I had believed. Thank you. Thank you glorious
Redeemer for revealing yourself to this worthless sinner. Thank
you for coming to me and bringing me out of darkness
into your marvelous light. Thank you for forcing me by your
grace to bow before you begging If you will, you can make me
clean. God, help me never to get over
that. Help me never to get over that.
This was Paul's goal, to testify the gospel of the grace of God,
to proclaim this message to all men everywhere. The gospel is
not something to be debated by intellectuals. It's not a matter
for speculation, but proclamation. It's not up for a vote. No, it's
not up for a vote. This is the message to preach
whether men receive it or not, or believe it or not. Now let
me draw to a close. Let me give you three reasons
why that's so. Why we must proclaim this message
of the gospel of the grace of God. First of all, just three
reasons. It's in obedience to Christ our
Lord. Remember, again, Paul said, I
received this from him. He told me to go preach this.
I'm obeying him. The Lord called Paul. The Lord
made Paul a preacher. And this glorious gospel concerned
God's son. It is a sacred trust committed
to every believer. The Church of the Living God
is not an entertainment center. I know folks come here and they
hear this and then they hear it a second time and a third
time and say, well, that's all the man preaches. That's all
he knows. I'm going to go somewhere else. I want to go where they
have puppet shows and all kinds of blah, blah, blah, blah. I
want to be entertained. Well, if that's what you want,
you won't have to go far. You won't have to go far. Go
in any direction and you'll find a place that's an entertainment
center that calls itself a church with pastors that are no more
than motivational preachers, motivational speakers. That's
it. That's it. But the Church of
the Living God is a place that sends forth the glorious gospel
of the grace of God. It's not a platform for social
reform. It's not a place to focus on
the family, but to obey our Commander-in-Chief who said, our Commander-in-Chief
said, go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. And that was it. That was it. And you stay right here. You
stay right here. Don't you move an inch from this
until I come back. Blessed is that servant whom
the Lord shall find so doing. And secondly, this message of
God's free grace in Christ, the gospel, the good news, is the message that honors God. It honors God. It gives God the
glory for the salvation of the sinner. It's his everlasting
gospel, and he honors it. The message of free grace alone
debases the sinner and says, not unto us, O Lord, not unto
us, but unto thy name give glory for thy mercy and for thy truth's
sake. On one occasion, David, being
pursued by his enemies, found himself without a weapon. And
he asked the priest where he was hiding. Is there a weapon
in this place? And the priest replied, there's
only the sword of Goliath. The sword of Goliath is here.
And David said, give that to me. Give it to me. There's none
like it. And that can be said concerning
the gospel of God's free grace. John, give that to me. Give that
to me. That's the weapon of our warfare.
Give me that. There's none like it. And last
of all, this message of the grace of God proclaims, now listen,
this is the only hope for sinners. It's the only hope for a sinner. It gives a sure foundation of
confident assurance built on Christ and God's grace in him. And that's enough. That's enough. That's everything. The popular
message of free will, easy believism, gives no hope to sinners. It
gives no hope to sinners. It's not true. It leaves you
with nothing. Oh, but the gospel, the gospel
of our free grace that sets before sinners a complete, mighty Savior,
when you come to Him, when you experience His grace, that gives
you a foundation that the gates of hell can't prevail against.
And that's a sure and certain hope. He that believeth shall
be saved, our Lord said. Oh, why is it so important? Why
does this message carry such magnitude, such consequence? Because our Lord said, he that
believeth shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be
damned. So we come down to this issue. Here's the issue. What do you
think of Christ? What do you think of Christ?
What think ye of Christ? That's the issue, Lester. Anything
more important than that? Anything to compare to that?
What think ye of Christ? Do you know Him? Do you know
Him? Whom to know is life eternal. The gospel is that which tells
of Him, the Lord Jesus, and the grace of God in Him to needy
sinners. And that's good news. That's
good news. Is it good news to you? Is it
good news to you? Amen. Amen.