For over two weeks now, I've
been looking and meditating on a passage of Scripture found
in the 28th chapter of Acts. If you'll turn there with me,
Acts chapter 28, my text will be mainly from verse 23. So, let's read that verse and
then again, by way of introduction, we'll work right into it. In
Acts 28, it says, And when they had appointed him a day, speaking
here of the apostle Paul, there came many to him and to his lodging,
to whom he expounded and testified the kingdom of God, persuading
them concerning Jesus, both out of the law of Moses, and out
of the prophets from morning till evening." Wherever the Apostle
Paul was found, he had but one purpose. Whenever he preached,
he had but one subject. He determined not to know anything
among his hearers except whether or not they knew the Lord Jesus
Christ. He wrote in one place, you're
familiar with the passage, I determined not to know anything among you
save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. You see, for the cross of Christ,
friends, was His one theme. He hammered on the head of this
one nail. Whatever opportunity He had,
whatever ability, whatever power he was allowed, he focused it
all into one singular thing, which was God forbid that I should
glory save in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the
world is crucified unto me and I unto the world. And my encouragement
from this passage of Scripture, with what little vigor and strength
I have, is to once again, as this verse says, expound, testify,
and persuade men and women that to live is Christ. Now the power needed for anyone
to hear, for anyone to truly see, for anyone to believe the
gospel is God's, we know that. But God does use the foolishness
of preaching to save those that believe. Now, just to give you
a little background, Paul, since he had gotten into the ministry,
had pretty much been persecuted and arrested for preaching the
gospel. And one thing we need to keep
in mind is that this persecution and these arrests came from his
own people, the Jews. He had been carried, it seemed,
from one judgment seat to another. And that was that he might preach
Christ, testify of what Christ had done for him, and that he
might persuade men and women to trust Christ too. I ask you that are here today
to listen to me as I endeavor to expound testify and persuade
you to do the same. This day, Paul had a captive
audience who desired to hear his story and his gospel. And
when addressing the chief men of the Jews in Rome, I want you
to observe those three things in Paul's preaching that are
absolutely, friends, vital to our preaching today. And it doesn't
matter if it's a pastor standing before the flock or you one-on-one
with a friend. These three things are vital
to sharing the things of Christ. These three methods were needful
among the people of Paul's day, and they're still critical today
to bring men and women to Christ in the providence of God. I just
gave them to you. Let's read it again in verse
23. And when they had appointed him, Paul, a day, there came
many to him and to his lodging, to whom he expounded and testified
the kingdom of God, persuading them concerning Jesus, both out
of the law of Moses and out of the prophets, from mourning. to evening. Now one thing worth
mentioning before I go further is notice that the verse says
that the Jews had appointed Paul a day to be heard. That may be
so in a natural sense, but we know providentially that this
was the appointed day of God. We see from this verse that there
were many who came together with Paul this day. And we must remember
that he was a prisoner now, and he could not come to where they
were. He couldn't go to them. He couldn't go to the tabernacle. He couldn't go out on the street
corner and preach. But God had providentially brought
men and women to him in his lodging. His confinement as a prisoner,
first of all, confirms the seriousness in which Paul believed. He was
willing to be a prisoner for the preaching and the glory of
the gospel. How many of us today would be
willing to do that, I wonder? I often ask myself, would I?
It was not only a sign that he believed, friends, but that he
thought his believing was worth suffering for. Would you be willing
to suffer persecution? Imprisonment? Extreme hardship
for the furtherance of the gospel? I pray that we would. I pray
that we would. And these words in this verse
are a pattern, an example, and a necessity for, as I said, every
God-called preacher and every believer who wants to share the
gospel with another. And the first thing Paul did
to those who came into his lodging to hear him was to expound the
gospel to them. Now the word expound simply means
explain. It simply means to declare, to
expose and set forth the truth. Paul expounded, explained the
kingdom of God to them. He showed them the nature of
Christ's kingdom and the glorious purposes and designs of God's
kingdom. He declared to them that God's
kingdom was heavenly and a spiritual kingdom, not a fleshly carnal
one which consisted of physical and outward works of righteousness
and ritualism and ceremonies and things that men could glory
in. No, He simply told them the truth,
the gospel. Is Christ doing for me what I
cannot do for myself? Christ dying in your place. You
who deserve nothing but death and condemnation receive mercy
and grace. By substitution, Christ takes
your sin upon himself and dies the death of a cruel cross. Paul
expounded these things. He told them the truth of the
Scriptures. You know, these ceremonies of
the law, and we read this in all the epistles, is what kept
the Jews in their unbelief. Man, they had done these ceremonies
and rituals for so long that they just couldn't give them
up. They felt that this was what they had to do to be saved, to
be reconciled to God. And now Paul and the other apostles
come on the scene and they say, not by works of righteousness
that you've done. but by the mercy and grace of
God and the substitution of His blessed Son. Christ has done
this for you. Cease your works. Put away your
ceremonies and your ritualisms and trust in Him and Him alone. And they couldn't do it. They
couldn't do it. And it's not much different today.
Preachers aren't expounding the truth about Christ, not the average
preacher. Thank God there are some that
are. They're telling sinners that they can be saved by their
works of righteousness. that they have done. But men
and women are saved only according to the mercy of God in Christ. You can never have dropped into
Paul's lodging at any time, friends, during the two years he was a
prisoner at Rome without hearing him preach of the things which
concern the Lord Jesus Christ. That was all he preached. And God willing, that's all we're
going to preach. That's all we're going to talk
about. Sunday after Sunday, Wednesday, service after service. Every
arrow, Mr. Spurgeon said, and Paul's quiver
was aimed at this one target. And he knew how to hit the bullseye
each and every time. He expounded the gospel. explained it. The second thing
Paul did after expounding the gospel as we plainly see from
verse 23 was that he testified of it. You say, well, what's
the difference? Well, there's a big difference.
You see, he not only expounded the kingdom of God, but he testified
of it, plainly declaring from his own personal experience. That's what it means to testify. When we tell others of the gospel
of God's grace in our lives, we testify. We bear witness to
the effect of which the gospel has had upon our own heart and
upon our own lives. The telling of our personal experience
is a means of grace to our hearers. And Paul often told of his own
conversion. He told the story of how the
Lord appeared to him on the way to Damascus, knocked him off
his horse onto the ground, asked him why he fought against the
Lord, and God powerfully got his attention. Indeed, it was
a tale so worth telling that none could weary of hearing it.
They knew who he was before this happened. He was Saul of Tarsus.
He was the most religious and feared man in the land. Why?
He held the coats of those who murdered the beloved Stephen. He threw drug people out of their
homes. Lisa, he was the type to come
to your house and drag you and your grandchildren out and throw
you in prison for believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. And now
he tells a story about one day how the Lord intervened, divinely
intervened, knocked him off his horse, knocked him off his high
horse and brought him down to the ground. And he said, Lord,
what must I do? What must I do? And the narrative
of Paul's conversion was not intended at all to honor himself. It was quite debasing. But it
was to glorify the blessed Christ who chose him, called him, and
did for him what he couldn't do for himself. The testimony,
now listen, of every believer's conversion is the same in the
sense that the sinner did the sinning and God did the saving. All our stories are similar,
are they not? I was a wretch. I didn't have any concern for
the things of God. I was on my way to hell as fast
as I could go. But God intervened. Oh, our stories are similar,
different, but similar. God's glorified in the saving
of sinners. No wonder Paul wrote to Timothy
and said, it's a faithful saying, Timothy, and it's worthy of mine
and your acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to
save sinners. And he said, Timothy, don't you
forget it. I'm the chief. I'm the one that
drugged those folks out of their homes. I'm the one that held
the coats of those that stoned Stephen. Oh, what glory God got
from the testimony of the Apostle Paul. There's much force in a
personal testimony. Now, let me say this so it's
not misunderstood. Personal testimony is to never
take the place of the preaching of the gospel. Now, churches
that do nothing but have their members stand and testify, and
I'm telling you, there are a bunch of them. We want to have testimonial. Brothers, stand and testify,
they say. You know what usually happens
when men and women stand up and start testifying? They start
bragging on what they've done for God. Or they start telling
men what they've done that God would make them deserving of
the blessing that they're going to tell you about. That's not
what Paul did. No. That's not what I'm talking
about. But friends, you and I, by the
grace of God, after having explained, expounded the Gospel to one whom
God may have opened the door for us to talk to, to be able
to tell them something from our own experience which will prove
God's saving grace in our lives. I once was lost, dear friend.
Now I'm found. I was the chief of sinners. You
remember me, don't you? You remember me in high school?
You remember me afterwards? God delivered me and saved me
from that. Oh, He expounded and He testified. And you cannot truly, truly speak
of something that you've not experienced. Can you? Not truthfully. Let me tell you what God and
Christ did for me. That's the testimony I'm talking
about. Men love when they hear of a
medicine that brings about a cure. Matter of fact, we all look for
that, don't we? And it's the same when loft sinners
hear of something that God has truly done for someone. It has
an effect. Paul expounded. He explained. He told what the Gospel was. And then he testified of his
own personal experience and what God had done for him. But that
wasn't all. There's one thing left. The Apostle
Paul was not satisfied simply to expound and testify because
his heart was full of love for his countryman, his brother.
And therefore, He persuaded them. He persuaded them. He entreated.
He besought. That word means He pleaded. He
even begged. Now God's not standing on the
throne of glory and begging men and women to believe. No, don't
ever think that. God's not a beggar. But I am. And I beg you. If you're here
today without Christ, don't leave without Him. It's a matter of
life and death, dear friends. Oh, I beg you, beseech you, persuade
you to turn to the Lord Jesus Christ. When was the last time
that you truly endeavored to persuade those you love who are
without Christ to trust in Him? I'm not trying to embarrass you.
It's been a while for me. But I want to encourage you and
I to do so. It may be the only time they
ever hear of to go out and meet God in eternity without Christ. How horrible a thing. Just maybe
the Lord might use you and I. So look at verse 23 again. Paul
persuaded them concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. He persuaded
them that Christ was salvation. Salvation was in Christ and Christ
alone. And notice how he persuaded them,
both out of the law of Moses and out of the prophets. You
remember what the Lord said concerning Himself? beginning with Moses
and the prophets and the Psalms concerning himself. And that's
what Paul did. He persuaded them out of the
law of Moses and out of the prophets. His persuasion came from their
own holy books. He took the book that they cherished
and loved and lived by and showed them and persuaded them out of
that same book. that Christ was all and in all. I can just see Him spread out
on the table before them, the books of Moses. Can you picture
that in your mind's eye? The various roles of the prophets. He's got them rolled out. I can
almost hear Him say, Brother, you see there where it talks
about Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord and he built
an ark? You see Noah's ark there, dear
friends? That's Christ. That's the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's a picture of Him, my Lord
and Savior. And all that were in that ark
were saved and spared from God's wrath. Can you hear Him? Can
you hear him say, can you see over here in Exodus? You see
that serpent of brass on the pole that Moses held high? While
the people were dying, being bit by the fiery serpents, but
all those that looked at that serpent upon the pole looked
and lived. That's Christ. I'm persuading
you, that's who this book's about. That's who it's talking about
in Moses and the prophets. That pictured Christ for all
to look to Him alone as they did that brass serpent and lived. And no wonder John wrote in John
3.14, and as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness,
even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. I'm sure he said,
remember those cities of refuge? Oh, do you remember that a guilty
man could flee into those city of refuge? And does that not
picture my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who died for the wretched
and guilty? Flee unto Christ, dear sinner.
There's life in Him, a city of refuge. While the Passover blood
above the door, The manna that fell in the wilderness, the rock
from which living water flowed, should persuade you concerning
Christ. This is about Him. The mercy
seat, the morning and evening sacrifices, the paschal lamb,
the scapegoat were pictures and types of the One who was to come. Can't you see, He said? Can't
you see, dear brothers, from Moses and the prophets? Are you
now persuaded that Christ is all? I can just hear the beloved
apostle kid, Jude. I can just hear him explain the
justification of Abraham by faith. Abraham believed God! And it
was counted unto him for righteousness. I can hear him discuss the two
covenants seen in Sarah and Hagar and the electing love of Isaac
and Ishmael and Jacob and Esau. From morning to evening, he expounded
and testified and persuaded man concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. I persuade you this morning that
are yet without Christ, I persuade you to think of Christ, the Lord's
Anointed, the Savior of sinners. He's the only One who can reconcile
you to God. Oh, I'd have you to read about
Him and study His person, His work, His character. Turn to
the four Gospels and see what He did and how He did things. See what He was. Faith often comes to men when
they're thinking about Christ. The cross not only claims faith,
but it creates it. To sit and see the Son of God
die on the cross, that's a way to get faith. you to have it. And some of you
perhaps have been sitting still and trying to believe. People
say, I'm trying to believe. Stop trying and believe. How do I do that? You just trust and believe. To
know what is to be believed and why you are to believe it is
why we expound, testify, and persuade you. Many of you have
heard this message week after week, month after month, year
after year. Why do you remain indifferent? I persuade you this morning to
trust in Him. Salvation is in a person. It's
the essence of saving faith. Faith is not merely believing
facts, but trusting a person. And God has set forth Christ
to be a propitiation for my sin. A payment for my sin. When I
trust Him. And not until. Now let me ask
you in closing. Can you trust Christ? Is He not
worth trusting? Where else can you trust? The
moment you trust in Him, you're saved. Oh, but don't I have to
do this and do that? The moment you trust in Him,
you're saved. But you say, I do not feel. Well, weigh with your butts.
Weigh with your feelings. What have I said about your feelings?
Feelings come and feelings go. They're deceiving. Believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Don't make that
harder than it is. He that believeth on Him hath
everlasting life. Don't make that harder than it
is. He that hath the Son hath life. Don't make that harder
than it is. Salvation lies in the simple
act of trusting in Christ. Oh, if I could persuade you to
trust. Oh, if I could persuade you to
trust the Son of God. He loves with a supreme love. Shall we not love Him who first
loved us? He died all by His agony and
bloody sweat. No, I persuade you to turn to
Him. Every drop of blood of the Great
Substitute, every sigh and every cry of the Redeemer is an argument
with men that they should not neglect His salvation, but should
come and trust Him. So I ask you again, why will
you tarry? Are you embarrassed? You don't
have to come up here and shake everybody's hand and trust Him
sitting right where you are. Why will you linger far from
His love? Why will you die in your sin
when sin is paid in full by God's beloved Son to those who put
their trust in Him? If you don't come to Christ,
I can assure you that it will be something that you will one
day truly regret, but it will be too late. Today's the day
of salvation. And friends, with all that God
gives me, I persuade you, with all that's in me, to come to
Christ. Trust in Him. Say, He's my everything. He's my all and an all. Are you
still open there to Acts 28? I want you to see this. And this is the way that it is.
In verse 24, And some believed the things which were spoken,
and some believed not. Some believed the things that
were spoken. Some believed not. Verse 30, And Paul dwelt two
whole years in his own hard house, and received all that came unto
him. What did Paul do? Did he change
his message because of those who didn't believe? Preaching
the Kingdom of God and teaching those things which concern the
Lord Jesus Christ. He didn't change nothing, Gary.
He kept right on preaching. He kept preaching the only message
that will save a sinner. And he did it with all confidence
and no man forbade it. Oh, may God add His blessings
to the preaching of His Word. Amen.