Get this thing started. Oh, happy
Mother's Day. I did have it in the bulletin,
so it's in there. It actually got different colors,
so it stands out. Acts chapter 28. We're going
to look at verses 16 through 22. I thought I was going to
get to the end of the chapter, but like I say, I just got arrested
by some of the things that are written therein. And I'm going
to read the entire section here, 16 through 22, but I'm going
to start backwards today as far as concerning our text. I'm going
to look at the last section first and then close with a few comments
on the earlier verses. But let's start with, of course,
we remember this is towards the end of Paul's missionary, well,
not really missionary journey, I guess you could call it that,
but he's a prisoner for preaching the gospel, and was taken captive
by certain Jews of Asia. And they were trying to kill
him. They tried to kill him several times. The Lord delivered him
into the hands of the Roman centurion and a particular captain of the
Roman band that was in Jerusalem. So, Paul has remained in custody. He is a prisoner. He is in the
custody of the Romans. And through a couple matters
of appeals, he went to court, and they wanted to hear what
the charges were brought against him. And the Jews came and made
their defense, or made their accusations, and then the Romans
allowed Paul to make his defense, and the particular governor of
the territory, the particular Roman governor, Felix, didn't
know enough about Jewish law or custom. He was a little bit
intimidated by the Jews, but he knew Paul was not guilty. But he wasn't going to let him
go. He was going to show them a favor and leave Paul in jail. And then Paul finally appealed
to Caesar. The governor said, well, if you
appeal to Caesar, then to Caesar you're going to go. And so we
picked that point up, and from that point, Paul's been on a
series of boats, merchant ships, traveling to Malta, and it was
in a terrible shipwreck. A wind devastated their vessel,
and they all landed on an island, and the Lord used Paul to preach
the gospel to those people at the island till they could get
another merchant ship and now he's on this merchant ship and
he's heading in towards Rome as the Lord promised way back
in Acts chapter 23 the Lord promised Paul that he was going to testify
of him and his gospel in Rome so there's many things that have
taken place in the last five chapters of the book of Acts
but now We start in verse 16 and it says, and when we came
to Rome, where he's supposed to be, where he finally made
it, where he was trying to get this whole time, was meant for
him to get there, the centurion, that is the one that had charged
over Paul, delivered the prisoners to the captain of the guard,
but Paul was suffered to dwell by himself with a soldier that
kept him. And it came to pass that after
three days Paul called the chief of the Jews together, and when
they were come together, he said unto them, Men and brethren,
though I have committed nothing against the people or customs
of our fathers, yet was I delivered prisoner from Jerusalem unto
the bands of the Romans, who when they had examined me, would
have let me go, because there was no cause of death in me.
But when the Jews spake against it, I was constrained to appeal
unto Caesar, not that I had ought to accuse my nation of. For this
cause, therefore, have I called for you, to see you, and to speak
with you, because that for of the hope of Israel I am bound
with this chain." And they said unto him, the Jews of Rome, they
said, We neither received letters out of Judea concerning thee,
neither any of the brethren that came showed or spake any harm
of thee. But, but they said, we desire
to hear of thee, they wanted to hear what was going on, why
Paul was a prisoner, what was going on. We desire to hear of
thee what thou thinkest, for as concerning this sect, concerning
this sect. We know that everywhere it is
spoken against." This sect. Well, turn to Acts. My first point is this sect.
We're going to start like I said. We're going to go backwards this
morning. We desire to hear what you think.
For as concerning this sect, this way, We know that everywhere
it is spoken against. Turn to Acts chapter 24. Back a couple chapters, Acts
chapter 24. And look with me at verse 5. The Jews were accusing Paul to the Romans. And he says, they say, We have
found this man a pestilent fellow a mover of sedition among all
the Jews throughout the world, and a ringleader of the sect
of the Nazarenes." They're accusing Paul to be a ringleader of the
sect of the Nazarenes. Okay, now that word, sect, is
exactly the same Greek word as the one that you see in chapter
28, as is this word in verse 14. Acts 24, stay there, and
look at verse 14. But after they made their accusation
against Paul, Paul says this, "...but this I confess unto thee,"
and he's talking to the Romans who are in charge of this trial,
"...but this can I confess to you, that after the way which
they," my accusers, "...call heresy, so worship I the God
of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the
Law and in the Prophets." You see that word heresy? It's the
same word. It's exactly the same word. Okay, now back to our text. This
sect, my first point. The word means heresy. It means
a disunion, a choice. What Paul is saying in Acts 24
and what these Jews who don't know, didn't hear anything about
what was going on, they didn't receive any letters of the accusations,
only they knew that this religion that Paul preached, this gospel
that Paul preached, what they termed it was a sect, and it was evil spoken of. So
tell us what's going on. Tell us why You differ from another. Tell us what makes what you're
preaching a sect, we call heresy, or a disunion. It's a choice.
It's a group that is outside the mainstream of religion. What
is going on? We've heard all these different
things, and you're apparently the ringleader. Tell us what's
going on. Tell us what's different. You're
a Jew. We're a Jew. You're in bonds? We're not. And obviously, Paul
couldn't leave, he was under house arrest. He couldn't leave,
so they came to see him. It's a sect. It's a group that
is outside mainstream religion. And they, also this Greek word
has a meaning, it's a choice. These people, this is what they
desire. They desire to be where these others of like mind are. They desire, Paul desired to
be of this sect. They will die for this cause
of the sect. It could be a radical group or
it could be the true group. We hear a lot today about the
Muslim extremists, the offshoots of all these different, well
they'd be called the sect. And those people who are part of
that know what they're doing, They want to do what they're
doing. They desire to do what they're doing. The believer,
saved by the grace of God, desires to be among other believers,
desires to believe the gospel, desires to live for Christ, and
desires to honor Him. Okay, in the Greek, in this word,
sect, it says it's a choice. Now, You know me well enough,
and you know the Scriptures well enough. We don't choose God.
He chooses us. Once He chooses us, once He calls
us, and the word called, in dealing with the Lord's people, is used
over 160 times in the Scriptures, easily. The called according
to the grace of God, the called, the quickened, it's all, we have
been called. He changes our heart, gives us
a new heart that beats after Him, and we desire to be with
Christ. We desire to be with those who
preach the gospel, those who live of the gospel, those who
desire to glorify and honor Christ. That's what they want to know.
They're saying, it's a sect, and it's evil spoken of. Tell
us what it's about. These folks and this gospel is
spoken against everywhere. Now listen to me. Listen to me. This gospel that is preached
here in Jackson, in this place, from here, this church, in this town, we're
considered a sect. The religious Jews of the day,
the Pharisees, the Scribes, the Sadducees, they all had their
tradition. Time and time again they told
Christ, we be Abraham's children. We be Moses' children. They were
tied into a system. They were tied into tradition. But Paul says, and those at Antioch
were called Christians. Believers of Christ. Now the
name of the church is Sovereign Grace Church. What does that
mean? Well, it could have been Sovereign Grace Baptist or this
or that or whatever. Sovereign is basically who God
is. He's sovereign. He reigns. We
don't use that word sovereign anymore. It's like a king. He's
a monarch. He's majestic. Grace. That's how He saves sinners.
No sinner has ever been saved or ever will be saved by their
free will, by their decisions for Jesus, by walking an aisle
or doing something for Jesus. Salvation, as Jonah said in the
book of Jonah, salvation is of the Lord. And that word of, no
matter what language, Hebrew, Greek, you don't need to know
anything, but of means origin. Salvation originates by God,
through Christ. If we could do something to save
ourselves, what did Christ die for? We, who could not do for
ourselves, must have it done for us, through Christ. Substitute. That's salvation by grace. And
these Jews, they were more concerned about their doctorates, they
were more concerned about their tradition. How come your disciples
don't do what the traditions of the fathers. That's a common
thing against Christ. Your disciples aren't doing this
and your disciples aren't doing that. That's fine. How come we don't do this? How
come we don't do that? Because we gather together simply
to glorify and honor Christ. So much of what's called worship
is of the flesh. So much of what's called worship
is pleasing. And Paul says, woe to me if I
seek to please men. If I seek to please men, I'm
not pleasing God. Would I, you know, we're adding
on, fantastic. Would I love to see this, to
sell this place and move it to a huge, you better believe it.
But not at the expense of the compromise of the gospel. Not gonna do it. And if this,
just like with Paul, if this sect, we've heard about this
sect. You remember old Tim James, he made a comment, he says, where
do you pastor at? And he told them, and they go,
oh. And he said, well, I'm going to change the name of the church,
our church, to Old Baptist. Where do you go? To that church.
Oh, that church. Don't kid yourself or be naive.
The gospel of grace, the gospel, there's only one gospel according
to Paul in Galatians. spoken against this is part and
parcel of believing and living of the true and everlasting gospel
of God's sovereign free grace that's just part of it it's part
of it Christ was not well received it's the scripture says he came
into his own and his own received him not he the word was made
flesh and dwelt among us John says He spoke the world into being. He created us in His likeness
to glorify and honor Him and He came among us and we wouldn't
have Him. If He came into Jackson, If he
came in to Cape Girardeau, if he came in and dropped in in
the United States, he would be rejected still, just like he
was then. Because people want their traditions,
they want what mama said, what daddy said, what this said and
that said, instead of what saith the Lord. Look at all those who oppose
Paul, throughout the whole book of Acts. When the Lord finally
knocked him off his horse and redeemed him, he was fighting
against religion the whole time. Look at those who opposed Paul
and those associated with him throughout this whole book of
Acts. Anybody associated with Paul? That one time when they
sent Paul out, he escaped for his life. Well, those who helped
him escape, they took him out in front of their homes and beat
him. I'm thankful we live in a country that allows religious
freedom because that's not my concern what's being preached
down here. It's not my concern what's being preached over here.
What's here? And grace doesn't persecute works.
They're not preaching the gospel. They're preaching free will.
They're preaching universal love. They're preaching all these things
that the scripture knows nothing about. It's not my responsibility. My responsibility is when I speak
with someone or we have fellowship and when we gather together is
to feed the truth. It's to set the table and put
the food out. I can't make anybody eat, but
we preach the gospel. And I'm so thankful that there
are some, not many mighty, not many noble, but there are some
that the Lord calls out and we can gather together, break bread,
and have fellowship. Consider the lesson of Cain and
Abel, this sect that was... All we know is that this sect,
this way, that Paul says, the way that they call heresy, that's
how I worship. I've had people tell me time
and time again, and you have as well, been doing this for almost
20 years now. Well, if I believed that, I wouldn't...
What kind of a God do you preach? The way they call heresy. You
call it heresy or sect, that's fine. But the way they call heresy,
Paul says, so worship I the God of our fathers. And may He give
us grace to make that stand because God only saves through His truth.
He doesn't save through the air. Or He won't save through air.
But look at Cain and Abel. There's only two religions in
the world. Cain and Abel. Grace and works. It's always
been that way. It's ever been that way. Look
at what happened. He brought the best. You remember
Genesis. He brought the best that His
hands could produce. Now, the Father told them what
they had to do. They were bringing a sacrifice.
So, obviously, they'd been taught there's only one way to approach
God, and that's through a substitute. And Abel said, my works are not
good enough. They'll never be good enough.
I have to be perfect. Be thou perfect. Be thou holy. We can't be. There's no way.
We're born in sin. We're born in sin. David said,
from my mother's womb, I was speaking lies. As parents, we don't teach our
children why. What happens when they start doing it? It's natural. We're born in sin. So we have
a problem. We have to be perfect. Abel knew that. He was taught
that by his father. So he comes to God with an animal,
a lamb sacrifice, a lamb that was out blemished, without spot,
that pictures our Lord Jesus Christ, and shed blood. And God,
what the scripture says, not my interpretation, scripture
says God accepted Abel and his sacrifice. If you're in Christ,
you're accepted because of Christ. God looked and he accepted that
sacrifice, which typified Christ, and he said he accepted the sacrifice
and accepted Abel. What about Cain? He says he didn't
have, he didn't accept it. And God, whether it's decisionalism,
easy-believism, whether it's the best fruit of your hands
or my hands, the best prayers you ever prayed, or the best
thoughts you ever had, whatever it is, if it comes from us, God
will not accept it. The two religions. Now, did Abel
persecute? Say, no, you can't do this. He
let him alone. He didn't say, well, you know,
you idiot, you're doing this wrong, you're not. Let him alone.
Because really when it comes down to it, it's between you
and God. I don't know your heart, you don't know my heart. It's
between you and the Lord. But if you're trying to approach
God, if I'm trying to approach God on the basis of what I do,
the best it might be. And you know, Bruce, we were
talking about doing all that tree work and that stuff out
there at the where they had all those 120 mile an hour winds
trying to help Ron and Rachel. The best that we could do wasn't
near as good as our best would have been 10 years ago, right?
10 years ago, we'd have been knocking that stuff out. We'd
have taken a lot more breaks. So what best are you going to
bring God? And when are you going to bring it? He won't accept
it. My best 20 years ago is better
than I think it is now. Not only am I losing hair, I
can't remember stuff, obviously. Having a hard time taking tests.
So, what am I going to stand on? What preacher are you going
to stand on? Preachers come and preachers
go. Well, he said this. Well, according to him, I think
I'll say it. According to this one, I'm not so sure. It doesn't
matter. What does this book say? But
I better be telling you the truth. Cain killed Abel. She couldn't
stand it. And you, if you understand the
grace of God at all, if you believe Christ, you won't persecute others
for what they believe. Just leave it alone. But you
start telling them the truth of the grace of God and how He
saves sinners. All's we know is this evil is
spoken against. It always has been, it always
will be. To believers, We must straightforwardly proclaim,
as God does so in this book, the way of grace. If we simply
speak it, it's going to be spoken against. Turn to Romans chapter
9. Look with me, it started in verse
6. Not as though the word of God
had taken none effect, For they are not all Israel, which are
of Israel, neither because they are the seed of Abraham are they
all children. But in Isaac shall thy seed be
called. That is, they which are of the
children of the flesh, these are not the children of God,
but the children of the promise are counted for the seed. For
this is the word of promise. At this time will I come, and
Sarah, talking about Abraham and Sarah, shall have a son.
And not only this, But when Rebekah also had conceived by one, even
by our father Isaac, and I was talking about Rebekah and Isaac,
for the children being not yet born, neither having done any
good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election
might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth. It is said
unto her, The elder shall serve the younger, as it is written,
Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. What shall we say
then? Is there unrighteousness with
God? God forbid. For he saith to Moses, I will
have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. So then, It is not of him, or
the sinner, that wills, nor of him that runs, but God that shows
mercy." God that shows mercy. What is free, sovereign grace? What does the gospel, the gospel
proclaim? It proclaims that God, who is
the offended party, we are the offense, He will have mercy on
whom He has mercy. Well, preacher, that puts salvation,
that takes it out of my hands. That's exactly right. That's
exactly right. The old lady came up to an old
preacher friend of mine years ago and said, Pastor Scott, she's
all mad at him. He's out in the garden. He was
out working in his garden. She's all mad at him. She says,
I hear you preach election. And so he got up, off his knees,
he was working in the garden, he got up and he goes, let me
ask you something. Are you saved? She said, why, yes. And he goes,
was that on purpose or was that on accident? She said, as on
purpose. He said, that's election. What
are you afraid of? If there's no election, there's
no salvation. God saves through His grace,
through the blood of Christ, those whom He will have mercy
on. That's what Paul preached. Actually, when Paul was in house
arrest for two years, which we'll get to the end of the chapter
in Acts, the Lord, he started writing these epistles. The Lord
used that to write most of these epistles. and then he was going
to suffer martyrdom under Nero, but that was the sect, the way
they call heresy, the sect of the ringleader of the Nazarenes,
and a sect that was evil spoken of. Did you not hear What Paul
says, turn to Galatians chapter 4. What Paul says later on in
Galatians chapter 4. The same thing. And we could,
I mean, we couldn't exhaust this. And I'm just going to use these
two examples and then we'll move forward. But this is what Paul
says in Galatians chapter 4. Look at verse 16. Paul says,
"...Am I therefore your enemy because I tell you the truth?"
That's what happens when preachers stand up and have backbone and
just teach what the Scripture says. Not saying we've got to
preach hellfire and brimstone, but this man be pan be weak.
Oh, would you do something for Jesus? Please? Oh, please? Who's...
I don't want to worship a God like that anyway. If He's at
my beck and call... Now listen to me, I'm serious.
If God is at my beck and call, then you better start worshiping
me. If God's at your beck and call, then it sounds like you're
supreme over Him. One of God's attributes is that
He's omnipotent. The Lord God omnipotent, that
simply means He's all-powerful. Does that mean He's a monster?
That means He's the most beloved, benevolent, merciful, redeemer,
because He's the only one. There's only one name given among
men whereby we must be saved, and that name is Jesus Christ.
Well, that cuts out the Buddhists. That's not my words, that's what
he says. So I preach this thing called heresy. What about Mohammed? What about him? What about Joseph
Smith? What about him? What about the Pope? What about
him? What about the Baptist? What about him? The scripture
over and over again says, What think ye of Christ? We stand
that we needn't be afraid or ashamed to stand for the name
of Christ. They were first called Christians,
as I said before, at Antioch. Are we or are we not? Joshua
said, drew the line in the sand, he says, as for me and my house,
we're going to serve the Lord. I'm not saying being mean-spirited.
The Scripture over and over says, speak the truth in love. And
if you truly love somebody, you're going to tell them the truth.
And Paul says in Galatians, where I was just starting to read,
he says, am I your enemy because I tell you the truth? And they'll
say, you know, if I believe that and this and that, you're just
trying to tell them the truth. And God saves through the truth. We don't
withhold that. But he also says in verses 22
through forward, as he's given his allegory, he says, "...for
it is written, Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondwoman,
the other by a free woman, Isaac and Ishmael." Ishmael never had
it, never will. Isaac, the son of promise, did.
Well, what did Isaac do to get it? Nothing. See, if salvation is left up
to you and I, we got favorites, we got darlings, we got... we're
prejudiced. We're prejudiced. We don't like
this person, the way he looks. We don't like that person, the
skin color. We don't like that person, they don't make enough.
Not so with God. He says, the chief of sinners. Are you a sinner this morning?
Are you sick? If you're sick, you need a physician.
I haven't called a physician in years. I'm feeling okay. When
I start having trouble, or a little teeth trouble or something, I'm
going to get a hold of the dentist. I have a need. The problem is,
is people don't have a need. They can pull God out of their
back pocket anytime they want to. But not this sec. Lord, if you will, we'll buy
and sell and trade and get gain. Lord, if you will, You'll allow
us to do this. Lord, if you will, you'll save
my son, my daughter. Lord, if you will, you'll help
me through this trying time. Lord, if you will, give us this
day our daily bread. Not, we demand it and you've
got to give it to us. Give it if it's your will. Submit. We submit. The Lord, a broken
and a contrite heart, He will not despise. These people don't
need Him. So you got these two, again,
there's a lot of twos, there's heaven and hell, there's works
and grace, life and death, the scriptures, there's a lot of
things broken down in two. He said, here we go again, there's
two, it's an allegory. But he who was of the bondwoman
was born after the flesh, verse 23 in Galatians 4. But he that
was a free woman was by promise, which things are an allegory,
he's explaining the fours, for these are the two covenants,
The one from Mount Sinai, which genders to bondage, is Agar,
or Hagar. For this Hagar is Mount Sinai
in Arabia, and answers to Jerusalem, which now is, and is in bondage
with her children. But Jerusalem, which is above,
is free, which is the mother of us all. For it is written,
Rejoice, thou barren, that bearest not. break forth and cry thou
that travailest not for the desolate hath many more children than
she which hath born or hath a husband now we brethren as Isaac was
are the children of promise but as then he that was born after
the flesh persecuted him that was born after the spirit even
so it is now Ishmael picked on Isaac Constantly. Constantly. Constantly. You want to know
why there's not any peace in the Middle East? And you want
to know why there will never be? It's because you've got the
descendants of Isaac and you've got the descendants of Ishmael.
Historically, it's not going to happen. And you think works
is ever going to get together with grace? It won't happen.
Now, I've got many friends who do not believe in the grace of
God. Or they don't believe Christ. They say they're Christian. They
say they go to church all the time. They're dressed up just
like we do. What's the difference? Well, we're a little smarter
than them. No. For some reason, found only in
the wisdom and sweet majestic grace of God, He chose to open
our eyes. That's it. We cannot take any
credit. Because God will not share His
glory with another. And the salvation of a sinner is the glory of God. Look at what he says. Keep reading. Nevertheless, what saith the
Scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son, for the son of the
bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the free woman. So
then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the
free. And when you try to get... And again, I've got a lot of
friends and a lot of people that I know that they're not believers. But I
love them. I'm not... Not to be mean or
rude or any of that, but they don't understand the grace of
God. Well, how are they going to understand? Well, I'll try to tell them.
I'll try to throw some seed here, throw some seed there. I'm not
responsible for germination, or regeneration, or conversion.
But as far as molding together and say, oh yeah, we'll just
have this guy come, the guy down here who preaches for the assembly
of God, he can come here and preach here. No, it's not going to happen. He
doesn't preach the grace of God. And so you wonder why there's
friction? You believe the grace of God
and your brother doesn't? You believe the grace of God and
your mom doesn't? You wonder why there's that friction?
And you love them because they're family. A bond woman and a free
woman. Children of bondage and children
of free. You think they will not do it.
They will not do it. You can't do it. People get all
upset about the truth. Don't talk religion. You'll upset
mom and dad or this person. Just get along with people. Don't
stir things up. I had one man tell me where I
worked at. Of course, he goes to a huge
Baptist church in Cape, so he wouldn't know where I go. He
was going to try to proselyte me. I said, I go to a little
church over here. He said, you need to come to
our church. We've got activities. We're doing
this. We've got this. We've got that. What do you guys do? I
said, not a lot. We don't have a choir. We don't
do this. I said, we've got a couple talented people who can play
and sing. I said, we'd just gather together and preach Christ and
have fellowship, have a meal, second Sunday of the month or
whatever, and we'd just get along. Well, we've got some people left
because they got mad because we didn't have donuts one time
and they did this and that. And then we got some people mad
because the cleaning of the church schedule got all messed up. You
guys had that problem? No, we don't have business meetings.
Well, how did you guys get along? Because Christ is the head of
the church. And I'm an elder and Bruce is an elder. Men get
together. Everything we've decided to do since we've been gathered
for 20 years has been complete harmony. We're just a bunch of
sinners gathered together. We have different opinions on
things. People are wiser in finances and other things. But how does
it all work? Is it perfect? I'm a sinner standing up here
preaching to sinners. How does it work? I guess God
can take care of things, can't He? I guess God handles the thing. I guess God takes care of His
people. Well, do you want folks to spend eternity separated from
God by not telling the truth of the grace of God? May we honor
God first, may we seek His approval foremost, and may we be found
as Paul loving and boldly proclaiming salvation of the Lord. That's
the first point. The second point is look at how
God favors His people. Look at verse 16, the last part.
We'll jump right on up to the... I just got one more point after
this, and I'll close here. But look at verse 16. And when they had come to Rome,
the centurion delivered the prisoners, all the prisoners, to the captain
of the guard. But Paul was suffered to dwell by himself with the
soldier that kept him. Now, as we finish the chapter,
we'll see he gets to stay... He's under house arrest, but
he gets to stay in... That's a lot different than a jail cell. Do you ever wonder why sometimes there's no reason at all that
you shouldn't be at the bottom of the heap? Do you ever wonder
why sometimes you've got that promotion, a guy's sitting next
to you in a table-nest chair next to you, he's been there
longer. Do you ever wonder why you're about ready to come at
the end of your rope and in the Lord? Do you ever wonder why
that is? God favors His people. Now, he's still under house arrest,
so that's pretty tough. I couldn't fully understand that.
So the life of the believer is not easy, and it never will be. And we're just passing through
this world. So we just need to hang on to things pretty loosely.
I'm not saying don't have cars, friends, you know, I'm not saying
that. I'm just saying, if you hang on to it too tight, when
the Lord gets it, it's going to be pretty hard to let go.
Our children. They are a gift from God. You know, we know what it's like
to lose one. Pastor Henry, what was it like
when he lost four kids? He lost one in Vietnam and he
lost the other one to cancer. So he's outlived half his kids.
Did he ever get over it? No, he never got over it. It drives the believer closer. It drives us to the bosom of
the Father. Like that lady wrote that hymn,
that man, it is well with my soul. How could you say that?
How could Paul rejoice under house arrest? Because he knew
that we are bought with a price, we're not our own, we're his.
So the favor of God's elect is the second thought. Any mercy,
favor, goodness, and you know it all is good because Romans
8.28 tells us it is, is given to us directly from the merciful
and gracious hand of our God. Now, we won't do this, but you
do this sometimes. You look at Galatians 1.1-2,
Ephesians 1.1-2, Philippians 1.1-2, Colossians 1.1-2, and
it always starts out to say, Grace be unto you and mercy. from God the Father to the Lord
Jesus Christ, where there's grace, there's always mercy, and there's
always favor to all the saints. Why? Why do I have a beautiful
family? Why do I have... Or if the Lord
takes away, like Job. Job says, the Lord gave, and
the Lord takes away. How can you do that? Grace be
to you. And mercy. And that is the only
reason. Well, I'm tough. I can handle
those things. Oh, I thought I could handle
some things. I used to be able to handle some things under pressure.
There are some people that crack and some that don't. If we stand
at all, it's by the grace of God. Grace isn't for everybody,
but it's for somebody. And they are called in this book,
the remnant, the elect, the chosen, and they are sinners that are
called out to be made like the Son. Now last point, the Lord
promises, His promises are always made good. Turn to, well let
me read verse 16, and when we came to Rome, when we came to
Rome, now look back at Acts chapter 23, Acts chapter 23, and look
at verse 11, Acts 23 verse 11, and the night following the Lord
stood by him, that is Paul, and the Lord told Paul, be of good
cheer, Paul, for as thou hast testified of me in Jerusalem,
so must thou bear witness also at Rome. And this is before he
got in that boat, before the boat sank. And what did we say,
there was 276 souls and every one of them made it ashore. This
is before all that, the Euryclidon, the wind and the breeze, all
that happened. He wasn't a merchant marine. He wasn't a sailor. Paul
didn't know what was going on. Out in the middle of the Mediterranean,
scared to death. You know how I am in sharks.
Don't get me in the water. I don't want to be by those things.
But God told him, you're going to testify to me wrong. So how
does that help me, preacher? How does it help me at all? On Genesis chapter 3, God promised
a Savior. And thousands of years later,
a Savior came. Genesis chapter 3, verse 15. David, a little boy. Samuel said, that man is going
to be king one day. It happened. Abraham. I couldn't have. I just
want a baby, a hundred years old plus. Abraham, you're going
to be the father of many nations. You're going to be more than
the sand in the sea and stars in the sky. You've got to start
with one. Did it happen? It happened. Daniel, I'm going to deliver you from
adversity. I'm looking face to face with this lion. I could
sure need some comfort about now and what happened. The lions
just lay down. Nineveh, that horrible wretched
city, I'm going to send you a preacher and cause you to repent. And
guess what happened? They repented. Elect chosen sinner,
I'm going to send you a preacher to proclaim the way they call
heresy, a sect which is evil is spoken against of my free
unmerited favor found only in my Son and redeem you to myself."
And guess what? He called you and redeemed you.
Now, do you think He's going to abandon you now? I don't know what's going to
happen tomorrow. I got a call last night And the
guys, I tell them, I said, what's going on? I said, this is what
I was doing. He goes, man, that's dangerous. Were you working chainsaws? I
said, yeah, I haven't done it in a while, but I used to do
it quite a bit. That's dangerous. Friends needed help. I'm going
to stay in my house. I'm scared the sky might fall.
I might not live for tomorrow or till tomorrow. I might not. He'll give grace to face whatever
comes our way. He says, I'll cause you to repent,
believe, and be baptized in my name, and I'll keep you forever,
never leaving or forsaking you. The problem is we still got this
old nature that just doubts. And we struggle, and I struggle
with every... What do you struggle with, preacher?
Whatever you struggle with, I struggle with. I'm not a super saint.
I'm not above anybody. I struggle day in and day out.
But guess what? The Lord's promises are always
made good. Paul, you're going to testify
of me in Rome. And when we came to Rome, he's
still a prisoner. He didn't say it was going to
be easy. He didn't say believing in this gospel, the gospel, was
going to be easy. But I'll keep you. David said
he never saw the righteous begging bread. He said, I'll raise you
up one day in the time of resurrection and give you a new glorious body,
one that will never ever fall ill again, one that will not
tire or languish, so you can worship Me eternally. So the
believer says, oh, how sweet are the promises of God. Old
Charles Haddon Spurgeon, a preacher of years ago in London, He wrote
a little book, and I've got it at home. It's called According
to Promise. And as you're reading the Scriptures, in your private
times of worship, private times of study, as you're reading the
Scripture, you come across, boy, that's a promise. I wonder if He's talking to me
there. Is that promise right there? I wonder if He's talking
about to me right there. Well, are you in Christ? What's the scripture
say? All the promises in Christ are
yay and amen, yes and amen. Take it. Take it. And Spurgeon
said, storm up. I write them down, back my study
Bible. I've got dates. And I start struggling with something.
And Spurgeon says, when you start having difficult times, go back,
find those promises and start spending them, start cashing
them in. I had somebody one time who was threatening to beat me,
I mean, threatening to do physical harm. The problem was, he could
beat me up. He's bigger and he was tougher
than me. The Lord gave me a promise a week before then. I said, what
a wonderful promise. I just put it over here. Then
I got a phone call. I got threatened. I got scared. I went back to
my room. I said, I can't win this one. I've won some. I can't
win this one. I pulled that thing out. I looked
at it. I said, Lord, I'm cashing this in. I got a phone call about
two days later. Apology. Oh, that's just luck. Find that in here. There's no
such word. Matter of fact, believer doesn't
use, I say doesn't use, we have bad habits. Chance, not in the
vocabulary. Luck, not in vocabulary. All
things work together for good. The cog of the wheel. I kind
of like watching the You know, those old gears. Had to take
a test one time. Gear ratios and stuff. And see
how it goes. And you know, something gets
in there, it stops it. Oh, not God's. Not God's will. All things
are working out. And that is the most comforting
thing for you. That's the most comforting thing for our children.
For any lost, dead, dying, helpless, hopeless sinner. It's a sect. It's a way they call heresy. That's alright, let's worship
God. Bruce, would you close us?