attention to the Acts of the
Apostles in chapter 9 we've been going through the Acts of the
Apostles and I want to come this morning to chapter 9 and verse
31 where we see the church the churches having rest they've
been having a lot of persecution and they have a period of rest
then had the churches rest throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria
and were edified and walking in the fear of the Lord and in
the comfort of the Holy Ghost were multiplied." Godly fear
and comfort, tremendous blessings from God in these days. But before
we get into it and look at this period of respite for the churches
and the things that marked it, I want you just to cast your
mind back to what we were thinking of last week, the conversion
of Saul of Tarsus, the conversion of the one who became the Apostle
Paul. And, you know, this Don't just
go there and then move on. You need to think about this.
This is powerful. This really is powerful. It's
quite dramatic. It's such a testament to the
truth of sovereign, irresistible, effectual grace. It really is. It's powerful. You know, when
you examine history and examine the case and try and understand
what's going on, the conversion of this man is a powerful testament
to the truth. We all, in our flesh, have times
of doubt. I'm telling you, think on what
happened in the case of this man. He says, in 1 Timothy 1.13,
talking of himself, who was before a blasphemer, and we saw how
adamant and how furious he was. He said, he says in one place,
I was mad with them. It seems sort of, you know, sudden
language. I was mad with them. He was so
angry with them. Who was before a blasphemer and
a persecutor and injurious. He's not bragging on this. He's
not proud of this. Have you ever seen those testimonies
done, you know, where people, you know, the bigger scoundrel
that you were, the more dramatic effect you can have with the
crowd of people and they're all falling around because such a
change has happened to you. No, he's not bragging about this.
He's saying what he was, by nature, in his flesh, in his mind, in
all of the things that he drove himself to do. But, I obtained
mercy. That's what the child of God
can always only say. What makes you to differ? I obtain
mercy. Why me? That's the question,
isn't it? Why me? Why did God show his sovereign
grace to me? When I see people that are better
than me in so many ways, all around, and yet he seems not
to have shown his grace to them. Why did he show his grace to
me? I obtained mercy. And Saul, now, was as vehement
for the cause of Christ as he had been against it. It was such
a dramatic change. Just imagine it being examined. Imagine the case being examined
in one of our courts of law, you know, the high courts down
in the Strand. Imagine the case being examined
there, you know, where they do trial in front of a jury and
they try to get to the root cause of this. There would be amazement
They would be, you know, those that have looked, you know, remember
the book that there was of the man who, as a lawyer, wanted
to show the resurrection for what he believed it was, a pack
of lies. And the more he looked at it
with a lawyer's mind, the more he concluded this was true and
he came to a knowledge of the truth. And God saved him. They
were amazed. Look at verse 21. All the people
that heard him, this one whom they had previously been terrified
of because he came with such threats of death. I mean, he
says he put them in prison and he spoke against them so that
they were put to death. All that heard him, now that
he's changed, were amazed and said, is not this he that destroyed
them, which called on this name in Jerusalem? And he came here
with bad intent. They were amazed, absolute amazement. What a testament for the truth
this is. What can we attribute it to?
Ah, maybe the preacher. put a powerful argument to him.
Maybe he was just overwhelmed with the force of Peter's preaching
when Peter preached and that had been niggling away at him
and all of a sudden he's on the road to Damascus and all of a
sudden those arguments overcome him. No. He was supernaturally
stopped dead in his tracks. He was knocked off his horse
to the ground. He was blinded. He was overcome. This was a supernatural
transformation. He became alive to what God had
done for him in Christ. The one that he was seeking to
persecute, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? Because all that persecution
against Christ's people was persecution against Christ himself, because
his people are the body of Christ, as Christ is the head. And he
says, why are you persecuting me? And all of that, he suddenly
saw, this man is very God, a very God. This man is the son of God. This is the one who came in human
flesh to stand in my place. And this question, how can a
man be just with God? How can I be right with God?
It's not by what I do. It's not by what anything I can
ever do. But it's by what He has done,
coming as a man in my place. He has satisfied all of God's
law in my place. He has borne that dreadful curse
for me, for cursed is everyone that hangs on a tree. And we
hanged Him on a tree and He bore my sins. This is what happened.
It transformed Him absolutely. The Grecians, they went on, verse
26, look at verse 26. And when Saul was come to Jerusalem,
this is three years later by the way, I'll explain that in
a moment. He assayed, old English word, comes from the French,
he tried to join himself to the disciples. But they were all
afraid of him. All those disciples in Jerusalem,
they were afraid of him, three years on, and believed not that
he was a disciple. And Barnabas comes and introduces
him. And then he goes and he preaches
boldly. He spoke boldly, verse 29, in
the name of the Lord Jesus and disputed against the Grecians.
And they went about to slay him. You know the ding-dong debate
that goes on in our House of Commons? And I know it's become
quite a popular viewing event in television around the world,
in the English-speaking world. watching the way that they stand
up and they shout abuse at each other across the floor of the
House of Commons. It's been a few hundred years since people have
marched across that floor of the House of Commons with a sword
in their hand to kill the person opposite. You see, what was it
that caused these Grecians to hate him to the extent that they
wanted to kill him? It was this. He preached. The
message he was preaching and disputing with them was this.
It's the message that the natural man hates. And what's the message
that the natural man hates? You can do nothing yourself to
save yourself. Salvation is all of grace. It's
all in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, who was faithful
unto death. That's what he preached. And
man doesn't like it. Oh, I'm not so bad. I can do
all right. I'll be all right in standing
with God. And that's what happened. Anyway, they sought to kill him
and the disciples, the brethren, sent him forth to Tarsus back
to his home city and we don't read any more about Saul until
chapter 11 verse 25 so there's quite a gap but what we come
to then is verse 31 then had the churches rest throughout
all Judea and Galilee and Samaria and were edified and walking
in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost
were multiplied respite for the churches you've heard of respite
care you know, where people get a break. They get a break. And
this was rest, not the rest of their souls in the salvation
that they had. They had that in the face of
the fiercest persecution. This is relief from constant
and severe persecution. This is a break from that constant,
vehement, aggressive, life-threatening persecution, because they'd been
through rough times. These churches, these early churches
that had grown so rapidly, but they'd been through very tough
times. Their faith had been tested. Is it true? It had been refined
with fire. You know when somebody really
believes something? If they're prepared to die for it. Isn't
that right? Think of the history of the martyrs.
You know, those that they tied to stakes in the middle of bonfires
in the middle of London, only a few hundred years ago. because
they believed the Gospel that we seek to preach. You know?
That shows it was true. They saw it so clearly. How could
they deny it in the face of what they could see? And these people,
these early saints, had had their faith tested and refined with
fire. And these were pure gold believers.
They'd come out of that fire. Now, what was their reaction
to the trouble that they'd experienced? Were they surprised at it? Were
they shocked? Were they kind of, hey, hold on a minute, I
didn't sign up for this. This is way beyond what I was expecting.
Well, no. Our Lord Jesus had already told
them. In John 16, 33, he says, These things I have spoken to
you, that in me you might have peace. In the world you shall
have tribulation. Saints of God hear this and understand
it. Our Saviour, our Saviour has
said this to his people. In the world you shall have tribulation,
but be of good cheer." He says, don't be despairing about that.
Be of good cheer. I have overcome the world. He's
overcome it. He keeps his people through it.
Trouble and persecution is the norm for the Church of God. We
shouldn't, you know, we're rejoicing today in the fact that we have
permission to use this room for our evening services on Sunday
and that's very good. We're very glad of this. And
it's respite for us. It's a break for us. But let's
be aware of the fact that as you preach this gospel of sovereign
grace, as you preach this gospel of particular redemption, that
Christ died for his elect, that as you preach this, you will
get opposition. you will get people standing
up who don't like it, and the ones who will be the most vehement
will be the religious folks. It was so then, and it's so today.
The religious folks. So, there are no surprises in
this. You see, the Gospel isn't a health, wealth, and happiness
Gospel. Just turn over to Revelation,
chapter 12. I just want to show you a verse or two here. This is what's promised to the
Church in chapter 12 of Revelation. there's a picture here of a woman
there appeared a great wonder in heaven chapter 12 verse 1
a woman clothed with the sun and the moon under her feet and
upon her head a crown of 12 stars and she being with child cried
travailing in birth and paying to be delivered and there appeared
another wonder in heaven and behold a great red dragon having
seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns upon his heads and
his tail drew a third part of the stars of heaven and he cast
them to the earth and the dragon that stood before the woman which
was ready to be delivered for to devour the child as soon as
it was born and she brought forth a man-child who was to rule all
nations with a rod of iron and her child was caught up to God
and to his throne. Now that's a picture of the purpose
of God in salvation. It's a picture of the woman is
the church. The woman is that Old Testament church from which
came the child. The child is Christ, the Savior
of his people. The dragon, that big red dragon,
that's Satan and all of his malicious intent against the people of
God. And she brings forth the child and the dragon tries to
devour that child as we know from the history of the story
around the birth of Christ. But look, this is the verse I
wanted to point you to, verse 6. He is caught up unto God and
to his throne. Christ is in heaven. But the
woman, where's she? Where's the church? The woman
fled into the wilderness. Not a comfortable place, the
wilderness. You know, it's a place where there aren't home comforts.
The woman fled into the wilderness. But she has a place prepared
of God. I tell you, wherever we are as
the people of God, This is the place that God has prepared for
us. And what does He do to His people, where He puts them? In
this wilderness place? He feeds them. That they should
feed her there. For how long? A thousand, two
hundred, and three score days. Three and a half years, near
enough. A time, times, and half a time. What does it mean? I've
told you before, I'm not going to go into the details. It's
a specific length of time that's not known to us, but it's known
to God. He knows the end from the beginning.
And when it's up, he will call all things to a close. And we
will no longer be in that wilderness, but we will be with Christ, which
is far better. You see? Sustenance until Christ
returns. This is the church in that wilderness
in verse 31. And we are, and all our brethren
around the world. Now I want to look in this verse
31 briefly at some elements of this respite that this church
had, this rest that they had. And the first one is edification. See that? The churches throughout
all Judea and Galilee and Samaria, they had rest and were edified. They were edified. We've been
singing songs about being built up, Christ building his church,
building on that solid rock which is Christ alone. Jesus said to
Peter in Matthew 16, just after the incident where he'd asked,
who do men say that I am? Oh, some say you're Elijah, others
a prophet and so on and so forth. But who do you say that I am?
And Peter, the spokesman, he says, you are the Christ, the
Son of the Living God. And Jesus said, blessed are you.
Flesh and blood hasn't told you this. You know, just like the
conversion of Saul. Flesh and blood hasn't convinced
you of this. It's not your own mind. It's not your natural inclination
to believe. But my Heavenly Father, He has
shown you this. He has revealed this to you.
He has given you this faith. And he says, and on this rock,
That's faith in that Christ. Not the rock of faith, but the
rock which is that which is the object of the faith, the work
that Christ would do. On this rock, I will build my
church. Christ does not build his church
on anything other than the truth of the gospel of grace that is
in him. He builds his church on this truth, that God from
before the beginning of time has a people. known to Him alone,
chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world, a definite fixed
number of people, known to Him, an innumerable multitude to us,
as incapable as we are of numbering the grains of sand on the seashore,
so we cannot number those people that are those chosen in Christ
from before the beginning of time. But He came, and He lived
in the place of every one of them. And every one of them lived
in Him, for they and Him are one flesh. We must get that.
The people of Christ are one flesh with Him. So that when
He obeyed the law, we obeyed the law in Him, if we're in Him.
When He died on the cross of Calvary, when He had that wrath
of God poured out on Him for sin, we did in Him. And so our
sins were dealt with there. They were punished in Him. They
were paid in full there. When He rose from the dead to
newness of life, When he rose from the dead, we rose from the
dead in him. And that's all symbolized in
baptism. That's what it is. That's that public confession
of it in baptism. That's what the church is built
upon. This is what he builds his church upon. That solid truth. Not the half-truth, which is
a complete lie that God has given an equal chance to everybody.
That's not true. That makes man Sovereign, that
makes man God in the matter of salvation and that's not true.
God is God in all things and especially in the matter of salvation.
It is not of him who wills nor of him who runs but praise God.
It is of God who shows mercy. I tell you, you can plead as
we say till you're blue in the face with the natural man and
you will never ever ever persuade him to come to Christ. to trust Christ, to cast his
soul upon Christ, but pray to the Father. He has his people.
He calls them out. He saves his people, even in
these days. And so, it's a solid foundation. This edification was a building
on that solid foundation. We read in 1 Peter chapter 2,
just turn over there with me, what Peter himself says about
this. You see, it wasn't Peter that
was the rock. He's not the first Pope who was the rock on which
Christ would build his church? Not at all. Absolutely not. In fact, if you look back at
the original Greek, you are Peter, this little pebble, and on this
great big solid rock I will build my church, is what Jesus really
says. He doesn't say, you are Peter, this great big solid rock,
and on you I will build this church. This great big solid
rock, just a few days after he'd said those things, denied Christ
with cursing. How could it possibly be on him?
as the Catholics say, it's not on the Popes that Christ will
build his church, it's on the doing and the dying of the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's the solid rock on which
the church is built. Now look in 1 Peter chapter 2
verse 3, verse 4, to whom coming as unto a living stone." Coming
to Christ as to a living stone, you see? He's building a church. Edification means building up.
An edifice is a building. Building up this church. You
come as unto a living stone. Disallowed indeed of men. Chucked
away by men. But chosen of God and precious.
You see? I'm not going to be saved by
building on Him. No way. No. I will not have this
man to rule over us. That's what people say. No, he
says, you also, as lively stones, living stones, are built up a
spiritual house. God had his temple in the Old
Testament order. He has his temple in the New
Testament order. It's his church. The church that
there has been right from the beginning of time. A spiritual
house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices,
acceptable to God, because they're by Jesus Christ. Those are the
acceptable sacrifices. That's the way in which we come
and are accepted in the Beloved. He says in the Scripture, Behold,
I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious, and he that
believeth on him shall not be confounded. That means confounded
in the judgment. That means ashamed in the judgment. And to you therefore which believe,
he, this chief cornerstone, is precious. But to them which were
disobedient, the stones, the stone which the builders disallowed,
The same is made the head of the corner. Isn't it so true?
The stone which established religion, in all its forms, in all its
names, rejects and refuses and hates the idea of, and will have
nothing to do with, is the very stone on which God, the Sovereign
God, will build His Church, and only will build His Church, for
it's the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not the gentle Jesus meek
and mild who is the idol of the imagination of religious people,
not at all. It's the sovereign God who is
Christ the Lord, Christ our Redeemer, who came to save his people from
their sins, who did that, who established it, who established
justice, who was raised from the dead. It's him, a stone of
stumbling and a rock of offense, even to them which stumble at
the word, being disobedient. whereunto also they were appointed."
I'm not going to take time out to meditate on that for a moment,
but think about it. Whereunto also they were appointed. But you, you are a chosen generation,
a royal priesthood and holy nation. The idea being, being built up,
the temple of God, the building of God. You know, symbolically,
God dwelt in the Holy of Holies in the heart of the temple in
Jerusalem. Where does He dwell now? in the hearts and minds
of his people, in his church. Living stones, that's the dwelling
place of the living God. We sang before, the wise man
built his house upon the rock and the foolish man built his
house upon the sand. The house on the rock stood firm
because it was firm, but everything else that is not Christ is sand. It's foolishness and it will
collapse. This edification then was a building up in the Word
of God It was the things of Christ. It was preached to them. They read it daily. They fed
upon it. It established them. It built them up. Look at Ephesians
chapter 2, where we have the same idea. Ephesians chapter
2 and verse 20. Well, verse 19. Now therefore
you are no more strangers and foreigners but fellow citizens
with the saints this is those that have been brought into the
kingdom of God into the church of Christ and of the household
of God and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and
prophets their doctrine Jesus Christ himself being the chief
cornerstone in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth
unto an holy temple in the Lord in whom ye also are built together
for an habitation of God through the Spirit. Edification. This
New Testament church, as the church in all ages, as we are
now, is being built up. It's being edified. He's building
his church. He's fitting the bricks together,
building fitly framed together. You know when they built the
temple? They sent off to the quarries and the stones were
cut to the right shape in the quarries. They didn't bring them
to the temple and chip bits away till they made them fit. They
were made to fit in the quarry and they were brought and they
fitted together. Exactly the right number. They all came together
perfectly. That's what God is doing with
His people. He calls them out and He's fitting them together
into a living temple. His church edified. The edification
of His church. 1 Corinthians 3.16 Paul says
this, Know ye not that ye are the temple of God? And that the
Spirit of God dwells in you. The church, he's talking to believers,
to saints. You are the temple of God being
built up. And this church here was being
built up in the things of Christ. Fortified and strengthened. Becoming
mature in understanding. You can read that in Ephesians
chapter 4. Why is there so little of the
true gospel in the churches where we would expect to hear it today?
Especially in this land of ours. Why is there so little? It's
because of this. Men have drifted away from the
foundation, from the chief cornerstone, from the rock which is Christ.
They say things like this. They say there is more to the
counsel of God than Christ alone. There's more things that we need
to tell people than just the message of Christ alone. And
they drift away from it. And they add other things to
it. They bring in the wisdom of this world to fight the arguments
of this world. You know, people stand up like
Richard Dawkins and others and make very, very threatening statements
against the things of Christ and his church. And they get
frightened about it. And so it's like there's Goliath
out there. There's Goliath out there shouting across the valley.
And David comes along. And instead of taking the five
smooth pebbles and the sling, which is the gospel of grace,
they get distracted and they clad themselves with the same
armour as Saul, and they stagger down into the valley, weighed
under all of this intellectual cleverhood, if you like, for
want of a better word, and they fight the wisdom of the world
with the wisdom of the world, and that's not the way it is.
It's the five smooth pebbles of the gospel of sovereign grace
with which we fight the wisdom of this world. We wrestle not
against flesh and blood, but principalities and powers. And
you see, I'm afraid that when churches do that, our Lord Jesus
Christ in the letters to the churches in Revelation 2 and
3 has warned, if you keep doing this, I'll take your candlestick
away. And how many have had that candlestick, where once the gospel
of grace was preached so clearly, and that candlestick is removed,
that witness to the truth is removed. But these churches in
their respite were edified. or that He might continue to
edify us, to build us up on that solid rock, that we might never,
ever move away from that solid rock, which is our Lord Jesus
Christ. We have up days and down days as preachers of the Gospel,
but it's your responsibility. If you ever hear me stand here
and waste 35 or 40 minutes of your time preaching anything
other than Christ and Him crucified, you let me know. And you let
me know you won't tolerate it. And that's the way it should
be. edified on the rock which is Christ. Then secondly, they
were walking in the fear of the Lord. That's the second thing.
They were walking in the fear of the Lord in this period of
rest that they had. Now what is it to walk in godly
fear? To walk in the Scriptures means
to live your life, to live your life in godly fear. What is this
fear? Well, I'll tell you what it's
not. It's not fear of judgment. Let's be clear. It's not fear
of judgment. This is not the terror of the
Lord, which we know. We know the terror of the Lord
and therefore we persuade men. It is not this terror of the
Lord that they're walking in. Because it's a fearful thing
to fall into the hands of the living God. For our God is a
consuming fire. But that isn't the fear that
they walked in. It's not this fear and dread of judgment. Because
why? In the Lord Jesus Christ there
is no condemnation. Romans 8 verse 1. There is therefore
now no condemnation. So what is there to fear? So
we come boldly to the throne of grace. Not fearfully to the
throne of grace. We come in the full assurance
of faith. Not fearfully. Not in servile
terror. Look at Romans chapter 8 with
me just for a moment. Which starts with that verse.
There is no condemnation. to those who are in Christ Jesus
and look at verse 15 speaking to the saints of God
you have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear but
you have received the spirit of adoption whereby we cry daddy
is the word Abba daddy father those who are terrified don't
say daddy it's a spirit of adoption whereby we cry Abba father because
In the Lord Jesus Christ, that fear of judgment is completely
taken away. We've received the spirit of
adoption. Look at 1 John, in chapter 4. In fact, you don't
need to turn to it, I'll read it to you. In 1 John, chapter
4, verse 18, John says this, There is no fear in love, but
perfect love casteth out fear, because fear hath torment. He
that feareth is not made perfect in love." So what is this fear
of the Lord that they were walking in? What is this fear of the
Lord? I believe it's this. It's a fear that all the children
of God must have of disobeying Him. I don't want to disobey
Him. I want to walk in His ways. It's
a fear of offending Him in any way in this sinful flesh of ours.
It's a fear of resisting His leading and His guiding and going
our own way instead of going the way that He leads. It's a
fear of sinning, a fear of offending the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.
You know, in Romans 8 again, verse 21, talks about the glorious
liberty of the children of God, the glorious liberty of the sons
of God. And this fear is a fear of stepping
outside of that. There's a... I could almost say
a silly illustration. You know, Little Timothy loves
Thomas the Tank Engine, and anything to do with trains. And they all
have faces on them, and they all look happy trains. Do you
know when a train is happy? When it's on the tracks. It's
got freedom to go anywhere on the British Railways network,
as long as it stays on the tracks. But you watch that train when
it's come off the tracks, and it's utterly immobilised. This
is the fear. If you'll excuse the childishness
of the simile, It's the fear of the railway engine of coming
off the tracks. That's what it is. Wants to walk.
The child of God wants to stay close to Christ. To stay in Him. Fears walking away from Him.
It's the fear that we read of in Song of Solomon chapter 5
and verses 6 to 8. The fear of losing her beloved. You know the Shulamite? She's
frightened of losing her beloved. She doesn't want to step out
of that warm embrace that he has for her. She's in a panic
because she's lost him. She's opened the door. He's called
her. She hasn't come. She can't get up. She's washed
her hair. She doesn't want to get up. And
finally she does get up and goes and opens the latch of the door
and he's gone and she runs around in a panic. Where's he gone?
It's that fear. This is the fear of the Lord.
The fear of being outside of him. The fear of walking away
from his constant care and guidance. That's the fear of the Lord.
A reverence for him. a respect for him. It's more
than that. I can't put it into words. It's
a respect for a loving Heavenly Father who calls us to come confidently
and boldly into His presence, who calls us to call Him, Abba,
Father, but nevertheless to fear. I imagine you can remember, Michael,
maybe a time, you're probably getting a little bit kind of
confident in your old age these days, but there was probably
a time not many years ago when you were out with mum and dad,
and you were frightened to lose them. You were free if you were
within their sphere of influence, because you knew you were safe
within their sphere of influence. But the moment you left them,
and where have they gone? Dread. Fear. Fear of losing mum
and dad. That's what this fear of the
Lord is. A fear of stepping outside of these things. But he keeps
us. He keeps us. He keeps his people.
And then the next one. They were walking in the fear
of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost. They were
walking in Holy Ghost comfort, the comfort of the Holy Spirit.
Look at John's Gospel, chapter 16. John's Gospel, chapter 16, where
Christ spoke these words, not many years before this time. What the time we're speaking
of, by the way, is about three years after the conversion of
Saul. We know that from Galatians,
because he tells us he didn't go to Jerusalem for three years,
so we know it was at least three years. Anyway, Jesus says this
in verse 7 of chapter 16 of John, Nevertheless, I tell you the
truth, it is expedient for you that I go away. For if I go not
away, the Comforter, that's the Holy Spirit, will not come unto
you. But if I depart, I will send him unto you. And when He
is come, He will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness,
and of judgment." Basically, I haven't got time to explain
these verses, but He will empower the preaching of the gospel.
He will convict dead men and women. He will convict, He will
reprove the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment.
Of sin, because they believe not on Me. Of righteousness,
because I go to My Father and you see Me no more. Of judgment,
because the Prince of this world is judged. I have many things
to say unto you, but you cannot bear them now." He couldn't explain
many things to them at that stage. How be it when He, the Spirit
of Truth, the Comforter, the Holy Spirit has come, He will
guide you into all truth. For He shall not speak of Himself.
All these places that major to the exclusion of Christ on the
things of the Holy Spirit. The ministry that you can be
sure where number one in whatever the fellowship talks about is
the Holy Spirit. You can be sure the Holy Spirit
is not there. You can be certain of that because he says he doesn't
speak of himself. Look, verse 13. How clear do
you want it to be? He shall not speak of himself.
What is his ministry then? What is his essential, vital,
necessary ministry? Whosoever, but whatsoever he
shall hear, that shall he speak, and he will show you things to
come. He shall glorify Christ, for he shall receive of mine,
and shall show it unto you. You see that? All things that
the Father hath are mine. Therefore said I, that he shall
take of mine, those things the Father has given to Christ, the
Holy Spirit shall take, and shall show it to his people. A little
while and you will not see me. Again, a little while you shall
see me because I go to the Father." Comfort of the Holy Ghost. The
comfort of the Holy Ghost. This was promised. This was promised. This is how they walked. This
is how we should be walking, knowing that He walks with us
and talks with us. It's that chorus, isn't there?
He lives, He lives. Christ Jesus lives today. He
walks with me and He talks with me along life's narrow way. And
then it goes on. You ask me how I know He lives?
He lives within my hand. How does He do all of these things?
How does He walk with me and talk with me along life's narrow
way? He does it by His Spirit through
the Word. Colossians 3.16 says this, Paul
says to the Colossians, let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly,
because by dwelling in you richly, you will be comforted in the
things of salvation, the things of grace, the things of forgiveness
of sins. They will comfort you when that
Word of Christ dwells in you richly, and you will walk in
the comfort of the Holy Ghost. He walks with us. This is real.
This is real. This is not academic. You know
that we cannot understand these things without He comes to us
and He shows us the things of Christ, takes of the things of
Christ and shows them to us. It's the only way you can explain
the fact that guys in theological colleges can get more degrees
than I will ever be able to get in terms of studying this as
an ancient text and yet without the Spirit of God They're in
darkness and blindness and without the truth. Because He hasn't
come and taken the things of Christ and shown it unto them.
But this church, these churches were edified. They walked in
the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost. And
fourthly, they were multiplied. God added to their number. Steady
growth. A period of rest and of steady
growth. And what did that growth bring?
It encouraged them. They had stronger fellowship.
they had mutual support and who was being saved all for whom
Christ had stood surety I guess some of you will know this verse
but Acts chapter 13 and verse 48 says this this is Paul and Barnabas preaching
and when the Gentiles heard this the gospel they were glad and
glorified the word of the Lord now look at this you know There
are certain absolutely solid rock points in the scriptures
on which you then interpret others which seem open to ambiguity. You know? There are parts of
the scripture that seem open to ambiguity. They look like,
well, what's it really saying? And you interpret them based
on the ones that are absolutely solid rock pinpoints. their waypoints and this is one
of them verse 48 and as many as were ordained to eternal life
believed God brought everyone that he had ordained to eternal
life that Christ had come to die for he brought every one
of them to believe the gospel of grace and to join themselves
to the believers and so they were multiplied and that's what
we pray for here as we meet as we seek to witness that there
will be people whom God has ordained to eternal life from before the
beginning of time and what will call them out? The preaching
and the witness of the gospel of grace, the truth. Let your
light so shine before men that they may see your good works
and glorify your Father which is in heaven and that light is
the light of the gospel of his grace. So we're to expect tribulation
but be a good cheer. Christ is triumphant. He blesses,
He feeds, and protects His people. He leads us into a worldly wilderness,
but nevertheless, it's a place prepared by God, and He feeds
us there, and strengthens us. And we walk, being built up,
we walk in the fear of the Lord, in the fear of departing from
Him, in the comfort of the Holy Ghost, and we pray that, like
those, He will also multiply us. Well, I'll...