OK, well, will you turn with
me to the first chapter of the Acts of the Apostles? It's my
intention, which may change, obviously always subject to change,
but it's my intention to take some messages from the book of
the Acts of the Apostles over coming weeks, and we'll see how
we go. We're entering a phase in God's sovereign plan of outreach
to this community and I think the book of Acts obviously has
got a lot to tell us. We've got a commission and we've
got a commission that has a goal. Yes, our commission that we have
from the Lord Jesus Christ, it has a goal and that goal is to
sow the seed of eternal life Because the gospel that we preach
and proclaim, I don't just mean from this pulpit, but in our
hearts and minds and actions and words with neighbors, is
a gospel of grace. That grace which is the free
gift of God. It's not of works. It's not something
we earn. It's the gospel of grace. It's
the gospel of reconciliation. It's the gospel of justice satisfied. It's the gospel of peace with
God. because justice has been satisfied.
We're saying to people that the God who made this universe, who
is currently your enemy, because you're dead in trespasses and
sins and you've offended His holy law, and He is a holy, just
God who must judge and punish sin, a price must be paid, and
we're saying it has been paid. We're saying that there is peace
with God in the Lord Jesus Christ. We're saying that there is adoption
not enemy, adoption into the Kingdom of God, based on union
with Christ, based on being in Him, based on having all of your
sins taken by Him, based on Him having earned a perfect righteousness.
And you know, if you know this in your heart, if you know this
Gospel, if it's come to you and touched you, if it's the foundation
of your life, it's like discovering a cure for some terrible fatal
disease. And you want to tell others about
it. You see, we read in 2 Timothy 1, Paul says to Timothy that
in the gospel God has abolished death. Just think about the headline
on the billboard in the street in Nebworth, outside the newsagents.
God has abolished death. This is what we're saying to
this community. Why will you die? All ye that
pass by, why will you die? Is it nothing to you that this
Savior should die? Now how do we make it known to
others? Well, last time we were together,
two weeks ago, we saw that this gospel of particular redemption
We must let it shine. We must let our light shine.
We must remain true to Scripture. We mustn't be ashamed of it.
We mustn't try to hide it. We mustn't make it acceptable
to the logic and wisdom of men. It's God's marvelous work and
we must tell it the way it is and not hide it under a bushel. We must set it on a candlestick
and not be ashamed of it. And when anybody asks us, when
we're asked we give a reason for that hope that is in us and
we tell them plainly about sovereign grace and particular redemption
because that's the only gospel that saves to the uttermost those
who come to the Lord Jesus Christ the one that depends on you in
any respect doesn't save, gives no assurance at all, no guarantee,
but the one that says Christ has done all, that's the one
that saves. And then we witness through fruitful
lives because we let our light shine and let our good works
be seen that men may see our good works and glorify our Father
who is in heaven. Now These things are not mechanical. This letting the light shine
and letting our good works be seen, it's not mechanical and
it's not by human power. We must realize this. Psalm 127
verse 1 says this, except the Lord build the house, those who
labor to build a house, labor in vain. You're flogging yourselves
to death, is what the scripture says. Unless the Lord builds
the house, you labor in vain. Those who watch for the enemy
coming, you know, try and stay awake all night long. Unless
the Lord is in it, he's watching in vain. He's wasting his time.
He'll be overrun. Now, Acts shows us how God builds
his church. Acts shows us. It's not by human
power. It's by the power of God. And
I want you to see a number of things in these first 14 verses
this morning. It's not my intention to say
everything that can possibly said be said about every word
in the book of Acts. That would take us far too long
and I want us to pick out the highlights and you can fill in,
you can read, you can read for yourself and you know with the
mind of Christ as you read with the mind of Christ and with this
gospel of particular redemption and sovereign grace ringing through
your heart the words you'll read you will find that they're they're
rich with so much more meaning there's so much more blessing
in them when you read it the way that God has said it is but
anyway I want you to see first of all the assurance that comes
from a risen Christ look at verses 1 to 3 the former treaties I
have made O Theophilus of all that Jesus began to do and teach.
Now that funny phraseology what it's referring to is the Gospel
of Luke because the person that wrote the Acts of the Apostles
wrote the Gospel of Luke. It was Luke, the physician, the
beloved physician and he sent his gospel first of all to this
man Theophilus and he's sending the second one he's saying the
former treatise the gospel of Luke have I made of all that
Jesus began to do and teach and now he's sending another one
and verse 2 until the day in which he was taken up after that
he, through the Holy Ghost, had given commandments to the apostles
whom he had chosen." Note that he speaks through the Holy Spirit. He's saying, he'd given the previous
message in the Gospel of Luke of all that Jesus began to do
and teach up until the day when he was taken up. Now, verse 3,
"...to whom also he," that is Jesus, "...showed himself alive
after his passion." His passion is his death. it's the passion
of Christ is the death on the cross he showed himself alive
after his passion by many infallible proofs being seen of them forty
days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of
God this was the ministry of the risen Christ amongst his
followers amongst the apostles amongst those who were with them
many infallible proofs it was physically different physically
different because he was the risen Christ This was the Christ
who had risen, with the nail prints clearly in His hand, with
the wound clearly in His side. They could see it was Him, clearly
the same man, yet not always with them physically. Not as
He was as they went around that ministry for three and a half
years with Him. He was always with them. But in these 40 days,
no, He wasn't always with them physically, but He kept appearing
to them. He appeared from time to time.
to them and ministered to them and spoke to them the things
pertaining to the kingdom of God and it was by many infallible
proofs that he showed himself to them they knew he was alive
you know they were not just as they were on the Emmaus road
those disciples they were despondent because their Lord had been crucified
all their hopes had gone they thought he was going to restore
the kingdom to Israel and all their hopes had gone And then,
empowered by the knowledge of his presence, what a difference
it made to them. Many infallible proofs. You know, when we look at how religions
start, you know, most of them have got somebody that was a
great man and then was killed and you can go to his tomb today.
But not so with the Lord Jesus Christ, with the truth. There
never was a tomb. There was a tomb they put him
in while he was dead for the three days, but he rose again.
And, you know, the historians could never take you there. The
Romans could never, you know, Herod and the Jews and the high
priests couldn't take you and say, look, it's a lie. Here's
his body. He didn't rise from the dead.
It's one of the most attested facts of history. The fact that
Christ rose from the dead. Many infallible proofs. You see,
it doesn't take long for a public fake to be unmasked. Do you think
about them? You know, the guy that did the
copy of some great painting. And for many years it was actually
thought that it was genuine, but eventually it was unmasked
as false. Other things that have come to
light. I remember there was a great fuss in the scientific world
over a thing called cold fusion about, I don't know, 10 or 15
years ago, where the process of nuclear fusion, which is meant
to unlock the key to a limitless energy, but needs incredible
temperatures, and nobody's ever fundamentally cracked how to
do it other than a hydrogen bomb, which is a little bit drastic
way of generating your electricity. And somebody said he'd done it
in a test tube. It had got cold fusion. And the
world was going, it's incredible. And for several days, people
were half thinking this was true. But it was unmasked as a lie,
yeah? But these were many infallible
proofs. A man who died, a man whom hundreds
saw hanging on a cross, that cross of shame and dying and
having a spear thrust into his side, and his blood shed, and
those tremendous things that happened on that day, taken down
from the cross, put in a tomb. That man is alive. It says in Acts 17 31, when Paul
is speaking to the Athenians, he says, because he, that is
God, has appointed a day in the which he will judge the world
in righteousness by that man whom he has ordained. That man
is Christ. whereof he has given assurance
unto all men in that he has raised him from the dead the assurance
of a risen Christ we go out with a gospel for the people of Nedworth
for the wider world in the assurance of a risen Christ the Christ
we worship is alive He is risen. He is alive. You think it's unique
in the religions of the world. He is risen from the dead. Those
words that Jesus gave to his disciples, I quoted them earlier. He said, He is the resurrection
and the life. Though a man die, though a man
physically die, yet if he is in Christ, yet shall he live. Job said this, he said, I know
that my Redeemer lives and that He shall stand at the latter
day upon the earth and the worms destroy this body I'm gonna die
I'm gonna go into a grave worms will destroy this body yet in
my flesh shall I see God because Our Saviour is risen from the
dead. We can be confident of it. He is raised for our justification. He was delivered up for our transgressions,
but raised for our justification. His resurrection is proof of
His people's justification. How do you know that you're justified?
Christ is risen. That's how I know. He is risen
from the dead. That's the truth of the Gospel.
It's vindicated by the fact that he was raised from the dead and
he is the firstfruits. He is the pattern. He is the
template of what is going to be the experience of all of his
people. He is the firstfruits, the pattern. And all his people
will experience the same thing. Not only will experience, but
have experienced. In Him, He says, you are raised
together with Christ. You have been raised together
with Him. It's pictured in baptism. We
go down into the waters of baptism, symbolizing that we were slain
with Him, crucified with Him on the cross, but we don't stay
there. We come up out of the water, symbolizing that when
He rose, we were raised to newness of life. And so we're able to
say, death, where is your sting? grave, where is your victory?"
This is at the heart of the message we preach. We go in the assurance
of a risen Savior. All men fear death, says Hebrews
chapter 2. Various men are rather smart
in the way that they try and get round it and give the impression
that they're not terrified of death. But in every man's heart,
he knows. If you come to it, you know that you're terrified. Your physical human body shrinks
back in horror at the prospect of death every one of us do but
this shows us there is life there is eternal life for Christ is
risen the first fruits from the dead and so we go in the assurance
of a risen Christ so he showed himself many days 40 days many
infallible proofs then secondly there is a needful power There's
a risen Christ in whose assurance we go, but there's a needful
power. Now, we must see this. This is
really at the heart of what I've got to say this morning. Look
at verses 4 to 8, "...and being assembled together with them,
commanded them," this is Jesus, "...commanded them that they
should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the
Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me. For John truly baptized
with water, but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost, not many
days hence and we'll skip verses 6 and 7 and go straight to verse
8 but you shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is
come upon you and you shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem
and in all Judea and in Samaria and unto the uttermost part of
the earth when he said in verse 4 wait for the promise of the
Father which you have heard of me look back at John 16 let's
turn back a few pages in your Bibles to John 16 and verse 7
this is in the upper room the night before the crucifixion
just a few weeks earlier he says to them you heard this of me
just a few weeks earlier nevertheless he says I tell you the truth
it is expedient for you that I go away for if I go not away
the comforter 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. 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 yet many things to say
unto you, but you cannot bear them. Now, how be it when He,
the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth.
For He shall not speak of Himself, but whatsoever he shall hear
that shall he speak and he will show you things to come he shall
glorify me for he shall receive of mine and shall show it unto
you Christ is promising to his disciples that the Holy Spirit
the Holy Ghost to use the old language of the authorized King
James Version that the Holy Ghost would come that what he would
do for them would not just leave them in a neutral state but would
empower them the Spirit of God would come into the heart of
man into the life of man into the soul of man and would enable
and would empower it is this that he is speaking about he's
saying this is yet to happen still this is this is 40 days
since his resurrection and he's saying this is still to happen
do not depart from Jerusalem but wait for it wait for that
promise which I told you before about this Power is the power
to preach the gospel with clarity and with the unction of the Holy
Spirit. Did you notice what it said that the Holy Spirit will
do? He will convict the world. He will convince the world. He
will reprove the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment.
He's talking about the gospel and how the righteousness of
God is fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ. How the justice
and judgment of God is fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ. The
Holy Spirit will come and will do that to sinful flesh that
has no thoughts for God. The Holy Spirit will come and
make them hear and make them alive and make them listen to
what He has to say in the Gospel of His grace. But you have to
wait for it. Do not depart from Jerusalem,
but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith He, you
have heard of Me. Wait for that promise. there's
something essential that you need before you go out. Don't
go out, he's saying, into this big wide world to fulfill the
commission that he'd already given them. We read of it at
the end of Matthew's Gospel. Don't go out into this big wide
world without this Holy Spirit that you need. He says in verse
5, For John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized
with the Holy Ghost not many days hence. You see, Baptism,
I believe, that in the original Greek it means immersion. You
know, I remember, I think it was Stuart Elliot told us years
ago that if you went down to the chip shop in Liverpool, which
was run by a Greek family, you would hear them talk about baptising
the chips. They didn't mean sprinkling oil
on the chips, they meant dunking the chips completely in the deep
oil. It's immersion. And he says,
you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. Immersed in the
Holy Spirit. John the Baptist, baptized in
water. When he came, saying, prepare
the way of the Lord. Make straight his ways. Get ready
for Him coming. John baptized with water. That
was an outward symbol of repentance. It was an outward symbol of washing,
like the preparation for the priestly acts in the temple.
They had to wash their bodies and wash their clothes. It was
washing and preparation. It was an act of contrition,
an act of repentance, an act of sorrow for sins. It was an
act of, yes, I want to get ready. I want to make way for the Lord
to come. I want to smooth out those rough
places. It's like the signing of the pledge, if you like, to
reform character and set apart for God's promised Messiah to
come. To get ready for him coming.
But, that was John's baptism. But, the baptism of the Holy
Spirit, that baptism is the flooding of the soul of man with that
new life from God. It's a new man created within.
It's the life of God in the soul of man. It's the insight into
the mind of Christ that He gives to His people. It's the enlivening
power of preaching, as we read in John 16. Convicting, applying
the substitutionary work of Christ to the hearers. It's making those
who are dead in sins alive in Christ. We must have that. It's
the Holy Spirit who quickens, makes alive. It's an old word,
but it means makes alive. He empowers. He sends. The Holy Spirit, He's a person.
He's not just a power. He's not just, as some teach,
the power of God. He's the third person of the
Trinity, the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit. The Scriptures
are absolutely clear, again and again. A mere force, a mere influence
can't think, can't do, can't prevent, can't do this, that
and the other. But He does. Only a person can do those things.
And the Holy Spirit does those things. He is the One, the Comforter,
whom Jesus said, I must go away because if I go not away, I won't
be able to send the Comforter to you. And He's gone away and
He sends the Comforter to His people. And He comes. And you
think about it. The man, Christ Jesus, Although
He is omnipotent God, yet physically He could only be in one place
at once. Yet by His Spirit, by the Comforter, He's in my heart.
He's in yours if you're His people. Anywhere, throughout the world,
throughout the world this day, He comes amongst His people and
ministers the things of Christ. How can Christ be everywhere?
He can be everywhere now by the ministration of His Holy Spirit
who takes that which is Christ's and shows it to us and ministers
it to us. He sends, as he sent Paul on
his missionary journeys, go to this place. He prevents. Paul
wanted to go somewhere and he said, no, you're not going there.
He closed the door to him and wouldn't let him go. That's what
a person does. The Holy Spirit is this person.
He breathes on the dry bones as we read in Ezekiel 37. It was that, you know, he preached
and there was a clattering of bones And they came together,
and sinews and flesh, but there was no life in them. There was
no breath in them. They were still dead. And he said, preach
again. Prophesy. Say to the wind, the wind, the
Spirit of God symbolized there, come and give them life. And
the wind comes. The Spirit of God comes. And
he says, you were dead in trespasses and sins, but he has made you
alive to hear the gospel of his grace, to hear the truths of
saving power in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so, He says, wait
for Him. Don't attempt anything without
Him. But for us, now, if you are in Christ, we have Him. Turn
over to the next book after Acts, Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter
8 and verse 9. But you are not in the flesh,
but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you.
Now, if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none
of his. Are you Christ's this morning?
Are you believing in Him? Are you trusting that you're
in Him and saved by Him? Well, I tell you, you have the
Spirit of Christ. There is not a second blessing
that you need to wait for, as the charismatics tell us. You
have the Spirit of God. All God's believing people have
the Spirit of God within them because if you don't you're not
Christ you don't belong to him we have this power in him and
when he is come verse 8 when he is come you shall receive
power you shall receive what sort of power is he talking about
you know some would vainly trivially imagine the power to do all sorts
of charismatic miracles and perform wizard signs and rubbish of that
sort, which is all a fake. It really is. Don't worry. Lying
signs and wonders. You know when Moses was performing
those miracles of the plagues on the Egyptians? And what was
the Egyptian society doing? They were getting their magicians
together, their tricksters, their conjurers, their con artists,
and they were saying, well, that's no problem. We can do that. They
can make snakes appear from nowhere and all those other things. You
know? No, it's not that kind of thing. It's not the power
to do those weird things. It's the power of a new nature
within. The power of a new life within. The power that comes from knowing
the Scriptures, of understanding. You know, we saw a couple of
weeks ago, maybe three weeks ago, that those disciples at
the end of Luke, not on the Emmaus road, but when Jesus came together
with them in the room, he opened their understanding that they
might understand the Scriptures. Oh, it's by the Spirit of God
that we understand the Scriptures. We have that insight and knowledge
into the Gospel of Grace, that mystery that is hidden from ages
but that He reveals to His saints. And we have the assurance that
arises from it. That's power. The assurance that
arises from knowing the Gospel of Grace. We have power over
sin. You know, we're sinful in every
part of our physical fleshly being yet there's a new man inside
who cannot sin who is from the Spirit of the Living God and
we have power over sin for you are not under law but under grace
and sin shall not have dominion over you no, it doesn't have
to have dominion over you you can say no to sin this is what
the Scriptures teaches we're empowered with the power over
sin we've got the gift of faith the gift of sight as it were
spiritual sight to see the unseen to see that which the natural
man cannot see or receive because it's spiritually discerned and
you will receive that when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and
if you're in Christ He has and you have that you have that ability
you need it how do you think the martyrs read the history
of the martyrs in various ages how did they gladly go through
the tortures and agonies that they went through. It was on
the basis of what they saw because what they saw was such an assurance
to their hearts. They had power. They received
power by the Holy Spirit to go through those horrendous things
and yet not lose heart because of what they saw of the eternal
purposes of God. And so how How should we react
to this situation? Well, look, I just want you to
notice in verse 14. You see, when he's gone up to
heaven, they return to Jerusalem. The apostles, we'll come back
to those verses in a moment, but I just want you to see this. They return to Jerusalem And
they came together, they're named there, Peter, James, John, Andrew,
Philip, Thomas, Bartholomew, Matthew, James, the son of Alphaeus,
Simon, Zolotes, and Judas, the brother of James. These all continued
with one accord in prayer and supplication with the women and
Mary, the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren. They came
together and they prayed. They prayed, Oh Lord, give us
your spirit. Take not your spirit from us.
Empower us. all that the Lord would put as
he did with David it says it says in I think somewhere in
2 Samuel the Lord put into David's heart to pray all that he would
put into our hearts to pray together when we when we meet when we
have our meetings you know you know we we we do have prayer
meetings. All of our services are prayer
meetings. All of our times we get together are times of prayer.
We pray to the Father. We pray through the Lord Jesus
Christ. We pray for the Spirit's presence
and enabling and empowerment in all that we seek to do in
the extension of His Kingdom. It's not down to much speaking.
It's not down to the amount of time that we spend doing it,
but we pray. We pray individually. We live
in a spirit of prayer, Lord, do not take your presence from
me give me give me your strength give me your power and he's promised
he will you shall receive power and then next I want you to see
a worldwide witness verses 6 to 8 when they were therefore come
together they asked of him the disciples asked Jesus saying
Lord will you at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel and
he said to them it is not for you to know the times or the
seasons which the Father has put in his own power but you
shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you
and you shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem and in all
Judea and in Samaria and unto the uttermost parts of the world
thus empowered with the Holy Spirit you shall be witnesses
unto me everywhere starting at home, first of all, starting
at home in Jerusalem, and then further afield, and then to the
ends of the earth. You know what he said to the
demoniac, he's called, you know, the Gadarene, I think it was
Gadarene, where the man found amongst the tombs, out of his
mind, nobody dare go near him, he was so dangerous, evil spirits
within him, and Jesus healed him, and put him into his right
mind, and he was clothed and in his right mind, and it was
a tremendous change and we read in Mark 5.19 because he wanted
to follow Jesus he wanted to come with him and the other disciples
and spend his time with him and Jesus suffered him not would
not allow him but said to him go home to your friends and tell
them those at home first start there tell them how great things
the Lord hath done for thee and hath had compassion on thee go
and tell them first of all but then not just stay there but
go to Judea, all Judea and then Samaria and then to the uttermost
part of the earth the Great Commission go into all the world and preach
the gospel without distinction to every type of person you know
there's no color of skin there's no racial background there's
no language group there's none of that is barred from the gospel
go and preach to all You know, we have it quite clearly in Scripture
that God has saved a specific people. He's elect from every
tribe and nation and kindred and we don't know who they are.
We have no idea who they are before we go. We're meant to
go and scatter as that sower, the seed. We scatter it broadly
and in the grace and mercy of God, some of it falls on good
ground, prepared ground. Some of it falls there. He points
out to them in verse 6. He points out to them that it
is not physical, political Israel, but the establishment of the
Israel of God that matters. Look in verse 6. The disciples,
despite all that they'd seen, it just shows the weakness, doesn't
it, of our human flesh. You know, we are entirely dependent
on the Spirit of God. For any wisdom from God to show
us the things of Christ. In and of ourselves, as intellectual
sentient beings, we can never work these things out and we're
bound to become, we're bound to fall into error. But by the
Spirit of God and the Word of God, He will keep us in the right
path. You see, they had thought, Ah,
God's kingdom is all tied up with this political nation of
Israel. Will you at this time restore again the kingdom to
Israel? This is the place that you're going to have to come
if you want to be one of the people of God. He says to them,
not for you to know those times or the seasons which the Father
has put in his own power it's not in your power don't speculate
about those things don't waste your time on those things leave
that in the hands of the Father you go and preach this message
first of all at home then further afield and then to the uttermost
parts of the earth be witnesses to Christ he says you shall receive
power and you shall be witnesses unto me now what does that mean? What is it to be a witness unto
Christ? Does it mean that we go about
telling the Bible stories of his biography, if you like? You
know, he grew up and he worked in the carpenter's shop and he
did this, that and the other and then he went there and in
this place he did an interesting miracle and well, some people,
that's fine, but that's as far as many people go. No, it's not
that. It's not his biography. We're
not to be witnesses to his biography. not to his moral example because
he was the outstanding moral example of all history we're
not to be witnesses to his love though we are witnesses to his
love because God is love and in Christ that love is most perfectly
expressed but that's not what we're to be witnesses to not
to be witnesses to the fact that Jesus is a loving being or to
his compassion and he had plenty of compassion he wept over Jerusalem
with human compassion in the God-man for those people who
had rejected so much. No, what we're to be witnesses
to is this. We're to be witnesses to His
atonement. Do you know what atonement means? At-one-ment. He makes us who
are enemies with God at one with God in the atonement by what
He did. by standing as our surety, by
standing as our substitute, by taking our place, by having us
in Him. You know what it says in Ephesians
5 about marriage? We think that's a chapter about
marriage, don't we? For this, you know, husbands
love your wives, wives obey your husbands, children and so on. We think it's a chapter about
happy families and there's certainly teaching about happy families,
scriptural happy families in there. But then Paul says, But
I'm not speaking about husbands and wives. I'm speaking about
Christ and his church. He said this, yes, the scripture
says, a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his
wife and they too shall be one flesh. And I remember hearing
Don Faulkner recently saying, pointed to his wife and he said,
if you think she and I are one flesh, then there's something
wrong with your eyesight, my friend. He said, we're never
truly one flesh like that. It's talking about Christ and
His Church and we're in Christ. We're one flesh with Him. When
He walked the earth, all His people walked the earth in Him.
When He died on the cross, all His people died on the cross
in Him. We're one flesh with Him. When He was raised to newness
of life, all His people were raised in Him, in eternity. That's what it's about. This
is what we're to witness to. Our union with Christ. everything
that's been accomplished for His people in Him. The establishment
of justice that my sin, oh the bliss of this glorious thought
is nailed to His cross and I bear it no more for He's borne it
for me and all of its consequences. This is our Gospel. The righteousness
that is in Him, the sin bearing, the justification, the setting
apart, the sanctification, the salvation that is in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Rejoice and be glad Your soul
is saved from eternal death in the Lord Jesus Christ. And then
we say this. This is what we witness to. What
He's done. And then what do we do? We say,
turn over to Romans 10. I want to remind you of these
things. Romans 10. Then what do we do? We call upon
people to call upon the name of the Lord. because it says
in verse 13, Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord
shall be saved, but there are certain things that are necessary
for them to call. How then shall they call on Him
in whom they have not believed? You see, they have to believe
Him before they can call on Him. You know in Genesis when it says,
And men began to call upon the name of the Lord. You know, that's
a gospel calling on the name of the Lord. That's pleading
gospel grace That's pleading the grace of a substitute. And
they can't do that unless they've believed in Him. You must believe
Christ before you can call on Him. And how shall you believe
in Him if you've never heard of Him? How shall you believe
in Him if you've never heard what He's done? If you've never
had it witnessed to you? what he is and what he has done,
who he is and what he has done. How shall they believe on him
whom they've not heard? And how shall they hear without
a preacher? Because I'm telling you the Scriptures are quite
clear. It's by the words of a preacher
that God calls out his people. It may be, I'm prepared to allow
this, it may be as somebody reads a book which is effectively preaching
written down that somebody can be saved. But I think the general
pattern of Scripture is that you hear a preacher. God sends
a man. What did he do with the Ethiopian
eunuch in his chariot reading his scriptures? Did he shine
Holy Spirit light straight into his heart there and then and
give him that? No, he brought a preacher to him, didn't he?
He brought a preacher alongside. Do you understand what you're
reading? How can I unless a man explain it to me? And a man who
is sent, look, how shall they hear without a preacher and how
shall they preach except they be sent? As it is written, how
beautiful are the feet of those that preach the gospel of peace.
I believe in this country of ours today, one of the greatest
tragedy in the so-called Christian church is the fact that those
who are standing up in the vast majority of pulpits are not sent
to preach. They're not. They're not sent
to preach. They don't come with the gospel
of grace. They don't talk about the atonement
of Christ. They don't bring sinners to see
their situation outside of him and see the complete salvation,
the utter salvation that is in the Lord Jesus Christ because
they're not sent. God anoints his men. to preach the gospel
of his grace and to go and to preach it with power and authority. You know what they said of Jesus?
He hadn't been to their universities, he hadn't been to their colleges,
he just appeared and they were amazed at him because unlike
the scribes and Pharisees, the so-called religious theological
experts, he, Jesus, spoke as one having authority. The preachers
of God's gospel preach with God's authority and with the confidence
of that authority. So whoever calls on the name
of the Lord shall be saved. So they're sent to preach the
gospel, hearing by the word of God preached, believing in Christ
of whom they hear, calling on him whom they have believed,
and saying, Lord, be merciful to me, the sinner. And so, finally,
in our passage in the Acts of the Apostles, we've got a clear
commission. Look at verse 11, verses 10 and 11. so when he
well verses 9 10 and 11 when he had spoken these things whilst
they were looking whilst they beheld he was taken up and the
cloud received him out of their sight and while they looked steadfastly
towards heaven as he went up behold two men stood by them
in white apparel can you imagine can you imagine the scene can
you imagine the amazing shock and surprise it must have been
there he stood with them talking with them and then he's taken
up and you can just imagine can't you They're looking, as we would
say in our modern language, gobsmacked up into the air. He's gone. He's
taken up from them. And they stood there, mouths
agape, staring up into the sky where he's gone. And then two
men stand by them in white apparel, in white clothing, which also
said, you men of Galilee, why are you standing here, gazing
up into heaven? You know, he's gone now. Why are you standing
here? This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven,
shall so come in like manner as you've seen Him go into heaven."
Christ is alive. You've seen that. Many infallible
proofs. He's ascended. You've seen Him
go. You can be sure that in the way you've seen Him go, He is
coming back. Now don't waste time speculating about how and
when. Don't stand there with your necks
cricked backwards and your mouths wide open, gawping up into heaven,
speculating about these things and those things. Don't keep
looking as Proverbs says, at the weather to decide if you
should sow or plough. Just get on with it. Get on with
the task commissioned and leave all such speculation in God's
hands. We don't know when He's coming
again. We do know He is coming again.
We do know He is alive. We do know that we have the power
of God's Spirit to take a message to this area. We do have the
promise of God's Word that He will not cause that Word to return
to Him empty. not having accomplished the purpose
for which he sends it. And what purpose is it for which
he sends it? The salvation of his people.
God be pleased that there would be some, that there would be
many in this area who will hear the gospel and believe it and
come into the fullness of eternal life in the Lord Jesus Christ.