I invite you, if you have a Bible
this morning, to turn with me to the Book of Acts, the Book
of Acts chapter 20. Chapter 20 of the Book of Acts,
and I want us to begin reading with verse 16. Verse 16, and
read down through the 38th verse. Acts chapter 20, beginning with
verse 16. For Paul had determined to sail
by Ephesus because he would not spend the time in Asia. For he
hasted, if it were possible, for him to be at Jerusalem the
day of Pentecost. And from Miletus he sent to Ephesus,
and called the elders of the church. And when they were come
to him, he said unto them, Ye know from the first day that
I came into Asia, after what manner I have been with you at
all seasons, serving the Lord with all humility of mind, and
with many tears and temptations which befell me by the lying
in wait of the Jews, and how I kept back nothing that was
profitable unto you, but have showed you and have taught you
publicly and from house to house, testifying both to the Jews and
also to the Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our
Lord Jesus Christ. And now, behold, I go bound in
the Spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall
befall me there, save that the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every
city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide in me. But none of these
things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself. so that I might finish my course
with joy, and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus,
to testify the gospel of the grace of God. And now behold,
I know that you all, among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom
of God, shall see my face no more. Wherefore, I take you to
record this day that I am pure from the blood of all men, for
I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God. Take heed therefore unto yourselves
and to all the flock over the which the Holy Ghost hath made
you overseers, to feed the church of God which he hath purchased
with his own blood. For I know this, that after my
departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing
the flock. Also of your own selves shall
men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples
after them. Therefore, watch and remember
that by the space of three years I cease not to warn every one
night and day with tears. And now, brethren, I commend
you to God and to the Word of His grace, which is able to build
you up and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified. I have coveted no man's silver,
or gold, or apparel. Yea, yourselves know that these
hands have ministered unto my necessities, and to them that
were with me. I have showed you all things,
how that soul laboring you ought to support the weak, and to remember
the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed
to give than to receive. And when he had thus spoken,
he kneeled down and prayed with them all. And they all wept sore
and fell on Paul's neck and kissed him, sorrowing most of all for
the words which he spake, that they would see his face no more.
And they accompanied him unto the ship. I want to speak this
morning, God willing, on this question, what is the gospel
worth to you? What is the gospel worth to you? unto you which believe," Peter
says, he is precious. I believe that those that are
believers on the Lord Jesus Christ, those that have been enabled
by God to see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ,
I believe the gospel is worth more than life to them. And this
morning, enabling you to answer this question, I believe that
it may be, if you are truly a child of God, that the Lord will have
to deal with your heart and open your eyes, that you might see
clearly what it is that the Lord Jesus has done for you. The Lord
Jesus is the gospel. He is the gospel. And to understand
the gospel is to understand who Jesus is, and what he did, and
where he is now. to understand the Lord Jesus. Now, I want you to consider,
in the text that we read this morning, consider the Apostle
Paul. And as we consider him, I believe
that we'll have a blessed biblical example of what the gospel ought
to be worth to a child of God in this world. With the full
knowledge that bonds and imprisonment and death awaited him, Paul was
determined to go to Jerusalem to preach the gospel of God's
free and sovereign grace. And he said to his friends at
Ephesus, he said, none of these things move me. I know that I'm
going to suffer affliction at the hands of the Jews. He had
undergone many trials at the hands of the unbelieving Jews.
And he knew that death and imprisonment awaited him. But he said, none
of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself,
so that I might finish my course with joy and the ministry which
I have received of the Lord Jesus, that is, to testify of the gospel
of the grace of God. That was the ministry which Paul
had received. And it didn't make any difference
to him about the trials and the afflictions that he were to experience. He had set it in his heart to
go forward and to perform that ministry which the Lord had given
to him. And in comparison with the great
object of preaching the gospel, Paul did not consider even his
own life to be a precious thing. Paul was a man who was separated
entirely to the gospel of God. Romans chapter 1 and verse 1
says Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle,
separated unto the gospel of God. He was separated unto that
gospel that had saved him, that gospel that was dear to him.
Now there are three things that I want to point out. at the outset
this morning of our message that I believe will help you to understand
a little bit more about this apostle that we're talking about,
the Apostle Paul. Here is a man whose life was
consecrated to the pursuit of one object, one object, that
I might finish my course with joy to testify of the gospel
of the grace of God. Now Paul did at times labor with
his hands to make tents, but he never gave himself to the
pursuit of building a tent business. He did not work for the luxuries
of life, even for the comforts of life. Paul worked to feed
and clothe himself and his fellow laborers in the gospel so that
he might go on and be an instrument in God's hands to preach the
gospel in order that the elect of God would come experientially
into the fold of the gospel. He considered it to be his calling. He believed that God had laid
hold upon him and had separated him from his mother's womb, called
him by his grace in order that the Son of God would be revealed
in his life. His life's business was to make
the gospel known to men and women. Now, the number two thing, the
number one thing, then, is that Paul had one pursuit in his life,
one object that he pursued with all of his strength and all of
his might, and that was the preaching of the gospel. Now, Paul regarded
the gospel as a sacred treasure. He regarded the gospel as a very
precious thing that had been committed to his trust. He says
that I have received of the Lord Jesus. Look in verse 24. He says,
None of these things move me, neither count on my life dear
unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and
the ministry which I have received. the ministry which I have received
of the Lord Jesus." And so the ministry that Paul had been given,
he had received it from Christ, and it was precious to him. 2
Corinthians 4 and 7 says, but we have this treasure in earthen
vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God and
not of us. Now God has entrusted to Paul's
hands and to our hands, if we be children of God, if we be
members of the Lord's church, if we be one of the chosen of
God in this world, God has entrusted into our hands the light of the
gospel. And that gospel is to be preached,
that gospel is to be sent forth by the Lord's living family. In 2 Corinthians 4 and 1 it says,
therefore seeing that we have this ministry, as we have received
mercy, we faint not. Paul says I've got a ministry,
God has entrusted it to me, and I've received mercy of God in
the gospel, and therefore I'm not going to faint. I'm going
to press on, and I'm going to preach this gospel, and I'm going
to spread the light of the truth. in the world. In 1 Timothy 1
verses 11 and 12, Paul says, according to the glorious gospel
of the blessed God, which was committed to my trust. And I thank Christ Jesus our
Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful,
putting me into the ministry. And then, I want you to listen
to these verses. We used them for our text last
Sunday. They're in 2 Corinthians 5, verse
18, 19, and 20, where Paul says, "...and all things are of God,
who hath reconciled us unto himself by Jesus Christ." Paul says that
God had reconciled him. himself that he had been reconciled
to God. You see there was a time when
Saul of Tarsus was an enemy of God. There was a time when Saul
felt that he ought to do all things contrary to the name of
Jesus of Nazareth. There was a time when he was
a lost man. But God had mercy on him, and God reconciled him
unto himself, God reconciled Paul unto himself by Jesus Christ. And Paul says, and he gave to
us the ministry of reconciliation. And what is that ministry? Well,
he spelled it out in verse 19. He said, to wit that God was
in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their
trespasses unto them. Now, we had just a little word
to say about that last week. reconciling the world, not all
men without exception, but this is the world of God's elect.
This is the world of those that God set his affection and love
upon in old time. This is that world that is owned
by God, that is purposed by God to be saved. Now, beloved, if
that's not the case, then we have universal salvation. Because it says that he went
out, God has been in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself,
not imputing their trespasses unto them. Now if it be so that
Jesus Christ died for all men alike, then their trespasses
were all imputed to him and therefore we're to go out and proclaim
universal salvation and we're to bring all men into the church
and baptize them and invite them to the Lord's table. Well, this
is not the case, you see. The Lord Jesus died for a particular
and special people, as we shall show maybe a little later in
our message this morning. And when the Lord Jesus died,
He died for the sins of those that the Father had given to
Him in the eternal everlasting covenant of grace that was entered
into between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit before
the foundation of the world. And He hath committed unto us
Paul says, the word of reconciliation. God reconcile me, Paul says,
and then he committed unto me the word of reconciliation. He gave me a word to go out and
to preach, a word to set forth the gospel. Now then, Paul said,
we are ambassadors for Christ as though God did beseech you
by us. We pray you, in Christ's stead,
be reconciled unto God. And so Paul now, as an ambassador,
an ambassador is somebody that is sent maybe from one nation
to another to seek peace, and Paul said, we are the ambassadors
of God, and we stand in Christ's stead and beseech you, we pray
you, in Christ's stead, be reconciled unto God. So it is our responsibility,
mine as a preacher, Yours as a believer, ours as one of the
Lord's churches, to do whatever we can to carry the light of
the gospel into this dark world in which we live. That is the
commission that the Lord has given unto us. He said in Matthew
28, 18, 19, and 20, And Jesus came and spake unto them and
said, All power is given unto me in heaven and earth. Go ye
and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father,
and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. And he said, teaching
them to observe all things that I have commanded them to observe,
and lo, I'll be with you, even to the winding up of the ages.
And so it's our duty, our responsibility to love this gospel and to consider
its worth. and realize our involvement in
the spread of it and be at the business that God has given us
to do. Now Paul was resolved to be faithful
to that trust. Faithful in declaring the gospel
even if it cost him his life. Now we take note in verse 13
of chapter 21 of the book of Acts. And there's been a prophet
of God, a certain prophet. His name was Agabus. And he had
come down. Paul was getting ready to take
his journey to Jerusalem. He told them what he was expecting. He told the brethren what he
was expecting. And this prophet came down. Kind of like what we might call
a fanny pack. And it was hollow on the inside. Paul's girdle, as the scripture
here calls it, and he bound his own hand, prophesying and saying,
the Holy Ghost says that the Jews at Jerusalem will bind the
man that owns, deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles. And
when we heard these things, both we and they, to Jerusalem, then Paul answered
in verse 13, what mean you to weep and to break mine heart?
For I'm ready not only to be bound only, but also to die at
Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus. I'm ready to die. for this gospel. Paul took this
business of preaching the gospel of God's grace very seriously. And this should be the heart's
prayer of all those who believed in Christ and that have been
born of the Spirit of God and have felt his redeeming power
in our souls. Lord God, give me a heart that
is so separated and so committed to the gospel that nothing else
is of any value to me. Enable me by your grace to give
myself and all that I have down to life itself for the furtherance
of the gospel which has saved me from a never-ending hell. Are we thus committed? Is the
gospel worth all of this to us? How do we feel about the gospel
of God's grace? Now, I want you to turn with
me to the book of Romans, chapter 1. And I want us to consider
here, in Romans chapter 1, verses 14 through verse 16, where the
apostle reveals something else about himself in regards to this
gospel to which he is committed and which he's ready to preach,
even if it means the loss of his life. Here in Romans chapter
1, Paul says in verse 15, he says, So as much as in me is,
I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also.
For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power
of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first,
and also unto the Greek. For therein is the righteousness
of God revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, the
just shall live by faith." Well, the outstanding thing here to
me is that Paul says that he's not ashamed of the gospel. He's
ready to preach it and he's not ashamed of it. Now you see, we're
living in a day where, as there were many in Paul's day, who
were ashamed of the gospel, the true gospel of God's grace. They claimed to preach it, they
claimed to defend it, but the gospel to them was something
that they were ashamed to declare. The word shame means to have
a feeling of fear or shame which prevents a person from doing
a thing. And Paul had no, he was not ashamed. Nothing was going to prevent
him from opening his mouth and speaking the truth of God from
his heart. Now then, let me ask you, have
you ever known anybody who was ashamed of the gospel? Well,
beloved, in our day and time, if a man understands the gospel,
if a man understands it truly, he'll find many who are ashamed
of it. Now let me try, if I can, and
answer the question, who is it that is ashamed of the gospel?
Paul wasn't ashamed of it, and you can go clear through all
of his epistles, and you see him unfolding the mind of God,
you see him unfolding the counsel of God, and revealing all the
great truths of God in his ministry. Well, who is it that is ashamed
of the gospel? Let me say, it is those who have
the ability and the opportunity to preach it, but choose not
to do so. Now, there are many that are
in positions where they could preach the gospel, and they have
an audience, they have a crowd, they have those, they have the
ear of men and women, but they do not preach the gospel. They do not know whether it's
that they don't know the gospel, But it's evident that they don't
preach it. And the people that have the
biggest crowds, the preachers that speak to the most people,
are men who are lying on God and not telling the truth about
God's Son and God's Word. All who preach but do not preach
the pure gospel of God's free and sovereign grace must be ashamed
of the gospel. Now, I don't care what a man
preaches. If he doesn't preach the gospel of God's grace, then
that man hasn't preached. Somebody says, well, he preaches
on prophecy. Somebody said, he's one of the
best preachers on eschatology you can find in America. Somebody
says, well, he preaches on morality, like no other man we ever heard.
Somebody says, he knows Bible history, and he preaches on that.
When somebody said, well, he's a good law preacher. And somebody
else says, well, you know, he's a good preacher on the church.
But beloved, let me tell you this morning, if a preacher has
not preached the gospel of Christ in its purity and set forth the
way that God saves sinners clearly through the message that God
has revealed in his word, that man has not preached. Well, you
say, when has a man preached? When has a man really preached?
Preacher, if these men are not preaching, then when has a man
really preached? Well, I think a man has preached.
when he preaches God as he is to men as they really are. Now you see that is a big statement
indeed. When a man has preached God as
he is to men as they are. Now, beloved, the God of the
Bible is an absolute, total sovereign. The God of the Bible is no weakling
as men have pictured Him in our day and time. The God of the
Bible, the Jesus of the gospel, is not a floor mat that men can
wipe their feet on and do with whatever they please. The God
of the Bible is a sovereign and the Lord Jesus Christ is God
manifest in flesh and he's a sovereign and the father has life in himself
and he's given to the son to have life in himself and he gives
life to whomsoever he will. He's a sovereign and so we must
preach God as he is. to men as they are. Well, men
as they are. You see, men are dead. The Bible
says in Ephesians 2, 1, in trespasses and sins, men are dead. Men are separated from God from
the one of faith and love toward the Lord Jesus Christ. Man is
a wiggling maggot of the dust. He's a lost sinner. He's a sinner
undone and unclean. And until God is pleased to give
him life, and to raise up his dead soul, and to give him everlasting
life through the Spirit, and regeneration by the Divine Spirit,
that sinner is lost, and he needs to be told that. It needs to
be preached. and he needs to be preached the
sinner down and Christ God up as the Word of God sets him forth.
And so then, beloved, when is a man preached? Then that's when
he's preached. He's preached when he preaches
God as he is and man as he is, or two men as they are. Now,
when does he preach Christ? Well, he's preached Christ when
he sets forth Christ to be all that God demands of him. Now,
if we understand the sinner's need, that the sinner needs righteousness,
God demands perfection, and the sinner don't have any. We preach
Christ as being that one who is the all-sufficient Savior,
the one who can save a man from his sin, the one who can provide
him with what God demands of him. Now, I'm here this morning,
I want to be frank with you. I'm not ashamed of the gospel.
I know that all of us together here can pool our righteousness,
and we can give it, we can elect and choose somebody that we'll
give it to, and it still won't be enough to save that sinner
from his sin. But I'm talking about a Jesus.
I'm talking about God's Son, who has a righteousness that
will meet the need of every case here. You a perfect righteousness,
my friend, that will save you before the bar of God, that will
make you to be accepted before God as you stand in Him. I'm telling you, no man goes
to heaven except what God demands of him is provided for him in
the person of Jesus Christ. It must be provided what God
demands. You can't raise it. You can't raise it. The Bible
says man's heart is deceitful above all things, and it's desperately,
incurably wicked, and who can know it? Only God is able to
save you, my friend, and to give you what God demands. Well, when
we preach Christ as the only way to God, that's when we preach.
John 14 and 6, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man
cometh unto the Father but by me. Well, we're not ashamed to
say that, are we? No, Paul wasn't ashamed to say
it, and Jesus taught it. He said, I'm the way, I'm the
truth, I'm the life, and no man is coming to the Father except
he come by me. And then Jesus went on in John
10 and 9 and said that I'm the door to eternal life. And we
preach faithfully when we preach that there's one door. Jesus
said, I am the door. I'm not a door. I'm the door.
I'm the door. I'm the only door. And if a man
comes through this door by me, if any man enter, he shall be
saved and shall go in and out and find pasture. It's as a man
comes to Christ that he can find salvation. There's no salvation
in any other. No salvation in any other except
in Christ. When we preach Christ, being
formed in the center by the Holy Spirit. He becomes the hope of
glory to the center. And that's when we have preached
Christ in you, the hope of glory. Colossians 1 and 27. Now, beloved,
a Christ not in you is a Christ not yours. Only as Christ is
formed in the heart of a sinner, only as there's a union between
the sinner and the Lord Jesus Christ, only as we can say, Christ
dwelleth in me, then and then only do we have a hope for eternal
glory. Now you can go all through the
motions, You can be baptized, and you can be confirmed, and
you can do whatever else that religious philosophers and teachers
tell you you ought to do, but until Christ dwells in your heart
by faith, you have no hope, my friend, for eternity. That's
what's involved in not being ashamed of the gospel. Now then,
Christ, Bless God he is being preached. Paul said that he's
being preached. He said, I know there's some
men that are preaching him out of contention and some have other
motives. But he says, I bless the Lord
that Christ is being preached. Well, I want to get back a little
bit to this question about who is ashamed of the gospel. We've
tried to show you that what a man preaches when he's not ashamed
of it. Well, what does he preach? Let's get back a little bit to
that. Those who acknowledge in private what they refuse to preach
in public is ashamed of the gospel. And you never find that with
the Apostle Paul, never. I mean that he would not acknowledge
anything in private that he would get up and withhold from people
when he was speaking in public. And we have a lot of preachers
and they say, well, you know, I believe that, but I can't preach
that. I can't preach that. If I was
to preach that, my church would be empty next week. I wouldn't
have anybody to preach to. If I preached that God was sovereign
and that he had a people that he chose from the foundation
of the world, if I preached effectual redemption, I wouldn't have anybody
next week. Well, let me go on to say that
those who use ambiguous words and phrases, being careful not
to offend their hearers with the truth of God. In a word,
any man who seeks to please men in his preaching, who molds his
message to win the approval and the applause, of his hearers,
refusing to bear the reproach of Christ for whatever reason,
is a man who I would say is ashamed of the gospel. And if any preacher
who is ashamed of the gospel is ashamed of Christ, then in
my book, he's a false prophet. You just mark it down. Well,
let me make haste to say that God's true servants are never
found to be ashamed of the gospel. They glory in it. They glory
in it. And they don't have to be primed
to get them to preach the gospel. They don't have to have a select
crowd of people to get them to preach the truth about God, tell
the truth about God. God's servants faithfully preach,
electing love and effectual redemption, sovereign grace, and they do
it openly, they do it publicly, they do it boldly, without regard
for their personal interest. Once a preacher starts thinking
about his own interest, he's done. I grew up back east around
within spitting distance or a stone's throw with a strong arm from
the 500 mile racetrack at Speedway, Indiana. And I heard many times
those race drivers interrogated, interviewed, and they would,
one of the things that all of them would say is that If a man,
when he begins to take, when a man begins to consider himself
and when he gets worried about what's going to happen to him,
he's done as a race driver. You just can't drive and have
any thought about your own personal safety. You just got to get in
there and go and go and go without any regard to yourself. Now once
a preacher, she starts saying, well now wait a minute, if I
preach this, Well, there won't be enough money to raise a gnat's
family. I won't be able to... I'll never have anything if I
preach this or if I preach that. While the church, well, I mean,
it'll just not ever grow. And, of course, preachers are
told that in their seminary studies that there's some things you
leave alone. Don't you touch that. And I know
some preachers get so mad when you bring up the doctrine of
election, the doctrine of God having chosen his people from
the foundation of the world. They get real upset about that
because they are thinking about their own interest. And when
a man does that, he's done as a preacher. Paul said, I'm not
ashamed. I'm not ashamed of that gospel
of which the Lord Jesus Christ is the sum and the substance.
There is no other gospel. And the gospel, let's talk a
little bit about that. The gospel is a declaration of
Christ's glorious person. This is the reason why it's so
valuable. It's a declaration of Christ's glorious person.
He's the almighty God who cannot fail. And he's a man, he's the
God-man. As much God as he is man, as
much man as he is God. He came to save his people, the
Bible said, from their sin. And the gospel is a proclamation
of redemption accomplished. And that's why we're so in love
with the gospel, is that the gospel is a proclamation of redemption
accomplished. It's not an effort. Put forth
merrily. It's a redemption that is accomplished. And I'm glad to be able to get
up here and tell you that the Lord Jesus bought back sinners
and he didn't leave any of them in hock. Every one of them he
paid for. Not a hoof. The Bible says when
the children of Israel left Egypt, God so delivered them there was
not a hoof left behind. even the animals, God delivered
them. And so the Lord will deliver
all of his people. And this is a redemption accomplished
by Christ. Christ Jesus, by the shedding
of his blood, has put away the sins of his people. Not one of
those sinners for whom Christ died shall by any possibility
be lost. This is the proclamation of effectual
redemption, and you cannot preach the gospel of Christ without
preaching it. And the gospel is the announcement
of Christ's saving power. Oh, there are sinners here that
could tell you about the power of God in their own lives. how
God has touched them, how God raised them up, how God saved
them, how God delivered them from habits, how God lifted them
up and have given them a measure of victory. Paul said, the gospel
is the dynamite of God unto salvation unto everyone that believes it.
He's able to save to the uttermost, Hebrews 7 and 25, all who come
to God by him. Say, preacher, my sin and my
guilt looms heavily over me. I'll tell you, he's able to save
to the uttermost all who come to God by Him, and He has power
over all flesh. And all he came to save, he will
bring home to glory. Luke 19 and 10 says, the Son
of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. And
everybody who truly gets lost, the Son of Man saves him. All
these people running around here saying, I'm lost, I'm lost, I'm
lost. They don't believe a thing in
the world. They don't believe that. They don't believe that
at all. You get a man really lost, and that man is interested
in being found. And the only people that are
really interested in being found are those whom God himself gets
lost. And when they get lost, really
lost, then they're going to be interested in Jesus Christ and
the gospel. The gospel is the revelation
of Christ's exaltation and glory. You can read that in Romans 1
verse 3 and 4. The Son of God was raised up from the dead. He ascended on high to be seated
at the right hand of eternal majesty. He rules the universe
from the throne in total sovereignty to give the gifts that he brought
on Calvary to his elect. repentance, faith, life, and
victory. And this Jesus, he will not be
discouraged. He will not fail. The Christ
we trust, the Christ we worship, the Christ we preach is sovereign. He's successful. He is the saving
substitute. Now, beloved, there is no more
glorious message in all the world than that of the gospel of the
Lord Jesus Christ that we've been talking to you about. The
greatest privilege that God ever give a sinner, other than the
gift of faith in the Lord Jesus, is that of hearing the gospel
preached by a faithful witness of the gospel. And my friend,
the most dangerous thing that we encounter in this life is
to trifle, and we find many people doing it, trifle with the gospel
when they hear it. How do men and women trifle with
the gospel, you ask? Well, I want you to turn back,
and we're going to hurry on here to a conclusion, to the book
of Acts, chapter 13. Please turn with me if you have
a Bible. I want you to follow with me,
and we'll be closing here in just a little bit. But in the
book of Acts chapter 13, I want to read beginning with verse
40 and 41. Let me read verse 40 and 41 and
we'll skip a few verses. Beware, therefore, lest that
come upon you which is spoken of you in the prophets. Behold,
ye despisers and wander and perish. For I work a work in your days,
a work which you shall in no wise believe, though a man declare
it unto you. And when the Jews were gone out
of the synagogue, the Gentiles besought that these words might
be preached to them the next Sabbath. Now, when the congregation
was broken up, many of the Jews and religious proselytes followed
Paul and Barnabas, who, speaking to them, persuaded them to continue
in the grace of God. And the next Sabbath day came
almost the whole city together to hear the word of God. But
when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy and
spake against those things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting
and blaspheming. Then Paul and Barnabas waxed
bold and said, It was necessary that the word of God should first
have been spoken to you. But seeing you put it from you
and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn
to the Gentiles. For so hath the Lord commanded
us, saying, I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that
thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth. And
when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified
the word of the Lord. and as many as were ordained
to eternal life believed." So we see here that these Jews,
they heard the gospel, they were indifferent, and they were filled
with unbelief and athopy. They were contradicting and blaspheming
what Paul preached. And beloved, to do this, as was
the case here with these Jews, is to flirt with reprobation. You say, well, what is reprobation?
Why, it is a judicial act of God whereby sinners who refuse
to believe the gospel are damned while they live. Reprobation
is God's response to a man's unbelief and his rebellion. It
is an irreversible and irrevocable judgment which God brings upon
some men and women who have treated the gospel of His grace with
something less than God demands of a man. They've treated it
with less than love and faith. They haven't esteemed that gospel
to be worth anything whatsoever. These Jews heard from God through
Paul and Barnabas. They were comforted with the
gospel, confronted with the gospel of the glory of Christ, and they
treated the message as useless and unimportant. They put it
from them and judged themselves unworthy of everlasting life. Paul says that's enough, and
he said, we're going to turn now to the Gentiles. Now, my
friend, these Jews, I believe they were reprobated, and I believe
they went to hell while they lived. They were already as sure
for hell as if they were already there because of their rejection,
their outright rejection and rebellion against the only message
there is in the entire universe that can save a sinner from his
sin. Now God can put a man's conscience
to sleep so that he never again feels anything and that he never
again feels any guilt of sin or he can give you such hardness
of heart that you cannot believe and you cannot be saved. Salvation
is not a human project. It is a divine project. It's
in the hands of God and it's extremely dangerous to refuse
and to deny the witness of God, the witness that God has given
concerning His Son, and for one to persist in unbelief, and to
turn his back on that which is plainly revealed in God's Word,
that salvation is in a person, and that salvation is in a person,
and that person is Christ. This, my friend, will prove to
be fatal. You cannot go to heaven apart
from Christ and being in Christ and knowing Him as your own Savior. Now, God does not look kindly
upon those who refuse to honor His Son and looks at His gospel
and says, it's of no value, it's of no worth to me. God does not
take that kindly. Kiss the Son, the Bible says,
lest he be angry with you, and you perish in the way when his
anger is kindled but a little. Kiss the Son. Well, you say,
when something like this happens, like happened to these Jews here,
does this not in some way or another put God in a bind? Here
this preacher has been preaching and It's Paul the Apostle, and
he's a great preacher. He's a writer of Scripture. And
yet the Jews did not receive him and his message. Didn't this
discourage Paul? Well, didn't it distort the purpose
of God? Well, my friend, no, it did not. Now, Paul, he knew
that any time he preached that he had a victory. and that his
message was a smell of life to some, and it was a stench of
death to others. The message Paul preached had
two effects. It's like the sun, it can melt
the wax, but it can harden also the clay, and the message will
have an effect And it will not return to God void. Now God has
all of his bases covered. Look at verses 47 and 48. These
are great verses. I want you to look at this now.
For so hath the Lord commanded... Let's read why we're not ashamed
of the gospel. This is why we love the gospel and why it's
of great worth to us. It cannot be thwarted. Its purpose
will not be brought to nothing. God will have his people. For
so hath the Lord commanded, saying, I have set you to be a light
of the Gentiles, that ye should be for salvation unto somebody
unto the ends of the world, unto the ends of the earth. And when
the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, glorified the word
of the Lord, and as many as were ordained to eternal life, believed. Now, I want to say here, I want
to say four things. I don't intend to preach on these
things. Leave you with them and let you meditate on them. Number
one, in verse 48, the last part of the verse, and as many as
were ordained to eternal life believed. This is the reason
why I say that Paul wasn't discouraged. This is the reason why I say
that God wasn't in a bind. That God had his bases all covered. You listen to what the Word of
God says. Number one, we have here in this verse mentioned
a particular people, as many, no more, no less. This is a specific
number which can never be increased or decreased. Listen to me. This phrase, as many, designates
a definite number or group of people chosen by God before the
foundation of the world and given to Jesus Christ in the covenant
of grace, John 17. They are born again by the power
of the Holy Spirit, Ephesians 2.1. They are called by saving
faith in Christ. Acts chapter 2 and verse 39,
the promise is unto you and your children and to as many as the
Lord our God shall call. So you have here a particular
people. Number two, you've got a particular
action. We're ordained. The word ordained
means to appoint or to assign to a certain position or lot.
The verse might be translated like this, as many as were appointed
or assigned to eternal life, they believed. Now if you will
go back and read the context, you'll no doubt see that the
Holy Spirit is informing us of some people who believed Paul's
message in spite of all the opposition of the Jews. These believed because
they were ordained to believe. So now we have here a particular
people and we have a people, a particular action, these people
were ordained to eternal life. Number three, you have a particular
benefit, eternal life. This was the result of God having
a particular people and having ordained them, they experienced
eternal life. Life that lasts forever. Life
that began in eternity and will last throughout the ages of eternity
to come. Eternal life. It is to know God. It's to know Christ. This is
life eternal, John 17 and 3, that they might know Thee, the
only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent. What have
we learned so far? Well, as many, no more, no less,
as were ordained, appointed, determined, and assigned to eternal
life, they believed. They believed on the Lord Jesus
Christ. They know God. They know Christ.
Well, what did these do? Well, let me just say this in
the fourth place and impress this upon your mind. We're coming
now to the close. A particular means. What happened?
Well, they believed. They believed. Somebody said,
I believed. I'm interested when somebody
says, I believe. I believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
I believe that salvation is by faith. Saving faith, somebody
well said, is not offered to man by God. It is conferred upon
a sinner. Faith is conferred, and that
word conferred means it's granted, it is bestowed by God. It is not offered by God, it
is bestowed upon that sinner that God has chosen, that God
has ordained from eternity to be saved. To be sure, faith is
not the cause or the condition of eternal life. It is the result
of a man being born again from above. It's the result of it.
If you've been born again, you believe. You believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ, it's because God has sent his Spirit from above
and made you alive through faith. He's made you alive. Now then,
it is vital, faith is vital, because if you've been born again,
you've got it. And you ain't gonna have it unless you have
been born again. True saving faith. No man can
go to heaven without faith, without believing on the Lord Jesus.
It is the gift of God. We're told that in Ephesians
2 and 8, 2, 8, and 9. Without it, no man can please
God. Hebrews 11, 6. Without faith, it is impossible
to please God. They that come to God must believe
Him to be who He declared and who He revealed Himself to believe.
Faith is believing and it's trusting Christ, His blood and righteousness. It is trusting Him as your all
in all, casting yourself upon Him and believing upon Him. Now the question is, after hearing
all of this, what is the gospel worth to you? What is the gospel
worth to you? Is the gospel... Let's look at
it like this. Let's say that you knew that
in the morning in a public place in Great Falls, you were going
to be flogged, whipped publicly for coming here today to hear
the gospel. The question is this, would you
be here next Sunday? Would you be here next Sunday?
You say, well, I don't know whether I would do that. Okay, now here's
another question. Let's say you were flogged in
the morning. Would you be able, would you be able to say, well,
the will of God be done. I'm not ashamed of the gospel,
and I will go on regardless of what it costs me, regardless
of whether I'm censored for it, regardless of whether my livelihood
is threatened. You know, if you read the 11th
chapter of the book of Hebrews, you find some who took joyfully
the spoiling of their goods. knowing that in heaven they had
a better and far more enduring substance. They believed God.
The gospel was worth something to those people. And whatever
they had to pay, whatever price they had to pay, they were willing
to pay it to identify themselves with that precious, precious
gospel, which the Lord has revealed in his word. Now, beloved, we
tried not to waste your time this morning. Time, time. is what all of us have in God's
bank. And there's not a one of us here
who knows his or her balance. Not a one of us. We don't know
anything about how much time we got. But I've tried not to
waste your time. And I cannot save you, but I
will preach you to the Christ that can save you. And that's
what we've attempted to do. And may God this morning give
you remembrance of this message. And may you go out of here and
say, I just wonder, I'm going to have to think about this. About what this gospel, what
it's worth to me. What it's really worth. Somebody
said, well I drive a long ways to hear it. Bless your heart.
Bless your heart, I know you do. Some of you do. Bless you. Bless you. But listen to me.
It's worth it. It's worth it. Not to hear this
preacher, but to hear the gospel. Many men can preach the gospel
better than I can, but there ain't a man alive got a better
gospel to preach than what I preach. I'm telling you that. Amen? Amen. That's the truth of God. May
the Lord bless you. May the Lord bless you. Mike,
would you bring us