One of the things I love about
that psalm is David is asking the Lord to do something about
his sin. That is the subject of that psalm. And if you and I are ever taught
that we can't do anything about our sin, that is going to be
our prayer, this prayer of David. Now, would you turn back to Acts
chapter 14? I've entitled this message, What
Gospel Preaching Does. I was listening to a message
by Brother Henry Mahan this week and he made this statement with
regard to the call to the ministry. He said, I don't know much about
it and I don't think anybody else does either. I thought that's
about the best thing I've ever heard with regard to the call
to the ministry. I don't know much about it and
I don't think anybody else does either. I'll put my name in on
that. But. What gospel preaching does,
this is a very. Important. Subject to me and
to you. And note the word gospel preaching. Most. of what goes on under the
name of gospel preaching is not gospel preaching. It's preaching,
but it's not gospel preaching. I want to read a passage of scripture
from 2 Corinthians 11, verse 13. Paul says, for such are false
apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into
the apostles of Christ. This is how they come. This is
how they present themselves. And no marvel for Satan himself
is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore, it's no great thing
if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness. whose end shall be according
to their works. Most of what goes on under the
name of preaching, most, is satanically inspired. This is Satan's main
sphere of operation. I just read it to you. He comes
as an angel of light, and his ministers as ministers of righteousness. Now for preaching to be gospel
preaching, look back, you're probably still there. It's got
to be the preaching of the word. Verse 25, and when they had preached
the word in Perga. And that doesn't merely mean
they opened the Bible and Read a scripture and make comments
from that scripture and say, I'm preaching the word. You can
do that and not preach the word. The preaching of the word is
the preaching of the word, the gospel message from the word,
the written word, the scriptures that reveal the living word,
the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what's meant by preaching
the word, not just opening up the Bible and saying, here's
what this means. And here was what that means. It's a message,
the message of the gospel. It's from the word of God. If
it's not from the word of God, it's no good. It's not even worth
listening to. And it reveals the living word,
the Lord Jesus Christ. Now preaching is secondly, what
God does through a man. Preaching is what God does. I
want to make the emphasis on what God does. I don't want to
put the emphasis on the preacher. You know, there's a understanding
of clergy and laity. I think that's anathema. I think
it's evil. It's not right. The preacher's
a man, a sinful man, a weak man, no different than anybody else.
He's a man. But it's what God does through
a man. in verse 27 of our text, and
when they were come and gathered the church together, they rehearsed
all that God had done with them. First Corinthians 121, it pleased
God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that belief. What's going on right now is
where faith comes from. Let me repeat that. What's going
on right now, if you're gonna have faith, if I'm gonna have
faith, what's going on right now is where faith comes from. Titus 1.3 says, how shall they,
or I mean Romans 10 says, how shall they hear without a preacher?
How shall they preach except they be sent? Faith cometh by
hearing. That's the gate faith comes through.
Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Titus 1.3
says, God has manifested his word through preaching, which
is committed to my trust. Now that's how important this
is. It's just as important to you as it is to me. Preaching is preaching the word.
Preaching is preaching what God does through a man. and preaching,
true preaching, the preaching of the gospel is something that's
always caused by the grace of God. Look in verse 26, and thence
they sailed to Antioch from whence they had been recommended. Now that word recommended is
the same word translated in Romans 8.32, delivered. That's what
the word is, they'd been delivered. The word is in the perfect passive
tense. It's not something they initiated. It's something that God calls
the grace of God. They were recommended, they were
delivered unto the grace of God. Grace is the cause of true preaching,
the grace of God. That's how, that's why this is
so important. Grace is the cause of true preaching
and the grace of God is the subject of true preaching. And fourthly,
preaching is a work which those God has sent always is fulfilled. Look what verse 27 says, or verse
26 says, and thence they sailed to Antioch from whence they had
been recommended to the grace of God for the work which they
fulfilled or completed. It's always going to be completed.
And if it's not completed, it's not true. preaching. Now I want to be a true preacher. I know you want me to be a true
preacher and you want to hear a true preacher. You don't want
to hear the words of a man, just a man's opinion or man's thoughts.
You want to hear the word. You're not interested in what
my thoughts are. You're interested in what the word has to say. What gospel preaching does. Now verse 21, And when they had preached the
gospel, I love the definite article, the gospel. Moreover, brethren,
I declare unto you the gospel. Not a gospel, the gospel. And he defines it like this,
how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures. Not just that Christ died for
our sins. You can say that and never preach the gospel. It's
how that Christ died for our sins according to the Old Testament
scriptures. Now, here's what the preaching
of the gospel does, verse 21. And when they had preached the
gospel to that city and had taught, Well, yes, the gospel teaches
many, but that's really not what that word is. It's when they
had made many disciples. Now, what that tells us is it's
the preaching of the gospel that is the power of God into salvation. It's the preaching of the gospel
that makes many disciples. It's the preaching of the gospel
that makes one disciple. It's God speaking to a person
through that message. And that message is what makes
many disciples, followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. In other
words, it's through the preaching of the gospel that men are saved. It's through the preaching of
the gospel that you will be saved or you've been saved and that
I've been saved and I will be saved. Somebody says, what do
you mean by saved? What do you mean by saved? Saved from what?
Well, a lot of things you could say about that, but the first
thing I think of is saved from God. I've sinned against him. I'm
in trouble with him. I need to be saved from him.
I need, oh my soul, I need to be saved from myself. You know
who the biggest problem I have? I can think of all kinds of people
with my problems, but nothing like this one. This one, I need to
be saved from myself. I need to be saved from my sins. Oh, I need to be saved from my
sins. Matthew 121, thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall
save his people from their sins. Now, if I'm saved from my sins,
that means I'm never gonna have to give an account for it. I'm saved
from the penalty of sin. I'm just before God. If I'm saved,
that means I have no guilt before God. That means before God, I
have never sinned. That's what justification is.
It's not just as if you've never sinned. If you're justified,
you've never sinned. That's how thoroughly Christ
put away that sin. It's gone. You have his righteousness,
the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ. Saved from the
power of my sin. What's that mean? Well, when
you're born again, born from above, born of the Spirit, you're
enabled to do things you never were able to do before. You can
believe the gospel. You can look to Christ. You can
rest in Him. You can hear. There was a time
when you couldn't hear. You can hear now. You've been
saved from the power of sin. Now, it doesn't mean you're not
still a sinner because you are. So what do you mean that you've
never sinned and you're still a sinner? Well, it's just, that's
the way it is. I mean, read the Bible, you'll know exactly what
I mean. It's just that, yeah, you said we don't sin anymore.
I didn't say we didn't sin anymore. I said we've never sinned. We've
never sinned if we're justified. We stand perfect before God.
And then I'm going to experience the great end of predestination
being conformed perfectly to the image of God's dear son,
saved from the very presence of sin. And all that comes through
the preaching of the gospel. It doesn't happen apart from
that. Nobody ever just opens up the word and just figures
out everything. It doesn't happen. I was talking
to someone recently who said that happened, and I said, no,
it didn't. And he didn't agree, and I didn't pursue it because
I thought, what's the point? If God teaches him, he'll know.
He'll know. I can't teach somebody, but if
God teaches, you'll know. It pleased God, listen to this
scripture. I've already quoted it once. It pleased God through
the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. When they had preached the gospel
in that city, verse 21, and had taught many, they made many disciples. People were saved. People were
brought to a saving knowledge of Christ. Through that, they
returned again to Lystra and to Iconium and Antioch. Now, there's significance to
that. Every one of these three places
they'd been kicked out of. They'd been beat. They'd been
ran out of town in all three of these places. Happened everywhere
he went. Everywhere he went, he knew this was coming. I mean,
he just, but they went back. Why? To preach the gospel. You see, when you preach the
gospel, you keep preaching the gospel. And this is the feeding
of God's sheep. That's why they returned to these
places, because these people needed to hear the gospel. I
need to hear the gospel, don't you? I need to hear the gospel
continually. And these sheep, what the Lord
say to Peter, Peter, do you love me? Yes, Lord, feed my sheep.
Feed my sheep. The preaching of the gospel is
the feeding of God's sheep. And they returned to those places
preaching. In verse 22, confirming the souls of the disciples,
strengthening the souls of the disciples. Once again, this is
what gospel preaching does. If by the grace of God, you're
enabled to hear the gospel and the power of God, the Holy Spirit,
if by the grace of God, I'm enabled to preach the gospel and the
power of the Holy Spirit, it's gonna do me good and it's gonna
do you good. It's going to confirm, it's going to strengthen the
souls of the disciples. And I need strengthened, I'm
so continually led to look to myself right now. You think after
all these years you wouldn't be doing that anymore. Yeah,
you would, but I do. You know why? Because I still
have a sinful nature. I still have an old man that
constantly looks to itself, constantly examines itself to see whether
or not I'm saved rather than looking to Christ. And I need
to hear the gospel over and over again. I have to hear the blessed
sound over and over again. and they came to confirm, to
strengthen the souls of the disciples. This is how you become established. This is how we become edified,
built up through the preaching of the gospel. And there's nothing
better in this world than when the Lord enables you to hear
the gospel and you know you're saved. That's when I know I'm
saved. I mean, while I'm hearing the
gospel, Not something else. There's other preaching I might
hear that made me think, maybe I'm not saved. Well, you know
why? The gospel was preached. That's what, when you hear gospel,
a gospel that makes you think, well, I don't measure up enough.
I don't do enough. I don't this, I don't that. That's
not gospel preaching. There's no comfort in that. There's
always comfort in the gospel. If you hear the gospel, the gospel's
comforting. And that's what gospel preaching
does. It strengthens and encourages. Now look what he says next. In
verse 22, confirming or strengthening the souls of the disciples and
exhorting them to continue in the faith. Now this verb is used
108 times in the New Testament. It means to call to one side. It means to encourage. It means
to exhort. It really means to call to action,
to admonish, to beseech, to comfort. They exhorted them to continue
in the faith. Oh, I need to be exhorted to
continue in the faith, to continue looking to Christ, the faith,
the faith of God's elect, the acknowledging of the truth, which
is after godliness. But here's the point I wanna
make, exhorting them. True preaching, if it's preaching, It's not like
a lecture. You know, you go and hear a lecture
about a subject and you become more knowledgeable about it through
hearing that lecture. And you're given data and information
and it fills your head and you become more understanding. I'm
not good for that. That's not what preaching is.
Preaching is calling on men to do something. Always. Now, The biggest thing you're
called upon to tell men to do is nothing. You know, that's the hardest
thing, to do nothing. To look to Christ only. That's what preaching
is. It's an exhortation to do nothing.
It's an exhortation to look to Christ. It's an exhortation to
walk with Him. It's an exhortation to, you know,
all the aspects of the gospel. You know, you believe the gospel,
it's an exhortation to be poor. Don't you want to be poor? Mourn. To be meek. To hunger and thirst
after righteousness. To be pure in heart. To be merciful. to be a peacemaker, to be persecuted
for righteousness sake. There's exhortation involved
in the preaching of the gospel. It's not just giving up and spouting
off some facts and educating people. There's much more than
education. There's revelation, God by His
Spirit revealing Himself, calling upon us to do something. exhorting them to continue in
the faith, brought a message on that a few weeks ago, and
that we must, through much tribulation, enter into the kingdom of God. Now, what I named this point
in my notes is true preaching doesn't candy coat things. Much tribulation, stress, pressure,
stress from without, There are folks who have no love for this
message and are opposed to this message and will be opposed to
you and stress from within. Dealing with your own sinfulness,
dealing with your own unbelief, dealing with your own weakness,
it ain't easy. We must, through much tribulation,
that's oppressing. Oppressing is what it means,
oppressing, stress, pressure. We must, through much tribulation,
enter the kingdom of heaven. There's nothing easy about it.
I tell you what, the emphasis on preaching, making things more
convenient and easy, God's not in that. He's never into convenience. He's never into making things
easy. No, we must, through much tribulation, enter the kingdom
of God. This exhortation. Verse 23. And when they had ordained them
elders in every city, and had prayed with fasting, they commended
them to the Lord on whom they believed. Gospel preaching makes
other preachers. Yeah, it does. Gospel preaching
makes other preachers, when they'd ordained them elders. 2 Timothy
4.2 says, the things that thou has heard of me among many witnesses,
and I think this is important, the things you've heard me among
many witnesses, what I've said publicly. What a man really believes
is what he says publicly. What I've said among many witnesses,
not what I've said to you when I knew that that's what you wanted
to hear. What I've said among many witnesses, what a man preaches
publicly. The same commit thou to faithful
men who may be able to teach others also. Now, In this thing of preaching, you
may not be called to preach, but you sure are interested in
people coming to a knowledge of Christ. You want people to
be saved. And you can preach, you don't
have to be called to preach to preach the gospel to somebody.
As far as a call to a public ministry, you wanna preach the
gospel to everybody you're around. And you want people to come to
a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ the Lord. You're not saved, I'm
not saved if I'm not interested in other people being saved.
That's just all there is to it. Anybody that knows the Lord desires
other people to know the Lord and come to a saving knowledge
of him. And they ordained them elders in every church, and look
what it says, and they prayed with fasting. They prayed with
fasting. Now, what this tells me about
the ministry, true preaching of the gospel, there's really
two things required, but there's a Holy Spirit required, two things
mentioned here. Number one, prayer, and number
two, fasting or self-denial. That's what that represents,
prayer and self-denial. When Peter told them to ordain
the deacons, it was that we could give ourselves first to prayer.
You see, prayer says, I can't do anything. That's what prayer
says. Prayer says, I can't preach. I can't make a sentence make
sense. Nobody will believe unless you're
pleased to bless it. And you pray, well, I really
brought a good message today. No, you didn't. No, you didn't.
All you can hope is the Lord takes it, and blesses it, and
reveals himself, and you pray. And fasting represents, is it
the physical fasting? Well, if you're physically fasting,
physically fast. I think folks ought to do it.
The Lord said, when you fast. Here's my only comment about it, don't
let me know about it. Don't let me know about it. Well, I was
fasting yesterday. Oh. Good, what do you want me
to say about that? But the point is, it's self-denial. If I'm gonna preach the gospel,
I'm to deny, promote myself, pushing myself forward, trying
to glorify myself. Deny yourself. Take up your cross
daily and follow the Lord Jesus Christ. That's always involved
in the true preaching of the gospel. It's not fatalistic.
It's not just putting it out there, there's prayer and there
is fasting. Now look in verse 23, and when
they had ordained them elders in every church and had prayed
with fasting, they commended them to the Lord on whom they
had believed. They commended them Now, what
that means is true preaching, that when I commend you to the
Lord, or I commend, if I commend you to the Lord, Lord save them.
I can't do anything for them. And in true preaching, you're
commended to the Lord, I can't do anything for you. I'm to preach
the gospel and let you alone and see what the Lord does. I'm
not to try to manipulate you. I'm to preach the gospel to you
and stand back and see what the Lord does. I'm entrusting you
to the Lord. I'm commending you to the Lord.
I can't do anything for you, neither can anybody else. You
can't do anything for yourself, but the Lord can. And the Lord does. Paul said to the Ephesian elders
in Ephesians chapter 20, verse 32, now I commend you, entrust
you to God and the word of his grace. And when they had ordained
them elders in every church and prayed with fasting, they commended
them to the Lord on whom they had believed. They weren't talking
about somebody they didn't know. They were commending them to
the one whom they believed, verse 24. And after they had passed
throughout Pisidia, they came to Pamphylia. And when they had
preached the word in Perga, they went down unto Atalia. And then sailed to Antioch from
Lynch, they had been recommended to the grace of God for the work
which they had fulfilled. Now, what I get from that is
when the gospel is preached, there's always a spreading of
the gospel. Look to all these places they
went, preaching the word. They went everywhere preaching
the word. There's a spreading of the gospel.
And my dear friends, this is our desire for the gospel to
be heard. We know we can't save anybody,
but we know he does. And we want everybody to hear
the gospel. I want everybody in Lexington,
Kentucky to hear the gospel, don't you? I want everybody in
Central Kentucky. I want everybody in the world
to hear the gospel. Go and preach the gospel to every
creature, the Lord says. There is a spreading of the gospel
in the true preaching of the gospel. You see, There is no
salvation apart from the preaching, the hearing, and the believing
of the word. Romans 1, 16 and 17, Paul said,
I'm not ashamed of the gospel, for it, the gospel, is the power
of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth. Not to those
who don't believe. It's not the power of God to
salvation to them. Christ is the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believeth. Now, nobody's going to be saved
that doesn't believe. Nobody's going to be saved that
hadn't heard. Nobody's going to hear without
the preaching of the Word, the preaching of the Gospel. Verse
26. And then they sailed to Antioch
from whence they'd been, uh, recommended to the grace of God
from which they fulfilled. Where does it say they preach
the word? Oh yeah. Verse 25, when they preach the
word in Perga, they went down from these different places.
There is this preaching of the word. That's what gospel preaching
is. Paul said to Timothy, Timothy,
preach the word. Don't explain it away, don't
keep song about it. Preach the word, whatever God's
word declares, preach it. And see what God does with it.
That's what Paul did. He preached the word. Verse 26. And then they sailed
to Antioch from whence they had been recommended or delivered
to the grace of God for the work which they had fulfilled. Now,
it was from Antioch. If you'll remember in Acts chapter
13, it was from Antioch they went out. The church at Antioch
sent them out. And it was the grace of God that
sent them out. You see, preaching is the work
of God's grace. True preaching. It's the work
of God's grace. And the subject is the grace
of God. And the power is the saving grace
of God. And notice what it says about
it, for the work which they fulfilled, they completed. You see, if God calls us to preach, you
know what we're gonna do? We're gonna fulfill that calling. If God calls us to be a believer,
you know what we're gonna do? We're gonna fulfill that calling.
We're gonna persevere. all the way to the end. We're
not going to quit. We're not going to stop. We're
going to continue in the faith. They fulfilled that calling. Verse 27, and when they were come and had
gathered the church together. Now, In preaching, sometimes
you just preach to one person, I realize that. I preached to one person before,
probably many of you have. But in preaching, there is a
gathering together, where two or three are gathered together
in my name. There I am in the midst of them. Now in preaching, there is a
gathering together of the saints together to hear the word preached. That's what our fellowship is
in. It's in the gospel. It's hearing the word preached. The gospel of God preached. Forsake not the assembling of
yourselves together. That's what the scripture says.
Hebrews chapter 10, verse 25. Forsake not the assembling of
yourselves together. Exhort one another daily while
it's called today. There is a gathering together
in the preaching of the gospel. You know, birds of a feather
flock together, don't they? You know, one of the things I
love about preaching is we got a bunch of people who really
do believe the same thing. They really do. It isn't fake. It
isn't phony. They really do delight in the
same person and the same Savior, believe the same gospel. There
was a gathering together, they gathered the church together,
and what did they do? They rehearsed all that God had
done with them. And now he had opened the door
of faith unto the Gentiles. Now understand this about preaching.
Anytime there's preaching, it's God opening the door. If you
believe, you're like Lydian, God opened your heart. Your heart
was closed to God, your heart was closed to the truth, and
God graciously opened your heart. And He didn't ask you if you'd
let Him in either. He came in by invincible grace and came
into your heart and He opened the door. Preaching is God opening
the door. If it's effectual, it's where
God himself opened the door for that person to hear and believe
and rejoice in the gospel. And notice how it says, he opened
the door of faith unto the Gentiles. We don't think much like this.
You know, we're Gentiles. Most of us are anyway, or maybe
all, I don't know, but you know, sure Gentiles are saved. But
you know, in the great mystery of godliness, God was manifest
in the flesh. This is 1 Timothy 3, 16. God
was manifest in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen of angels,
believed on in the world, preached to Gentiles. Are you amazed that the gospel
is preached to somebody like you? There are many people who've
never even heard the gospel, and here you are hearing the
gospel. preach to Gentiles. But notice this, they rehearsed,
they declared, they declared, that's what the word means, all
that God had done. Now when the Lord said to that Gadarene demonic,
he said, he won't stay with the Lord. He wanted to be wherever
he was at. That's where he wanted to be.
He said, you go home. He didn't let him go with him. He said,
you go home and tell your friends the great things the Lord had
done, the great things God had done. And he went home and told
them the great things Jesus had done. I love that. The Lord Jesus Christ, let me
tell you the great things He's done. Before time began, He stood
as my surety and took full responsibility for my salvation. Is that great
or what? How great's that? He came into
time and became flesh. And in the flesh, he kept God's
holy law for me. He did it for me. He did it for
all of his elect. This was not generic. He did
it for somebody. This is substitution. He did
it for somebody. He said to John the Baptist,
thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness. Everything
he did, he did as an us. Not only did he keep the law
perfectly, having never sinned, the prince of this world's come
found nothing in me, nothing he could get hold of. You know,
I don't know of anything that aggravates me much more than
when people talk about how Christ could have sinned. He's God. Can God sin? He couldn't sin because of who
he is. He kept God's law perfectly working
out a righteousness for me. And he died for me. He took my
sins, the sins of Todd Nybert, that he's always known, and they
became his sins. And he died under the wrath of
God, and he put those sins away, they're gone. God, who cannot
forget, cannot remember them, because there's nothing there
to remember. He put him away. He was raised for my justification. He made it to where I have never
sinned. He made it to where I stand perfect
before God. He gave me life. I was dead in
sins. He quickened me. He regenerated
me. He gave me faith. He gave me
repentance. He gave me love to himself. He
preserves me. That's why I haven't fallen away.
He keeps me. And he's going to glorify me
and bring me into his presence. And I'm going to be, and I know
every believer believes this, I'm going to be the biggest trophy
of grace in heaven. I'm going to be the biggest proof
that salvation really is all of grace. I want to say that
reverently. But if there's anybody that ever needed grace, this
is the man. And that's the way every believer
feels. Oh, to grace, how great a debtor
daily I'm constrained to be. Let thy goodness like a fetter
bind my wandering heart to thee. Verse 28, and there they abode
long time with the disciples. They were in it for the long
haul. They were in it for the long haul. And you know what? Men, you're in this for the long
haul, aren't we? By His grace, only by His grace, but it's only
He that endureth to the end that shall be saved. And by His grace,
we are in this for the long haul. They abode a long time with the
disciples. Now that's what Gospel preaching
does. May the Lord grace us with gospel
preaching. Let's pray. Lord, how we thank you for your
gospel. That saves us. that reveals yourself
to us, that puts away our sin, that makes us perfectly righteous, that gives us a new heart, that
causes us to continue in the faith, that causes us to love
you and love one another, that causes us to believe. Lord, bless
your word for your glory and for our good. In Christ's blessed
name we pray, amen.