Verse three, long time therefore
both they speaking boldly in the Lord, which gave testimony
unto the word of his grace. Now that could be another name
for the gospel, the word of his grace. I've entitled this message,
The word of His grace. Now look in chapter 13, verse
49, and the word of the Lord was published throughout all
the region, but the Jews stirred up the devout and honorable women
and the chief men of the city and raised persecution against
Paul and Barnabas. And they kicked him out. They
expelled them out of their coasts. They didn't want to have anything
to do with this message. And we read in verse 51, but
they shook off the dust of their feet against them and came unto
Iconium. Now, what a blessing this was
to the city of Iconium. Paul and Barnabas are kicked
out of Antioch for preaching the gospel. They're persecuted. They have
to leave and they go to a place called Iconium and what a blessing
that is when the gospel comes to a place. There can be no greater blessing
to a city than when God sends them the gospel. Do you know
that there are cities where there is no gospel witness? Plenty
of religious institutions that go by the name of church, but
the word of His grace is not preached. And if the word of
His grace is not preached, the gospel is not preached. But what a blessing to this city
through this persecution Paul and Barmas are driven to Iconium,
and there they preach the gospel. Now, I like what verse one says,
and it came to pass in Iconium that they went both together
into the synagogue of the Jews and so spake. They so spake that
a great multitude, both of the Jews and also of the Greeks,
believed. Now, I like that emphasis. They
so spake that a great multitude of the Jews and also the Greeks
believed. We ought to preach expecting
people to believe. I wish I could get that into
my head. We ought to preach expecting people to believe. This is the
gospel. This is the truth. You ought
to believe this. And we ought to preach expecting
people to believe. I remember one time listening
to a message by Barnard and he said somebody came up to him
and brought him a paper. And the title of the paper was
The Hated Doctrine of Election. He said, what do you think about
my title? He said, take it out and burn it. And write a new
title saying The Beloved Doctrine of Election. They so spake that a great number
believed. And we're not given the specific
content of the message, but we know from verse three, it could
be summarized by they preached the word of His grace. That was the message, the word
of His grace. many jews and also the greeks
believe but verse 2 the unbelieving jews stirred up the gentiles
and made their minds evil affected against the brethren they sought
to turn these people against paul and barnabas so they could
not hear their message they actually actively sought to make people
evil affected against the brethren. They sought to poison their minds
so they could not hear them preach the gospel. What a horrible, devilish thing
to do, to try to poison somebody's mind about somebody preaching
the gospel so that they will not be able to hear. What did Paul and Barnabas do
about that? Verse three, long time, therefore, abode they not
defending themselves, but speaking boldly in the Lord. Now you will preach boldly if
you believe your message is God's message. That's the only thing
that will produce bold preaching. If you believe your message is
God's message. I love what Paul said to Timothy
in 2 Timothy 1 beginning in verse 8 he said, be not thou therefore
ashamed of the testimony of our Lord. nor of me his prisoner,
but be thou a partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according
to the power of God. And here's this gospel we're
not to be ashamed of. He saved us. He called us. I love the order. He saved us
and he called us. Don't you love that? He saved
us and he called us with a holy calling. NOT ACCORDING TO OUR
WORKS, BUT ACCORDING TO HIS OWN PURPOSE AND GRACE, WHICH WAS
GIVEN US IN CHRIST JESUS BEFORE THE WORLD BEGAN. Now, that's
bold preaching. That's not apologizing for how
God says. That's saying it in clear language. He saved us. Everything we believe
is in that statement. He saved Don't you love the simplicity
of the gospel? He saved us. There's no way you can get that
wrong if you believe it. He saved us. Thou shalt call his name Jesus,
for he shall save his people from their sins. Now they gave, speaking boldly
in the Lord, and here's what the Lord did, which gave testimony
unto the word of his grace. And he did so by granting signs
and wonders to be done by their hands. I thought before, I would
like to preach the gospel sometime and be able to do miracles, heal
the sick, raise the dead, give sight to the blind, cure lepers. I mean, it seems like that would
be, I bet you'd like to be able to do that too. And evidently,
it's not necessary because that is not taking place right now. It was only through the laying
on of the apostles' hands that the Holy Ghost was given. Only
those people who had the apostles lay their hands on them and transfer
the gifts could do this. The rest It died out with the
death of the apostles. Nobody could transfer these gifts.
And the reason the Bible says that in Acts chapter eight, so
this is what the scripture actually teaches. If you wonder, why don't
we have miracles today? Because we don't. And when it
comes right down to it, nobody believed because of a miracle
anyway. Never happened. All kinds of people saw the miracles
of the Lord Jesus Christ, and it didn't make anybody believe.
Evidently, we don't need to be able to perform miracles, but
we have the Holy Spirit. We have the word of God. What
else is needed? Nothing. They preached the word
and the Lord gave testimony to the word of his grace. Verse four. But the multitude
of the city was divided. Now the gospel always brings
division. always. There was a division,
John chapter 7 verse 43, there was a division because of Him. He is the dividing point. Would you turn with me for a
moment to Matthew chapter 10? Matthew chapter 10, beginning
in verse 32, whosoever therefore shall confess
me before men. That's our message, who he is. And if I tell who he is, what
he did will be obvious. If he is who he said he is, he
could not be an unsuccessful savior. Everything He intended
to do, He did because of who He is. He is the issue. Always has been, always will
be. Who is Jesus Christ? Whosoever therefore shall confess
ME, before me in him will I confess also before my Father which is
in heaven, But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will
I deny before my Father, which is in heaven. Now listen to these
words. Think not that I am come to send
peace on earth. I came not to send peace, but
a sword to strike. For I am come to set a man at
variance against his father, and the daughter against her
mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And
a man's foes shall be they of his own household. He that loveth
father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. And he that
loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he that taketh not his cross
and followeth after me is not worthy of me. He that findeth
his life shall lose it, and he that loses his life for my sake
shall find it. Now, those words are so powerful. Don't think I've come to send
peace on the earth. Now, I would love to have unity
in our country and in the world at this time. Everybody being
on the same page, wouldn't that be a blessing? but not with regard
to the gospel. There will never be anything
but division with regard to the gospel. And that's what was taking
place then, verse four, but the multitude of the city was divided.
Acts chapter 14, verse four, part held with the Jews and part
with the apostles. Verse five, and when there was
an assault made both of the Jews and the Gentiles. Now there was
no agreeing to disagree. There was assault made. These
people were upset. They didn't like what they were
hearing. When there was an assault made, both of the Gentiles and
also the Jews with their rulers to use them despitefully and
to stone them. Now they were going to put them
to death. They were going to stone them to death for preaching
the gospel. That's how upset they were. They were aware of it, verse
six. They heard about it, they knew what was gonna take place,
and they fled into Lystra and Derbe, cities like Kaonia, under
the reach of the lithe roundabout, and there they preached the gospel. They got run out of one place
and preached the gospel. They got run out of another place
and preached the gospel. And it is my prayer that the
same gospel that was preached then will be preached tonight. Wouldn't that be a blessing of
grace? Now, the term I want you to see
is found in verse three. This is what the Lord gave testimony
to. the word of his grace. Look at Acts chapter 20, just
a few pages over verse 32. And now brethren, this is when
he's speaking to the elders at Ephesus. And now brethren, I
commend you to God and to the word of his grace. You see, that's another word
or another name for the gospel. The word of his grace, which
is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance among
all them that are sanctified. Now, how special is God's grace
to himself? What's the grace of God? You
can't separate God's grace and God's glory. What's most important
to God? His own glory. And you cannot
separate God's glory and God's grace. Now let me back that up
with scripture. Moses says in Exodus chapter
33 verse 18, I beseech you, show me your glory. Now Moses had
seen a lot. He'd seen the parting of the
Red Sea. He'd seen the giving of the law. He'd seen the manna
come down from heaven. He'd seen the rock smitten and
the water come out. He'd seen the 10 plagues. He'd
seen some very powerful stuff. But he says, I haven't seen your
glory. I beseech you, show me your glory. And God said, this
is his answer in verse 19. I'll make all my goodness to
pass before thee. And I will proclaim the name
of the Lord before thee. And I will be gracious. To whom I will be gracious. And
I will show mercy. To whom I will show mercy. Moses
said, show me your glory. What does he speak of? His grace,
his goodness, his name, and his grace, all three of which are
the same thing. They can't be separated. His
goodness, his name, his attributes, and his grace. Now his grace cannot be separated
from the words of grace. His grace cannot be communicated
to us, or it's not communicated to us, apart from His Word of
grace. Now somebody says, could God
give you grace without you ever hearing anything? Can He just
kind of give it to you and all of a sudden you got it, you never
heard anything? Well, I suppose He could if He wanted to, but
He doesn't. That's the point, He doesn't.
Well, could he? I wouldn't say he couldn't. The
question is, does he? God never works independently
of his word. It's the word of his grace. Grace is not experienced apart
from the word of his grace. Now, let me give you one example.
I use this example in a lot of different ways, It goes so far. What can you say about grace
if you don't use the word election? If you don't use the word election,
if you avoid the word election, if you don't give the meaning
of election, you're not preaching grace. Because the only way you
can preach grace is to preach electing grace, the God of grace. That's who God is. And so if
you don't have the word of grace, the words of grace, you're not
preaching grace. You know, somebody says, I believe
in salvation by grace. Well, what's that mean? What
does the Bible have to say about that? Now, I would like you to
turn to Luke chapter four, because this is what my, mind was brought
to when I thought about this Word of Grace. This is what God
gave testimony to, the Word of His Grace. This is what caused
many people to believe the Word of His Grace. Now look in verse
22 of Luke chapter 4. And all bear him witness and
wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. Now, the word gracious is not
an adjective. to describe his beautiful manner
of speech, and his gracious manner of speech, and his appealing
manner of speech, although I'm sure there's never been a preacher
like him. You know, people call Charles Spurgeon the prince of
preachers. I don't think so. The Lord Jesus
Christ is the prince of preachers, and they were hearing him preach,
but this word gracious is the word that is generally translated
grace. It's a noun. They heard the grace
words that proceeded out of his mouth. They heard the grace words. And look what this response was to these grace words. Look at the response that was
elicited. And all bear him witness and
wondered at the grace words, which proceeded out of his mouth.
And they said, is not this Joseph's son? And he said unto them, you
will surely say unto me this proverb, physician, heal thyself,
whatsoever we've heard done in Capernaum, do also here in thy
country. They wanted to see him perform
some miracles. He knew they were wanting that. And he said, verily
I say unto you, no prophet is accepted in his own country,
but I tell you the truth. Many widows were in Israel in
the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six
months, when great famine was throughout all the land, but
unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, the city of
Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow. Now, you know what he
says? He doesn't say God's sovereign salvation. I'd say most folks
would say amen to that. God's sovereign salvation, I
believe that. But he illustrated exactly what he was saying. When
Elijah was preaching and that famine lasted for three years
and six months, famine throughout all the land, God let the ones
in Israel starve. And he fed a Gentile widow. And then he uses another example,
verse 26. Verse 27, many lepers were in
Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, and none of them
were cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian. He passed by all
the lepers in Israel, and he chose to cleanse Naaman the Syrian. And all day in the synagogue,
verse 28, when they heard these things were filled with wrath
and rose up and thrust him out of the city and led him into
the brow of the hill where on their city was built, that they
might cast him down headlong, head first. But he passing through
the midst of them went his way. Now, how did that happen? I don't
know. He's the God man. They're holding him up, getting
ready to throw him off a cliff, and all of a sudden he's walking
away from the crowd. You see, it wasn't his time yet, but he was
in absolute control and is in absolute control of all things. Now, let's look where this story
begins about these grace words. Verse 16. And he came to Nazareth where
he had been brought up And as his custom was, he went into
the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up for to read.
Now, remember the setting. He's from Nazareth. He's gone
away and become famous. All they heard about was the
miracles that he worked. We know him. We know his mom
and dad. We know his brothers and sisters.
And he goes off and performs these mighty miracles. And here
he comes back. There was a buzz around the town.
Everybody was excited. Everybody was thinking, we're
gonna get to see some miracles. I mean, how does he do these things?
Is this real? They were all excited when he came back to Nazareth. Buzz going throughout the town.
Verse 17, and there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet
Isaiah. And when he had opened the book,
he found the place where it was written. Isaiah chapter 61 verse
one, he opened up the scroll, found the place where it was
written. Verse 18, the spirit of the Lord is upon
me because he hath anointed me to
preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted,
to preach deliverance to the captives and recovering of sight
to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach
The acceptable year of the Lord. And he closed the book and he
gave it again to the minister and he sat down. And you can
bet you could have heard a pin drop at that time because they
knew exactly what he meant by that. The spirit of the Lord
is upon me. He hath anointed me to preach
the gospel. They knew exactly what he was
saying. And it says, in the eyes of all
them that were in the synagogues were fastened on him. And he
began to say unto them, this day, whatever day it was, this
day, right now, present tense, this scripture is fulfilled in
your very ears. And that's when it says, all
bear him witness and wondered at the grace words which proceeded
out of his mouth. Now, these grace words are going to
be meaningless concepts. unless we fit the description
of the ones to whom these words were spoken. Poor. That means you don't have anything
to recommend you to God. You're poverty stricken. If it
took one penny's worth of merit or spiritual ability for you
to be saved, you would not be saved. You are poor. You don't have anything to recommend
you to God. The next description is brokenhearted. Now we generally think of that
word with regard to relationships. If your spouse leaves you, oh,
how broken hearted you are. If your children are wayward,
how that breaks your heart. You're broken hearted and you
really are. When there's troubles in the church, conflict in the
church, how heartbreaking that is, truly broken, break your
heart. That ain't what the Lord's talking
about. He's not talking about that kind of broken heart. The word broken means smashed
to pieces. A heart that's beyond repair. A heart that does not work. It's no good. Somebody says,
won't you give Jesus your heart? If you know anything about your
heart, you know you would be giving him an offensive thing,
a broken thing, an evil thing. What would he want with it? Broken
hearted. It's no good. Every imagination
of the thought of your heart is only evil nonstop, continually. And the third description he
gives in the people he's preaching to is the captives. The captives. You're in a jail
cell and you can't get out. No matter what you do, you can't
get out. The very idea of free will is
ludicrous to you. You know it's foolishness. You
are captive. You know something about what
Paul meant when he said, we know that the law is spiritual, but
I am carnal, sold under sin, sold as a slave to sin. And the fourth word he uses is
blind. He came to give sight to the
blind. You genuinely cannot see anything in you as to why God
would look your way in mercy. You don't see a thing. And the
fifth word is crushed, bruised, good only to be thrown away. And when he preaches there in
verse 19, the acceptable year of the Lord, he's talking about
the year of Jubilee. Who is Jubilee good news to? Somebody who was a slave and
had lost everything. and couldn't pay his debts. Now that's the person that these
grace words will mean something to. Somebody who is poor, somebody
who's brokenhearted, to someone who is a captive, to someone
who's blind, to someone who is crushed, to someone who is a
slave in debt and can't pay his debts. Now, would that be you? That is the only person who can
hear these grace words. Now, the Lord said in verse 18,
the spirit of the Lord is upon me because he hath anointed me. to preach the gospel to the poor. Now, there is no preaching of
the gospel without the anointing of God the Holy Spirit. This
is a supernatural thing. This isn't like a professor in
a college delivering a lecture to inform you of the right way
to think about a certain subject or give you new information about
a subject. Preaching is not that at all.
Preaching is a thus saith the Lord. And the only way that that
can be accomplished is through the anointing of the Holy Spirit.
The only way I can preach is through the anointing of the
Holy Spirit. The only way you can hear is through the anointing
of the Holy Spirit. This is a supernatural thing.
And the Lord had the Spirit without measure. Oh, he truly was the
prince of preachers, and he says, and he calls himself a preacher.
The Lord hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor.
I think it's interesting, preaching has kind of been relegated to
the scrap heap among a lot of churches. They have bands, they
have singing, they have skits, they have plays, but the preaching,
the Lord was a preacher. And he says, the Lord hath anointed
me to preach the gospel to the poor, those who have nothing. Now, if you're poor, what is
gospel to you? Everything God requires, he provides. You being poor is not gonna keep
him from giving you his gospel. He requires a perfect sin payment. He provides it. He requires perfect
righteousness before his law. He provides it. He requires a pure heart. He gives it in the new birth.
He requires faith, he gives it. He requires repentance, he grants
it. Everything he requires, he provides. That's exactly what Abraham said
to Isaac when they were going up the mountain. Father, here's
the wood. Here's the fire, where's the
lamb for a burnt offering? God will provide himself a lamb
for a burnt offering. Everything God requires of you,
he provides. Now is that good news? Everything
he requires. He provides. Let not conscience
make you linger, nor a fitness fondly dream. The only fitness
He requires is to have a need of Him. Now, in the original
song, it says it's to feel your need of Him. Well, how often
do you not feel anything? I don't always feel my need is
ought to, but I always have a need. Now, The one requirement, there
is one requirement. You have to be poor. That's the
only requirement. If you have anything that you
can recommend yourself to God with, the gospel's not for you.
You have to be without anything. You have to be poor. Now, the
second thing the Lord tells us, these are grace words. You know,
that's a grace word. He's knowing me to preach the
gospel to the poor, that's a grace word. And then it says, he hath
sent me to heal the broken hearted. Now in just about every other
translation, that broken hearted is translated oppressed, oppressed. And indeed a broken hearted person
is an oppressed person. But once again, it's a heart
that doesn't work. It's broken to shivers. It's
no good. He says, a new heart will I give
you. A new heart. That's what David
was asking for when he said, create in me a clean heart, oh
God, and renew a right spirit within me. He heals not by fixing
the old, but by giving a new. And then we read of the word
captives. He has sent me to preach deliverance
to the captives. Now, if you're captive, you're
in a cell and you can't get out. You would if you could. If you
could open the door, you'd walk out, but you can't, you're captive.
Captive. Well, how does he preach deliverance
to the captives? There was a captive by the name
of Barabbas. He was in a prison cell. He was
waiting his execution. And he had no clue that he was
going to be set free and delivered. And there he is The morning of
his execution, he hears the guards open up the door, and I can't
even imagine the sense of dread that must have come over him.
And the jailer says, you've been set free. A man by the name of
Jesus Christ has taken your place. You're free. You've been set
at liberty. Now, how is it that the Lord
liberates a captive? His own precious blood takes
all the reason for my captivity away. That's what he did. He
took the reason for my captivity away because he took my sin away.
And he comes to preach, to declare deliverance to the captives. Those are grace words, aren't
they? Grace words. And then he came to give the
blind their sight. Recovering of sight to the blind
in verse 18. Do you know, there was a time, really, when I couldn't see why
God would save me. I couldn't see anything in myself
as to why God would save me. You know what? I see now. for Christ's sake. That's all
I need to know. For Christ's sake. Christ made
the way for God to be just and justify the ungodly and the blind
are given their sight. And then he says, to set at liberty,
the last phrase of verse 18, to set at liberty them that are
bruised. Now, it's interesting, that word
set at liberty is the word that is generally translated forgiven. Forgiven. You know, when you
hear the gospel, you know what you find out? That all your sins,
past, present, and future are forgiven sins. forgiven sins. And when God forgives
sins, he doesn't at all forgive the way you and I do. You see,
when we forgive, we do so as genuinely as we can and as sincerely
as we can. And I would love just one time
to forget whatever it is I've forgiven somebody for. Just forget
it all together. I don't remember it. Never happened. When God forgives sins, he makes
it to where they indeed never happened. That's why he says
their sins and their iniquities, I'll remember no more. There
isn't anything there to remember. To preach forgiveness to the
bruised, to the crushed, and then in verse 19, He says, to
preach the acceptable year of the Lord. I love thinking of
the year of Jubilee. It happened once, it was supposed
to happen once every 50 years in the Old Testament. And in
all the 1500 years of history that the Old Testament covers,
we don't have one example of the year of Jubilee ever being
observed. And I understand that. You know,
I guarantee you there were people that were against the year of
Jubilee being observed. You know who? People who had
money owed to them. The people who had those slaves.
The people who wanted to get good out of the land. They didn't
want to give it a year off. But can you imagine when that,
this is what was supposed to have happened. Every 50 years
when that trumpet was sounded, if you're a slave, Because of
your debt, you couldn't pay your bills. You were made a slave.
All of a sudden, you were set free. All your debts were canceled. They're gone. Everything you
lost was restored to you. And the land was given a year's
rest. And the Lord says to them, I
am the fulfillment of that year. When he said, it is finished,
the year of Jubilee was ushered in. And when we get ready to
observe the Lord's table as we're going to now, this is our year
of jubilee, a continual year of jubilee. When we eat the bread
and drink the wine in remembrance of him, may the Lord enable us
to remember we've been set free. Our debts have been canceled.
All we lost. And more has been restored. We lost human righteousness,
but we were restored with the righteousness of God. And all
there is for us to do is rest. Let's pass out the bread and
wine.