The Book of Acts, Chapter 13,
and I am going to do today like I did the last couple of weeks.
I am going to split my message up. I could not narrow them down
to 30 minutes, so I am splitting them up until I learn my lesson. I am disciplining myself. I want
to read a message that the Apostle Paul preached to you, his first
recorded message that we have. And it is found in Acts chapter
13 beginning here in verse 14. Paul and Barnabas was going on
their first missionary journey. They were here in Antioch of
Pisidia. They had left Antioch there in
Syria. And now they come here to Antioch
in Pisidia. And they come here to the synagogue
in verse 14 and they sat down in the synagogue. And in verse
15, after the reading of the Law and the Prophets, the rulers
of the synagogue sent unto them, saying, Ye men and brethren,
if ye have any word of exhortation for the people, say on. Then
Paul stood up, and beckoning with his hands, said, Men of
Israel, and ye that fear God, give audience. The God of this
people of Israel chose our fathers and exalted the people when they
dwelt as strangers in the land of Egypt. And with an high hand
brought He them out of it. And about the time of forty years
suffered He their manners in the wilderness. And when He had
destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan, He divided their
land to them by lots. And after that he gave unto them
judges about the space of four hundred and fifty years, until
Samuel the prophet. And afterward they desired a
king, and God gave unto them Saul the son of Kish, a man of
the tribe of Benjamin, by the space of forty years. And when
he had removed him, he raised up unto them David to be their
king, to whom also he gave testimony, and said, I have found David
the son of Jesse. a man after my own heart, which
shall fulfil all my will. Of this man's seed hath God,
according to his promise, raised unto Israel a Saviour, Jesus,
whom John had first preached before his coming the baptism
of repentance to all the people of Israel. And as John fulfilled
his course, he said, Whom thank ye that I am? I am not he. But behold, there cometh one
after me, whose shoes of his feet I am not worthy to lose.
Then, brethren, children of the stock of Abraham, and whosoever
among you that feareth God, to you is the word of this salvation
sent. For they that dwell in Jerusalem,
and their rulers, because they knew him not, nor yet the voices
of the prophets, which were read every Sabbath day, they have
fulfilled them in condemning him. And though they found no
cause of death in him, yet desired they Pilate that he should be
slain. And when they had fulfilled all
that was written of him, they took him down from the tree,
and laid him in a sepulcher. But God raised him from the dead,
and he was seen many days of them which came up with him from
Galilee to Jerusalem. who are His witnesses unto the
people. And we declare unto you, glad
tidings, how that the promise which was made unto the fathers,
God hath fulfilled the same unto us, their children, in that He
hath raised up Jesus again, as it is also written in the Second
Psalms, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee. And
as concerning that He raised Him up from the dead, Now no
more to return to corruption, he said on this wise, I will
give you the sure mercies of David. Wherefore he said also
in another psalm, Thou shalt not leave thine holy one to seek,
thou wilt not suffer, rather, thy holy one to seek corruption.
He never decayed in the grave. For David, after he had served
his own generation by the will of God, fell on sleep and was
laid in his father's in the father's graves, and he saw corruption,
he wrought it. But he whom the father raised
again saw no corruption. Be it known unto you, therefore,
men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you
the forgiveness of sins. And by him all that believe are
justified from all things from which you could not be justified
by the law of Moses. Beware, therefore, lest that
come upon you which is spoken of in the prophets. Behold, you
despisers, and you wander and you perish. For I work a work
in your days, a work which ye 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. And when the congregation was
broken up, many of the Jews and religious converts, 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 multitude, 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 to 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. 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 expelled
them out of their coast. But they shook off the dust of
their feet against them and came to Iconium. And the disciples
were filled with joy and with the Holy Ghost." My subject this
morning is preaching the forgiveness of sins. And I basically want
to look this morning and this afternoon mainly at verse 37
and 38. Be it known unto you therefore,
men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you
the forgiveness of sins. This morning I want us to look at the way Paul began this message. It is very fascinating and I
think very telling the way Paul begins his message. He begins
there in verse 17, and he goes all the way back to the time
when Israel gathered and lived in Egypt. He goes all the way
back to Moses' day, and he begins with God delivering Israel out
of Egypt. Stephen does the same thing in
his message over in Acts chapter 7, only he goes back to Abraham's
day. The God of glory appeared to
Abraham. It's amazing how these men, and
they often do it through the book of Acts, they tell the story
of redemption. They go back as far as they want
to and they pick it up and bring it every step up to the present
time. And as you and I study through
the book of Acts and as we study the New Testament, we find the
preachers in the New Testament and the writers doing that. They
love the history. of redemption. It reminds me
of the song we often sang, Tell Me the Old, Old Story. And they love to show that this
salvation that is in Christ is not some new thing. It was promised
and it was predicted all the way back through the Old Testament.
You read the book of Hebrews, chapter 11, and this is what
the writer says there. By faith, Noah being warned of
God. See, God was working in Noah's
day. The same God that came in humanity, in the Lord Jesus,
His Son, He was all the way back in Noah's day. God is nothing
new, is He? No, He is in history. You find
Him everywhere in history. Noah, being warned of God as
things not seen of yet, moved with fear and prepared an ark
to the saving of his house. And can't you see this? When
Noah and his seven family members came out of the ark, and there
was a new world. And He built an altar and offered
sacrifices upon it. And who was He worshipping there?
He was worshipping the living God, wasn't He? He was worshipping
the triune God. There was no man-made religions
at that time. It never was in man's heart or
it never came out of hell to worship another God. Only one
God was worshipped when Noah and his house was saved. And
you go back even that, go back even farther than Noah. We go
back before the flood. The Lord Jesus, even when He
was preaching, He goes back before the flood. He talks about as
it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be in the coming of
the sons of men. But He goes back even farther
than that. One day He was preaching, and
here's what He said about Adam and Eve being the first man that
was ever farmed, and his wife Eve. In the beginning, God made
them male and female. God made them in the beginning. How old is redemption's story? I tell you, in the New Testament,
they go back all the way to the very beginning to the first man
and the first woman. And Paul said he goes back to
Adam too. He said Adam was a figure of
Him that was to come. So what do we find? We find the
Apostle Paul loving the old, old story of redemption. It goes back farther, doesn't
it? Christ stood as a lamb slain before the foundation of the
world. Now why is this so important?
And why am I emphasizing this this morning? Well, for this
reason. When you find man's religion, you can always put a name on
it, and you can always put a date on it. Man's religion started
sometime after the foundation of the world, and most of them
that you and I know today have started very recently. Let me
give you some examples. Do you know anything about the
Jehovah Witnesses? Do you ever have them come knocking
on your door? Well, you know where their religion
originated at? You know what year it originated
at? We do. Jehovah Witness And their
founder originated in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1874, and their
founder was Charles Russell. Now, how would you like to be
here this morning, and you had a hope in the religion of Jehovah
Witness, and you found out that it had its beginning in Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania? Wouldn't that be very disappointed?
Where did our religion have its rise? Back in eternity, in the
heart of God. Have you ever heard of Mormonism?
Well, Joseph Smith created that religion in 1830, and it was
based upon the Bible and the Book of Mormons. And that's the
fault of that. Modern-day Pentecostal, they
can trace it to 1906 on the West Coast. A poor black man began
that. Modern-day Pentecostalism. Islam,
Mohammed. Lived in 570. Died in 632. Said the angel Gabriel appeared
to him and he wrote down his visions and penned them in a
book they called the Koran. That's where they got that religion.
They tell us that Hinduism is the oldest religion in the world. It goes back older than any man-made
religion. Four thousand years ago they
said Hinduism coming to be. And you know how it originated?
A few sages. walking along the rivers of India,
begin to chant and sing, and they say they got their inspiration
from the breath of God. And out of that chanting and
out of that songs, Hinduism was born. They say they have one
God, and yet they say we have 330 million gods. But our religion, Christianity,
goes back farther. than any man-made religion. And
that's why these men here love to go back and proclaim to us
the history of Christianity. When we open our Bibles, we find
this salvation that's of the Lord, that it was foretold, that
it was promised from the very beginning of time until the Son
of God actually came and fulfilled all that was predicted of Him. One of the most amazing things
of the coming of Christ and all that He did when He came, everything
was predicted hundreds and thousands of years before He came. You
know, that's one of the reasons we know that the Bible is inspired. We may make predictions and do
our best to bring them to pass. We can't, can we? But all the
predictions in the Bible was made concerning Him. He says
there in verse 23, of this man's seed, Have God, according to
His promise, raised unto Israel a Savior? Jesus. According to
His promise. That's the promise they had when
they came out of the garden, wasn't it? I'm sending a Savior. He's going to undo all that you
two have done. I promise you, a Savior is coming. And look what He says here in
verse 27. They that dwell at Jerusalem and their rulers, because
they knew not the voices of the prophets, Yet they fulfilled
the prophets in condemning him. And though they found no cause
of death in him, yet they desired Pilate that he should be slain.
And when they had fulfilled all that was written of him, they
took him down from the tree and laid him in a sepulcher." Fulfilled
everything that was written of him. When you think of things
that was written of him in the Old Testament, don't we think
sometimes of the physical suffering that was predicted. They pierced
my hands and my feet. That was fulfilled of Him. They
made long their furrows. They whipped Him. They plucked
out the hair of His beard. His physical sufferings were
great. There was no one ever suffered
like the Lord Jesus. Isaiah 52 said His vestige, His
face was more marred than any man, and His form of the body
was more marred than any man. And this was fulfilled upon the
cross of Calvary. What about all the moral sufferings? The shame? They tell us that
he hung naked upon the cross. The Bible says he despised the
shame. What about the mockery, the false
accusations, the betrayal, the forsaken of his friend? These
moral things that he suffered. And what about the sufferings
of his soul that was predicted of him? Here's what was predicted. By God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? That was fulfilled upon the cross.
Some even think that he quoted the whole entire 22nd Psalm. By God, my God, my soul is exceeding
sorrowful, even unto death. And what was all these sufferings
that was predicted? What was this dying about? Why
was it needful to begin with? That's a good question, isn't
it? Why did he have to suffer and why did he have to die? It
is about the punishment of sins. It is about substitution. It
is about the just for the unjust to reconcile us to God. Now listen to these Old Testament
passages. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned every one to his
own way, and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. That was predicted in Isaiah
53, verse 6. Did He fulfill that? He did,
didn't He? You know how we know that our
sins were laid upon Jesus Christ the Lord? Because the Bible says
they would be. And before He came down from
that cross in His death, God gathered up all the sins of His
elect people and He put them sins upon His dear and blessed
Son. And listen to this. He was wounded
for our transgression. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon Him. And listen to this. Here is what
was predicted He would do. With His stripes we are healed. He fulfilled that. And listen
to this. God shall see of the travail
of His soul and shall be satisfied. By his knowledge shall my righteous
servant justify many, for he shall bear their iniquity." He
fulfilled everything that was written of him. Everything. The sin bearing, being punished
for our sins. And listen to this. Listen to
this. Verse 30. Look at this. But God
raised him from Now why is this so important? Why is the resurrection
so important? And why did these apostles and
preachers make an issue out of the resurrection? Every message
they preached, they inserted resurrection. Peter would not
preach a message. They would let him preach until
he come to the part of Christ has risen again, and then they
would stop him. They would get so mad at him.
Sometimes they threatened to whip him. But what did he do?
The next message, he said, God raised him from the dead. It
was an issue with them. Why? Because it proves something
to us, doesn't it? It proves the work he did upon
Calvary's tree. of bearing our sins and atoning
for our sins and making reconciliation for our iniquities, that God
accepted His work. If our sins would have been upon
Him, Shannon, He never would have rose. It's evident, therefore,
that He put them away and God looked upon Him and said, My
Son, where's the sins? And He said, My Father, I've
atoned for them. I put him away by my merits.
And the Father said, O Lachian, up you come from the ground.
And what did He do? Exalted him to heaven at His
right hand. The cause, He accomplished the
work. Look over here, the whole Acts
chapter 13, and look in the book of Hebrews chapter 1 and verse
1. Here's the way the Hebrew writer
says it. The case says it in Hebrews chapter 1, and look in
verse 1. God, who at sundry times, different
times and in different manners, spake in time past unto the fathers
by the prophets, he hath in these last days spoken to us by his
Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, By whom also He
made the world." Boy, that's going back in history, isn't
it? "...who being the brightness of His glory, and the expressed
image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His
power," look at this, "...when He had by Himself purged our
sins." Our sins were upon Him. What did He do with the sins?
He purged them, didn't He? He purged them away. Another
Scripture says He put them away by the sacrifice of Himself.
If He hadn't of did that, He would have stayed in the grave. But notice what happened when
He purged our sins. And because He purged our sins,
He sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on earth. Oh, the resurrection, it's a
proof that he accomplished the task of atoning for our sins. The resurrection is essential. And look back in our text. Paul
gives us some evidence of his resurrection, and I'm so thankful
that God was willing to give us proof, aren't you? He could
have just wrote it in His Word and say that I raised my Son
from the dead, I've exalted Him. We would have believed it, wouldn't
we? We'd have believed it because He'd have given us grace to believe
it. But you notice verse 31 that God has been willing to give
us ample proof that His Son raised from the dead. And look in verse
31. And He was seen many days. Forty days, seen forty days,
he went in and out among them, and preached the kingdom of God
to them. He was seen forty days of them which came up with him
from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are witnesses unto the people."
And do you remember how many witnesses there were? There was
over five hundred men saw him at one time. That's not counting
the women that first saw him. And you know something, brothers
and sisters, not a one of them recanted. You take two people,
and if they're out here propagating a lie, one of them is going to
recant it. But here you had over 500 brethren, and most of them
lived to be old, and not a one of them recanted. They died saying,
I saw the resurrected Christ. And I for one believe their testimony.
We've got no reason to doubt their testimony. We believe the
Lord Jesus Christ died. He fulfilled all the Scriptures
when He died. God rose Him, raised Him from
the dead. And where is He now? He's seated
yonder at the right hand of God. And Peter said all the angels
and all power and all authority is subject to Him. I've always loved to say this.
And I'm going to say it, I guess, until I die. There's no little
tiny worm that rises up out of His hole and wiggles. But he's
under the power and the authority of Jesus Christ. There's no grain
of sand that flies through the air, but Jesus Christ has absolute
control of it. There's no little bird that goes
through the open air, but Jesus Christ has control of it. He
controls everything, doesn't He? Aren't you thankful for that
in a day when it seems like there's chaos and everything out of control? Brother Fortner made the statement,
it's a mystery to us, but he said, what's going to happen
today? Everything that should happen. He controls it all, doesn't
He? He controls it all. He's there
on the right hand of God. Now, why is all of this important? Why do we stop here like I have
this morning, and like the Apostle Paul did, and lay this foundation? Why does he do this? Well, it's
important because of the message that comes out of this. And what
is that message? Well, we find it in verse 38
and verse 39. Be it known unto you therefore,
men and brethren, be it known unto you therefore, since all
of this has happened and been accomplished, that through this
man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins. It is important. It's important
that we know what Jesus Christ has done. And that redemption
story starts all the way back before the foundation of the
world. It's something God purposed. It's something His blessed Son
has accomplished. And now because He's accomplished
that, we have a message that we can preach. And it's this. Through Him, all your sins can
be forgiven. Now why is that message so important?
Because all of us have sins, do we not? We all have sins,
don't we? We can't deny it. Our conscience
would afflict us so if we tried to deny it. All have sinned and
come short of the glory of God. There is not a just man upon
this earth that doeth good and sinneth not. Here is a wonderful
message to the sons of men. Through this man is preached
unto you the forgiveness of sin. Do you have any sins? Here's
a wonderful message. This is why we call it the gospel,
the good news. Forgiveness is proclaimed through
this man. And we all have them. And we
all need forgiveness. And here's another reason. If
God marks those sins against us, we're in trouble. We're in
deep trouble. Because if God marks one iniquity
against a man, we can't stand. He's of two pure eyes than to
look on anybody's iniquity. He can't behold sin. If he looks
upon it and judges it, oh, my hell will enlarge itself with
one more person. How important, therefore, is
this message of forgiveness. To die unforgiven is to die eternally. It would have been better for
us to have never been born than to live and die in our sins unforgiven. The payment of sins is what?
It's eternal punishment, is it? In the lake of fire. That's the
punishment for our sins. Can you and I think of a more
critical message then than this text gives us this morning? The
forgiveness of sins. And I tell you, it's forgiveness
too in the way that God is pleased with. in a way he is satisfied
with and in a way that honors him. He is so pleased with it
that he told his apostles and preachers and he tells us today,
go preach this message to every creature. You find a poor man
and he sins, be sure to preach this message of forgiveness to
him through the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now somebody will
ask this question. I know Christ died and put away
sins, but how can I obtain this benefit? How can I obtain this
blessing of forgiveness of my sins? How can I be justified
before God? Now, that's a good question,
isn't it? You run into people all the time
that say, I believe that Jesus Christ came, and I believe that
He did do this. How can this become mine? How
can this blessing of forgiveness become mine? Well, he tells us
here in verse 39, doesn't he? And it's very plain. All that
believe are justified from all things by which you could not
be justified by the law of Moses. How does this benefit become
mine? How can I obtain forgiveness
for my sins? There is but one way, and that's
through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. No other way. All that
believe are justified. Those who do not believe are
not justified. All who believe are forgiven.
All who do not believe are yet in their sins through faith in
the Lord Jesus. There are people who are trying
to keep the Law of Moses. There are others who want to
punish their body and punish their conscience in an attempt
to obtain this blessing. But the old hymn writer said,
If my tears could ever flow, and my zeal no longer know, these
for sin cannot atone. They cannot atone. They cannot
put away the sin before God or the sin upon my conscience. All
the zeal and all the tears and all the afflictions of the body
and conscience cannot obtain the blessing of forgiveness of
sin. It comes by faith in Jesus Christ
alone. We have a good example of that
woman in Luke chapter 7. The woman that was the sinner
in the town. And here's what the Lord Jesus
said of her. Her sins, which are many, are
forgiven her. And he turns and he looks to
her and he says, Woman, thy sins are forgiven thee. And what did
he say then? Thy faith has saved thee. Go in peace. Now how can faith
save anybody? Faith never atoned for sins,
did it? Faith has no blood. Faith can't
die for sins. But faith looks to him and lays
hold upon him who did these things. That's the way faith saves him.
The children of Israel had sinned, and Moses had put the likeness
of this serpent upon a pole, and what does he tell them to
do? He tells every man and woman that is bitten to look to that
serpent and live. How strange that is. They were
bitten by a serpent. And now he puts the likeness
of a serpent upon a pole and says, look to that serpent and
you shall live. Their problem was completely
inside themselves, wasn't it? The poison was inside them. How could something completely
outside of them heal them and save them? That's strange. But that's God's way, isn't it?
That's God's way. As Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, listen, even so must the Son of Man be lifted
up. That whosoever believeth in him
should not perish, but have everlasting life. We are not saved, we are
not forgiven, we are not justified, we are not accepted of God by
anything we are doing of ourselves. And listen, neither are we forgiven
by anything that God is doing in us. But we are forgiven of
our sins by believing what Jesus Christ has already done for us. The problem of our heart, brothers
and sisters, all of this sin upon our conscience, cannot be
remedied by looking to the conscience. Are doing anything within? Are
doing anything without? Our remedy comes from looking
outside of ourselves to Jesus Christ and His work of doing
and dying in our place and in our stead. They sound strange
that believing in Jesus hanging weak upon the cross is our strength. And believing in His death is
our life. And seeing Him by the eye of
faith bearing our sins brings us forgiveness. But that's the
way it is. And there's no other way of salvation. Oh, someone said the gospel is
not only good news of what God's going to do, but first and foremost,
it's the good news of what God in Jesus Christ has already done. Forgiveness of sins is not doing. It is believing that the work
has already been done. By His glorious work outside
of us, He has actually accomplished our forgiveness and liberation
from the power and guilt of our sins. And you obtain the blessing
of that by looking to Him, by believing what He has done on
your behalf. Brother Jim Wilson, Barb's husband,
He told me one time about being in the service in some foreign
country. And he said he saw these group of people. They all had
white robes on. And he saw they had whips in
their hands. And so he set them out of the
way to watch them as they came by. And he said as they came
by, they were whipping themselves. And he said blood was running.
The backs were stained. The shirts were stained with
blood. And he said they were doing that to obtain forgiveness. Their faith was in their pain. It was in their blood running.
It was something inside themselves. But this faith that receives
the benefits of forgiveness and justification is fixed to something
completely outside of ourselves. It is not dependent upon what
we do or ever could do or think. Faith apprehends. Faith realizes
what has already been done. And faith believes it and therefore
finds free and full forgiveness of our sins. This faith does not take. This
faith does not make. It takes. It does not do anything. It receives everything. Faith
is not self-lifted up. It is self-put down. It is self-put
off. Faith is not looking within,
but looking completely outside of itself to Jesus who died and
obtained this blessing of forgiveness to all that believe. There are those who think that
forgiveness of sins is at the end of a long and faithful life. Could you believe there's people
that think that? I used to think that. If I can live good enough,
if I can live close enough, if I can mend my ways, if I can
stay faithful, somewhere at the end of my life, surely I'll be
accepted of God. I won't have any sins charged
against me. Oh, what will that result in?
A sad and frightful and disappointed end, won't it? Forgiveness of
sins and justification from all things is not at the end, but
at the beginning of our walk with God. How can two walk together
except they be agreed? We must be forgiven first before
you and I can live the Christian life or walk with God. God is
well satisfied with His Son. Are you well satisfied with it?
Jesus Christ has said, It's finished. Can you say that? Are you still
trying to add something to His finished Word? Can you sit and
rest and look to Him and say, I'm forgiven of all my sins. I'm justified from everything.
God holds nothing against me for the sake of His dear Son.
And your faith lays hold of that. And you're as satisfied with
it as God is. And you're resting. Faith is
not a restless thing. Faith is a resting thing. Jesus
is seated and He's resting. And faith rests. Faith looks
to Him and it rests. Are you forgiven? Are you waiting
for forgiveness somewhere at the end of the road? Are you
forgiven this morning of all your sin? Then you know how it
came. Faith in the Son of God who completed
the work. Now, there's a perfect example
in the Gospels of this very thing. That woman that was taken in
adultery in the very act. Remember that? These Pharisees
brought this woman to the Lord Jesus and said, We've taken this
woman in the very act of adultery. Boy, those were some sorry fellows,
weren't they? Who would tell that if they had? Were they watching
her? Were they waiting to catch Him
in the very act? How vulgar that was! But that's
what they did. And they brought this poor, miserable
woman to the Lord Jesus, and here's what He said to her. Neither
do I condemn thee, go and sin no more. What's the first thing
He said? Before He said, go and sin no
more, there was something else necessary. It was necessary for
her to know that He had forgiven her of her sins. That He had
freed her from the bondage and guilt and power of those sins. So He first says, neither do
I condemn thee. And then He says, now you can
go and sin no more. See how necessary forgiveness
is? And it must come before everything else. Oh, I want to serve God. I want
to be a faithful servant of God. When I stand before the judgment,
oh, this and that, well, the first thing we must have is forgiveness
of our sins before we walk with God. Forgiveness of sins must
be at the beginning of our walk with God and not at the end.
It does not come because of good works done, but while we stand
guilty and fit for hell. God does not justify the righteous,
but the ungodly. He doesn't forgive the innocent
but the guilty. And this only comes for a cause
outside of ourselves. Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And it only comes by believing
Him for it. That's the good news of the gospel,
brothers and sisters. It's only a gospel like this
that can save a thief in his dying hours. And it's only a
gospel like this that can save you and can save me and see all
of our sins washed away. Peter was preaching Christ to
the Ethiopian eunuch there in Acts 8. And the eunuch believed
with all of his heart. He believed with all of his heart.
And Philip baptized him and it said the eunuch went on his way
rejoicing. No wonder. He believed with all
of his heart. What does that tell us according
to my text? His sin is forgiven. They were upon his conscience
so heavy. Now they're forgiven. Now he's
justified of God. No wonder he's rejoicing. That poor publican standing in
the temple, smiling upon his chest, God be merciful. He went
down to his house justified. Oh, don't you know that that
man was rejoicing? The Lord Jesus said to that poor
woman that had the issue of blood, daughter be of good comfort.
Thy faith has made thee whole. Go in peace. Your faith in Me
has brought forgiveness of all your sins. Go in peace and be
of good comfort." But I tell you, this joy and this peace
and this comfort can be a great hindrance to believing if we
forget that it comes as a result of believing. We do not believe
to get joy and peace and comfort. That's a very important distinction,
brothers and sisters. Don't get the cart before the
horse. We believe to obtain forgiveness of sins and to be justified whether
we feel anything or not. I noticed this in my own self,
and maybe you noticed it in your conversion. I was seeking a feeling.
I thought, I've got to have a feeling here of some kind. Until I got
beyond that and just believed in the Son of God, it was only
then that joy came. It was only then that peace came
and comfort came. We don't believe for anything
but forgiveness of our sins and to be justified with God. Feelings come and feelings go,
and feelings are deceiving. Let me conclude with this. This
gospel is such an amazing good news that we can't even believe
it apart from grace. Look here what he said again
in verse 38. Be it known unto you therefore,
men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you
the forgiveness of sins. And notice this, and by him all
that believe are justified. We're justified by his grace.
We're forgiven by His blood. But listen, that word means more
than this. We believe by Him. We can't even believe apart from
Him. He gives us the grace to believe. Look over here right quickly
in the 18th chapter. I'm coming to a quick place.
In the 18th chapter of Acts. The Lord Jesus said, without
Me you can do nothing. And here this gospel is so plainly
set before us, and we're encouraged to believe it. But we can't believe
without Him giving us grace to believe. You know He's called
the Arthur of our faith. And you know what an Arthur does?
If He's going to sit down and write a book, you know who begins
the book? The Arthur, doesn't he? He's
the beginning. And when you and I believe, it's
because He has given us. Grace to believe. This here is talking about Apollos.
He came down from Appius. In verse 25, this man was instructed
in the way of the Lord, being firm in the spirit, he spake
and taught diligently the things of the Lord, knowing only the
baptism of John. And he began to speak boldly
in the synagogue, whom when Aquila and Priscilla had heard, they
took him unto them and expounded unto him the way of God more
perfectly. And when he was disposed to pass
unto Achaia, the brethren wrote, exhorting the disciples to receive
him, who, when he was come, kept them much which had believed
through grace." See that? Here is the gospel. I tell you
to believe it and be saved. I tell you to believe it and
all your sins are forgiven and you are justified. But you know
what you'll say before it's over with? Lord, help my unbelief. Help me to believe. And He'll
do it. I used to listen to an old man.
He's been dead for a long time. He was a friend of Henry Mahan,
L.R. Shelton. He pastored a church
down in Louisiana. And I used to be out traveling
somewhere, and I'd turn on the radio, and there Brother Shelton
was preaching. And he often said this, Oh sinner,
Sinner, look. He'll help you to look. He'll
help you to look. And my advice this morning, my
word to you is this, O sinner, believe Him. He'll help you to
believe Him. He'll help you to believe Him.
And when you believe, you'll see, He gave me grace to believe. And you'll leave here with your
sins May God bless this message. This afternoon, I want to look
at verse 38 again, and I want to look at the nature of forgiveness. The nature of forgiveness. Let's turn to page 204 and try
to sing that old song.