This morning I want to start
in chapter 20 in the book of Acts. Acts chapter 20, and I'm
taking a title from what is said here in verse 6. Acts chapter
20, verse 6. We sailed away from Philippi
after the days of unleavened bread, that is the preparation
of the Jewish Passover, We can read in this same chapter, verse
16, where Paul said he wanted to be at Jerusalem during Pentecost. So it was coming close to that
time. And he came unto them to Troas
in five days, and there we abode seven days. Seven days. Meeting with the church, the
family of God, or meeting with the church of God at Troas. meeting with the family of God,
the elect of God, those bought with the precious blood of Christ,
and meeting with those dear saints of God there in Troas for seven
days. Now what a blessing it is to
meet with the family of God, the sons of God, around the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ every week. That's a blessing, is it
not? To have a place to come. God's
given us this building, which is a building, it's not the church.
God's people are the church. What a privilege it is to meet
together with the family of God, the church of God, around the
gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. We should never take these privileges
for granted. We've seen recently this year,
haven't we, how easily these things can be taken from us.
During the COVID pandemic, when our governor, in his wisdom,
told all the churches in the state of Kentucky that they shouldn't
meet together. And we didn't for two months,
until they lifted the ban. And if you would have told me
that 10 years ago, I probably would have laughed. But it's
a reality in the day in which we live, is it not? So let's
not take these meetings for granted. Let's do what David said, I was
glad when they said to me, man, it's time to go to the house
of the Lord. It's not a burden, is it? It's a delight to come
together with God's people around having His Word, the inspired
record, testimony of God, to read His Word, to sing praises
to His Name, to declare His Name and lift up the Lord Jesus Christ.
What a privilege we have to hear the Gospel and to believe the
Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now let's go back to verse 1,
Acts chapter 20. after the uproar of the pagans
there in Ephesus who were bound and determined to worship the
goddess Diana and that temple and when they had this large
pagan uproar when it was ceased. Now why was it ceased? God brought
it to an end. Paul called unto him the disciples
there at Ephesus and embrace them. You can just see the sweetness
of this, can't you? He spent two years with them
preaching the gospel. We have that letter that he writes
to those elect of God there at Ephesus. We just read a moment
ago part of it. He met with the disciples, embraced
them, and departed from them to go into Macedonia. Now, what a sad time that must
have been. If you look over here at the
end of chapter 20, when Paul was at Miletus when he sailed
past Ephesus later on, and when he called the elders together
to meet with them before he went to Jerusalem, you see Acts chapter
20 verse 36, 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. Now, don't you think that same
thing happened over here when he said he embraced them and
then departed to go into Macedonia. And when he had gone over those
parts and had given them the word of the Lord, he came again
unto Greece. There may be even in Athens.
And there he bowed in that country for three months And when the
Jews laid wait for him as he was about to sail from Greece
or Athens into Syria, he had to sidetrack there back through
going north into Macedonia. But think about this, when he
went in through Macedonia and then went down to the country
there of Greece and then he went back up through Macedonia, Those
churches got to hear him preach the gospel again. Those churches
in Macedonia included Philippi, Thessalonica, and then those
at Berea. You remember what it says, the
Bereans, that they searched the word of God, whether these things
be so. And then the Apostle Paul spent
three months there exhorting them in the gospel of the Lord
Jesus Christ. You know exactly what he preached
to them. As we studied this morning in
our Bible study, he said, we preach not ourselves, but the
Lord Jesus Christ. And he did that for three months.
Three months preaching the gospel. His ministry was always about
preaching Christ. He said, I'm determined to know
nothing among you but Jesus Christ and Him crucified. We preach
not ourselves, but the Lord Jesus Christ. I think I told the Bible
study this morning, one preacher of the past said, if we preach
nothing but Jesus Christ and Him crucified, as the only way
of salvation every time we preach, it would be a narrowing of our
ministry, it would be a widening of our ministry. To preach the
Lord Jesus Christ, His person, and His work. But notice what
happens here. These Jews laid wait for Him. That is, they set up an ambush
as He was about to sail away. and then he had to escape going
up through Macedonia. These religious Jews not only
sought to end his ministry, but also to end his life. Now who
were these religious Jews that were filled with so much hatred
that they wanted to put an end to this man's life? He didn't
harm them, he didn't hurt them, he didn't rob them, and yet they
were so viciously willing to attack him. It was the same crowd,
the religious crowd, that stood before Pilate when Pilate said,
Behold your king! Remember what they said? Away
with him. Crucify him. We have no king. We want no king. We don't want
him to be our king. We have no king but Caesar. Why would they seek to kill him?
speaking of the Apostle Paul, because he exposed their refuge
of lies and they hated him because he told them the truth. Paul
wrote that letter to the Galatians and he said this, have I become
your enemy because I tell you the truth? You know, a friend,
if he's a friend indeed, will always tell you the truth. He
won't lie to you. He'll tell you the truth. But
the reason why that they were about to attack him and he had
to escape out of town is the same reason over here in Acts
chapter 9. You remember when he was at Damascus? If you want to turn there, you
can. Acts chapter 9, when he preached the gospel there, shortly
after his conversion, it says in verse 22, Acts 9, 22, And Saul increased them more
in strength, and confounded the Jews which dwelt at Damascus,
proving that this is the very Christ." Now read on. After that many days were fulfilled,
the Jews took counsel to kill him. But their laying awake was
known of Saul, and they watched the gates day and night. That walled city had a gate.
And they closed that gate at night, but they watched day and
night so that man couldn't get out of town. Read on. Then the
disciples took him by night and led him down by the wall in a
basket. Yeah, they escaped down over
the wall in a basket. These men were so full of hatred
against God and against the message that Paul had preached. Why did
they hate Paul? They hated the God that Paul
preached. Reason why, I'll tell you. Turn
over here to John chapter 15. Our Lord said in verse 16, John
15, 16. He said, you've not chosen me,
but I've chosen you and ordained you that you should go forth,
go and bring forth fruit, that your fruit should remain, that
whatsoever shall ask the Father my name, he may give it you.
These things I command you that you love one another, John 15
verse 18, if the world hates you, you know it hated me before
it hated you. If you were of the world, the
world would love his own, but because you're not of this world,
I've chosen you out of this world, therefore the world hated you.
Remember the word that I said unto you, the servant is not
greater than his Lord. If they persecuted me, they will
persecute you. If they've kept my sayings, oh,
they'll keep yours too. But all these sayings will they
do unto me, unto you, for my name's sake, because they know
not him that sent me." If you look just across the page at
John chapter 16, these sayings, verse 1, have I spoken unto you
that you should not be offended? They shall put you out of the
synagogue, yea, the time cometh that whosoever killeth you, will think they doeth God a favor."
Service. These things will they do unto
you, because they have not known the Father, nor me. So you see
the reason of their animus and hatred toward Paul, because of
his message. But notice, I want you to notice
this too. You don't need to turn and read
this with me, I'll read it to you. But over in 2 Timothy, Over in 2nd Timothy chapter 3,
where he says in verse 11, Persecutions and afflictions which came unto
me at Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra, what persecutions I endured,
but out of them all the Lord delivered me. Yea, all that will
live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. He's not
talking about living in morality. He's talking about living for
the gospel and preaching the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. You can expect trouble. You take
a public stand for the gospel, this religious world will hate
you and hate what you preach. Surely they won't. Yes, they
will. I've experienced their hatred
and their wrath toward God directed at me. Now, if you look at verse
4 and 5 in Acts chapter 20, they're accompanying him into Asia, so
Peter of Berea and the Thessalonians, Aristarchus, Secundus, Gaius
of Derbe, Timothy, Anabasia, Tychicus, Trophimus. These going
before tarried for us at Troas. Now, I counted seven names. In verse 4, seven men, seven
faithful men God gave the Apostle Paul that are mentioned here,
sinners saved by the grace of God, made trophies of His love,
objects of His grace, whose names were written long before they
were written here in Acts chapter 20. Their names were written
in the Lamb's Book of Life from all eternity. Paul called these
men here work fellows, laborers together in the gospel. These
faithful men went on before Paul and waited for him at Troas. Now, what a blessing that God
gave the Apostle Paul. What a blessing it is for the
Lord to give faithful servants of the Lord to his people to
serve his purpose and then to labor together in the ministry
of the gospel. You know, that's the gift of
God. That is the gift of God. Don't turn, let me just read
this to you, but in Acts, excuse me, in Ephesians chapter 4, when
he talks about the Lord ascending up on high, And then it says,
he gave some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors,
some teachers for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of
the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. Faithful
servants to the Lord are given of God. They're given to his
church. That's a blessing to have. Now, I want us to consider
verse 7 down through verse 12. When we sailed away from Philippi,
verse 6, after the days of unleavened bread, and came unto them in
five days, where we abode seven days, and then verse 7, 8, 9,
and 10, 11, and 12, tells us what happened in those seven
days. Now I'm glad that Luke just didn't skip over this. and
that God gave these words to him to put it here so we can
read it. I see at least four things that happened there at
Troas in these seven days. Verse 7, Upon the first day of
the week, when the disciples came together to break bread,
Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow, and
he continued his speech until midnight. Midnight. They met together, Here's the
first thing. They met together or came together
on the first day of the week. Remember the Lord was raised
from the dead on the first day of the week. He was delivered
for our offenses and raised again for our justification. They came
together on the first day of the week, not on the Jewish Sabbath,
Saturday, but upon the first day of the week to come together
to hear the gospel More importantly, they came together to worship
the true and living God. That's why we've come today,
to hear his word, to reverence his word, and to worship the
true and living God. You know how we do that? By believing
him, by loving him, and by believing him. What a blessed thing it
is to come together in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ as one
body of believers seeking His will, seeking to worship Him. I thought of this verse in Psalm
133 where David said, how good, oh how good and how pleasant
it is for the brethren to dwell together in unity around the
gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Not forsaking the assembly of
ourselves together as a matter of some is, but so much the more,
as you see the day approaching, let's take every day and every
opportunity we have to come together as a group of believers. Let's
not take it for granted, but let's cherish the privilege.
of coming together to worship Him, to hear His Word, to read
His Word, to sing praises unto Him. The second thing they did,
they came together, the disciples came together. You see that verse
7? Who are disciples? Those who were called out of
darkness into God's marvelous light. The church of the Lord
Jesus Christ. That word church means those
who were called out. The disciples came together.
They came together, one heart, one purpose, seeking the will
of the Lord, and they came together to break bread. Now this is referring
to observing the Lord's table. The Lord gave those two ordinances
unto his church. Both of them tell us about the
gospel. Baptism, water baptism tells us, and that's how we confess
Christ as all of our salvation before God. We are buried with
him and raised with him and we identify with him in believers
baptism. And then it says here that they
broke bread. Now I don't think that's just
referring to them having a meal together. I think it refers to
them observing the Lord's table. Remember our Lord said, as often
as you take this bread and give thanks, remembering my broken
body, My broken body, broken because of your sin laid upon
me. For as much as you do this, do
this in remembrance of me, observing his broken body because of our
sin. And they used unleavened bread,
signifying the sinless humanity of his body. So they broke bread
And it doesn't say here, but I know when the Lord gave the
Lord's table, He said, take this cup, the cup of the New Testament
in my blood. So we take the broken bread,
the unleavened bread and the wine in the cup, remembering
Him who shed His blood to put away our sin. Now, I hope soon
that one day we can get back to a regular schedule of observing
the Lord's table. And I'm convicted about doing
that again and I've been exploring avenues of how we can come together
and observe the Lord's table and do it in a safe manner. They
make a wine and wafer cup that sealed it looks like an hourglass
on both sides and you peel it one side and peel the other side
so we don't have to cross contaminate the elements with our virus if
we would happened to have the virus. So we'll look at that
in days to come. So they met together around the
gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, around the Lord's table, and
then here's the thing. Paul preached Now we know his message, because
we've seen this too many times, what Paul preached unto them.
He preached unto them the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Remember,
turn over back one page, back to chapter 18. Verse 4 says, He reasoned in
the synagogue every Sabbath, persuaded the Jews and the Greeks. And when Silas and Timothy were
come from Macedonia, Paul was pressed in the spirit and testified
to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ. Down in verse 11 in chapter
18, and it continued there, a year and six months, teaching the
Word of God, setting forth the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Remember in chapter 17, turn
over there. Paul preached the gospel to them,
setting forth the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
In Acts 17, as Paul, as his manner was, verse 2, he went into them
three Sabbath days and reasoned with them out of the Scriptures.
Now talking about the Old Testament Scriptures, opening and alleging
that Christ must need suffer, have suffered, risen again from
the dead, and that this Jesus whom I preached unto you, He
is the Christ. So when it says here that Paul
preached unto them, he preached unto them for 24 hours, in the
morning, till midnight, and then to the break of day. You reckon
what he said, all that he said about the person of Christ, and
the work of Christ, and the salvation that's of the Lord. What a message. What a message that must have
been. And we have all of his epistles, all of his letters,
that I'm sure included everything that he said in that 24-hour
sermon, and that marathon of sermons. He preached unto them until midnight. Paul was always ready to preach
the gospel, wasn't he? They were ready to hear the gospel.
Let us be swift to hear and slow to speak. Of his own will begat
he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first
fruit of his creatures. Wherefore, my beloved brethren,
let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, and slow to wrath. This is exactly the command the
Lord has given to us regarding when we come together. We come
together not to entertain one another. We come together to
preach the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord said,
go into all the world and preach the gospel. We're going to see
what that means in a minute. Preach the gospel. And then when
he writes back from prison, He writes back from death row when
he's in Rome. He writes back to young Timothy,
he said, I charge thee before God, preach the word, preach
the word, preach Christ, lift up Christ and him crucified.
And then Paul writes in first Corinthians, he says, woe unto
me if I preach not the gospel. Woe is unto me if I don't preach
the gospel. But woe is unto you if I preach
it and you won't have it. Then it's on you, not me. So the body of Christ, as believers
in Christ, we're commanded to do all things that are mentioned
here. We're commanded to meet together, we're commanded to
observe the Lord's table, and then we're commanded to preach
the gospel, aren't we? These things are not optional.
Isn't the Lord Jesus Christ the sum, substance, and subject matter
of all three of those things? We love to worship Him, We love
to remember him around the Lord's table, and we love to hear the
gospel preached, the gospel of Christ. I've never heard a believer
complain that we preach Christ too much, too often, too high. I've heard some people complain.
I've never heard a believer complain. All he tells us is about the
Lord Jesus Christ. I told you the story about Scott
Richardson, about the woman who visited his ministry where he
had a ministry for over 50 years up in West Virginia. And this
lady in the community came and listened to him once and twice
and three and after about a dozen times, she met him at the door
and she said, I got a question for you. Do you preach anything
else but Christ? She said, all you preach is Christ.
You know what he said? Will you put that on my tombstone?
All he preached was Christ. That's our message. We preach
not ourselves. On the front of the bulletin,
I pointed this out this morning, on the front of the bulletin,
for the last almost 27 years, for the last 1,300 bulletins,
it says, we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and
ourselves your servant for Jesus' sake. That's what this ministry
is about. It's about the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the sum of
it, the substance of it, the subject matter of it, the power
of it. Paul preached until midnight and then until the breaking of
day after he raised that young man from the dead. Now there's
no possibility of exhausting the subject. Paul didn't, that
24-hour sermon, he wasn't hunting for something to preach. He knew
what the message was, and God gave him much wisdom and liberty
to lift up the Lord Jesus Christ from the Word of God. The whole
Bible is all about Him, the Lord Jesus Christ. Every book, every
verse, every scripture is all about His person and His work,
who He is and what He's done. The doctrine of the Bible, and
notice it's not doctrines, The doctrine of the Bible, or the
teaching of the Bible, is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself as
everything in salvation. In Him dwells all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily, and in Christ we stand complete. What
is the doctrine? What is the Apostle's doctrine?
And what is the doctrine of the Bible? It's Christ. It's the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
the sum and essence of it. What is the truth of the Bible?
The truth of the Bible is what? The Lord Jesus Christ. He is
called the way, the truth, and the life. What is the gospel
of the Bible? You reckon what it is. What's
the gospel of the Bible? The gospel of God, you remember,
concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. How that Christ died for our
sin according to the scripture. How he was buried and raised
again the third day according to the scripture. The doctrine
of the Bible is the Lord Jesus Christ. The truth of the Bible
is the Lord Jesus Christ. The gospel of the Bible is the
Lord Jesus Christ. The message of the Bible is what
then? The Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord
said to those Jews, he said, you are they which search the
scriptures, and in them you think you have eternal life. They are
they which testify, the Lord said, they testify of me. Had
you believed Moses, you would have believed me. Moses wrote
about me. When the Lord met those two men,
the risen Lord on the road to Emmaus, And when he preached
the gospel unto them, he started at Moses and all the prophets,
expounded on them, and all the scriptures, to think concerning
himself. You see, this book is all about
Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ. To him give all the prophets
witness. That's our message. It has been from the get-go. And when we talk about the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ. When it says here that Paul preached
unto them, he set forth the person of Christ. And we put it this
way. We preach who he is. Who he is. He's God Almighty. Who is the
Lord Jesus Christ? He's God Almighty, manifest in
the flesh. We preach who He is, the Word
made flesh and dwelt among us. Secondly, we preach what He accomplished. Why did He come? In the fullness
of the time, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under
the law, to redeem them that were under the law. He redeemed
us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. The
Lord Jesus Christ didn't come to make an effort to put away
sin or to make salvation a possibility. He came and accomplished our
salvation by the sacrifice of Himself. So we preach who He
is, we preach what He accomplished, we preach why He did these things
for us. The only way God can be just
and justify the ungodly is through the Lord Jesus Christ and Him
crucified. He is the just God and Savior.
There's no other way. Know the name of heaven given
among men whereby we must be saved. Paul preached unto them
his deity. He preached unto them the salvation
of the Lord. He preached unto them the only
way that God can be just and justify the ungodly is through
the Lord Jesus Christ. And Paul also set forth where
he is now. Where is the Lord Jesus Christ
now? You remember what we studied in the book of Acts chapter 1?
When the risen Lord spent 40 days with his disciples, and
one day he walked outside the town of Bethany, I believe it
was, and they watched him ascend to glory, seated at the right
hand of God. Where is the Lord Jesus Christ
right now? The body of the God-man mediator, seated on the throne
of God. What's he doing there? When he
by himself, Purged our sin. He sat down on the right hand
of God. What's he doing there? He ever
lives to make intercession for us. Now think about that. Do
you need a mediator? Do you need an advocate? You
wouldn't dare go over here to the circuit judge or the circuit
district judge charged with a crime without a mediator, would you?
You'd go hire the best one you could afford. to be a advocate
for you before the judge. The Lord Jesus Christ is that
mediator that's freely given to us. One God, one mediator
between God and man, who is it? The Lord Jesus Christ. What's
he doing now? who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect. It is God that justifieth. Who
is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yet rather
is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also,
who also makes intercession for us. When you sin, we have an
advocate with the Father. Who is it? Jesus Christ, the
righteous. He's the righteous one. Now,
I told you there were four things that happened. So they came together
to worship, they observed the Lord's table, and now Paul preached
the gospel for 24 hours. But something happened here at
midnight. Eutychus, sitting in a third-story
window, as Paul was long preaching, verse 9, sunk down with sleep
and fell down from a third loft and was taken up dead. This young
man fell out the window, thirty feet to the ground, and was taken up dead. Paul went
down and fell on him, embracing him, and said, Trouble not yourself,
for his life is in him. And when he therefore was come
up again, and had broken bread and eaten, and talked a long
while, even till the break of day, and so he departed, and
they brought the young man alive and were not little comforting. His mama was a happy mama that
morning. At midnight, the young man fell
out of the window and died. At morning, in the morning, God
had raised him from the dead. And mom and dad were happy campers. Now, you know what that's a picture
of? I tell you what that's a picture
of. We have exactly what happened there, but can't we see in that
exactly what happens to us? We were ruined in a fall, and
Adam all died. We fell out of that window, hit
the ground, and Adam, we died, and Adam, we're sinful, and Adam,
we're guilty. God fell on us as Paul fell on
that young man, as Elisha and Elijah fell on those young men
in their day, and God raised them from the dead. You hath
he quickened who were dead in trespasses and in sin. That's
why I read Ephesians chapter one. You're probably wondering
why I read that. You hath he quickened who were
dead. We were fallen and ruined spiritually dead, and God raised
us from the dead with the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Our
Lord said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my
word, and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting life,
and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto
life. Verily, I say unto you, the hour is coming, and now is
when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and
they that hear shall live. I just don't need a little persuasion
and a shove in the right direction. I need a resurrection from the
dead because by nature I'm dead in sin. God must pass by us in
a time of love and give us salvation in Christ Jesus. I brought this message from Ezekiel
chapter 6 several times about the cast-out infant, and I think
I'm going to bring the message Wednesday night to you again.
But the message of that cast-out infant. God says, and that's a picture
of salvation. He said, When I passed by thee,
and saw thee polluted in your blood and your guilt, I looked
upon thee, and behold, it was a time of love. I spread my skirt
over you, I covered your nakedness, I swear unto thee, and entered
into a covenant with thee, and you became mine." That's what
happens when God saves a sinner. Now, if you want to hear more
of that message, you come back Wednesday night, and Lord willing,
I'll be bringing that message to you from Ezekiel chapter 16.