Okay, today we're going to take
a look at verse 8 in Acts chapter 14, verse 8 down through verse
18. Verse 8 down through verse 18. And just reading the story, it's
a very interesting story. But I'm taking the title for
the message from what is said in verse 15. Let's read verse
15 together. Here is Paul speaking to those
people who are about to offer a blood sacrifice unto them.
He says, why do you these things? We are also men of like passion
with you. We preach unto you that you should
turn from these vanities, turn from these idols, turn from your
nonsense, your ignorance, unto the living God, unto the living
God. which made heaven. He's a God
that created all things by the word of his power. He made heaven. He made the earth. He made the
sea, the oceans, the water, and all things that are therein,
all things. To that littlest ant, to that
biggest elephant, he made all things according to his purpose,
according to his will. So the title of the message is
found in verse 15, turn to the living God. Turn to the living God. You remember
from 1 Thessalonians 1, verse 9, when Paul reminds the believers
there, he said, how you turn to God from your idols to serve
the living and true God. Notice they turned to God, and
in turning to God, they turned away from their idolatry. This is the same instruction
the Lord speaks throughout the scripture. In the reading this
morning from Isaiah 45, the Lord said, look unto me, I'm the only
just God and Savior, look unto me and be ye saved. there is no other God, there
is no other Savior, there is no other salvation. It's the
same instruction we read of in Hebrews chapter 12 where it says,
looking, looking unto the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the author
and finisher of our faith, for the joy that was set before him
endured the cross, despising his shame, and is set down on
the right hand of the throne of God." It's the same word that
the Lord Jesus Christ gave to his disciples prior going to
the Calvary Street to die for the sin of God's people. He said
to them, I am the way. I am the truth, I am the life,
no man comes to the Father but by and through me." And then
you remember the words of Peter and John to that council of the
religious Jews where he said when he was questioned upon the
man in the temple being healed, he said, neither is there salvation
in any other for there's no other name given among men in heaven
and earth whereby we must be saved. SALVATION AND NO OTHER. TURN FROM THESE VANITIES UNTO
THE LIVING GOD. WHAT ARE THESE VANITIES? ALL
THINGS ARE DUNK, RUINED, LOST BUT CHRIST. DON'T PUT ANYTHING
BETWEEN YOU AND THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. SAVING FAITH, PETER SAID,
TO WHOM COMING? TO WHOM COMING? AS UNTO A LIVING
STONE, DISALLOWED IN NEED OF MEN, BUT ALL BUT CHOSEN OF GOD
AND PRECIOUS. Now, you got the idea? Look to
him. Look to him. Come to him. Believe
the gospel. Now, Paul and Barnabas had preached
the gospel there in Antioch and Iconium, and they suffered great
persecution at the hand of the unbelieving Jews, at the hand
of the unbelieving Gentiles, and they had to flee those cities.
And they came to Lystra and Derbe, and there they preached the gospel,
and a great multitude Believe the gospel as it says there in
verse one great multitude both of the jews And of the greeks
the gentiles they believe the gospel But it also says down
here in verse five That there was a great assembly who wanted
to stone them To use them despitefully and to stone them some got glad
Some got very mad. The gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ, as it says there in verse 4, the multitude of the city
was divided. The gospel, when it's preached,
the gospel of God's saving mercy in the Lord Jesus Christ, it'll
divide the sheep from the goats. It just will. It's designed to
do that. When they came to the cities
of Laconia, there it says they preached the gospel. And they
were aware of it, they fled Lystra and Derbe, cities of Lyconia
and to the region around about and there they preached the gospel.
And when they came to Lystra, verse 8, they found an impotent
man who had been crippled from his womb, and this man heard
Paul preach the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Always going
about preaching, preaching, preaching, preaching Christ. Now we see
the Lord demonstrating that these men were sent of God, that they
had God's message by the miracles that God had done by their hand. You remember what it says in
verse 3 of Acts 14? Long time therefore abode they
speaking boldly in the Lord, which gave testimony unto the
word of his grace, God granted signs and wonders to be done
by their hand. Now, did Paul and the energy
of Paul's flesh do these miracles? Or Barnabas and the energy of
his flesh? No, it says clearly in the last
Second to the last verse in this chapter, Acts 14, 27. And when they were come and gathered
the church together, they rehearsed all that God had done with them,
how he opened the door of faith to the Gentiles. So it wasn't
Paul by his energy or his strength or his wisdom that they were
able to preach the gospel and do these miracles. It was God
working through them. Now, here we have verse 8 and
following, 9 and 10. There was set a certain man. I love how he says a certain
man in a certain place at a certain time. You reckon all who orchestrated
all that? No accidents with God. God arranged
this meeting, this certain man in a certain place at a certain
time in a certain city, impotent, crippled, never walked, And Paul
came to that city and preached the gospel. The same heard Paul. What did Paul preach? Christ,
the Lord Jesus Christ. We have the story of this cripple,
and it's very similar to what we've already studied. Look back
at Acts chapter three. Acts chapter 3. You remember
Peter and John verse 1 went to the temple about the hour of
prayer the ninth hour and a certain man lame from his mother's womb
carried a and they laid him daily at the gate of the temple, which
is beautiful. called beautiful to ask alms
of them that entered in who seeing Peter and John about to go into
the temple asked alms. He was a beggar sitting at the
gate. Peter fasting his eyes upon him
with John said, look on us. And he gave heed of them expecting
to receive something. He thought he might get a little
money. Peter said, silver and gold have I none but such as
I have. I give unto thee in the name
of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk. And he took him
by the hand, right hand, and lifted him up. And immediately
his feet and ankle bone received strength. And he, leaping up,
stood and walked, entering into the temple, walking, leaping,
and praising God. And all the people saw him. They
all knew he'd been a cripple. Now he's walking and leaping,
jumping up and down. It's interesting, when John and
Peter started their public ministry to the Jews, it started with
the healing of this cripple. When Paul and Barnabas started
their ministry among the Gentiles, again it was the healing of a
cripple. Why did God do that? To show that these men were sent
of God with God's message and what they said was true. All
the miracles we read about through Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John
are all given to show us that salvation is of the Lord. This
is teaching us that God saves sinners on purpose for his glory,
that with God there are no accidents. God saves every sinner he wisely
saved by his purpose and grace given us in Christ before the
foundation of the world. You remember the beggar who was
a leper, came to the Lord covered with leprosy, and he came to
the Lord and worshiped him? and said, Lord, if you will,
you can make me clean. He said, the Lord said, I will
be thou clean. That's us. We're full of leprosy,
but the only way we're going to be cleansed is by the blood
and righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, if you will,
you can make me clean. And the Lord said, I will, I
will be thou clean. Now those miracles and those
healings we see a blind seeing the The dead being raised up,
all those are teaching us that God saves sinners by his grace,
his purpose in the Lord Jesus Christ. This man here was an
impotent man from his birth. He never had taken one step. You remember how when your children
were little, when they were 12, 14 months old, how you encouraged
them and tried to hold them up and tried to push them along
and make them walk? And finally they took one step,
and then they took another step, and then they started running.
This man had never taken one step. He probably couldn't even
stand. He was born crippled. That is
a picture of us. Spiritually, that's our condition
from the womb, born in sin, unable to believe the gospel of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Crippled, unable, unwilling,
dead, blind, ignorant, sinful, guilty before God, with no ability,
or will, or want to, to come to the Lord Jesus Christ. He's
gotta come to us. and give us life. No man can
come to me except the Father which sent me, draw him." This
poor, needy cripple, look at verse 9, and this is so key,
the same heard Paul speak, who steadfastly beholding him, perceived
that he has faith to be healed. This poor, needy cripple heard
the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And when he heard the
gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, blessed with the power of God,
blessed by the Spirit of God, he was given faith, faith to
believe the gospel. And we know that Paul, when he
was speaking to him, we know he preached the gospel because
that's what he did everywhere he went. Paul perceived this
infinite man was given faith to believe. How'd this faith come? Faith
comes by hearing and hearing by the word of the Lord. Faith
is a precious gift of God given to unworthy sinners as the means
to lay hold of the Lord Jesus Christ. Faith doesn't produce
salvation or accomplish salvation. Faith received the Lord Jesus
Christ who accomplished all things for us. That's why faith is called
the precious gift of God. God, Simon Peter, a servant and
apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious
faith with us through the righteousness of God our Savior. That's how
we get faith, through Christ. The righteousness of God our
Savior. By the Lord putting away our sin. By grace are you saved
through faith and that not of yourselves. That's not of yourselves. It's a gift of God. I like what
Arthur Pink said about faith. He said it's something exotic.
It doesn't bloom in you naturally. It has to be planted in there
by the hand of Almighty God. In the new birth, the word of
God is the seed of life. Of his own will beget he us with
the word of truth. On the back of the bulletin,
don't look at it now. But on the back of the bulletin,
there's an article from that book I'm reading, Sovereignty
of God by Arthur Pink. I would suggest that you get
a copy of it and read it. I read it 30 years ago, and it
had a great impact upon me. I'm finally reading it again,
and it has a greater impact upon me. It's a tremendous book. Salvation
is by the will of God and the word of God. Our Lord said, except
you're born again, you cannot see the kingdom of God. The word
of life is a seed that's blessed with the Holy Spirit, and it
gives us life. This cripple heard the gospel
and was given salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ. Whosoever
believes that Jesus is the Christ, he's born of God. We're born
again, not of a corruptible seed, but of an incorruptible seed,
which is the very word of God, the word of truth. So we heard
the gospel. He was given faith to believe
the gospel, and Paul perceived that. And he said to this man,
verse 10, he said with a loud voice, now we don't even have
this man's name. Maybe Paul called his name, I'm
not sure. But he said with a loud voice,
So much so that he was directing all the focus of his attention
on that one man. Maybe he got right in his face,
or down to his face, because the man was sitting there. And
he said, with a loud voice, stand up. Stand up. But I can't. I'm lame. I can't. Stand up. You don't understand. I've never taken a step. I've
never stood before. Stand up. But you don't understand. You don't know my condition.
Stand up on thy feet. Paul knew everything. And he
leaped and walked. I mean this man sprung up to
his feet, his legs were strong, his muscles were toned, his joints
in his knees, his ankles were revitalized like they'd never
been before. He leaps to his feet and starts
walking. And I can't help but think that
he did exactly what that man did in the temple there. We read
a moment ago, he went leaping and praising almighty God. That's exactly what happens when
God saves a sinner. Now notice this, Paul didn't
invite this man to stand up. The gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ is not an invitation. He commanded him to stand up,
just like Peter said to that man, in the name of Jesus Christ
of Nazareth, get up, stand up, and walk. He did. The gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ is not a mere invitation. Just like
the man who had the withered hand, remember? And they criticized
the Lord for doing a miracle on the Sabbath day. And he said
to that man with a withered hand, he couldn't stretch it forth.
But he said to that man by command, stretch forth your hand. And
he stretched it forth. At the command of Christ, he
acted on the word of God. With the command of the Lord,
when it come to the sinner's heart, comes the ability God-given
faith, God-given grace to believe and to obey the gospel with the
command comes the ability. Here's what our Lord said, this
is his commandment that we should believe on the name of his son
Jesus Christ and love one another as he gave us commandment. We
believe the gospel by the command and decree of God. You remember
we read over here in Acts chapter 13 verse 48, 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 the gospel. They
believed at the command of God, and that's exactly how we believe
the gospel. He crosses our path with the
gospel. He gives us ears to hear. He creates the interest in our
spiritual welfare. He teaches us that we're sinners.
He teaches us that God is holy and sovereign. He teaches us
that in salvation, the Lord Jesus Christ is everything, and He
makes us willing in the day of His power. When we believe, He's
altogether lovely. When we believe, to you who believe,
He is precious. And I'm sure this man went leaping
and praising and running and walking, praising the Lord. What an experience. That's exactly
what God does for every sinner he saves. We were dead, blind,
ignorant. He gives us life. And he causes
us to praise the Lord and say that salvation's all of his doing.
Look at verse 11, 12, and 13. we see the stark reality of our
own depraved nature. Now these men who were by nature
dead in sin, they were idolaters because they were worshiping
the heavens and not the true and living God. And when the
people saw what Paul had done, They lifted up their voices,
saying in the speech of the Liconia, the gods are come down to us
in the likeness of men. Instead of giving the Creator
all praise and honor and glory, they worshiped the creature instead
and said, Paul and Barnabas, they must be gods. They called
Barnabas Jupiter. They called Paul Mercury. or Mercury, because he was the
chief speaker, then the priest of Jupiter, which was before
the city, brought oxen, garlands under the gates, and would have
done sacrifice with the people, which when the apostle Barnabas
and Paul heard of it, they rent their clothes and ran among the
people and say, don't do this. Don't look to me. Don't worship
me. We see something of the reality
of our own depraved nature. Instead of worshiping Almighty
God, the true and living God, they went about to worship the
creature. Paul and Barnabas, and even went
so far as to offer a blood sacrifice unto them to celebrate their
idol gods before Paul and Barnabas. And they said, the last part
of verse 11, the gods, plural, are come down in the likeness
of men. And I thought of this statement. God has come down in the likeness
of men, hasn't He? What they said was totally false.
Paul and Barnabas were just men, sinners saved by grace. But even
in that statement, there's a great fact of the gospel of the Lord
Jesus Christ presented to us in His incarnation. God did come
down in the likeness of a real man. He took our humanity to
Himself. He remained what He was and became
what He was not. The Word was made flesh and dwelt
among us. He thought it not robbery to
be equal with God, but took upon Him the form of a servant, and
became in the likeness of our flesh, and in the flesh as a
real man, became obedient unto death, even the death of the
cross. without controversy. Great is
the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. You remember Romans 8, for what
the law could not do and that was weak through the flesh. God
sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin,
condemned sin in the flesh. 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 did come down. Now look at verse 14 and following. When the apostles, and they called
both Barnabas and Paul apostles, in the sense that they were sin
of God, heard, when they heard of this, they rent their clothes,
ran among the people, crying out, saying, don't do this. Why do you these things? We are also men of like passion
with you and preach to you that you should turn from these vanities
unto the living God, turn from idols to the living God. He made
heaven, he made earth, he made the sea and all things therein. Now, several things here. First
of all, he says, we are sinners just like you. We are sinners,
we are men of like passion. Like passion, affected just like
you. Remember in James chapter five,
he says, Elijah was a man subject to like passion as we are. Preachers, sin of God, are sinners
saved by the grace of God. Sinners in need of mercy, preachers
of the gospel have this treasure in earthen vessels. Don't ever
worship a man. He may be the greatest preacher.
I love my pastor. He preached to me the gospel
for 40 years, but I worship God. I thank God for those servants
sent of God, but I thank God and look to the Lord Jesus Christ.
My pastor pointed me to look to the Lord Jesus Christ as I
point you this morning to look to him. And then Paul said, look
at verse 15. We're also, we're just men like
you, sinners, sinners in need of mercy. But we preach unto
you, we preach unto you the good news of the gospel. We preach
unto you salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ. We preach not ourselves. I think that's on the front of
our bulletin. It's been on the front of our bulletin for 26
years. Brother Moose Parks, when he
was here last summer, he brought the message from that verse.
And the whole time he was preaching that verse, we preach not ourselves,
but Christ Jesus, the Lord, and ourselves your servant for Christ's
sake. I had forgotten that it was on
the front of the bulletin. And it's been on the front of
the bulletin for 26 years, all the years that I've been here.
We preach not ourselves. I point you to Christ. Look to
him. Look to the Lord Jesus Christ.
And then he says this, you turn from these vanities unto the
living God. Turn to the living God. Now,
who is the living God? There's only one God. You remember
we read he's the only just God and Savior. He said, beside me
there is no other. The living God is the true and
living God. This is eternal life that they
might know thee, the only true God, Jesus Christ, whom he has
sent. The Lord Jesus Christ is a living
God. That's how we approach God Almighty,
is through the Lord Jesus Christ. Turn from everything but Christ. Turn away from everything, count
it done, lost, and ruined, and be found in Him. We count all
things but lost, that we might win Christ and be found in Him. He is a true and living God.
He is eternal life. Turn from these vain thoughts.
works, idols, religious deeds, self-righteousness, religious
idolatry. Turn from those things. Turn
away from them. Be done with them. And then he
says, look, look to the living God who created all things by
the word of his power. Look to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Preacher, how do I look to him? If God gives you faith, You don't
have to ask that question anymore. Because when God gives faith,
you immediately look to Christ. Come to Him. To whom coming?
To whom looking? Always, always, always unto Him. Verse 16, verse 17. God in time past suffered all
nations to walk in their own ways. What is the way that men
walk naturally away from God? There is a way that seems right
unto man. The end of that way is death.
It's the way of their own blindness, idolatry, and ignorance. You
can go to the deepest, darkest recesses of any African nation
or India or wherever, at a remote tribe, anywhere in this world,
and you'll find them walking in idolatry after their own way. That's how depraved we are. But God suffered all nations
to walk in this way and didn't immediately exterminate the whole
race when sin entered in. You know why? Because he had
an elect. And He suffered all nations to
walk in their blindness and ignorance, that He might send the Redeemer
to put away their sin and to call them by His grace. And listen
to me, I believe this, when God calls the last sinner home, the
last elect of God by His grace, out of darkness into God's marvelous
light, the gospel will be preached in all the world and then cometh
the end. I think it's near. I think it's
near. Even so, we say, come Lord Jesus. The Lord is long suffering to
spare this human race immediate judgment to call out his elect. The Lord is not slack concerning
his promise. As some men count slackness,
but is long-suffering to usward, his elect, not willing that any
should perish, but that all should come to repentance. You remember
from our study in the book of Psalms, but thou, O Lord, art
a God full of compassion, gracious, long-suffering, plenteous in
mercy. I jotted this down this morning.
I was thinking of this verse, Isaiah 55, 7. Let the wicked
forsake his way. the unrighteous his thoughts.
Let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him.
And to our God, for he will abundantly pardon." There's plenty of redemption
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at verse 17, Acts 14, 17. Nevertheless, God had not left
himself without a witness. What's he mean here? The heavens
declared the glory of God. The firmament showeth his handiwork.
God has never left himself without a witness. The heavens declared
the glory of God in that he did good. Can he do anything else? Everything God does is good.
It's right. He gave rain from heaven. He
gave a fruitful season. How many years has this earth
produced crops? corn, wheat, apples, pears, cherries,
fruitful season, filling the hearts of people with food and
with gladness. You see how long-suffering the
Lord is? He put up with their ignorance,
with their blindness. You see over here, turn over
to Acts 17, verse 30. We're gonna see this again. The times of this ignorance God
winked at, but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent. God overlooked the ignorance
of many that he might call out his elect. Now, in closing, look
at verse 18. And with these sayings, what
Paul had preached, the gospel, turn from the vanities, look
to the living God, God is long-suffering, what he does is right, And with
these sayings, scarce restrained, or scarcely these people were
restrained, that they had done sacrifice unto them, they were
stopped for a while, stopped in their tracks. But look at
verse 19. And there came thither certain
Jews from Antioch, here's the same crowd that wanted to stone
him before, and from Iconium, who persuaded the people having
stoned Paul and drew him out of the city, supposing that he
had been killed. With these sayings, with the
gospel, with the words of gospel truth, the people were turned
from their idols for a while and restrained for a while. But when they were incited in
their depraved humanity, they took up stones and stoned the
Apostle Paul. Now think about it. One moment
they're over here ready to worship them and honor them, and then
these Jews come from Antioch and Iconium unto Lystra, and
their minds are evil affected, and now they're ready to pick
up rocks. I think about this. You remember
when Stephen preached the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, and
that same religious crowd picked up stones to stone him, and they
stoned him to death. You remember who stood there
and said, amen? Go ahead, boys, pick up another
one, throw it a little bit harder. And he held their coats. You
take off your coat and let me hold it. Saul of Tarsus. Now this man is preaching the
gospel that he once hated. How do you account for that?
It's only the grace of God. It's only the grace of God that
you're here hearing the word. We're all here to hear from him
and believe in the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Men unrestrained
are monsters. Humanity unrestrained, you look
at the horrible things we've done to one another. in human
history. What awful, awful, ugly, terrible
things people have done to one another. Man unrestrained is
a monster. Thank God he restrains us. The love of Christ constrains
us. May the Lord be pleased to cause us to constantly be restrained
by his grace and cause us to turn to God from our idols. May the Lord give us grace to
trust the Lord Jesus Christ now and forever. There is no other
gospel but the Lord Jesus Christ and him crucified. May God give
us grace to look to him