Acts chapter 19. God raised up this church in
Ephesus where Paul was sent to preach the gospel. Called out,
it says in verse 7, these twelve men. These twelve men. Some of
the commentators think that these twelve men were those elders
that Paul called over to when he was on his way to Jerusalem.
There it is recorded in Acts chapter 20. And they went into
the synagogue preaching the gospel there for three months, and they
spoke to the people concerning the things of the kingdom of
God. Salvation is all about the King of kings, the Lord Jesus
Christ. They had a negative response
from some at verse 9, Acts 19 verse 9. Some were hardened,
some were hardened and believed not. But they spake evil of that
way before the multitude. So Paul departed from them, separated
the disciples, disputing daily in the school of one Tyrannus. And this continued by the space
of two years, verse 10, so that all they which dwelt in Asia
heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks. God raised a multitude of believers
in Ephesus, established this gospel-preaching church, And
Paul continued with them two years, it says there in verse
10, preaching the Word. And then it says over in verse
20, turn over there, so mightily grew the Word of God and prevailed. It is wise for us to continue
preaching the Gospel of God, declaring the testimony of God.
And I know this, the Lord has promised to bless His Word. We
read it a moment ago in Isaiah 45. He said, My word will not
return unto me void. Wherever he is pleased to send
his word, his gospel, it will prosper. It will be effective. It will have its results, whether
it's a savor of life unto life or a savor of death unto death,
but it will bring results. It will be to the glory of the
praise of God's grace to His elect and the praise of the glory
of His justice to those who do not believe the gospel and who
will not believe Christ. He has also promised to bless
those that honor the Lord Jesus. He said, those that honor me,
I will honor. Those who despise me, they will
be lightly esteemed. He that believeth on the Son
hath life. He that believeth not the Son
shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him. Now, Paul continued there two
years preaching this message, the Word of the Lord Jesus Christ,
the Gospel of God. Now notice verse 11 and 12. God
confirmed Paul's message with these special signs, wonders,
and miracles. God confirmed his message. God
wrought, verse 11, special miracles. Now these are not something common
or ordinary, something unusual, something very special, And this
was wrought by God through the hands of Paul. So that from his
body were brought unto the sick handkerchief or an apron. It's
part of his clothing. And the diseases departed from
them and evil spirits went out. So they took a handkerchief or
something that Paul had wiped his brow on and they took that
handkerchief to the house of one who was sick. That person
was healed. He was cured. What a miracle! God confirmed Paul's message
and ministry by the special, unusual miracle. Now, Peter and
the other apostles, Peter's ministry had a similar confirmation. We've seen this before now. Turn
back to Acts chapter 5. These apostles had special credentials
to demonstrate their message was from God. In Acts chapter
5 verse 15, Acts 5 verse 15, "...and so much that they brought
forth the sick into the streets, and laid them on beds and couches,
that at the least the shadow of Peter passing by might overshadow
some of them, And verse 16, there came also a multitude out of
the city's roundabout unto Jerusalem, bringing the sick folks and them
which were vexed with unclean spirits, and they were healed
every one. Now, here's my question. Do we
need this today, or do I need this today, these special signs,
wonders and miracles, do we need this today to validate our message
and our ministry? to say that we speak for God
and we have God's message. Do I need to produce these things?
Absolutely not. Absolutely not. We are commanded
to go and preach the Word of God, not to try to duplicate
these special miracles that God gave to special people for a
special time, for a special occasion, to help promote the gospel of
God's grace. But we don't need that in this
day. What we have in this day is His completed Word and we
are commanded to go and preach the Word, not to do miracles
and signs and wonders. Now hold your place here and
find II Timothy chapter 4. Paul's dying words when he was
in prison, his last recorded words when he was in Rome in
prison, and he writes back to a young preacher named Timothy,
His last instructions were to him in 2 Timothy 4.1 was no word
whatsoever about any kind of miracles and wonders and signs,
but rather the commandment was to go and preach the gospel.
Notice, if you will, 2 Timothy 4.1, I charge thee therefore
before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who shall judge the living
and the dead at the appearing of his kingdom to preach Preach
the Word. Preach Christ. Be instant in
season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering
and doctrine. For the time will come when they
will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lusts shall
they heap to themselves. Teachers having itching ears,
they shall turn their ears from the truth and shall be turned
unto fables." Timothy? God's going to remove me soon.
What are you to do? Keep preaching the gospel, keep
preaching Christ and Him crucified. So that's the command that we
are given in this day, to go preach Christ, set forth His
person, His Word. Not to try to hold these special
meetings and put up a sign, a heracle and faith miracles and all these
different things. Now, here's what happened. Verse
13. When these seven sons of Seba
saw what happened and what God was doing through Paul, they
tried to duplicate this. They said, well, that worked
pretty good for Paul. We think we'll try that. Look
at verse 13. Then certain of the wandering
Jews, that's what vagabond is, They wandered from place to place,
practicing witchcraft, actually. Practicing sorcery. Took upon
them to call over them which had an evil spirit, and to do
it in the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, we charge you by this
one who Paul preaches. Not the one in whom we love,
not the one in whom we worship, not the one in whom we preach,
this one that Paul is preaching. And there were seven sons of
one man, the seven sons of Siva. He was a Jew. He was the chief
priest. These folks were very religious. They practiced Judaism. And the evil spirit answered
and said, Jesus, I know. The Savior, I know. And Paul,
I know. But who are you? Who sent you
and what are you doing? And the man in whom the evil
spirit was leaped on them, overcame them, prevailed against them
so that they fled out of the house. He just plain whooped
up on them. They fled out of the house. naked. Here's one man, one demon-possessed
man, who whooped up seven sons, and they fled naked and wounded. What a difference! Now you look
at the difference. You look at the difference between
these twelve men. The twelve men that talks about
here in verse 7, All the men were about twelve. These twelve
men who were called out, chosen of God and blessed to preach
the gospel, look at the difference between them and how God blessed
their ministry and how these seven con men tried to reproduce
what Paul did and how God sent, not blessing, He sent judgment
on them. Judgment on them. Now, who makes
men to differ? God makes the difference. The
grace of God makes the difference. We see who these men were, these
seven sons of Seba. They were sons of a Jewish priest,
traveling from place to place, practicing witchcraft in the
name of God, supposing to be an exorcist to cast out demon
spirits. So that's who they were, what
they did. They tried to imitate what God was pleased to do through
the hands of Paul. And what happened to them? God
sent judgment on them. He sent judgment on them. Now
listen to this. Even the devil and all of his
fallen angels serve God's purpose. Serve God's purpose. They do
God's business. The devil is God's devil. Now
I want you to look at Ephesians chapter 1. The Lord Jesus Christ
sent judgment on these men. Ephesians chapter 1. You see
the God that we worship has all power in heaven and earth. Even
the demon spirits are subject unto him. At one point they said
to him, what have we to do with you? Are you here to torment
us before our time? You remember the story? Look
at Ephesians chapter 1. Verse 19 says this, "...what
is exceeding greatness of His power to us who believe." Verse
19, Ephesians 1, "...according to the working of His mighty
power, which He wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead,
set Him at His own right hand in heavenly places, far above
all principality and power, and might, and dominion, and every
name that is named, not only in this world, but in that which
is to come. You see, He is over all principalities
and powers. Over all things are subject unto
Him. The Father loves the Son and
has put all things under His hand, in His hand. Verse 22,
And has put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be
head, Lord. over all things to the church,
which is His body, the fullness of Him that filleth, all in all."
Christ is all. Now turn back to our story again.
The Lord Jesus sent judgment on these men for abusing His
name, not knowing His name, but for using His name and trying
to do so to get gain, to serve their own purpose, not the purpose
of God. God never called them, God never
sent them. Now let me say this, there are many modern sons of
Seba today in pulpits, on the radio, on TV, who use the blessed
name of our Lord Jesus Christ for their own fame and gain,
don't they? They're conmen. They're absolutely
conmen. They say, they hold up a little
vial of water and say, this is from the rivers of Jordan. You
send your money, and I'll send you this little vial, and you'll
receive a special miracle. But you've got to send your money.
You see, they're con men. We have modern sons of Sheba
today. They're nothing but charlatans.
They're nothing but money-grubbing, self-serving, false prophets
who will very soon be exposed by God, if not in this world,
surely, in the judgment to come. They will meet God Almighty. You want to know what He's going
to say to them? It's recorded for us. Turn to Matthew 7. Here's
what He's going to say to them in that day. These seven sons
of Saba will hear this from the lips of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Depart from me, you who work iniquity, I never knew you. Look at Matthew 7 verse 21. Not
everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, are going to enter
into the kingdom of heaven. This is because you say, Praise
the Lord. I was sitting behind a car the other day and there
was a sticker on the window. It had a little man, a little
cartoon figure, and it said, Praise the Lord. Not everyone
that says, Lord, Lord, are going to enter into the kingdom of
heaven. Look what it says here. But he that doeth the will of
my Father which is in heaven. What is the will of the Father?
to honor Christ, to believe the gospel of the Lord Jesus. Many
will say to me in that day, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy
name? And in thy name have we not cast out devils? And in thy
name done many wonderful work? That's what they'll claim. We
have done. We have done. It's not Lord,
you have done. It's what we have done. Then
I will profess unto them, I don't know you. I don't love you. I've
never redeemed you. I don't know you. Depart from
me, you that work iniquity." That's what these seven sons
of Saba will hear in that day of judgment. And all those who
abuse and misuse the name of the Lord Jesus for their own
fame and gain. And really it is, it's a game
with them. So these men fled out of the
house. Look back at the text. They fled out of the house naked. and wounded. They were unsuccessful
in their scheme. Their scheme did not work. Now
notice verse 17. And this was known to all the
Jews. This was known to all the Jews
and Greeks, also dwelling at Ephesus, and fear fell on them
all. And the name of the Lord Jesus
was magnified. This incident that happened,
and Paul healing many miracles and wonders and signs God wrought
by his hand, these things brought a two-fold immediate response.
Fear fell on the enemies of the gospel. Sinners were terrified
at the awesome presence of God, who is God, who works all things
out to the counsel of His own will. Now, here's an assignment
for you. Find the book of Daniel. Daniel. It's a couple books over from
Isaiah. Daniel chapter 4. And mark this verse in your Bible.
Daniel chapter 4. Fear fell on the enemies of the
gospel and they were terrified at the awesome power and presence
of God Almighty. Daniel chapter 4. And if you've
not marked this verse in your Bible, do so verse 35. And this
is the words of Nebuchadnezzar, whom God stripped, dethroned,
put him out in the pasture as a wild animal, and God taught
him this lesson, verse 35, All the inhabitants of the earth
are reputed as nothing. He doeth according to his will
in the army of heaven among the inhabitants of this earth, and
none can stay his hand or say unto him, What doest thou? God is God. And that's whom we
worship. Now back to the story. Two things
happened to these folks in this city. Fear fell on them all. Fear and trembling fell on the
enemies of Christ, enemies of the gospel. Something else happened
in verse 17. And the name of the Lord Jesus
was magnified. You see that? The name of the
Lord Jesus was magnified. That name which is above every
name. The name of the Lord Jesus, the Lord of glory, His person,
His work was magnified, honored, worshipped by believers. The
enemies trembled and the believers worshipped and magnified the
God of Scripture. This is our purpose in preaching,
is it not? To magnify the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the reason we come each
time we meet, to lift up the Savior, to take the Word of God
and to teach the Gospel of Christ. God forbid we should glory save
in the cross of Christ. This is our purpose for worship.
This is our purpose of preaching, is to magnify the Lord Jesus.
To honor and to worship Him. The Fathers seek as such to worship
Him in spirit and in truth. Turn to John chapter 4. Turn
over there. John chapter 4. Look at this
here. This is the reason we've met
today. To magnify the Lord Jesus. To honor and to worship Him.
John chapter 4, look at verse 23. But the hour cometh, and
now is, when the true worshiper shall worship the Father in spirit
and in truth. For the Father seeketh such to
worship Him. God is Spirit. And they that worship Him must
worship Him in spirit and in truth." I didn't misread that.
God is spirit. God is spirit. And they that
worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. There is no spiritual worship
apart from truth. Truth. Christ said, I am truth. This is our purpose in preaching,
to magnify the Lord. This is our purpose in meeting
here today, to worship the Lord Jesus Christ. And this is our
purpose in life. Our whole life. The life of the
believer is one fold. Seek ye first the kingdom of
God and His righteousness. This is our purpose in meeting
here today, to honor and magnify the Lord. Turn to Psalm 115.
And this is our purpose in worship and this is our purpose in life.
For the believer now, it's one fold. It's Christ. He is all and in all. I know
we have to do these other things to get by. But that's not our
life. Our job is not our life. That's
how we pay the bills. Christ is our life. Psalm 115,
verse 1. Not unto us, O Lord. You see
verse 1? Not unto us, O Lord. Not unto
us. but under thy name give glory for thy mercy and for thy truth's
sake." That's why, that's the whole purpose of the believer's
life, to honor and magnify the Lord Jesus Christ in all things. Now, look back at the story again.
Acts 19. Acts 19. And this was known, verse 17,
to all the Jews and Greeks also dwelling in Ephesus, and fear
fell on them, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified."
Now look at verse 18, "...and many that believed came, confessed,
and showed their deeds." Now verse 18, let's camp right there
for a few moments, then we'll look at verse 19 and 20. Here's
a remarkable conversion story. As a result of what happened,
many came to hear Paul preach. What was his message? When they
came to hear this man preach, did he point to the miracles?
No, he preached Christ and Him crucified, as we studied this
morning. He said, I'm determined to know nothing among you but
Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Through everything that happened,
God providentially arranged these things that many heard what had
happened and they came to hear Paul. And he preached the gospel
to them, and what it says there, many that came believed. Believed. What did they believe?
They believed the truth. They believed the message of
Paul. The gospel of God. Turn to Acts chapter 13. I believe
it's summed up in these verses right here. Acts 13. Through
the preaching of Christ, many were given life and faith and
repentance in Christ. I believe this is the... When
he's talking about preaching Christ and Him crucified, I believe
this is what it is right here. Acts 13, 38. Be it known unto
you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man, the God-man,
is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins, through the shedding
of His blood, and by Him all that believe. Verse 39. Are justified, justified, cleared
of all guilt, cleared of all guilt, sin put away, all that
believe are justified from all things which you could not be
justified by the law of Moses. This is the good news of the
gospel. Many came and heard Paul preach and then it says, look
back there at the text, they believed, they were granted faith
and life and repentance to believe the truth, to rest in Christ,
And then it says there secondly, verse 18, I want you to look
at this closely. They believed, and then what
does that next word say? They confessed. They confessed. They demonstrated faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ publicly. They confessed faith in Christ
and commitment to Him. Faith in Christ is a commitment.
It's a total sell-out. to Christ in Him crucified. Christ
exalted. Second Timothy, turn over there
again. Second Timothy chapter 1 this time. They demonstrated
their faith in Christ. They confessed. They confessed. You know, believers are a confessing
people. They are. They're a confessing people.
Now here, look what he says here. Second Timothy chapter 1 verse
12. For the which cause? 2 Timothy
1.12, "...for which cause I also suffer these things. Nevertheless,
I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and am
persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed
unto him against that day." Believers are confessing people. They know
Him, and they are committed unto Him. They are confessing people. We own, number one, we own and
confess our sin to the Savior. Don't we do that as confessing
our salvation? We own our sin and confess it,
not to me, not to the preacher, but unto God. You see, you've
not sinned against me, you've sinned against God. Turn to Psalm 51, look at this.
Psalm 51. We own and confess our sin to
our Savior. Do you know you're a sinner?
I mean, do you really know that? Died in the wool? I'm not talking
about what you've done. I'm talking about what you is.
What you are. Sin. Sin through and through. And we confess that unto God
because we've sinned against Him. Psalm 51, verse 3, I acknowledge
my transgressions And my sin is ever before me, against thee
and thee only have I sinned." Against who? Against thee. Underscore
that in your Bible. Against thee and thee only have
I sinned. And done this evil in thy sight,
that thou mayest be justified when you speak, and clear when
you judge. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my
mother conceive me. We own and confess our deeds.
We are sinners. Everything we think, do and say
is tainted with sin. Everything. Everything we do.
That's why we constantly need the cleansing blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Our prayers, our preaching, everything
we do is tainted with sin. And we confess that. I do. You
see, God's people are confessing people. We only confess our sin
to the Savior. Turn to 1 John chapter 1. Look
at this here. 1 John chapter 1. They believed
and they confessed. They confessed. They owned up.
1 John 1, 6. If we say that we have fellowship
with Him and walk in darkness, we lie. We don't do the truth.
We don't believe the truth. But if we walk in the light,
as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another,
and the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin. If
we say we have no sin, now notice that singular. We say we have
no sin nature. We deceive ourselves and the
truth's not in us. Now look at verse 9. What's that
word? What is it? Confess. our sins. He is faithful and
just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
If we say we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word
is not in us. God's people are a confessing
people. We own and confess our sin before
our Savior. Like the man in Luke 18, the
publican, God be merciful to me, Thee, I'm Thee sinner. I'm the chief offender. Secondly,
believers are confessing people. We only confess our sin to our
Savior. Secondly, we confess our sin
before men in our need of Christ. Now, turn to a couple of scriptures
here, Matthew chapter 10. We only confess our sin before
men as well. We are sinful. We are guilty
as charged. Now, how important is that? that
we confess Christ as all of our salvation, that we are sinners
in need of salvation, that Christ is the only Savior. How important
is that? Well, let's see how important
it is. Matthew chapter 10, look at verse 32. Whosoever therefore
shall confess me before man. Now principally this confession
here, the believer confesses faith in Christ as Christ is
all of our salvation by believers' baptism. We confess His death,
burial, and resurrection as all of our hope, and we publicly
identify with His people and with His gospel in the waters
of baptism, not to be saved, but rather because we have been.
Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess
also before my Father which is in heaven. I say that's pretty
important, is it not? But whosoever shall deny me before
men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven." Pretty important, isn't it? Confession. You see, they believed, they
heard, they believed the gospel, and they confessed. I'll show
you another scripture. What do we confess? Well, turn
over here to Philippians chapter 2. Philippians chapter 2. God's people are a confessing
people. Before our Savior and before
men, publicly. Look what it says here in Philippians
2. Look at verse 5. Philippians 2, 5. Let this mind
be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the
form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made
himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant,
and was made in the likeness of men. Here's the God-man, who
being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with
God, because he is God. It's not robbery. He's equal
with God. He is God. But he made himself
of no reputation, took upon him the form of a servant, and was
made in the likeness of man, and being found in fashion as
a man, he humbled himself, became obedient unto death, even the
death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly
exalted him, given him a name which is above every name, that
at the name of Jesus the Saviour every knee should bow, of things
in heaven, in earth, and under the earth, and that every tongue
should..." What's that word there? "...every tongue should confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father."
That's our confession. He is Lord to the glory of God
the Father. Turn to Romans 10. God's people
are confessing people before God and before men. We only confess
this gospel, preaching it publicly, wherever God sends us, wherever
He opens the door. Romans 10, look at this. Verse
6. Romans 10, 6, But the righteousness
which is of faith speaketh on this way, Say not in thy heart,
who shall ascend into heaven? Now the righteousness which is
of faith speaketh this way, Say not in thy heart, who shall ascend
into heaven? That is to bring Christ down
from above. Or who shall descend into the deep? That is to bring
up Christ again from the dead. But what does the righteousness
of faith say? The word is nigh thee, even in
thy mouth and in thy heart. That is the word of faith which
we preach, that if thou shalt confess, confess with thy mouth
the Lord Jesus, and believe in thine heart that God raised him
from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man
believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession
is made unto salvation. For the Scripture saith, whosoever
believeth in me shall not be..." Are you ashamed of your Lord?
Are you ashamed of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus? God forbid. Now back to the text. These folks
took a bold statement. They made a bold statement in
verse 19 in our text. Many of them, verse 18, that
believed, they believed the message of the Gospel of Christ, they
confessed, they identified and confessed they were sinners,
And many of them, verse 19, says that many of them also which
used curious arts, witchcraft, sorcery, these various things,
they took all their books, they cleaned out their bookshelf,
cleaned out their library, all their pagan idolatry, all their
false religion, they cleaned out the library and came to the
town center and made a big pile of books. Burn them all to make
a public statement. And there were so many books,
it says here it was counted as 50,000. It was worth the price
of 50,000 pieces of silver. Now why did they do this? They
publicly denounced their former religion as dumb, didn't they? They took everything that they
at one time believed and hoped in, they cleaned out their bookshelf,
brought it to the town center and burned them to show that
they had allegiance to the Lord Jesus Christ. That's a bold statement,
is it not? Just clean out your library and
burn everything but that which honors Christ and tells the truth.
They burned all their books to show they held no value to them.
That which holds no value to you, what do you do? You rake
up your leaves this fall, what do you do with them? Can them
for next year? No, you burn them. There's no
value in them. And that's what they were saying. There's no value in these things? Christ. We esteem Him highly
among all things. Second reason they burnt these
books, to prevent others from reading their lives. They didn't
want their books to pass down to their children, to ensnare
them with the things they were entrapped with, with superstition
and will-worship. They didn't want their children
to have these books. They didn't want them to be in
the hands of any other person. And thirdly, to show their total
sell-out, to show their total sell-out to the Lord Jesus Christ. I thought about this. in a way
of illustrating this, and it's kind of a personal thing to me.
Many of you know that I grew up out in northern Utah, grew
up in the Salt Lake City area, and grew up a Mormon. And God,
by His grace, called me out of that heathen, cultish, idolatry,
and religion. And it would be like me taking
all my literature, the Mormon literature, the Book of Mormon,
the Doctrine and Covenants, the Pearl of Great Price, and the
Joseph Smith translation of the Bible, and taking all those books
there in the center of Salt Lake City and piling all those books
and burning them to demonstrate Christ alone is all my hope of
salvation. That's what these folks did.
I say it's a tremendous statement, don't you? It's making a statement
that Christ is all their hope and all their salvation. Look
at verse 20 in closing. The Lord blessed this. He blessed
them believing, blessed them to enable them to believe, blessed
their confession, blessed their demonstration. So mightily, steadily
grew the Word of God, kept on growing, and prevailed. The Gospel prevailed. The Lord
blessed them mightily, the Word kept growing and spreading in
them, And in others, they were growing in grace and the knowledge
of truth, and the gospel prevailed. Prevailed. The gospel of the
Lord Jesus Christ, when it's sent to the heart of a rebel, in the hand of the Holy Spirit,
my friend, it will prevail. It will conquer. It will overcome
your stubborn will, your darkened understanding, your deadness
and sin, your blindness. It will prevail. And it will
call you out of darkness into light. The gospel prevailed,
overcame all obstacles to the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ,
the Lord of glory. Thanks be unto God who has given
us the victory through our blessed Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, I pray the Lord will bless.