Let's turn to the book of Acts,
chapter 26, for our message this morning. I believe God has especially
laid on my heart a message for this hour concerning the Preacher's
Commission. Now, there's much religion today,
there are many churches, and there's lots of preaching. But
I just wonder how many in the pulpit and in the pew and in
the world understand anything about the Preacher's Commission.
What is the preacher sent to do? What is the preacher sent
to say? Who sent him anyway? To whom
is he sent? There's so many questions that
arise in regard to preaching. And I've selected as my text
chapter 26 of the book of Acts. I'll begin reading with verse
16. If you have your Bible, turn to Acts 26, and let's look at
16, 17, and 18. The Apostle Paul is speaking. He says, Rise and stand upon
thy feet, for I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to
make thee a minister. This is what God said to me,
Paul declared, I have appeared unto thee to make thee a minister,
and a witness both of these things which thou hast seen, and of
these things in which I will appear to thee, or the things
I'll show thee, or teach thee. I will deliver thee from the
people. You don't have to be afraid of the people. I'll deliver
thee from the Gentiles, the heathen, unto whom now I send thee. And
then he gives a fivefold commission. The Lord said, I have made thee
a minister and a witness to the Gentiles to open their eyes and
to turn them from darkness to light and to turn them from the
power of Satan unto God, that they may receive the forgiveness
of sins, and an inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith
in me." Now, in this scripture, in the chapter we have read from,
Acts 26, God's messenger, and there's no doubt about this,
Paul was God's messenger. And he's standing here before
King Agrippa. He's standing before the royal
court. I'm sure the king was there, and possibly the queen,
and many captains, and chief men, and leaders, and witnesses. But Paul is appearing before
King Agrippa. Now, it's true that Paul was
a prisoner, probably in chains. He was bound, but the Word of
God is never bound. The word of God is never bound.
God will send his word, his gospel, the gospel of his grace, to whom
he will, when he will. And here Agrippa was the hearer
and Paul was the preacher. God sent his messenger to King
Agrippa. Little did King Agrippa realize
the great act of mercy toward him by God in allowing him to
hear the Lord's messenger. Little did this pagan king realize
how momentous was this hour, how important was this moment.
He was actually listening to God Almighty's preacher, God
Almighty's messenger. I wonder if you and I realize
the importance of hearing the gospel from a man who is truly
sent of God. When the Samaritan woman left
her home that morning going to the well, I don't imagine she
entertained any thoughts at all about meeting the Son of God.
She left her home with the water pot on her shoulder and started
to the well to draw water, something she had done every day for many,
many years, clear back to the time she was a little girl and
went to the well with her mother. But that very day, she met the
Master. She met the Christ. She met the
Son of God. That very day she was brought
to a knowledge of God's grace. That very day her whole life
was changed. She became a child of God. You
think about that. I wonder when blind Bartimaeus
gathered his blanket and his tin cup and whatever he had and
started down to the corner once again to sit on the street and
beg outside Jericho. He'd been doing that for years
and years and years and probably his father before him, who more
than likely was blind, the Scripture said Bartimaeus was blind and
was the son of Timaeus. But here he left home with his
blanket and with his old coat and his ragged garments and went
down to the street to sit once again and beg. Little did he
realize that that day he would see, that that day he would meet
the Son of God, that that day he would become a child of God. I wonder about the thief on the
cross the morning of his crucifixion. He knew he was condemned to die.
He knew that was the day he was going to die. I doubt if he had
any thought of heaven or hell or judgment or Christ or mercy
or grace or forgiveness or any of these things. And yet that
day, they nailed him to that cross. And right beside him,
the Son of God. Now you think about that. The
Son of God hanging on a cross beside him. And that day he called
for mercy, and that day he was made an object of God's saving
mercy. God vested him in mercy. And
this is what I'm saying. Little did King Agrippa realize
the possibility of that hour, the potential of that hour. Here the king was sitting on
his throne, and right before him was God's messenger. God's minister, God's witness,
God's apostle with God's saving grace with the good news of Jesus
Christ. I wonder as you turned on your
television this morning if you had any thought of this being
an unusual day, this being a momentous occasion, this being an hour
when God may be pleased to visit you in mercy. You've heard the
gospel probably with these ears many times. Wouldn't it be wonderful
if this morning you heard it with your heart? You've seen
the Bible, words on paper all these years. Wouldn't it be something
if today, like the Samaritan woman, that you met Christ? And if you meet him, you'll meet
him in his gospel. If you're saved, it'll be by the preaching
of the gospel of Jesus Christ. God has pleased. It pleased God
by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. The
gospel is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth.
Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth. It's by the
preaching of the gospel that men are saved. Paul said of the
Thessalonians, he said, I know you're God's elect because our
gospel didn't come to you in word only, but in power, in the
Holy Ghost, and in much assurance. Wouldn't it be something if,
like the Ethiopian eunuch riding from Jerusalem down to Ethiopia
in the chariot, reading the Bible, not understanding what he read,
not comprehending the mysteries of grace, not understanding how
God can be just and justified, not knowing how God is pleased
to show mercy to sinners, if God should send to you a Philip.
Philip walked alongside, and the eunuch, when the boy spoke
to him, Philip said, Do you understand what you're reading? And I'm
sure in shock, he turned and looked at this man walking alongside
the chariot. He said, No, I really don't.
I really don't understand. I'm reading Isaiah 53, but I
really don't understand it. Who's he talking about, himself
or some other man? This man that was wounded for
our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities and the chastisement
of our peace was laid upon him and by his stripes we're healed.
Who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else? Philip
climbed up in the chariot and began at that scripture and preached
Christ to that man, and that day he came to a saving knowledge
of the gospel. That's what I'm saying. I'm saying
it is some day, It is a wonderful day. It is day of all days when
God is pleased to cross the path of a sinner in saving mercy,
when God is pleased to confront a sinner with his gospel. Today
is the day of salvation, perhaps for somebody. Well, anyway, Paul
was preaching to Agrippa. And now, remember, the Apostle
Paul was a forceful preacher. If you read this chapter when
I leave the air, you'll find that Paul preached forcefully,
but courteously. Paul wasn't mean. He wasn't harsh. He was a courteous preacher,
very forceful, and very plain, but very courteous, and he was
a bold preacher, but not rude. Some preachers are rude, but
Paul was bold, but not rude, and Paul was persuasive. He said,
I persuade men. I pray you in Christ's stead,
be ye reconciled to God. But he was never apologetic.
He never apologized for what he preached about man's fault.
He never apologized about what he preached about God's grace.
He never apologized for what he preached about Christ's sufficiency.
He never apologized for what he preached about the Holy Spirit's
effectual work. Paul never apologized for the
truth. He said, though we are an angel from heaven, preach
any other gospel than that gospel which we preach. Let him be accursed.
But he was a persuasive man, but never apologetic, and he
spoke from experience. If you'll notice these two things.
Let me show you this. He said, he told Agrippa, he
said, the Lord God appeared to me on the road to Damascus. He told Agrippa how he was religious
and how he hated Christ, how he didn't understand the gospel.
And he thought salvation was in the law, in duties to the
law, in ceremonies, in traditions, in feast days and holy days,
and how that he thought because of his Jewish heritage it was
automatically a child of God. And he learned that all of these
things were to no avail, that salvation was in Christ. And
God met him on the Damascus road, and God stripped him and broke
him. He said, I obtained mercy. I obtained mercy. I was a blasphemer.
I was injurious, I persecuted the church. You know what a woman
said to me recently? She said, I've never heard a
preacher, I've never heard a preacher call himself a sinner. In 30
years of going to church, I've never heard a preacher call himself
a sinner. Paul did, and this one will. Paul said, Christ came into the
world to save sinners of whom I'm the chief. Yes, sir. He said,
I obtained mercy. He said, I'm not worthy to be
an apostle. I don't lay any claim to being anything. I'm God's
servant and God's messenger and God's bond slave, and I'm not
one whip behind the chief apostle, but I'm nothing. I'm less than
the least of all the saints. He said, Christ came into the
world to save sinners of whom I am the chief. He began to talk
about what we were, but he said, God who is rich in mercy for
his great love wherewith he loved us even when we were dead in
sins quickened us together with Christ. He told Agrippa what
he was. He identified with this man.
And he preached so that this man could identify with him.
I don't want to hear an angel preach the gospel. I don't believe
an angel could tell me a whole lot about the gospel, certainly
not from experience. I want to hear somebody talk
about the gospel who's experienced it. Somebody talk about the grace
of God who's partaken of it. Somebody talk about the mercy
of God who has sued for mercy and received it. I want a sinner
to preach to me about a sinner's savior, don't you? I like what
old Richard Baxter used to say, I preach as one who may never
preach again. I preach as a dying man to dying
men. Paul knew he was a sinner. He
said, of whom I'm cheap. And he was preaching to a sinner.
And he said, you know, he said, God appeared to me in the way. on that road, and God told me
to stand on my feet, to stand on my feet and be his minister
and a witness of two things. He said, you'll be a witness,
first of all, of those things you've seen. Now, you can't preach
what you don't know. I say that to any minister who
may be listening to my voice. You can't tell what you don't
know any more than you can come back from where you haven't been.
The only man who can preach repentance is one who has repented. or is
repenting. The only man who can preach faith
is the man who has believed. The only man who can preach Christ
is the man who himself has been brought by the grace of God into
a living union with Jesus Christ. Our Lord told Paul to preach
what he had seen. You know, three times in the
book of 1 John 1, John says this, That which was seen and heard
declare we unto you. That which was seen and heard
declare we unto you. That which was seen and heard
in our hands of handle of the word of life declare we unto
you. We preach what we've experienced. We preach what we've experienced.
Then he said, stand on your feet. You'll be my minister to preach
those things that you've seen and you've heard. Don't try to
preach anything else. And then preach those things
that I'll teach you, that I'll reveal to you, that I'll show
you. You see, this is not our message. I don't have a message.
It's His message. This is not our ministry. We
don't have a ministry. It's His ministry. His ministry. That's what He said to Paul.
You'll be my minister and my witness. It's not our ministry. It's not our gospel. It's His
gospel. Your faith must not stand in
the wisdom of men. If it is, when they fall, you'll
fall. Our faith must not. Paul said
it must not stand in the wisdom of men. It must stand in the
power of God. It must not stand in... In Philippians
3, Paul says, we are the true Israel. We are the true people
of God who have three marks, three characteristics. We worship
God in spirit. not in form and ceremony and
ritual, but in spirit, not in tradition or custom or holy days. We worship God in spirit. God
is a spirit, and they that worship God worship Him not with trinkets
and not with toys of religion and not with possessions or put
on. They worship Him in spirit. And secondly, we rejoice in Jesus
Christ, not in ourselves and not in our denominations and
not in our organizations, and not in our work. We rejoice in
Jesus Christ and we have no confidence in the flesh, yours or mine or
anyone else's. We don't bow down to any man.
We don't call any man his holiness or father. Our Lord said, don't
you call any man your father. God is your father. Don't you
call any man master. Christ is your master. Don't
you call any man rabbi. Christ is your teacher. That's
right. And Paul said, God told me to
stand on my feet and boldly preach what I've seen and heard and
experienced and those things which he would be pleased to
teach me. And then Paul gave Agrippa, this pagan king, he
gave him the preacher's commission. This is a strange place to find
the preacher's commission, but here it is. As Paul, the apostle,
a prisoner of Jesus Christ, But a bold and forceful and persuasive
minister of the gospel stands to give a witness before a heathen
king. And he said, God Almighty made
me a minister. He made me a witness. He made
me an apostle as one born out of due time. And he gave me a
fivefold commission. He said, I'm going to send you,
number one, to open their eyes. To open their eyes. Now, my friends,
it's perfectly clear from Scripture that men by nature do not see. Oh, I know we see natural things
and material things and physical things. That's not what I'm talking
about. But men by nature do not see the glory of God in Jesus
Christ. Men by nature do not see the
mysteries of the gospel. They do not see the wisdom of
God in the cross. They do not see the attributes
and character of God fulfilled in the sacrifice of His Son.
They do not see the need of a high priest, of a mediator, of redemption,
of an honored Lord, of vindicated justice. They do not see. Oh,
they can understand religion, and they can enter into good
works, and they can enter into the ceremonies, and they can
enter into some ways of trying to pacify a holy God, but they
cannot see into the mysteries of the gospel. The natural mind
is enmity. It cannot understand the gospel,
the gospel's foolishness. It's written, eye hath not seen,
ear hath not heard, neither hath it entered the heart of man,
the things God's prepared for them that love him. Christ said
they have eyes, but they don't see. They have ears, but they
don't hear. Hearts, but they don't understand.
He said Nicodemus, one of the chief religious leaders of his
day, he said, except a man be born again, he cannot see the
kingdom of God. He cannot see the kingdom of
God. So Paul said, God sent me to open their eyes. I know it
takes the power of God's Spirit to give seeing eyes and hearing
ears and understanding heart. I know the Holy Spirit regenerates,
He awakens, He enables men to see the glory of God in the face
of Christ Jesus. I know that men are taught of
God. He said, no man can come to me except my Father which
sent me draw him. and they shall all be taught
of God. And every man that hath heard of the Father, and learned
of the Father, cometh unto me." But it is the preacher's responsibility
to preach that truth that the Holy Spirit uses to regenerate,
to awaken, to convict, and to convert sinners and to reveal
Christ. It takes the Holy Spirit to reveal it, but it takes the
Word preached for the Holy Spirit to make it effectual. What do
we preach? What is the truth that we preach
that opens blind eyes? Well, first of all, we preach
the holiness and righteousness of God. Job made this statement. Job said, Lord, I've heard of
you by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eyes, and not these
eyes here, not natural eyes, but mine eyes of faith, eyes
of the inner man, mine eyes see of thee, wherefore I hate myself. He saw the holiness of God, the
righteousness of God. And this is seen with eyes of
faith in the Word, as we declare who God is. Now, most preachers
just aren't declaring who God is. The Lord is in his holy temple.
Let all the earth keep silence. Isaiah saw the Lord high and
lifted up, and his train filled the temple, and all the voices
of heaven cried, Holy, holy, holy. He said, when you come
into the presence of God, let your words be few. God is in
the heavens, and you're on the earth. How seldom do we hear
a sermon on the awesomeness and majesty and holiness and righteousness
of an unchangeable, infinite, immutable God. Martin Luther
once said, I'll have nothing to do with an absolute God. And
neither had you better have anything to do with an absolute God. He
said, Moses, you can't look on me and live. No man has seen
God at any time. We don't want anything to do
with an absolute God. We want to do with God as Jehovah,
as Savior, as revealed in His Son. The holiness of God not
being preached and the corruption of human nature is not being
preached. It's got to be preached. Men won't see it until it's preached.
The old timers didn't worry about offending the dignity of men.
The old timers didn't worry about calling a spade a spade and a
sinner a sinner. And Paul didn't worry about it.
We preach the corruption of human nature by birth, by nature, by
practice. We preach the power and person
and work of the Lord Jesus Christ in his prophetical office, in
his priestly office, in his kingly office. He's a sufficient, effectual
redeemer who made an atonement with which God is satisfied.
We preach the sufficiency of his sacrifice to put away all
the sins of all the elect. We proclaim that vital union
with Christ into which we are brought by God's Spirit, ruined
by the fall, redemption by the blood, regeneration by the Holy
Spirit. And he that seeth the Son in
his true nature and character, he that seeth the Son and believeth
on him hath everlasting life. Now, that'll open blind eyes. But blind eyes will never be
opened with error. Blind eyes will never be opened
with compromise. Blind eyes will never be opened
with ceremony. It says ever learning, ever learning,
ever learning, and never coming to knowledge of the truth. It's
going to take some plain, truthful, sincere, and simple preaching
of the truth of God's Word to open blind eyes. That's what
God sent us to do. He didn't send us to get along
with people. He sent us to Preach the gospel
to them. He didn't send us to win friends
and influence people. He sent us to preach the gospel,
to be his witness, his minister, his messenger to this generation. Whatever they do with us doesn't
matter. It's their relationship with God that matters. And then
I won't have any relationship with God unless we preachers
stand up on our feet and tell the truth about God and the truth
about men and the truth about Christ and the truth about salvation.
Secondly, he sent me to turn them from the power of Satan
to the power of God. Now, friend, I want to tell you
something. It's not enough to know the truth. It's imperative
that we love the truth. Now, it's not enough that Christ
be revealed to your mind. He must be received in your heart.
It's not enough that a man acknowledge Christ. He can and must and shall
bow to the claims of Jesus Christ. That's what Paul's talking about.
God's people are turned from the power of Satan to the service
of God Almighty, to the service of King Jesus. They take His
yoke upon them. They receive His brand upon them. A Christian's not a Christian
only in creed, but in deed. A Christian's not just a Christian
on Sunday, but at all times. accepted Jesus as his personal
Savior, he's bowed to Christ as his Lord and Master. Thomas
said, My Lord and my God. The Christian has not just changed
his actions, but his attitudes have been changed. It's not just
his manners that have been adjusted, his motives have been changed.
The fruit of God's Spirit that dwells in every believer, and
the Scriptures say, If any man have not the Spirit of Christ,
he's none of His. He's none of His. We're not apologetic ambassadors. We're the King's ambassadors.
Let's tell men the truth. The fruit of the Spirit is love.
Not hate, prejudice, bigotry, but love, joy. Not despair and
depression, but joy, peace. Not constant conflict within
and without. Most churches are torn asunder
by factions and envy and division and strife and anything in the
world but peace. This is not of God. The fruit
of the Spirit is peace and patience and gentleness and kindness and
benevolence and faithfulness and meekness and self-control.
You're not your own. You don't belong to yourself.
You don't belong to any man. You're bought with a price. He
says, therefore, glorify God in your body and in your spirit,
which are His. Yes, sir, we've been conquered.
We've been redeemed. We've been bought and paid for.
We belong to the King. We don't belong to anybody else.
We belong to the King. We're his. He bought us. He redeemed
us. He purchased us with his own
blood, and we're his. We belong to the King. We've
been turned from the influence and power of Satan to bow to
the Lord Jesus Christ. And then thirdly, he said that
they may receive the forgiveness of sin. I said a moment ago that
the true preacher of God will not dignify human nature. He's
not going to brag on it. He knows it by birth and by nature
and by practice and by choice that we're sinners, every one
of us. God looked down from heaven and saw that every imagination
of man's heart is evil continually, evil compared to God's holiness,
evil compared to God's glory. Man's thoughts and words may
be good compared to man's thoughts and words, but in the sight of
God, in the presence of God's holiness, they're evil continually.
Even our righteousness is in God's sight of filthy rags. I
know our righteousness is in good works, compared to other
people's works and attitude may appear pretty good, pretty decent. But I'm talking about our righteousness
compared with God's righteousness. Our love is compared with God's
love. There's none that do us good. No, not one. My sins, David
said, are ever before me. If any man say he hath not sin,
he deceives himself, and the truth's not in him. If he says
he has no sin, he makes God a liar. And the true preacher knows that
God's law and God's justice must be honored, must be satisfied,
must be vindicated. So the question arises, how can
man be just with God? How can he be clean that's born
of a woman? How can God be just and justifier? And the true preacher found that
answer in Jesus Christ of God. He was made unto us wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption. Christ, who knew no sin, was
made sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of
God in Him. God sent His only begotten Son
into this world, born of a woman, born under the law, that we might
be redeemed who are born under the law. God Almighty sent His
Son into the world to be our representative, our surety, and
our substitute and Savior to die on the cross for us. The
fourth thing, that we might receive an inheritance. and eternal inheritance,
glory in glory, and that all of this, fifthly, is by faith
in Jesus Christ. All of these blessings and mercies
come to us through Christ, by faith in Christ Jesus alone.
I pray that God will take this message and make it effectual
to your heart, at least give you an interest to search the
Scriptures, to see if these things be so, to look into the Word
of God, to find life in Christ Jesus. Now, this message is on
a cassette tape. It's entitled, The Preacher's
Commission. And on the other side is a message, To Seek and
to Find, which I'll preach the next Lord's Day. If you want
this tape with two messages, send two dollars and we'll mail
the tape to you. Until next Sunday, God bless you, everyone.