Let's turn in our Bibles today
to Acts chapter 14. Going to read the last three
verses in this chapter. Acts chapter 14. sort of beginning in the middle
of the narrative here, but I want us to pay special attention to
what we find in verse 26 and verse 27. And thence sailed to
Antioch from whence they had been recommended to the grace
of God for the work which they fulfilled. And when they were
come, and had gathered the church together, they rehearsed all
that God had done with them and how he had opened the door of
faith unto the Gentiles, and there they abode long time with
the disciples. Now those who we read about here
who sailed to Antioch is Paul and Barnabas and his company,
their company rather. And they came to Antioch from
which they had sailed several years previous on what is called
the first missionary journey, Paul's first missionary journey.
It was from this church at Antioch. Now there's two Antiochs and
we'll see that. But the Antioch in Syria is from
where they were recommended, the scripture here says, had
been recommended to the grace of God for the work. Notice that in verse 26, from
whence they had been recommended to the grace of God for the work
which they fulfilled or accomplished. Now it was by prayer and fasting
that this church commended them to the grace of God. They did
not commend them to the power of God, Certainly missionaries
need power, no doubt about that, to take the gospel into foreign
lands, and as they did here, into places where the gospel
had never been, where people were pagans, worshipped idols,
strange gods. They didn't commend them to the
power of God. They didn't commend them to the
wisdom of God, even though missionaries certainly need wisdom. But I
point out to us that it was to the grace of God that they were
commended. The grace of God. The grace of
God to meet every necessity, every need which they would experience,
they would meet with on this trip. The grace of God. And little could Paul and Barnabas
and those with him, with them rather, have known just how much
they would need of the grace of God. You know, salvation begins
with the grace of God, but it also continues by the grace of
God. We love that hymn, Amazing Grace,
but I would remind us it doesn't just say, I once was lost, but
now I'm found, but it goes on to say, that it is by grace,
through many dangers, toils and snares, I have already come. T'was grace hath brought me safe
thus far, and grace will lead me home. And so the point I want
to make is that eternal life comes to us by the grace of God.
For by grace are you saved through faith, not of works, lest any
man should boast. Salvation is apart from any work,
anything that man can do. It's purely, absolutely, only
by the grace of God. But to continue in the Christian
life still must be by the grace of God. And to pastor, to preach,
to be a missionary, to live in this world as you folks do, those
of you who are saved, we all need the grace of God. And I would just remind us that
both Peter and James, two apostles, tell us in their epistles, God
resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble. We need
his grace, always. And God gives grace to the humble,
but he resists the proud, those who are self-sufficient, those
who feel like, well, I'm up for the job. I can take care of this
by myself. No, no. Every believer, every
child of God are Life, our salvation begins with the grace of God,
and every day as we go through this life, it will be and must
be by God's grace. And if we do not continue to
experience the grace of God, we'll turn back. You know, I
can look out on this audience here today, and I can see some
people in my mind who used to be with us. They're no longer
with us. And the scripture says they went
out from us because they were not of us. Because if they had
been of us, no doubt they would have continued with us. God's
grace is saving grace, it's keeping grace, it's sufficient grace,
it's supplying grace, it's every grace that we need. Now, we see
that they come back to the church from which they had been commended,
but to the grace of God for the work, which they accomplished,
they fulfilled. They were not back to tell about
what they had done, to brag on their feats, what they had accomplished,
but they were back to tell about what God and God's grace had
done through them, how He had used them. And we're going to
look this morning at what they might have related, four stops
on that trip. Four different stops they made
on this trip. And what took place and how the
grace of God was sufficient, no matter what the need, no matter
what the necessity was, the grace of God is always sufficient. As I begin this service, so I'm
reminded of the story, a true story, at Anaheim Judson, was
the first missionary from the United States of America. A foreign
missionary, I should say. There were home missions to the
Indians, like David Brainerd before him. But at an armed judgment,
he was a congregational minister, and he went to Burma, and on
the ship to Burma, he was convinced that baptism is by immersion. It's not by sprinkling. And so
when he got there, he landed in India, I believe it was. William
Carey, a missionary from England, Baptist missionary, was already
there. He asked them to baptize him
and Luther Rice, and they went on to India. Luther Rice returned
to the United States to raise support from the Baptists because
the Congregationalists had lost their missionary. He had been
convinced that Baptism is not by sprinkling a few drops of
water on a person's head. No, baptism is a picture of the
gospel, the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ,
our Lord. But after many years serving
the Lord there in Burma, you know, travel, it would take maybe
a year to get to Burma on ship. I'm not sure how long, maybe
not quite that long. But it wasn't like today. And
on his first journey back, I believe he had already buried one wife
there in Burma. He was at a meeting, and he spoke
here in the United States at one of the cities up in the east. And on the way home, the man
who was his host said, you know, Mr. Judson, the people were disappointed
tonight. And he said, disappointed? And
he said, what do you mean? And he said, yeah, they were
disappointed because you preached the gospel, but what they wanted
to hear was some surprising, startling story from Burma. He said, this is the most amazing
story, the gospel, that I could ever share with anybody. The
most amazing story of all, the gospel of Jesus Christ. But I
want to point out four stops they made on this trip and what
took place and how God's grace was sufficient. If you turn back
to chapter 13, on their first stop, they were on the island
of Cyprus. And beginning in verse 6, what
we're going to see is they met a false prophet. A false prophet. God's grace was sufficient. Scripture
says, and when they had gone through the isle of Cyprus unto
Paphos, they found a certain sorcerer, a false prophet, a
Jew, whose name was Bargesus, which was with the deputy of
the country, Sergius Paulus, a prudent man who called for
Barnabas and Saul and desired to hear the word of God. Now
that's the reason they were here, to preach the Word of God. And
here's a man who wants to hear the Word of God. What a blessing
is that. What a blessing is it to find
people who want to hear the Word of God. There are few and far between,
let me say that, all over this world. People want to hear everything
else but the Word of God. I'm so thankful for those of
you here who come week after week, Sunday after Sunday, and
you come expecting, and rightly so, to hear the Word of God. There was a man here who wanted
to hear the Word of God, and he was a man of authority. But
there was this false prophet. Scripture says, But Elymas, the sorcerer, for
so is his name by interpretation, withstood them, seeking to turn
away the deputy from the faith. Then Saul, who also is called
Paul, filled with the Holy Ghost, set his eyes on him and said,
O fool of all subtlety and all mischief, thou child of the devil,
thou enemy of all righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert
the right ways of the Lord? And now, behold, the hand of
the Lord is upon thee. And thou shalt be blind, not
seeing the sun for a season. And immediately there fell on
him a mist and a darkness, and he went about seeking some to
lead him by the hand. Then the deputy, when he saw
what was done, believed, being astonished at the doctrine of
the Lord. Now the apostle Paul, he had
the gifts of an apostle. And according to Hebrews 2, verses
3 and 4, these gifts, these gifts that the apostles and others
who heard, who received the gospel from the Lord Jesus Christ, that
was one of several requirements to be an apostle. And Paul emphasizes
that in the first chapter of Galatians. He said, I certify
unto you the gospel that I preached. I didn't receive it from a man.
All of us here today who know the gospel, we've all received
it through the voice of a man, a man who God has called to preach
the gospel. But an apostle, he had to be
a person who had received the gospel directly from the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now, there were no Bibles, of
course. in that time, there was the Old Testament that some people
had, but the Lord gave them signs and what we would call miracles,
same word in the Greek, signs, wonders, miracles, to witness
to the message, to witness to the message that these men were
preaching, yet these men are from the Lord and they have the
gospel that has been given unto them. Those signs are no longer in
the church and they're no longer needed. Why? Because you have
the word of God. When you listen to me preach
or another man, you have the word of God. And if he doesn't
speak according to the law and according to the prophets, there's
no light in him. He's a false prophet. He's not
a man sent of God. But the apostle Paul, he was
an apostle, and as he told the church at Corinth, the gifts
of an apostle were wrought among you. And this was one of them. He looked at this man who was
opposing them, and he caused this man to be blind. But the important point to see
here is that the man, the deputy, When he saw what was done, he
believed. He believed that these men were
men sent of God. That they were men that had a
message from God. And then notice being astonished
at the doctrine of the Lord. He saw, he believed, and he was
astonished at the doctrine of the Lord. So we see God's grace
giving power to these men. Remember, they were commended
to the work, to the grace of God for the work, and we see
God's grace here giving them power. The thing that I would
especially emphasize here is that this man was astonished,
not at the miracle. No doubt, that would astonish
us. It would. But something much greater is
the doctrine of the Lord. In other words, the gospel of
the Lord Jesus Christ. There's nothing more astonishing
than the gospel. That God, that God Almighty has
one only eternal begotten son that he would give his son to
save sinners. that He would come into this
world, God who made the world, He would come into His world,
He would be made under His law, that He would keep His law perfectly,
and then He would suffer at the hands of that broken law, all
to save God's people. That's astonishing. You say,
well, that doesn't astonish me. I've heard it all my life. Well,
there's something wrong with you. You're either lost or backslidden,
one or the other. It's astonishing. It's humbling. It's humbling, isn't it, to think
that God would save a sinner like me, that God would save
someone like you. That's astonishing. When the gospel's no longer astonishing,
there's something wrong. When the gospel's no longer good
news, there's something wrong. This man was astonished. But
the point I want to make especially is that the grace of God was
sufficient. It was sufficient. They were
recommended to the grace of God for the work, the work of preaching
the gospel, missionary trip. And on their first, this wasn't
their first stop because they had made some other stops before
they got here. They've gone over the Isle of
Cyprus. But here we see, surely they
would have reported this when they gathered the church together
and related what the Lord had done, they would have related
how that when this man tried to withstand them, that God smoked
this man with blindness. It's an awful thing to try to
hinder the gospel. It's an awful thing. Parents
have to be very careful that you don't hinder your children
from hearing the gospel. To be a parent is such a blessed
thing, but such a responsibility, isn't it? When you realize that God's put
a child in your home, a child that is one day going to stand before
the Lord, and there's only one way of salvation. you want to
make sure that child, if you know Christ, you want to make
sure that child is under the preaching of the gospel. Let's
move on to a second stop. And this is in another city named
Antioch, but it's Antioch of Pisidia. And here on this stop,
now listen, they met almost the whole city. They met almost the
whole city, if you notice in verse 44 of chapter 13. And the next Sabbath day, Exodus
13, verse 44, and the next Sabbath day came almost the whole city
together to hear the word of God. Now, we've got quite a few
more wanting to hear the word of God now. How did this come
about? Surely, if a person just read
that verse and was not familiar with the scriptures, they would
ask that question. How in the world did this come
about? That almost a whole city's come together to hear the word
of God. Well, if we'd take the time to
read before, we would see that the Sabbath before, the Saturday
before, Paul and Barnabas had gone into the synagogue there
in Antioch. And they had given him permission
to speak. And that was always a dangerous
thing, to give someone like the Apostle Paul permission to speak. Men and brethren, have you got
anything to say? Just happened to have something
to say. And Paul, as you read this chapter, you see what he
does. He gives them a brief history lesson of their nation. the nation
of Israel. And he reminds them that God
had promised of David's seed to raise up a savior, a king. And how that Jesus of Nazareth
is this seed of David and how that all of their prophets, and
he's talking to mainly a group of Jewish people in their synagogue
who had the Old Testament reminding them that The man who stood up
on Sabbath day and read the scriptures, they had denied the very one
they were reading about. They read the scriptures, but
they did not recognize or did not receive the truth that Jesus
of Nazareth, he is this one who's been promised, been promised
all through the words which you read Saturday after Saturday. And he is the seed of David.
And he reminds them that David's sepulchre, it's in Jerusalem,
where he was buried. But this man, he was buried,
but he didn't stay in the grave. And he arose, and he ever lives,
and he has, now listen, he has the sure mercies of David. You say, what is that? The sure
mercies of David. That's salvation, my friends.
That's forgiveness. That's everything that is wrapped
up into the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything. The sure mercies
of David. And there was some Gentile proselytes
there in the synagogue, of course. And when the service was dismissed,
they said, Paul, Barnabas, we'd like these words spoken to us
next Saturday. Well, the Jews were okay with
that until, until they got there and the whole city had turned
out. The whole city was there to listen to the gospel, to hear
the word of God, almost the whole city. And so what did they do? Well, they tried to hinder the
preaching of the gospel. In verse 45 it says, but when
the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy. Now
we've been reading the scripture here every Sabbath and the whole
town's never come out to hear us. Well, no, because you'd never
preached the good news. These men had good news. They
had the gospel. Those other men, they had the
letter, but remember what our Lord said to those that he spoke
to, search the scriptures, for in them, that's what they read,
the scriptures, for in them, you think that you have eternal
life, but they are they which testify of me, and you will not
come to me that you might have life. No, they'd never come out
to hear the Jewish rabbis read the scripture week after week.
But when these men came, full of the Holy Spirit, preaching
the gospel, well, nearly the whole city came out. And you know, in that message
that Paul had preached the week before, he made this statement,
and it's such a tremendous statement, I don't want to leave this out.
He preached that day through this man, that is through Christ,
this one he's been talking about and showing them, Jesus of Nazareth. Through this man is preached
unto you the forgiveness of sins. That's a wonderful thing to have
your sins forgiven, isn't it? Well, how is that possible? Well,
it's not by your works. It's never gonna happen by your
works, by your church membership, by your baptism, by anything
you can do or any other man can do other than by this man, that
is the God man, Jesus Christ. By him is preached unto you the
forgiveness of sins. And by him, all that believe
are justified from all things from which you could not be justified
by the law of Moses. In other words, every iniquity,
every sin, every evil thought, every evil deed, every evil action
that you've ever committed by this man, by him, and his work
on the cross, trusting in him, you're not only forgiven, yes,
but more than that, justified, just as if you had never sinned.
In God's sight, declared righteous, just as if you had never sinned. That's good news. It's good news
to a sinner. It's not good news to a self-righteous
person. A self-righteous person says,
well, I'll tell you what I've done. I'll tell you what I've
done. I pray, and I fast, and I give
tithes, and I do this, that, and the other. That's not good
news to me. I can take care of myself. No.
to a bona fide sinner. I mean a man who has nothing.
He hasn't got two cents in his pocket to offer unto God that
God will accept. Here's some good news through
this man. There's none other name under
heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. That's the
name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Now, Luke was with them. Luke
was a physician. Luke is the one who wrote the
book of Acts, and we know he was inspired as all the writers
of the scripture were inspired. And he made this comment. If you notice in 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. As many as were ordained to eternal
life believed. Take your concordance sometime
and look up that phrase, as many as. as many as, and you'll be
blessed, as many as. Now, men who despise the gospel
of the grace of God, and they're all around us, they're all around
us, they despise the truth that salvation is of the Lord, that
it's of the Lord in its conception, It's of the Lord in its execution. It's of the Lord in its application. Salvation is of the Lord. God saves sinners. God saves
sinners. And this verse tells us, as many
as were ordained to eternal life believed. And men, over the years,
I'm talking about religious men, they've done everything they
can to turn that around to try to show that what it is really
saying, as many as believed were ordained to eternal life. That's
a lie. That's not so. No, as many as
were ordained to eternal life believed. In other words, as
many as God chose before the foundation of the world and gave
to his son as his bride, as his spouse. As many as were ordained
to eternal life believed, men who hate the truth of God's sovereign
grace. This one verse just blows their
whole scheme out of the water, and that's the reason they hate
it. They do. They try every way they can to
change what the Word of God here declares. This one verse shows
the lie of those who teach that believing is the cause of God's
election. In other words, God looked down
through the ages and He saw who would believe and He chose those. Oh, no. No, this one verse just
explodes that whole lie, my friends. God chose as many as He ordained
unto eternal life, believed. If you have eternal life today,
if you know Christ as your Lord and Savior, It is because God
purposed your salvation, not by chance. I've had people tell
me before, well, I believe God gives everybody a chance. Salvation
is not by chance. Salvation is by God's eternal
purpose that He purposed in Himself before the foundation of the
world. You say, well, how do you know
if you are one? who God purposed to save. You
believe the gospel. You trust in Christ. If you don't,
and if you die that way, obviously you were not one of God's chosen. This one verse, it also exposed the lie of those
who teach that all men are ordained to eternal life. You know, the
Unitarians and those people that believe there's no hell, that
everyone's going to be saved. No, this scripture says as many
as. That's not everybody. Also, those who teach that God's
ordination is to privileges. Some people say, well, election,
you know, it had to do with the nation of Israel, their privileges. It has to do with offices. It
has to do with certain benefits. Oh, no. Election has to do with
salvation. With salvation. We're bound to
give thanks unto God for you, brethren, because God hath from
the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the
spirit, that is the new birth, and belief of the truth, the
gospel. Absolutely. This one verse just
destroys so much error, doesn't it? If people would just be honest
with the word of God. Just read it and quit reading
what other men say about it. Just read the Word of God, what
God says. Because in the final analysis,
that's what counts. Not what this preacher said or
that preacher said or what some church council came up with or
anything like that. No, what does God say? What does
the Word of God say? It also confirms that all that
Christ represented, not one less shall inherit eternal life. One day the Lord Jesus Christ,
you can read this in Hebrews chapter 2, one day He's going
to appear before His Father and He's going to be there and He's
going to be able to say, Father, here am I and the children which
thou hast given me. And there's not going to be one
missing, not one missing. He's a successful Savior. Well, let's move on now to the
third stop, the city of Iconium. And this you find in chapter
14, the first three verses. And it came to pass in Iconium,
that they went both together, Paul and Barnabas, into the synagogue
of the Jews, and so spake that a great multitude, both of the
Jews and also of the Greeks, believed. But the unbelieving
Jews stirred up the Gentiles and made their minds evil, effected
against the brethren. Long time, therefore, abode they
speaking boldly in the Lord, which gave testimony under the
word of his grace and granted signs and wonders to be done
by their hands. The first thing to notice here
is a great multitude believed. A great multitude believed. Well,
this aroused Satan, the strong man, when he realized that the
Lord, the stronger than him, was spoiling his goods, that
many of his captives, and that's true of all men, All men who
are not set free by the Lord Jesus Christ are in captivity
to Satan. All men. I'm talking about lost
men. The only men who are not in captivity
to Satan are those that the stronger has delivered. Spoiled the goods. of the strong man. Satan, that's
the way the Lord speaks of him, the strong man. And he has strength,
there's no doubt about it. Don't joke about Satan, my friends.
Some people think he's a big joke. He's not a big joke. He's
a real being, but he's under God's control. And there's one
stronger than him, that is the Lord Jesus Christ. And he delivers
men. from Satan's kingdom of darkness
and translates man into the kingdom of God's dear Son. Well, this
stirred up the people. The kingdom of God's Son is a
kingdom of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. I can imagine here what I think
of is Satan did his best to discourage Paul and Silas. He did his best,
but God's grace is sufficient. God's grace is sufficient. Thank
God that the grace to which they had been commended was sufficient
grace, not only helping grace, but sufficient grace to meet
every need. One other stop, I realize I've
got to be brief on this last stop, but down in verse 19, in
the city of Lystra, they met with severe persecution. And there came there, there are
certain Jews from Antioch and Iconium who persuaded the people
and having stone Paul, drew him out of the city, supposing he
had been dead. Here we find grace, grace sufficient,
my friends, to even meet this bad treatment, mild treatment
that he received from these people here. And if we read the whole
story, what we would be reminded of is the fickle, the fickle
nature of fallen, sinful man. Here's Paul and Barnabas just
a few hours, I guess, or days maybe before this, when these
people were going to do sacrifice to them. They said, this is Jupiter,
Barnabas. He's Jupiter. And here's Mercurius,
Mercury over here. He's his spokesman. And they
were going to sacrifice to these two men. And when they realized
what they were going to do, they withheld them and said, no, we've
come here to preach and to teach you to turn from these vanities. That's what they are. They're
vanities. They're empty nothingnesses. These gods that you've manufactured,
that you worship, turn from these things. Well, they began to stone
Paul. You know, the Lord Jesus Christ,
think about this. He entered into Jerusalem on
a Sunday and people were shouting, Hosanna! Hosanna! Blessed is he that cometh in
the name of the Lord. Four days later, the same people
crucified him. We will let his blood be upon
us and upon our children. We will not have this man to
reign over us. crucified, the fickle nature
of sinful men. God's grace allowed them to keep
on keeping on. Have you ever heard that, keep
on keeping on? I heard a pastor years ago, now
he said he was the first one to say that. I don't know if
he was or not. But I do know this. that God's
grace is sufficient. When we recommend a preacher
or missionary or pastor to the grace of God, we couldn't do
anything better, anything better. God's grace is able to meet every
difficulty, every emergency, every necessity in life. Never, never look away from God's
grace. Well, I pray the Lord would bless
these words to us here this morning. I want us to sing this hymn 207. Oh, happy day that fixed my choice
on thee, my savior and my God.