Happy birthday this week to Peggy
Kerbo, Peggy Hill Kerbo, and to little Harper. She's a year
old. I add to prayer list Bobby Wright,
who is Bobby Wright's wife. Both of them are named Bobby. Yeah, Bobby's a Vietnam vet,
preacher of the gospel, dear friend for many years. His wife
has MS, which is a progressive disease that works on you for
years and years. She started getting fluid in
her lungs last night and they had to rush her to a hospital.
Her name is Bobbi Wright. So remember her in your prayers,
if you will, and seek the Lord's help for them. Remember the others
who requested prayer also. Let's begin our worship service
this morning. Hymn number 209, Grace Greater
Than All Our Sins. ? The marvelous grace of our loving
Lord ? ? Grace that exceeds our sin and our guilt ? ? Yonder
on Calvary's mount outpoured ? ? There where the blood of
the Lamb was spilled ? Grace, grace, God's grace. Grace that will pardon and cleanse
within. Grace, grace, God's grace. Grace that is greater than all
our sin. sea waves cold. Threaten the soul with infinite
loss. Grace that is greater, yes, grace
untold, points to the refuge of mighty cross. Grace, grace, God's grace. Grace that will pardon and cleanse
within. Grace, grace, God's grace. Grace that is greater than all. ? All our sin ? Dark is a stain
that he cannot hide ? What can avail to wash it away ? Look
there is flowing a crimson tide ? Whiter than snow you may be Grace, grace, God's grace. Grace that will pardon and cleanse
within. Grace, grace, God's grace. Grace that is greater than all. Marvelous, infinite, matchless
grace Freely bestowed on all who believe You that are longing
to see His face Will you this moment His grace receive? Grace, grace, God's grace. Grace that will pardon and cleanse
within. Grace, grace, God's grace. Grace that is greater than all
our sin. After a scripture reading and
prayer, we'll sing hymn number 256. The reason we don't have a piano
this morning, Miss Debbie started to get lightheaded and dizzy
and she took her blood pressure and it had gone up considerably.
Sometimes it does that. She started feeling a little
dizzy and sick, so she stayed out this morning. So remember
her in your prayers also. You have your Bibles, turn with
me to Acts chapter 13. Acts of the Apostles chapter
13. Begin reading from verse 38 and
read through verse 48. Our Lord, through Paul, is speaking
to those of Antioch, and says, Be it known unto you, therefore,
men and brethren, that through this man, that is, Jesus Christ,
is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins. And by him all that
believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not
be justified by the law of Moses. Beware, therefore, lest that
come upon you which is spoken of the prophets. Behold, ye despisers,
and wander, and perish. For our work of work in your
days is a work which ye shall in no wise believe, though a
man declare it unto you. And when the Jews were gone out
of the synagogue, the Gentiles besought that these words might
be preached to them the next Sabbath. And when the congregation
was broken up, many of the Jews and religious proselytes followed
Paul and Barnabas, who, speaking to them, persuaded them to continue
in the grace of God. And the next Sabbath day came
almost the whole city together to hear the word of God. And
when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy and
spake against those things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting
and blaspheming. Then Paul and Barnabas waxed
bold and said, It is necessary that the word of God should have
been spoken to you, first been spoken to you, but seeing he
put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life,
lo, we turn to the Gentiles. For so hath the Lord commanded
us, saying, I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that
thou shouldest be for salvation unto the end of the earth, And
when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified
in the word of the Lord. And as many as were ordained
to eternal life believed. Let us pray. Our Father, we come
in the blessed name of Jesus Christ, of whom this passage
speaks, as Paul set forth the glorious gospel, that through
this man, a person is justified and forgiven all sins taking care of all things the
law could not do. Our Lord accomplished on Calvary's
tree. Father, we are thankful that
you have given your people faith to believe, granted them faith
where they trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. Help us all to
look to him this day. We pray for those who are sick
of our own company, who are feeling poorly. Pray for Sam and Wanda,
for Fred, for Debbie, Father, we pray for those who are shut-ins. We ask, Lord, you help be helpful
to them, strengthen them, and show mercy to them. Father, we
pray for Bobby Wright, that you be with her and be with her husband
Bobby. They might be able to get these
lungs cleared up and this fluid put away. Help us, Lord, to remember
each other in prayer and call out each other's name. Strengthen
us in Jesus Christ and cause us to worship you in spirit and
in truth. We're gathered here for that purpose, to bow our
heads down and worship the sovereign Lord of this universe, who's
worthy of praise and honor. Help us in the name of Christ,
we pray. Amen. Hymn number 256, It Is Well With
My Soul. When peace like a river attendeth
my way, when sorrows like sea billows roll, whatever my lot,
thou hast taught me to say, it is well. It is well with my soul. It is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul. Though Satan should buffet, though
trials should come, let this blest assurance control. that Christ hath regarded my
helpless estate and hath shed his own blood for my soul. It is well with my soul It is
well, it is well with my soul. My sin, O the bliss of this glorious
thought. My sin, not in part but the whole,
is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more. Praise the Lord,
praise the Lord, O my soul. ? It is well with my soul ? It
is well, it is well with my soul ? And Lord, haste the day when
my face shall be silent The clouds be rolled back as a scroll. The trump shall resound and the
Lord shall descend. Even so, it is well with my soul. It is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul. As Stephen stands, to receive
the office. It's amazing. You can look out
at the audience of people you've known all their lives and suddenly
can't recall their names. Isn't that sad? Getting old is
a sad business. Do what? Huh? I'm getting old. You mean I've already got old?
Who said that? Oh, that figures. Let us pray. Our Father, we come in the name
of Christ. Thanksgiving hearts for all you've done for us. We
know that everything we have this side of eternal perdition
is by grace and mercy. Help us now to return to that
which you've given us with thankful hearts. We pray in Christ's name.
Amen. you I invite your attention back
to Acts chapter 13. The book of the Acts is the Acts
of the Apostles, the early church beginning at Pentecost. It is the story of the Apostles
going into the world preaching the gospel. Paul the Apostle was once a man
named Saul of Tarsus. There's no real indication that
his name was ever changed in scripture. I don't know how he
became Paul, but that may be a Greek transliteration of the
word Saul. I don't know, but Paul the Apostle
was once a member of the Sanhedrin. He was a Pharisee of Pharisees.
I mean, he was very much a law keeper and was a man who held
great burdens on people, laid great burdens on people, and
refused to help them with it. as Christ describes the Pharisees
in Matthew chapter 23. In the early days of the church
they took the Old Testament and they preached Christ to them.
First they brought the message of the gospel to the Jews because
Christ himself was born of Hebrew parents and he was Jewish. That is to say he was raised
in the Jewish religion kept the Sabbath, circumcised the eighth
day, those type things, he did those things until he made his
pronouncement at his baptism when John baptized him and the
Lord opened up heaven and the Holy Spirit descended on him
in the form of a dove and the Lord said this is my beloved
son in whom I am well pleased or satisfied hear ye him and
that was his coronation as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And
in the early church, they preached Christ. That was the message.
They preached Christ and Him crucified. Later, they would
be known as Christians. They were not known as Jesusians.
They were not known as Lordians. They were known as Christians
because that meant that Christ meant that the Messiah has come.
He is the anointed one. That's what the Greek word Christos
is. It's the anointed. and it means
that he was the one who came to save his people from their
sins. And he was the message of the
gospel. Now they brought the message of the gospel to the
Jews using the Old Testament to preach from it. Now this was
the Jews' book. This is the one they had preserved
through the Maccabean Wars all through history and kept the
Pharisees and the Scribes and hidden it in places sometimes
to keep it from being found. And they kept this book which
is now some 3,500 years old This time it was about 1,500
to 1,600 years old. They had kept this book, and
this was their book. They didn't want nobody else
to mess with this book, and they were the only interpreters of
this book, and they loved this book. And Paul, the apostle,
that upstart, who was once a great Pharisee and had been converted
on the road to Damascus, now begins to preach Jesus Christ
from their book. Wait a minute now. He is preaching
also that the Law could satisfy nothing, and they held to and
practiced the Old Covenant Law, although they did not keep it.
They could not keep it, and no man can, save he die. That is
the only way you keep the Law. But this was, and he was saying
that Jesus Christ is the only way that sins are forgiven. You're
not forgiven by keeping the law, by doing good deeds, or trying
to outdo your bad deeds with your good deeds. That the only
forgiveness in this world is Jesus Christ. And he preached
that from the Old Testament. Their book. Needless to say,
they were full of questions for it, and this is one of the incidents.
where they questioned what he was saying, and they BLASPHEMED
what he was saying, because he said the gospel was not only
for THEM, but was for the Gentiles only, which was preached all
the way through the Old Testament, especially in the book of Isaiah.
Now, in the gospel according to John, wherein the deity and
glory of Christ is declared in wondrous terms. John makes a
very divisive statement in John chapter 1 verse 18. He states
that the law came by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus
Christ. Now that is quite a statement
when you think about it. This is profound, and to the Jew it
is preposterous blasphemy because it declares two astounding things.
First, it states that the law, though true and good, is not
the truth. The law was given by Moses, grace
and TRUTH came by Jesus Christ. The law is true, but it is not
the truth because it does not teach the grace and mercy of
God. Secondly, it declares that there is no grace in the law,
and there is no grace in the law. The law is designed to punish
transgressors, to define their punishment and to sentence and
it only deals with transgressors. The law does not deal with anybody
who's not transgressing it. It just doesn't. So he said the
law has no grace in it. It's exacting. If you break the
law, then you have to pay the penalty. Now he said because
of that, the law, nobody could ever be saved under the law.
Nobody could be justified under the law. And the Jews believed
if you kept it, you'd be justified. But he says that is not the case. That fact has divided the world
into basically two things, two ways that men believe that God
is to be approached. They believe He is to be approached
by their deeds, by the works of the law, the works of the
flesh, or they believe He is to be approached by grace. The
law came by Moses. Grace and truth came by Jesus
Christ. Paul had been mightily used by the Lord to establish
churches throughout Asia. Having preached the Gospel and
seen the reaction of his hearers, he reached an inspired conclusion
in Acts, in the 28th chapter of Acts, verse 24. He said this,
I preached the Gospel. Some believed the things that
were spoken, and some believed not. This is how it is. This is how it ALWAYS is when
the gospel is preached. The conclusion is reached was
based on the understanding that the law came by Moses, but grace
and truth came by Jesus Christ. Both sides employ the Word, but
one side stumbles over it, being disobedient, according to Peter,
to which they were appointed. Now, here in Acts chapter 13,
beginning with verse 38, we see this truth scripturally played
out. set forth in a message by Paul.
This in no way suggests that the gospel is ever a failure,
because it is not. It simply means that the effects
of preaching the gospel never depend on the preacher, but belong
entirely to God, be it known unto you, therefore, men and
brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness
of sin, and by him all that believe are justified from things which
he could not be justified by the Law of Moses. Beware, therefore,
lest it come upon you what was written in the Prophets." Man
cannot save you. Man can't do anything for you.
The Word of God does the business. It never returns to him void.
It always goes out from him to the exact place that he sends
it and does exactly as he intends it to do. It always, always saves
his people. and always condemns all others. A natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit, their foolishness to him, neither
can he know them, nor discern them, because they are spiritually
discerned. In Isaiah chapter 6, our Lord
told Isaiah, after he had seen the Lord high and lifted up,
and his train filled the temple, and the doorpost shook in his
presence and the smoke filled the place and he said I've seen
the Lord of glory therefore I am a man of unclean lips woe is
unto me I've seen the Lord of glory and the Lord said who shall
I send to tell this and Isaiah said send me I'm ready I got
a message for the people and the Lord said in chapter 6 and
verses 6 through 10 in Isaiah or 8 through 10 he said alright
you're going out there and preach but here's what you're going
to do when you preach Going to make those people fat. Going
to make them sleepy. Going to make them close their
eyes and go to sleep. Because I'm not going to save them. You're
going to put them to sleep. This same message that saves
his people also shuts down the rest of the folks. It's a saver
of life unto some and a saver of death unto others. That's
the language that our Lord used and he quoted those scriptures
in Mark chapter 4 and verse 11 and 12 and John chapter 12 verse
37 and 41. Christ quoted those scriptures.
When he looked at the Jews he said this is what Isaiah was
talking about after he had preached to them and they rejected him
and despised him. He said this is what Isaiah was
saying. What I've done to you is I've preached to you and I've
closed your eyes. I put you to sleep where you can't hear what
I'm saying, where you can't understand what I'm saying. Because I tell
you the truth, you believe me not, he said. Had I told you
a lie, you wouldn't believe me, but because I tell you the truth.
So Paul sets forth to quote Isaiah and also Habakkuk. in dealing
with the fact that the Gospel ALWAYS DOES WHAT IT'S SUPPOSED
TO DO. Be it known unto you! It's by Jesus Christ that men
are forgiven, and no other way! Be it known unto you! Then between
verses 17 and 36, Paul has declared the promise, the incarnation,
the death, the burial, the resurrection of Jesus Christ, using that Old
Testament to preach the Gospel. Beginning with verse 38, He declared
the gracious blessings that attend the gospel for those who believe
on Jesus Christ, and He says it is simple, forgiveness of
sin, what I think, and by Him all that believe are justified.
That means it is just as if you never sinned before God. That
is a legal term, to be justified, from which you could not be justified
by the law of God. These are the benefits of the
gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. He brings these glad tidings
to the Jews that have gathered to hear Him back in verse 16
of this same chapter. He declared wonderful words to
them. He declared forgiveness, putting
away of sins, justification, which is the imputation of righteousness
through this man, Jesus Christ, but not through the law. The
law has to go. Their response was the wholesale
rejection of what Paul had preached, because what he said about the
law of Moses could not be so with them. And I've run into
folks who have called themselves Christians in this day and age. If you tell them we're not under
the law at all, they say, well, they've got to be under it somehow.
There's got to be some aspect that's got to be a moral law.
They call it a moral law or a ceremonial law. You know, they say they
separate those two. The Bible doesn't separate those
two. It's one law. law. One aspect of it is set
forth in commandments. The others are set forth in ceremonials.
The commandments show that we're lost. The ceremonies show that
Christ is coming by His death and by His blood and His righteousness.
Knowing the response to His words, Paul does a bold thing. He calls
the bunch of religious men who boasted of Abraham, he calls
them heathens. He's talking to the only people
Since the beginning with Abraham that God has actually spoken
to, the sons of Jacob, He gave them the law on Sinai, He gave
them a religion, He gave them the priesthood, He gave them
the sacrifices, He gave them the oracles, He gave them the
Word! He gave them the Word, and now Paul
says you're a bunch of heathen. Look at verse 14 and 41. He says, Beware, for lest you
come upon you that which is spoken by the prophets, behold, you
despisers, and wander and perish. That's in Habakkuk chapter 1
and verse 5. For our work, a work in your
days, a work which ye shall in no wise believe, though a man
declare it to you. And when the Jews were gone out
of the synagogue, the Gentiles besought that these words be
spoken to them. He quotes from two passages of scripture. In
verse 40, he says, Beware for the less you be spoken to the
prophets. That's Habakkuk. That's also Isaiah 28, 14. He
says the same thing. Now, by evangelical standards,
this day after he had preached the gospel clearly and set forth,
nobody came. He didn't give an invitation
because nobody in the Bible did give an invitation. Nobody believed,
it said. There were some who kind of went
along with him and wished him well, but that's about as far
as it went by evangelical standards he didn't bear any fruit that
day uh... that day of preaching he proved himself not much of
a soul winner and old Paul wasn't he didn't lead even one person
to Jesus that day and the crowd just wouldn't let go and let
God that's what modern evangelism would say crowd just wouldn't
let God save them but that's not the truth that's a lie if
anybody tells you that that's a lie after the Jews left, mad
and angry, the Gentiles on the outside looking in because they
were, you see, the Jews called the Gentiles dogs. And they were
considered to be heathen and irreligious and pagan and ain't
no hope for them. There's only hope for the elect,
that is the Jewish elect, the national elect. The only hope
was for them. There ain't no hope for them
dogs. And now the dogs come up. After the masters have left the
table, the dogs come up to see if there's any crumbs for them.
And they ask that the words that Paul has spoken to the Jews,
because they were on the outside rim listening, what he had spoken
to the Jews, especially Paul's rebuke in the reference to the
inability of the law to bring about forgiveness and justification,
they besought Paul that he would preach the same words to them
next Saturday. The very same words. That's what
it said in verse 1. Verse 42. When the Jews were gone out of
the synagogue, the Gentiles besought that these words might be preached
to them on the very next Sunday. Apparently some of the Jews had
heard that day, at least somewhat of Paul said, whether they believed
or not, they were solicitous and ecumenical enough to wish
Paul and Barnabas well in their endeavors. That's often what
religion does. Oh, it may disagree with you
100% and call you a heretic. It'll wish you well. It'll wish
you well. My friend Rupert Reibenbach was
going on to be with the Lord now. He preached the gospel to
the people at Bethel Baptist Church down in Spring Lake, North
Carolina. And when they heard the gospel,
they got mad. They wanted to have a vote to vote him out.
Well, they had a vote and it didn't work. He stayed because
the vote was for him instead of against him. So they thought
other means to get rid of him. They said, let's take him to
court for heresy. Now he was preaching what was
the original Southern Baptist doctrine of the sovereign grace
of God. That's how the Southern Baptist
was formed, on the sovereign grace of God. You can read their
own history. There are great, great men that
came out of that. James Pettigrew, Boyce, B.H.
Carroll, men like that, great theologians came out of that
bunch. They were all sovereign grace. That's how it was formed.
And he stood up at the pulpit, he says, you're fighting me on
this thing, and that's the Southern Baptists, which this was a Southern
Baptist church at the time, he said, that's the way they was
formed. They said, well, we don't believe that. We think you're
a heretic. We're gonna take you to court for heresy. And they
did. The judge threw it out. He said,
this is stupid. This is stupid. One thing, the
two lawyers, both of them were Presbyterians, the one that represented
Rupert and the one that represented the church, or the group that
was against him, and they both had to sign a statement when
they joined the Presbyterian church that they were solemn
grace believers. Every Presbyterian does. But the judge threw it
out and the church split. A lot of people left and never
came back. And then Rupert got a letter
from the Southern Baptist Local Association. I think they called
it the Home something or another. And that letter said, We wish
you well. They had taken him to court for
heresy. They wanted to put him in jail for preaching the gospel.
And they said, We wish you well. There were some of these Jews
here that did the same for Paul. 43, it says, Now when the congregation
was broken up, many of the Jews and religious proselytes followed
Paul and Barnabas, who, speaking to them, persuaded them to continue
in the grace of God. Y'all keep on doing what you're
doing. We don't believe you. But y'all keep on doing what
you're doing. I don't care much for the well
wishes of religion. Now when the next Sabbath came,
it was a sold-out arena. The whole shootin' match of Gentiles
turned up to hear the words that the Jews showed up to. They wanted
to hear those words that were spoken before. Underlying this
gathering was two things. Curiosity, of course, one thing,
and the fact that the Word of God was no longer a singular
possession of the Jews. The Gentiles, dogs, outcasts,
pariahs, unwelcome people, were now going to get what was just
the week before, solely something that only Jews got. And they
were happy about that. In verse 45 we see human nature
manifested. It says, When the Jews saw the
multitude, they were filled with envy, and spake against those
things which are spoken by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming. Now, envy means that you see
some person have something that you don't believe they should
have. That's what envy is. Not jealousy. You believe somebody
has something that you ought to have. You know, that's jealousy. Envy is you believe somebody
has something that they don't deserve to have. That's what
envy is. And so they were filled with
envy because this gospel was being preached to the Gentiles,
and they were eating it up. They were out there listening
to what was said. They did not want the gospel. The Jews didn't.
They had already rejected it, but they did not want the Gentiles
to have it either. They were like those Pharisees
that the Lord spoke of in Matthew 23 who stand at the gate of heaven,
as it were, and they would not go in. They stood there to keep
anybody else from going in, too. Matthew chapter 23 and verse
13. Their envy was probably twofold. First, they were envious because
they believed that the Word of God was exclusively theirs. It
ain't for nobody else. And this Saul of Tarsus had used
the Bible, their Bible, their Word, to preach what they deemed
to be heresy. Heresy. They believed it was
their Word, and it was their Word. For all these years the
Lord had not given that word to anybody else. He had not spoken
to any prophet, to any Gentile anywhere in the whole wide world.
Only in the Book of Acts did He begin to do it. Peter was
called out to go to Cornelius' house, a Gentile. Paul was sent
to the Gentiles. Secondly, the vast number of
Gentiles that showed up threatened their socio-political power base
in religion because regardless of where the Jews went, they
set up a religious and socio-political base. They were strong. They began to contradict and
blaspheme the gospel these Jews did. They were then faced with
the man who proclaims the power of God unto salvation to everyone
that believes. They said, Paul's lying to you,
to the Gentiles. They said, don't believe that.
He's a blasphemer. He's a heretic. Don't listen
to him. And it says, Paul and Barnabas waxed of bold. That means they got in their
face with the gospel. They waxed bold. The words, You judge yourself
unworthy of eternal life, does not mean that they did so, that
they didn't want eternal life. They of all people thought themselves
worthy of eternal life. Our Lord said to some of them,
You search for scriptures for anything you think you have eternal
life. They believed that they were the only ones who had the
right to possess it, and the only ones who would actually
get it. These words must be seen in light of the gospel that Paul
had preached to them. He had set forth the only way
of eternal life, and they had rejected it. They had contradicted
it, and they had blasphemed it. This means that they could not
have eternal life on the terms that Paul had preached. They
wouldn't have it. They felt it to be unworthy. They felt the
eternal life declared in the gospel was unworthy of their
attention. and was an assault on their presumed merit before
God, because they believed in keeping the law, they married
to righteousness before God. And they didn't. Then Paul dropped
the bomb. He waxed bold, he looked them
right in the eye and said, you know what? I'm not going to preach
to you anymore. So we turned to the Gentiles.
Reminded of old Barnard, that time somebody stood up while
he was preaching and said, I don't believe that. he said, well I wasn't
talking to you. That's what Paul is saying here.
They blasphemed, they carried on, they raised all kinds of
cain, and Paul says basically, I'm not talking to you. Lo, I'm
going to take this gospel to the Gentiles, to the Gentiles. And since you have such respect
for the law, this turning to the Gentiles is also written
in the law. In Isaiah chapter 49 and verse
6 it says, I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles,
saying that to Isaiah the prophet, that thou mayest be my salvation
unto the ends of the earth, that thou may be turned unto the Gentiles. This was prophesied throughout
the book of Isaiah. And he quotes that in verse 47,
he says, For so hath the Lord commanded me to take this gospel
to the Gentiles, saying, I have set thee for a light to the Gentiles,
that thou shouldest be for salvation to the ends of the earth. And
because of the wording and the distinction that our Lord makes
in the next verse, we see both human nature and also the free,
sovereign grace of God. People get happy over religion.
They do. We see human nature. It says,
When the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and they glorified
the word of the Lord. They were glad, and they glorified
the word of the Lord. When the Gentiles heard this,
they were glad. They were glad because in their
ears they had heard that the Jews, their natural enemies,
had been rejected. It always feels good when somebody
sticks it to somebody you don't like. It always feels good. Now, they had not been privy
to much of the Word of God, but they glorified the Word of nor
had they had a steady diet of the Word of God. It does not
say that they glorified God, but rather they glorified the
Word of God that said that Christ was a light for the Gentiles.
That's the word they're glorifying, for salvation is to the end of
the earth. They were tickled about that. They were glad that
the Jews were finally getting theirs, getting their comeuppance. They were happy about that. It's
not unusual, folks, to be glad about the Word of God. Not unusual
at all. Many get happy about the religious
goings-ons in recent weeks in some college campuses here. Many
people get happy at the thought that there might be some kind
of moral revival in this nation, resulting in the populace being
more moral. Now, if that happens, I'll be
happy. Even if it's false religion it
brings about, I'll be happy that people are being better citizens
and treating each other better. I'll be happy about that. Our
Lord proves this by inspiring a divine disclaimer. People get
happy about the Word of God, but our Lord says this, and as
many as were ordained to eternal life believed. They were all happy, and some
of them believed. They all glorified the Word of
God, and some of them believed. Faith was not the cause of the
condition here. Faith was the result of what?
According to this, predestinated life. As many as were ordained. That word is not pro-reso, it's
pro-grafo. It means as many as were written
to life. Well, what was that written?
They were written in the Lamb's Book of Life before the foundation
of the world. That's as many as were ordained to eternal life
believed. How many others believed? None. Those who are ordained to eternal
life believe. Those who were appointed to life, and they received
it. It was received by some and rejected
by others, and the others were full of joy and went on their
happy way, glorifying the Word of God, but not believing Him.
Can that happen? People do it all the time. People
have respect for this book. Most every household in America
has one, though it may be gathering dust or maybe flowers pressed
in it from the prom, I don't know, but everybody's got one
of these. And when you talk about it, most
people agree that this is a powerful and a wondrous book that's been
around for a long time and has affected people's lives. There
are some people who reject it, but there are few and far between.
Generally speaking, people like this word, and they'll tell you
this is God's word. I believe this is God's word from the first
time I could rub two cogent thoughts together and actually believe
something. I believe it was the word of God. When I was raised,
don't cut my teeth on this, my language and my poetry was from
this book. Sayings came from this book. Mottos came from this book. This
was a book I respected. I believed that Jesus Christ
was the son of God. I believed Jesus Christ was God. I didn't
ever doubt that. I was raised to believe in that.
but I didn't know Christ. But I believed all that stuff.
And I was happy about it. And I defended it. People said
the Bible wasn't true. I'd pop them upside the head.
Boy, it's true, too. It's the Word of God. You can
believe that this is God's Word. You can be happy that it is so.
You can glorify this as the Word of God and not believe. But here's the fact. As many
as are ordained to eternal life believe, and that's always the
case, trust the gospel. It will never fail to do what
it's designed to do. And at the end of time, this
is how it will be recorded. For the Lord says in Revelation,
Let him that is righteous be righteous still, and let him
that is filthy be filthy still. And that's basically what Paul
said in Acts 28. Some believed, some didn't. That's true here today, right
now. Father, bless us to our understanding.
We pray in Christ's name.