Revive Us Again, Week 11 | Acts 13

If you would just stay in Acts chapter 13.

Our verse that we're going to be focused on today is verse 48.

Acts chapter 13, verse 48.

This is the 11th message in this series.

Let me pray.

Oh God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Lord, you are in

control of all things.

Our being here today is by your hand.

And Lord, we are grateful that you have gathered us together to worship

you.

Please, in Jesus' name, I ask you this day, Lord, to speak through me,

your servant, your slave, Lord, your manservant today to your people.

Help me, Lord, to speak clearly and please allow your people to

feast on your word, your truth.

We pray this in the name of Jesus Christ.

Amen.

So let's read that verse, Acts chapter 13, verse 48.

And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the

word of the Lord.

And as many as were appointed to eternal life believed.

So the overarching theme through this book has been revive us again.

And why is it that we're going through a series about revival?

It is because I want to experience revival.

And I know you as well, if you're a Christian, in your heart, you truly want to

experience revival, right?

We have these great books that are written about Jonathan Edwards, and then this time of the

first great awakening when God used a revival to launch a

movement in our world.

And you've heard me say it several times, I don't just want to read about it.

I want to be about it.

I want to see it with my eyes.

I want to see revival as something tangible, something that can happen again in our

day, no matter how dark our day seems to be at the moment, I want to

be in a revival.

And I am convinced that it's by God's people doing what God tells us to do in

his word.

Jeffrey R. King, who was one of the

translators of the King James Bible, says this concerning revival, quote,

revival is a sovereign act of God upon the church whereby he

intervenes to lift the situation completely out of human

hands and works in extraordinary power,

end quote.

I've been saying, like I said earlier, that revival is when God's people do what the word of

God tells them to do.

This quote by Jeffrey R. King seems to contradict what I have

been saying.

If faith is by grace, I mean, excuse me, if we are saved by grace through faith in

which we are, and if faith comes by hearing the gospel in which it

does, then the only way this statement by Jeffrey R. King can

be true is if this extraordinary power of God

that Jeffrey is speaking about here is God causing through the Holy

Spirit, God's people to do what God's word tells them to do.

And I think that's how it has to happen.

You and I in our own strength cannot keep God's word.

The Holy Spirit within us is what keeps God's law.

Now we can cover the mouth of the spirit,

we can silence the Holy Spirit, but we

need God's sovereign hand in our life that drives us to the cross and

drives us to his word and drives us to keep his word, and that can only be done

through the Holy Spirit.

Revival is when the Holy Spirit of God moves upon the church.

If the Holy Spirit of God does not move upon the church, then God's people are not

going to do what the word of God tells God's people to do.

And I think sometimes in the reform camp, we are

guilty of

hiding the Holy Spirit in our lives, right?

Now there was a book written called The Forgotten Trinity about the Holy Spirit, and I don't agree with the author on everything or

with that book on everything, but parts of that is true.

The Holy Spirit has been manipulated through other denominations that we are

afraid to say, thus says the Lord.

We are afraid to say, you as a Christian are called to

be world changers.

You as a Christian are called to, with that Holy Spirit in you, go out and change the world.

We're afraid to say things like that because of another denomination who we believe

abuses the Holy Spirit.

And I say that's to our shame, to our detriment.

Our theme for this Lord's Day, now I told you last week that last week's theme was part one.

And really it is, and so this is part two of last week's message, but I had to change the

theme.

I didn't think the theme was going to go with it.

So our theme for this Lord's Day is the sovereignty of God in

evangelism.

The sovereignty of God in evangelism.

For however many weeks now,.

So this is the 11th,.

So for 10 weeks now I've been up here talking about evangelism and evangelism and we need to go out and do the word,.

To preach the word of God.

And again, I want to make this clear that that's not just on the streets.

If you hear me tell you to preach to yourself the gospel,.

And I was explaining this to Julie yesterday,.

I'm not telling you to go into your bathroom, look in your mirror and say, you're a sinner, you've lied, you've stolen,

but guess what?

Jesus Christ lived a life that you cannot live.

I'm telling you to live a life in the awareness of what God has done for you.

Through Jesus Christ.

And so preaching in that sense is not you actually voicing it.

Preaching can be used in many different ways.

And so when I'm telling you to go out.

And preach the gospel,.

It's not necessarily, I'm not necessarily telling you.

To stand on the side of the road like I do sometimes.

And others, they're opposed to it.

Here,

God is not obligated to save anyone.

And everyone deserves the wrath of God.

Everyone deserves the wrath of God.

He's not obligated to save anyone.

He's saved just for us.

He's appeared to us

as a Christian.

Who thinks he's a great person, a Christian who knows how wretched they are, they

know that they deserve condemnation,.

And they also know that there's no one.

Who can save them from this sin and reality.

In our outline, we're going to see how God, excuse me, we're going to see how the sovereignty of God

works in the saving of those who need it.

We're going to see that salvation is through Jesus Christ.

Salvation works

with God.

So point number one,.

For those of you taking notes,.

Salvation is through Jesus Christ.

Point number two, salvation through Jesus was plan A.

Point number three, salvation is the work of God.

And as we transition in the book of Acts, we see that God has

moved on the people whom he chose to bring about the message of Christ in

order to save a people.

And my prayer today is that God will move on me in this

way.

He will move on me in such a way that he will use me to save his people

through his word.

And I pray that your prayer as well.

So point number one, salvation is through Jesus Christ.

Last week, we saw that salvation was through Jesus and not

Moses.

Salvation was through Jesus and not Moses.

Other ways to say the same thing would be, salvation is by grace through faith

and not by keeping the law.

Or that salvation is through the new covenant and not through the old covenant.

We believe that as covenant theology teaches, in particularly, excuse me,

Baptist covenant theology, that all those who are saved were saved through

the new covenant that was established.

And inaugurated through the blood of Jesus Christ.

Abraham looked forward, we are looking back

at one event, the life, death, burial, resurrection of

Jesus Christ.

I make this comparison because Moses, law -keeping, and the old covenant can

save nobody.

They are synonymous.

Only Jesus.

Get from the New Testament scriptures that Jesus Christ alone brings

salvation.

The law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus

Christ.

Salvation is through the life, death,.

Burial, resurrection.

We believe that outside of Christ,.

None of us, no one, can be saved.

Let's read the scripture passage from last week.

Just two of the verses.

Verses 38 and verse 39 of Acts chapter 13.

Again, Paul speaking.

He's speaking to a synagogue.

They have allowed him to stand and to say some words.

And this is the core of what he says.

He says, let it be known to you, therefore.

So the therefore here, he's speaking about how this prophecy of a

coming son of David.

Would bring salvation.

Let it be known to you, therefore, brothers, that through this man, speaking of Jesus,

forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you.

You, and by him, everyone who believes

is freed from everything from which he could not be freed from by the law

of Moses.

In order to be saved, you must believe.

It's not that you must give all your money.

It's not that you must go and knock on doors.

It's not that you must name whatever the must do that false religions

teach.

The Bible tells us that we must believe.

But in order to believe, repentance is a part of that.

You have to turn on whatever it is that you're trusting in and you trust alone in

Jesus Christ.

That is how we are to be saved.

After Paul had preached this message, salvation through Jesus and not Moses, and was leaving,

Paul was asked to come back the next Sabbath.

Let's read that, verses 42 through 43.

And as they went out, the people begged that these things might be told to them

the next Sabbath.

And after the meeting in the synagogue broke up, many Jews and

devoted converts to Judaism

followed Paul and Barnabas, who as they were speaking with them,

urged them to continue in the grace of God.

Some commentators that I read this past week

and heard believe that these Jews, these Jews and these

devoted converts, these Gentiles who converted to Judaism were

saved during Paul's preaching because Paul and Barnabas, as they were leaving, told them

to continue in the grace of God.

I personally believe that this was nothing more than

a process, a process.

Kind of like when 9 -11 happened and I picked up the Bible for the first time and began to read,

right?

A process was taking place.

Look at verses 44 through 47.

Before I read that, the reason why I believe this is because in the same text, it tells us

that they were devoted.

In another word, they were devoted to Judaism.

Look at verse 44.

The next Sabbath, almost the whole city,

the next Sabbath, almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord.

But when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy.

Something isn't, okay, yeah.

They were filled with jealousy and began to contradict what

was spoken by Paul and revile in him.

And Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly, saying, it was necessary that the word of

God be spoken to you first, since

you trusted aside and judged yourself unworthy of eternal life.

Behold, we are turning to the Gentiles.

For the Lord has commanded us, saying, I have made a light for the Gentiles that you

may bring salvations to the end of the earth.

Again, we see something being repeated here.

And that is, the Jews were supposed to be the light

to the Gentiles in order to bring about salvation to the end of the earth.

And this salvation is not through Moses.

You have these Jewish believers and these Gentile

converts devoted themselves to Judaism.

Paul tells them to continue in the grace of God.

And that when they left, the people becomes jealous because of this

great crowd.

And they hear, and then Paul tells them that they, the Jews are supposed to be a

light to the Gentiles.

And we get this from Isaiah chapter 49, verse six, which says, this is God speaking.

God says, is it too light a thing that you should be my

servant to raise up the tribe of Jacob to bring back the preserved of

Israel?

And I will make you as a light for the nations that my salvation may reach the ends of

the earth.

And we know from John chapter eight that Jesus is the light of the world.

And he says that whoever believes in him is to follow him.

We know from Revelation chapter one that the churches are the lampstands.

And we know from the New Testament that we as the church are called

to take Jesus to the world.

And listen, ladies and gentlemen, if you support missions on the other side of the

world, but you don't support missions in your own neighborhoods, something is wrong.

Something is wrong.

There's nothing wrong with supporting missions on the other side of the world.

I say, yes, please do so.

But first we must worry about our nearest neighbor.

We must take, you and I must, not to pay someone to do so, but

you and I, because Jesus is the light of the world and we are the lampstands.

We now as true Israel are called to bring the

light of the world to the world because salvation

is through Jesus Christ.

Point number two, salvation through Jesus Christ is plan A.

I feel at this point, this is a point of contention between Christians today as it always has

been throughout church history.

Was Jesus and the gospel plan B a byproduct of the fall

or was Jesus plan A in the fall of man necessary for the

story of redemption?

And as Reformed Baptists, and I would say Presbyterians also, we would hold to the

latter.

That Jesus and the gospel was plan A, was and

is plan A in the fall of man was necessary for the

story of redemption.

Now as Calvinist or as Reformed folks we're kind of asked all the time about how is

it that God knows things, right?

This is what's called foreknowledge.

How is it that God has information?

And we would echo our confessions by saying that God knows all things because God has

determined all things.

The reason why God has knowledge of things is because he has determined the things of which he has

knowledge of.

And I'm sure when the conference comes we'll get a whole lot more deeper into that, but trying to

bring this message into 45 to 55 minutes, we can't go any deeper.

But as we transition, we're going to spend the rest of our time in the third point.

And the reason for that is because this third point will go with our main text.

Point number three, salvation is through the work of God.

Look at verse 48.

And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the

Lord.

Rejoicing and began glorifying the word of the Lord.

And as many as were appointed to eternal life believed.

Now, there's not a whole lot to work with with this text

in the surrounding context concerning this verse.

So in order for me to do justice to the subject, I'm going to bring in a verse or three where

Paul better explains the subject.

But I want to start off with a question.

Does the Lord appoint people to eternal life prior to

belief?

Well, what would we say as a church?

Yes, turn with me in your Bibles to Romans chapter eight.

Just to get like a little preview of the conference that's coming up.

Romans chapter eight, beginning in verse 28, we'll read to verse

30.

And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for

good.

For those who are called according to his purpose.

For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of

his son in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

And those whom he predestined, he also called.

And those whom he called, he also justified.

And those whom he justified, he also glorified.

Now, go back to verse 28.

Paul's saying, and we know that for those who

love God, all things work together for good.

For those who are called according to his purpose.

Notice the word love.

And we know that for those who love God, all things work

together.

First John chapter four, verse 19 says, that we love because he, speaking of God,

first loved us.

Why do we love God?

Because God first loved us.

If God did not first love you, you would not love God.

This verse, verse 28 in Romans chapter eight, gives to the believer an assurance

of God's sovereignty in our life.

If you love God, all things work together

for good.

We can have, as Christians, you and I, we can have faith that no matter what may

come, rather caused by us in our sin, or caused

by someone else imposing their sin on us, that all things

will work together, and that it's working together is for

our good.

And then I wrote out this long sentence about all things that could work together for our

good, but this morning as I was studying, I scribbled it out.

And I said, you know what?

Romans chapter eight, verses 31 through 39 says it better than I could.

So let's read that.

Verse 31.

Paul says, what then shall we say to these things about all things working

together?

If God is for us, who can be against us?

He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us

all.

The all here is for all those who love God.

How will he not also with him graciously give us all things?

Who shall bring any charge against God's elect?

It is God who justifies.

Who is to condemn?

Christ Jesus is the one who died.

More than that, who was raised and who is at the right hand of

God, who indeed is interceding for us.

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?

Shall tribulation or distress or

persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or

sword as it is written for your sake, we are being

killed all the day long.

We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.

Ladies and gentlemen, is that true of us?

No, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through him

who loved us.

For I am sure that neither death nor life nor angels nor rulers nor things

present nor things to come nor powers nor height nor death nor anything else in

all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in

Christ Jesus our Lord.

Nothing, nothing will be able

to separate us from the love of God.

And that can only be true if you're called according to his purpose.

If you are not called according to his purpose, these things are not true of you.

But on the other side of that coin, if you are, these things are true of you.

God's purpose is to save a people through his

son.

Now, what I wanna do right now is I wanna give you two extremes.

One of them you're not gonna think is extreme.

I think it's extreme.

And I'm gonna use my daughter as a way to explain this

in a second.

So there was a time throughout history where the father would choose for

his daughter, her husband.

Does that sound extreme to you?

Right, the father, the parents, would choose for their daughter, the husband.

Like this has been the way it was like for the majority of all existence.

This idea that a woman can choose her own husband is fairly new in

history.

And that might sound extreme to you that a father chooses for his daughter,

her husband.

But the other side of that extreme, and the daughter wouldn't be able to have any say so in it.

The daughter wouldn't have any say so.

The other side of that extreme is, is that the daughter can choose for herself, her husband,

and her father has no say so.

You say, well, that's not extreme.

You say that because we're raised in that culture to where that's how it's always been,

right?

Well, that's not extreme.

She can go, Trinity could marry anyone she wants when she leaves my house, and I cannot

say anything about it.

Of course I will.

It just won't matter, right?

It won't matter.

I can say things, but I cannot do anything about it.

I cannot force my will upon her for her to choose a godly Christian man.

Ladies and gentlemen, if Calvinism is anything, it is

this.

The father chose for his son a bride.

The father chose for his son a bride.

If you was to say, Jeff, put Calvinism in one statement, one sentence, it would be, the father

chose for his son a bride.

Look at verse 29 of Romans 8.

For those whom he foreknew, let's just look at it right there, stop right there.

For those whom he foreknew.

Foreknew, foreknown, foreknown.

For those he foreknown.

Foreknown here is not speaking about foreknowledge.

We talked about that earlier.

How is it that God knows things, right?

He knows because he has predetermined all things.

The foreknown here is not speaking about foreknowledge.

Foreknowledge, again, being how is it that God knows things.

Foreknown here is speaking about persons.

For those, that's persons.

For those he foreknew, foreknown.

So, whatever it is that's said after those whom he foreknew,

foreknown, however your translations will say it, can only include those he

foreknown.

So, whatever he's about to say after, for those whom he foreknown, it's

only for those whom he foreknown.

Let's finish reading that verse.

For those whom he foreknew, he also

predestined to be conformed to the image of his son,

in order that he might be the first born

among many brothers.

The image of the son here is speaking about the resurrection of the

dead.

So, let's look at that again with that in mind.

For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined

to be conformed to the

image of his son.

Right here.

In order, speaking about the son, that he, his son, might be the first born

among many brothers.

This first born, this is speaking about the resurrection of

the dead.

And we, those whom he foreknew, the Christians, are predestined to be

raised from the dead, just as Christ was raised from the dead.

Those whom he foreknown, he predestined to one day be raised from the dead

as Jesus was, and clothed in the man of heaven, according to 1

Corinthians chapter 15, where it lays out the resurrection of the dead.

It says that there's coming a day when Jesus will return.

Our confessions talk about the, in that day that he comes, he's going to judge the living and the dead, the

resurrection of the bodies.

And it mentions that there's going to be some who are raised and they're gonna be covered in

the earth, covered in Adam.

Think about it like this.

Adam was created from the dust.

You're going, some people who are not in Christ are gonna raise on that day and they're gonna be

covered in dust, covered in Adam.

Then it says that there's another group who are gonna be raised, and it says that they're gonna be clothed in the

man of heaven.

They're gonna be clothed in Christ.

We talk about that righteousness, right?

How once you believe you are made right with God, and we're gonna look at that here in a minute also,

and that you are, you have the righteousness of Christ.

And so right now we, I can't, you know, like I'm looking at you, I look at you, I can't

see Christ bear hugging you, right?

He's not, I don't see his arms around you, holding you.

But in faith, because of your profession, I trust that he is.

And in faith, because of my profession, I trust that Christ is around me.

But the resurrection of the dead, that which we cannot see without our eyes of faith, we'll be

able to see with our eyes.

There's coming a day where we are going to be raised from the ground, covered in

Christ, and this is speaking about our resurrected bodies.

So we are, those whom he foreknew are predestined to be conformed

to the image of his son.

Look at verse 30.

And those whom he predestined, he also called, and those whom he called, he also justified,

and those whom he justified, he also glorified.

This beginning from foreknowledge until glorification, this is what's called the

golden chain of redemption.

Foreknowledge is those whom he foreknew.

This is speaking about election.

God in eternity past chose to save a people.

This brings in the covenant of redemption.

Jesus in time comes into time to redeem the

people that he has chosen and through the preaching of the gospel, the Holy

Spirit applies God's purpose to save a people.

So the next word we're going to look at is predestined.

And so it comes from that word predestination.

Pre means beforehand.

Destination is where it is we are going.

And in this text, it is the image of Christ, which is the

resurrection of the dead.

So those whom he foreknew, he has predetermined where we are going to end

up.

And that is in the image of Christ.

If you, the foreknown are predestined to be conformed

to the image of Christ.

Conformed here is speaking about our sanctification.

Right?

I mentioned last week that if you profess to be a Christian and you live as if there's

no law, you are a false convert.

There's no sanctification going in your life.

If you are, you know, if you tell me that, you know, at 20 years old, you became

a Christian and here you are 60 and you're acting just like you did when you were 20, there's

no sanctification taking place in your life.

There's nothing about you that resembles Christ at all.

Guess what you are?

You are a false convert.

You are not being conformed to the image of Christ.

Me and my wife were having this conversation and she was mentioning on how,

what was the word that you used about my, my transformation, extreme,

that my sanctification has been extreme

because of where I was and where I'm at.

And I pointed out to her that she's probably more sanctified than I am.

It's just not as extreme because she didn't have the wild and crazy

gangbanging life that I had.

And so let's just say that she is ahead of me in her sanctification.

Hers doesn't look as extreme because for the most part, she just sit in her room and read books.

As for me, I was running the streets and doing, you know, playing guns and

doing things that I should have never been doing.

And then so where I'm at now, it looks extreme, but really the

sanctification process between me and her, it's the same.

She's being conformed to the image of Christ.

Mine, you can tell, especially if you knew me back then or if you trust what I say back then on

how I'm not that same person, while my wife isn't also that same person.

So sometimes we cannot just go by the way things look because every testimony, although it's

extreme, you were dead in Christ and now you're in, I mean, you were dead in your sins and now you're alive in Christ,

but there has to be some kind of sanctifying thing that's taking place in your life.

And it's probably not something that others can see as well.

It's probably something that you have to know about yourself.

And so don't just think, you know, if you've been in Christ for 20 years and other people may not be able to see it, you know

yourself, you have to judge for yourself.

Are you truly saved?

Are you truly in Christ?

Is sanctification taking place in your life?

Because if it is, you are going to be conformed to the image of the Son.

And if it isn't, you are not.

And I would beg you today to repent.

This image, again, is speaking about the resurrection of the body.

Those who are predestined to be in the image of Christ are called, that's

the next step in that chain of redemption.

The called here is speaking about the effectual calling, otherwise known as

irresistible grace.

This is where regeneration takes place.

Through the preaching of the gospel, someone is preaching that the Lord causes you to be

born again.

This is the new birth.

Unless a man is born again, he cannot see, that's with your eyes, or enter in

the kingdom of God.

The new birth, excuse me, in the new birth, the

gospel must be, listen, preached and heard.

Preached and heard.

The preachers or the evangelists must preach the gospel and call men and women

to respond to the gospel in repentance and faith.

And simultaneously, at the same time as this is taking place, as the preacher or the evangelist is

preaching the gospel and calling men and women to respond to the gospel in

repentance and faith, God himself must give that man or that woman the new

birth.

We, you and I, cannot cause man to be born again.

But we have been given the power of God that causes man to be born again.

And that is the gospel.

And in the new birth, we are given faith to believe.

I would argue that in the new birth, we are given repentance, to turn from our sins, to turn from trusting

ourselves, to believe in God and to trust in Jesus Christ.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is why we argue as Reformed folk, that faith is a

gift of God.

It's not something that we can conjure up.

And those who have been given faith to believe, they are justified.

To be justified means to be made right or righteous.

We were speaking about that just a few minutes ago.

And in the case of the Christian, it is both.

It is both.

Romans chapter five, verse one.

We've been reading this a lot, so you should be able to recite it to me.

Therefore, and if you go out straight preaching with me, this is the verse I love to use.

Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through

our Lord Jesus Christ.

This is telling us that we are made right by faith and

given the righteousness of Christ.

God's terms for peace is to be justified by faith.

And when we believe God, we are given righteousness.

All right, so whenever we believe, we are made right.

And also, when we believe, He gives us righteousness.

We believe we are right with Him.

We're not His enemy.

He's not gonna destroy us.

And He gives us the righteousness of Christ.

And that righteousness, we cannot see right now, but trust me when I tell you,

if you're in Christ, you're already right now clothed in the man of heaven.

It's an already, not yet, just like the kingdom.

The kingdom is here, but it's not yet here.

We have already seen it through the new birth.

We have entered it through the new birth, but it's not tangible.

I was telling some people this week, I can't walk up to Abraham, who is also in the kingdom, and tap on one side of

his shoulder and turn around and act like I didn't do it, right?

It's not tangible.

But one day, what we believe in faith will be sight.

It will be tangible.

We'll be able to touch it.

You'll be able to talk to Abraham.

You'll be able to talk to David.

You'll be able to have these conversations.

We'll be able to fellowship with our high priest, Jesus Christ.

But right now, we have to take these things by faith.

And that's not something you can conjure up.

You're believing and you're being made right with God is a gift.

And if you are justified, you will be glorified.

To be glorified is, again, to be

glorified is to be in the image of Christ, the resurrection of the

dead.

The resurrection of the dead bookends the golden chain of redemption.

The golden chain of redemption begins with those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to

be conformed to the image of Christ, resurrection of the dead.

Those whom he called, those whom he foreknew, those whom he predestined, those whom he called, called, justified,

those whom he justified, he glorifies.

That's the resurrection of the dead.

Are being predestined to be conformed to the image of Christ.

Now, how does that play out?

You have to be called.

That means that a preacher has to preach to you the gospel and simultaneously, God

grants you the new birth, the effectual call.

You have to be justified, which is by faith in the finished work of Christ, and you

will be glorified.

Paul, in Acts chapter 13, so let's get back to our main text.

Paul, in Acts chapter 13, preaches Christ.

And when this glorious message that Paul preached was spoken and heard, guess

what it was?

It was spoken and heard.

When Paul spoke those words, when he preached, the gospel was spoken and it was heard,

and those who heard it, spoke it.

They, the hearers, could not help themselves, but to speak

about this Jesus, the son of God.

I want you to think about that.

Remember earlier, I said that I didn't think that they were believers.

I didn't, I think they were in process, because it says that they were devoted to Judaism.

And so we have here, men and women who are only in process, I believe, hear the word

of God, and they go back to their village, and that week they told everyone they knew.

They told everyone they knew.

It was spoken and heard, and it was spoken and heard.

The one who can save them, this is the message, the one who can save them from

everything, from which the law of Moses could not save them from.

That's the message they heard.

They heard that someone has come who can save them from what the law of Moses could

not save them from.

I want you to think about this.

Their thoughts process as this,.

No more lambs, no more birds, no more goats.

Probably today it would be no more chickens.

All right.

Imagine that.

You have these Jews who are devoted to Judaism, and then you have these

Gentile converts who have entered into Judaism, and they're being told that they have to sacrifice

from their flock.

And then Paul comes and he preaches that through this man, Jesus,

you don't have to sacrifice anything.

Believe, trust, look to him.

I'm up here saying it, but I don't know how that feels.

I don't know how that feels.

I've never been a part of a cult.

I don't know what it's like to have that feeling that I have to do something in

order to make myself right with God.

But I'm just imagining that these people, that that's what they're hearing.

And as they're going back to their village, they're telling everybody, you won't believe this.

This man came and he started talking about that there's a Messiah that came.

He's the son of David, and that he saves us where the law of Moses cannot save us.

And through that message, the word spread so much that almost the whole city came out

to listen to this word.

Look at verse 44.

The next Sabbath, almost the whole city gathered together to

hear the word of the Lord.

They wanted to hear the word of the Lord.

And then as we saw in the scriptures from verses 45 to verse 48, that jealousy had came

upon the leaders because almost the whole city had come out to hear

this message.

First, they wanted them to come back the next Sabbath, but when the word was spoken and heard and those who

heard it went out and spoke it, and almost the whole city came,

those leaders knew that they had messed up.

Jealousy started to fill their heart, and they ran them off.

They ran them out of the city.

Jesus' own people did not receive him.

But when the Gentiles heard that Jesus was for

them as well, the text tells us they began rejoicing and

glorifying the word of the Lord.

And as many as were appointed to eternal life believed.

Those whom he foreknew, he predestined, he called, he justified,

and they will be glorified.

Now, what you and I should do in

evangelism, which I find as someone who's been going

out 2010, 2011, I can't remember exactly.

I think it's 2010.

So I've been doing street evangelism since 2010.

I did some in 2005, but not a whole lot.

But in 2010, since 2010, I find myself sometimes

disheartened because I don't see God working, right?

There's times I do and there's times I don't, but I have to remind myself when I go out and

evangelize that the word of God is not going to return void, right?

I have to trust that the word of God does what the word of God was supposed to do

according to his sovereignty, whether someone comes to Christ or they reject Christ.

The word of God does not return void.

And what you and I have to do in evangelism, again, I sometimes find it hard to

do, right?

I've been doing this for many years and I still find it hard to do.

And that is this, we are to trust in the sovereignty of

God.

And listen, it's easily said, right?

It's easier said than to do.

If God has appointed them, you, to eternal life, they, you will

believe.

And let's finish reading this section.

And we'll close.

Verse 49, and the word of the Lord

was spreading throughout the whole region.

But the Jews incited to the devout women of high standing and the

leading men of the city stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas and they drove them out

of their district.

I like this verse, verse 51.

But they shook off the dust from their feet against them and went into

Iconium.

This was a sign that they were done.

And then verse 52, it says, and the disciples were filled with joy and with

the Holy Spirit.

This was a sign, they're shaking their dust that they're going to the Gentiles.

They're going to go to the Gentiles and to preach this message.

They're going to go to the Gentiles because they as Jews are supposed to be the light

of the, are supposed to bring the light to the Gentiles.

I want you to see that Paul here as a Jew is being obedient to the Old Testament

commandment to go to the Gentiles.

His own, Jesus, his own people, Paul's Kingsman, according to the flesh, rejected it.

He shakes off the dust from his shoes.

Okay, we're going to the Gentiles.

And then verse 52, and this is where I have trouble with in my life.

And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.

They're being kicked out.

They've been drove off that land and they were filled with joy.

After this experience, I asked myself, how were the disciples filled with joy and filled

with the Holy Spirit?

The answer is this, because they did something, they're doing something that I have trouble doing

because they trusted in the sovereignty of God in salvation.

Salvation did not depend on them.

And as Calvinists, we need to understand that we should rest in that.

And it's hard to do, especially if you're out there doing the work, it's really hard to do.

And so I have these questions I'll leave you with.

Are you praying for someone's salvation?

And if so, have you spoken to them about your faith?

And if so, have you told them the gospel?

Is there someone in your life that you're close to that you're praying that the Lord will save them?

I would remind you to tell them about your faith, but don't

tell them about your faith and miss telling them the gospel.

A lot of times people give testimony of how they were saved in their faith in Christ and they never tell them the gospel.

That although they have broken God's law, God has paid their fine.

That they are not worthy to be saved, but God sent his son.

They're worthy of condemnation, but God sent his son.

Brothers and sisters, this is what we must do when we do that.

We must trust in Christ.

We are available to anyone who wants to talk.

Pastor Kyle and myself, let's pray.

Father, we know that it is your joy,

your purpose, your plan to save sinners.

And God, we pray that although this world seems dark and it's really

easy for the Christian to feel all alone, Lord, you gave us

the church where we can gather together and not feel that

silence, right?

You give us this group of people to where we can know that we are not alone.

And Lord, we ask that you give us strength, Lord, we ask that you give us bonus.

We ask that you give us courage to pray,

to speak to those that we're praying for, to be a witness, to be a light,

to take this light of the world, Jesus Christ, and as the lamp stand to go out into the

world and to shine that light and to not put it under a basket, Lord.

Lord, help us as your people to be brave

and to preach the gospel, to be bold and to stand in the face of tyranny and say, thus says

the Lord.

To understand that we have the Holy Spirit and that we are called to be world changers.

We are called to turn the world upside down just like the 12 disciples did.

We have that same power, Lord.

But help us to understand and help us to understand how to use that

power.

Help us to study and to understand the gospel.

Lord, we pray right now for the supper.

We pray that you use it for our growth, our sanctification as you conform us to the image of

your son.

Lord, I pray that if there's anyone here that has been living in sin and they're unrepentant, Lord, that you

grant to them repentance, that they confess their sins to you, Lord.

And if they're stubborn and hard hearted, that you will prevent them from the table.

We love you.

We ask that your grace will go with us in Christ's name.

Amen.