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Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/stanley-wells/the-gospel-and-reaction-to-it/
Real good to see you all tonight, and we want to thank you sincerely for coming. Now, all our readings tonight are from the book of the Acts, the Acts of the Apostles, and we're going to start at chapter 13.
Now, I want to tell you something. Mr. Dryborough and myself are Canadians. Now, did you get that? I have lived 43 years in Canada. Now, you're going to find out his accent and mine are different, but we're Canadians, so you don't always have Canadians here in Stout on a Sunday night.
You usually have Americans, and it's very strange. The last time I was back in the old country, this lady says, I know who you are. I said, lady, you don't know me. You never saw me before. She says, you're one of the men preaching down there in that hall, and your name's on that board.
I said, how do you know that? She says, you have an American accent. So I hope you can understand my American accent. I remember the meetings then that our brethren have announced at the conference and two nights there in Cedar Falls at 7 o 'clock and two nights here, and then the conference coming on next weekend and the will of God.
Now, I want to preach tonight to you in a simple way the gospel message and then the reaction, the response to the gospel message. We're going to read in Acts chapter 13, please, and verse number 38, and the preacher is Paul the Apostle, and he's in a place called Antioch, Pisidia.
Here's what he says. Here's the gospel. Be it known unto you, therefore, men and brethren, that through this man 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.
Now, the gospel, as we'll see in a minute or two, is contained in those two verses. Now, in the chapter 18, please, I want to see the reaction to this message that Paul preached. The last sentence of chapter 18, verse 17.
We're now in Corinth. It says here, And Galio cared for none of those things. Over to chapter 24, please. Look at the Acts 24, verse number 25. Here's a man called Felix, and he's listening to the gospel.
What's his reaction? And does he reason of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come? Felix trembled and answered, Go thy way for this time. When I have a convenient season, I will call for thee.
Chapter 26 now for another verse. Here's the preacher Paul again. Verse 27. King Agrippa, Believest thou the prophets? That's the Bible. I know that thou believest. Then Agrippa said unto Paul, Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian.
Chapter 16 now to conclude. Acts chapter 16, please. Here's a man asked a question. Verse number 30. What must I do to be saved? The preacher said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy household, the family.
Now the Lord will bless what we have read and what our brother will bring to your attention tonight. The gospel. God's good news. This outstanding preacher in the New Testament called Paul the Apostle.
He stepped in with Barnabas to a city called Antioch in Pisidia years ago. He gave an outstanding message to the gathered company. And I have brought to the conclusion of his message. He brought to that city good news.
Be it known unto you, therefore, men and brethren. That's his audience that he's talking to. That through this man, the Lord Jesus Christ is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins. There are four simple thoughts lying in those verses.
And I'm just going to say them to you. And then show you from these other scriptures the reaction of people to the message. The response. Dear soul. We're delighted to see you here tonight. It's not often I'm in stout.
But I do know this. That every time the gospel is announced there's a response. The onus is on you. What you're going to do with the Lord Jesus Christ. You see as this man, Paul the Apostle, warmed to his message.
The audience were likely spellbound. He had them on the tips of his fingers. And he's saying to them, people, be it known unto you, therefore, men and brethren. That's the people that he's talking to.
And so we're happy to be here tonight to announce to you, dear soul, this good news of the Lord Jesus Christ. How that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures. He was buried and He rose again the third day according to the scriptures.
Paul got across this point. He says, to you people, and I'm making the application tonight to you people here in Stout. He says, I want to introduce you to a person through this man, the Lord Jesus Christ.
He recalled a day not too earlier in his life when he accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as his Savior. The Lord talked to him from heaven. And he said to him, I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest. And Paul appreciated in a moment of time that when the Lord Jesus Christ died on the cross, He died for Saul of Tarsus.
You see, the folk that he represented thought he was dead. And that was the finish. But he was alive forevermore. We can't do better tonight than present to you, dear soul, the person of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Let me talk to you boys and girls here tonight. Let me say to you, we're delighted to see you and to sit reverently to listen to the Word of God. You're the first person that ever told me about the Lord Jesus was my mother.
And some of you children who are here tonight, I remember being raised in the country of Venezuela, South America, and listening to my dad in the Gospel, in Spanish, and my mother at home in English telling us of the Lord Jesus.
Dear boy and girl tonight, you maybe sat and listened at the conference and you didn't know what was being said. I can understand. But you know tonight about the Lord Jesus Christ. I tell you, Paul got the attention of his people that day and he said to them, I want to preach to you.
Be it known unto you, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you. See that word preaching? It's the idea of heralding. Telling men and women and boys and girls of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Children, when I was in your age group, I knew the Gospel well. But I was a sinner on my way to eternity. My parents had high hopes that one day my older brother and I would be saved. But the years of life went on and I hope no one here will go the route I went and start to say at no time from my parents and the Gospel that they announced.
See you children? This is your opportunity tonight to get this matter of salvation settled. If you say no and the years of life go on so quickly and before you know where you are you'll be through your teens and the Lord doesn't come in the older years and you'll be out into a world there that wants you.
Oh, I want to appeal to you tonight. If God is talking to you and Paul mentioned to these people that they were sinners on the way to eternity and they needed a Savior, so do you, so do I. There's a promise here.
Let me quote you the verse again. Be it known unto you, men and brethren, that's the people, that through this man, that's the Lord Jesus, that's the person, is preached unto you, that's the preaching, the forgiveness of sins.
That's the promise. Now I was trying to just picture myself here today and watching the children and even last night. I wonder would there be a boy or a girl here or an older friend. And you have been tossing this over in your mind alone.
You have never told anybody I wouldn't expect you to. And you're asking God, Oh God, I would like to be saved and I'd like to be saved tonight. How can I be saved? Now let me point the next idea to you.
Paul left Antioch, Pisidia, and there's generous statements made about the reaction and response to the gospel. But I want to talk to you about individuals that heard Paul speak on their reaction to the gospel.
Here's number one. A man called Galio and he was in a place called Corinth. When he heard the gospel, it says he cared for none of these things. That's a careless sinner. There wouldn't be a careless sinner in here tonight.
You're here because you were invited. You're here because you were brought. You're here because it's the thing to do on a Sunday night when you go through the motions, but you're just a poor, careless sinner on the way to eternity.
Whatever age group you are, please listen. One day, Paul stepped into Caesarea and there's a man sent for him to hear the gospel. Felix, the Roman governor, with his young wife, Drusilla, sitting beside him.
He said to her, we want to hear this man. When there's anyone here tonight and you have come because you want to hear the simple gospel of the grace of God, this man was a liberated slave. He was a wicked sinner above many.
And we learn from the history book of the New Testament that the gospel can reach people. This man was absolutely against everything of the Lord Jesus. But as the preacher that day preached the message, the righteous God, the unrighteous sinner, and the judgment that's ahead, the dear man trembled.
The word is he was terrified. I want to tell this audience that we have seen in our service even recently. I was away down there in Malaysia and I said, here a man come in. Never heard the gospel in his life.
And as it was announced to him, he trembled as an aspen leaf. The issues that were ahead as sin, the judgment that's ahead, the holiness of God. I wonder, dear soul, tonight what your reaction is. See what this man, what he did.
He said, Preacher, you're right. But don't talk to me about it anymore tonight. Some other time I'll think about it. Go thy way for this time. When I have a convenient season, I will call for thee. I want to tell this audience it never happened.
Now in my short service in different parts of the world in the gospel, I remember one young fellow one night come in to hear the gospel in a gospel tent. He was 18 years of age. His friend was in the assembly.
He never heard the gospel in his life. And we heard about it afterwards. While the meeting was going on, he heard the gospel once. And he was saved by the grace of God. You have heard it many times and you're still not saved.
What happened to that young man? He went out the tent that night and he said good night. It was a Friday night. See on the Lord's day following, he was killed in an automobile accident. And he was in eternity.
He got one chance. Somebody says how do you know he got saved? Well his friend told me. Dear soul, there's somebody sitting here maybe and you'll never have another opportunity of being saved. And the gospel is reaching you tonight.
And you know that you should trust the Lord Jesus. But you're saying another time. Here's another man. He's a king. He's a monarch. Thirty years previous, the young preacher was Saul of Tarsus. He wasn't preaching at that point.
But there was another man called Ananias told him. Now listen. You're a young man and God has selected you to preach the gospel. You're a chosen vessel. And down the road, you will talk to kings. The young man likely wondered what it was all about.
Fast forward thirty years or so down the road. He stands in Caesarea in front of a king. King Agrippa. He told him his conversion to God and how he was commissioned to preach the gospel. And where I read, I take it that the preacher got the eye of his listener.
We wouldn't want to embarrass anybody. People always say, if you want people to look at you, look at them. I'm looking at you tonight, friend. As Paul looked into this man on this occasion. And he says, King Agrippa, do you believe the Bible?
Agrippa said nothing. But the preacher knew he did. I'd like to ask you tonight, friend. Do you believe the Bible? Somebody says I do. Do you believe the Lord could save you? I do. Do you believe the Lord could save you right here in this meeting?
Now, watch the reaction to the message. The king said to him, Preacher, almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian. Now, the preacher took him on face value. And we take people on face value. And would you be here tonight, friend?
And you're almost persuaded that you should have the Savior and salvation tonight. But you're going to turn away. In our service, I could tell you of so many cases where the gospel reached people. And we sat down sometimes after a solemn gospel meeting with individuals one on one.
And they wept their heart out. And they wanted salvation. But they weren't prepared to put it number one. It must have been heartbreaking for this preacher. I have had the experience several times with people coming right to the very door of salvation.
And we couldn't save them. But we cried to God to save them. But they had to be willing. I'd like to ask you tonight, friend, you know the facts of the gospel. Would you like to be saved tonight? Paul had to leave.
There's no record that any of those three, Galio, Felix, Agrippa, ever got saved. Now listen, if they left the world without the Lord Jesus, they're in hell tonight. If you leave the world without Christ, that's what the Savior said, if you die on your sins, where I am you cannot come.
Would you just think about that? Somebody says that's awful preaching. Well, friend, I want to tell you tonight that as I get older and I see the way people are treating the gospel, it breaks your very heart to preach to people that one day are in life and the next day are in eternity without a ray of hope.
I hope there's no one here will ever be in that category. Somebody says, well, I would like to get the matter settled tonight. Now watch. Here's the reaction of another man. His name's not known. He was in charge of a prison house in Philippi.
I'm not going over all the story. But I want to get to the point. The man that led me to the Lord Jesus, he's 91 years of age nearly tonight. And when I was saved, he was 33 years of age. And he taught me how to, I hope, preach the gospel.
And he used to say, tell a soul every night, doesn't matter where you read, how a soul can be saved. It's my privilege now before I step down to show you people right here in Stout how a soul can be saved.
Well, we go to an illustration in the Bible. There he is. He was asleep. There was a mighty earthquake hit the building in Philippi. The lights were out. He was in the dark. And his immediate reaction was, I'm going to take my life.
The sword and all was out. He was about to finish her off. Now watch. The preacher seemed to sense, directed by God, that the man was about to terminate his life. You know what he said? Don't do it. Nobody has moved.
The prison doors are open, but nobody has moved. Now when he got his attention, here's a man, and he heard the gospel. Here's his reaction. He asked the preachers that day, that night, men, what must I do to be saved?
And in unison, together, they said, believe, accept, receive, rely upon the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. And thy household. In an instant of time, the man accepted and understood that when the Savior died on the lonely cross, he died for an ungodly person like the jailer.
And he took it to himself. And he understood at that second that the Lord Jesus Christ died as his substitute in his place. And right there, he took on a Savior and lived to prove it. You could do the very same.
I was thinking of a verse today. How a soul could be saved. I love the old hymns. They're in this hymn book that we sung from tonight. I want to quote you one. For there's a possibility that there's somebody here and I'll never have the opportunity of preaching to you again.
And I'm your friend. And you want salvation. Here it is. A guilty sinner. But Jesus died for me. Would you accept that tonight? There was another occasion not too long ago when we sung hymns that were very fitted for salvation.
I met a little girl down in Australia the last time I was there. She's now a young woman. She said to me, Stan, do you know who I am? I said, no, I don't. But she says, I was saved when you were in Malaysia 14 years ago.
The year 2000. My father and mother are Buddhists. My Sunday school teacher pleaded with my mother to let me come to the meetings. And she brought me along every night. You didn't know who I was. She says, no one impressed me about that series.
I said, no. She says, you give out the same hymn every night at the end of the meeting. And she quoted it to me. And I'm going to quote it to you. That dear girl now is a lovely young lady. And she has a very responsible job down there in Australia in the city of Melbourne.
She says, the chorus that you sung every night. I now believe, I do believe that Jesus died for me. That on the cross he shed his blood from sin to set me free. What's your reaction tonight, friend, to the message?
If we never meet again. If you take Christ as Savior, heaven forever. If you're refusing, hell at last. On the lake of fire. I hope you'll never be there. But if you arrive there, you'll never forget the second weekend in April 2015.
When two Canadians came to your building to preach the gospel. You could have been saved, but you missed it. You're lost forever. Heaven forbid. God help you tonight to trust the Savior. As my brother continues.
Thank you very much.