Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Foreign.
[00:00:12] I gave you this encouragement last week. I'm going to give it to you again this week.
[00:00:16] I encourage you, if you, and this is, I promise you, no shame, if you look at your Bible on your phone, I would encourage you to put it away and, and, and get a Bible in front of you, get the paper in front of you. There's nothing sinful about looking at your phone, looking at the Bible on your phone. But I do think there's something really wonderful about having a paper copy of the Bible in front of you.
[00:00:38] Something beautiful about hearing the congregation of the Lord Jesus turn the page even. What a wonderful sound about a hundred people in a room turning the pages of scripture together. Okay, so we're going to talk about a lot of scripture. We're going to, I'm going to preach, we're going to talk about verses 13 to 52. Even though Pastor Matt read the final section of that passage. This is Paul's, the Apostle Paul's first sermon on his first missionary journey. Okay, so we're going to talk about all of this. Before I do this, I want to, I want to give you just a very brief story by means of illustration. So when my family and I moved to Fort Worth in 2017, I was coming here to finish seminary, to finish an M. Div. I was on the 10 year track, not because I was getting so many degrees, but because that's how long it was taking me to finish the degree.
[00:01:28] And so we were like, we have to move to Fort Worth, otherwise we're never going to finish. So we moved to Fort Worth and one of the pieces of advice that was given to me that I am deeply grateful for was from a pastor back in West Texas. And he said, when you move to seminary, I would encourage you to not go get a ministry job right away, go work another job because you're moving there to learn. And he was right and so moved to Fort Worth and I ended up getting a job selling dental discount plans. Mason knows because he was there with me after he moved up up as well.
[00:02:01] So I've done food, I've done retail, I've done sales, I've done education.
[00:02:06] Just a wild plethora of random jobs.
[00:02:10] Dental discount plans, not the most exhilarating thing in the world to sell.
[00:02:14] Paid me 275 an hour. That's $2.75 an hour plus commission.
[00:02:20] So you can make a decent wage or you can make nothing, all depending on how well you did. So I, I love to talk to people. I love that.
[00:02:31] And so I was on the phones all day talking to people. I'd have sometimes great conversations, sometimes terrible conversations. But that was the part of the job that I really loved, that I feel like I was pretty decent at, was building rapport with people so I could stay on the phone with somebody for 45 minutes to an hour sometimes. The problem was I wasn't asking anybody to buy the thing that I was supposed to be selling them.
[00:02:51] So I would talk to them for 45 minutes. I'd get their life story. I'd share the gospel sometimes, like very quietly share the gospel with them sometimes. And. And awesome. But one day, my boss, who was also a Christian good man, pulled me aside and he took me off to a room and he sat me down and he had me listen to a call. So I'm listening to a call, 40 minutes sitting there, listening to myself just ramble on and on and on with this person. And it gets to the end of the call. And the way that I ended that call was I said, well, I hope you have a great day. Thanks for calling.
[00:03:22] And they were confused by it. And they were like, oh, okay. And then we just got off the phone. And here, here was his advice to me. It was. It wasn't advice.
[00:03:31] He said, Brad. He said Holcomb. He said, holcomb, if you don't start asking people to buy this plan, I'm going to fire you.
[00:03:40] Go get him, tiger.
[00:03:42] And so it just totally kind of. But. But there were two things that I kind of walked away with following that conversation, in addition to I need to be asking people to buy the plan.
[00:03:52] It led me down this path of asking, why don't I ask people to buy the plan? And I think there are two reasons. Number one, I didn't know it.
[00:04:00] Number two, I had yet to experience it.
[00:04:04] And you can't really give somebody something that you yourself don't know or have yet to experience.
[00:04:12] And I share this with you to say, I think I read a statistic this week that said this.
[00:04:19] 82% of American evangelicals do not know what the great commission is.
[00:04:26] 82% of professing believers of the Lord Jesus Christ do not know what their job is.
[00:04:37] Like. One of the main reasons you're not in heaven yet, you're not here. I'm not here to make a lot of money, to make a name for ourself, to get a social media following, to be liked by people. That's not the reason that you're not in heaven yet.
[00:04:56] You're here, and I'm here for A purpose.
[00:05:00] We've been redeemed by the blood of God, not just to be forgiven of our sins and reconciled to him, but to know and enjoy him forever and to make him known among all peoples. But you can't do it, and I can't do it if you don't know what the message is.
[00:05:22] And so Paul, in this beautiful sermon, preached better than I could ever do justice to, is going to highlight this reality that this Entire book, all 66 books, are not a list of rules for you to follow.
[00:05:37] There are rules in it. And the bad news is we didn't follow them in indeed, or in thought or motive. We just, We. We totally blew it.
[00:05:50] That's the bad news.
[00:05:52] And so because of that, our unwillingness, inability to do the law as we were created, not just the law, but to love God with all of our heart, mind, soul and strength, and love our neighbor as ourself, which is what the law is, we've been alienated from the God to whom by which we were made from and for.
[00:06:15] And we're frantically looking for purpose, meaning, identity. That's all of.
[00:06:23] You can villainize all you want, the, the gender identity stuff and all of these different things going on in the culture, but the reality is human beings are doing what we do naturally. We are desperately searching for meaning and purpose and unable to find it.
[00:06:40] We just have. We're. We're sheep, Jesus says, who have gone astray. And if you've ever seen sheep who have gone astray, they have no idea what they're doing and where they're going.
[00:06:50] What do sheep need?
[00:06:52] A shepherd.
[00:06:55] Sheep need a shepherd to bring them back.
[00:07:00] That's who Jesus is. According to John, chapter 10, he is the good shepherd. He is the shepherd of Psalm 23 who came to bring us back to God. And so what the Apostle Paul is going to do, and we're going to get to the text, he's going to preach a sermon by which he says, all of this book, all 66 books, all of the books of the Old Testament, from the Pentateuch to the Kings to the Chronicles to the prophets, all of it is. Is a part of a larger story.
[00:07:30] It's not just a list of rules.
[00:07:33] It all points to a person who is that person. It's the most important person who's ever lived. And he's the one that we get to talk about for the next 30 minutes.
[00:07:43] So let's look at the passage together. Let's see what's going on in the Apostle Paul, and then we'll get to his sermon. So if you start in verse 13, Acts chapter 13 says this.
[00:07:53] Now, Paul and his companions set sail from Paphos and came to Perga in Pamphylia. And John left them and returned to Jerusalem.
[00:08:05] But they went out. They went on from Perga and came to Antioch in Pisidia.
[00:08:10] And on the Sabbath day, they went down into the synagogue and sat down. Okay, so before we get to what Paul says in the synagogue, let's do some kind of contextual work again. All of the Book of Acts, friends, can be summarized in chapter 1, verse 8. When the Lord Jesus tells his apostles, his disciples, that you will be my witnesses. And in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, into the ends of the earth, what are they to be witnesses of? They're to be witnesses of the resurrection.
[00:08:37] Jesus Christ, God the Son, took on human flesh over 2000 years ago and lived a perfect life and perfect obedience to God the Father. Completely fulfilled the law of Moses. Came as the second, final and better Adam.
[00:08:53] He comes among people, and I love. Pastor Matt preached this many weeks ago. Um, but the Book of Acts says that he went about doing good. That's quite the understatement, but it's a beautiful verse nonetheless.
[00:09:06] Everything Jesus did was good.
[00:09:09] Everything he did.
[00:09:11] The most beautiful life that was ever lived, Love embodied in a person. Jesus Christ went about doing good. He had no sin. And I'm kind of getting ahead of myself because Paul's going to talk about this in a little bit in his sermon. But Jesus lived. He died on the cross. He became sin, though he knew no sin. He was buried. He was resurrected on the third day, and hundreds of people saw him. And so Jesus is telling these people, after he had risen from the dead, you're going to be my witnesses. But before you go out and do that witnessing work by which all of us are a product of, by the way, and now a part of, to be his witnesses, he says, before you go and do that, you're to wait for the promise of the Holy Spirit, by whom the Father and the Son would send his precious Holy Spirit not to just do ministry beside us, but to empower us to do ministry by living inside of us.
[00:10:09] God in us is the person of the Holy Spirit.
[00:10:13] And Jesus says, you can't be my witnesses apart from the Holy Spirit. So I'm gonna. The Father and I are gonna send the Holy Spirit to live inside of you, to empower you to eyewitnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. And that's what you See progress throughout the book of Acts. The Gospel starts in Jerusalem, moves to Judea, and then Samaria. And now we're seeing it move to the ends of the earth. And the conduit, or the instrument by which the Lord Jesus chooses to do this in many ways is through this man named Paul Saul, Pharisee of Pharisees, persecutor of the church, hater of the way, killer of Christians, on his way on the road to Damascus. Jesus from heaven knocks him off his horse, blinds him, calls him to himself, forgives him of his sin, clothes him in, in his righteousness, fills him with his spirit, and then tells him, you're a chosen instrument, instrument of mine, and I will show you how much you must suffer for the sake of my name.
[00:11:15] And Paul spends the rest of his life on earth being a witness to the resurrected Christ giving his life for this message.
[00:11:25] And so in Acts, chapter 13 says, they're on this island called Cyprus.
[00:11:31] We remember that from last week. Island called Cyprus. That's where Barnabas was from. Paul and Barnabas had been sent out by the church. Remember we talked about this seminary, Brothers, sisters, calling is an individual thing. It is also validated by the Church, the body of Christ. We're not called to be lone rangers, okay? Doing whatever we want to do because we feel like it.
[00:11:56] And so the church lays their hands on Paul and Barnabas and they send them out on the first overseas mission trip.
[00:12:04] They travel to Cyprus. And on the island of Cyprus, they begin to share the gospel. They come across this false prophet. All these amazing things happen. And then God saves a Roman centurion. And so now they're traveling from that island and they're going to travel to this place called Antioch. Not, not Antioch, former Antioch that we talked about, but Pisidian Antioch.
[00:12:28] This would have been this. This kind of blew my mind this week reading about this. But this would have been. Been about a hundred miles from where they were to where they were going.
[00:12:36] So they get on boat, they travel by boat from Cyprus to land.
[00:12:41] And once they get to land, in order to get to Antioch, this city, they actually have to cross over the Taurus Mountains. Had never heard of the Taurus Mountains before, but I looked them up online. You should look them up online. The highest peak of the taurus Mountains is 12,000 some odd feet. That's a really high peak.
[00:12:59] I've never hiked a 14 or I have driven one before.
[00:13:03] And you get to the top of it and you're like, can't really breathe that great up. It's a. It's a steep hike, okay? The Apostle Paul and Barnabas, they. They cross over. We don't know to what extent or the elevation or any of that, but what a trip.
[00:13:19] What compels a person to do that hundreds of miles across mountains?
[00:13:27] He knew that Jesus was alive.
[00:13:29] And so because he knew that Jesus was alive, he's like, I'll go. All risk robbers, all risk sickness. It says that while Paul and Barnabas are doing this, John. Who's John? Mark, by the way. He wrote the Gospel of Mark. More on Mark in Acts chapter.
[00:13:42] But it says that John actually leaves them behind and he goes back home.
[00:13:47] And this really makes Paul angry, as we'll talk about in a few weeks. But then there's redemption. And John, Mark comes back later on down the road. It's awesome. But John, Mark leaves. We don't know why he leaves.
[00:13:58] And so Paul and Barnabas go and they do what? We see a common theme throughout Paul's ministry. He goes to the Jews first.
[00:14:06] He says this in Romans chapter one. He says, the Gospel is the power of God for salvation to all who believe. The Jew first and then to the Greek.
[00:14:14] It doesn't mean Jews are more dignified than Greeks, but it does mean there was an order by which God, in his providence and in his redemption, was doing things.
[00:14:22] Gospel came to the Jews first, and then it comes to the Greeks. So Paul and Barnabas go into the synagogue, and as was custom, they sit down. And as the leaders of the synagogue get in front to do the reading of the Shema and then to exegete the Scriptures, the leaders say, they look at Paul and Barnabas and say, do you have anything to say?
[00:14:43] I just kind of like Paul running into Bar Jesus last week. It's like, wrong guy.
[00:14:48] Do you have anything to say? And so Paul stands up by the power of the Holy Spirit. And this is what he has to say. So look at the text with me, brothers. If you have any word of encouragement for the people, say it.
[00:15:03] So Paul stood up and motioning with his hand, said, men of Israel and you who fear God.
[00:15:12] Listen, friends, listen.
[00:15:17] Listen not for my sake, because I need you to listen. You need to listen.
[00:15:25] Listen.
[00:15:26] The God of this people, Israel, chose our fathers and made the people great during their stay in the land of Egypt.
[00:15:33] And with uplifted arm, he led them out of it.
[00:15:38] And for about 40 years, he put up with them in the wilderness. So Paul is talking about the book of Exodus. He's talking about the story of the Exodus. God chooses a people the nation of Israel through a man named Abraham. Remember, he gives Abraham a promise in Genesis, chapter 12. Look at the stars of the sky. So will your descendants be. Abraham and Sarah couldn't have kids like, what are you talking about? We can't even have one.
[00:16:04] And so God shows himself to be a God by which nothing is impossible for him.
[00:16:10] Look at the stars of the sky. Chooses Abram. Through Abram comes a people, the nation of Israel. Those people are enslaved by the Egyptians. And then God, through a man named Moses, leads the people of Israel out of Egypt. And they complain and moan the entire way.
[00:16:27] They turn to God and they worship him. And then they turn away and worship false idols or idols over and over and over again. And so when it says that he put up with them in the wilderness, I read that, and I think that kind of sounds like God's like annoyed the whole time.
[00:16:41] But a more literal reading of that text actually says that for over 400 years, God carried them along.
[00:16:50] He's slow to anger. What an amazing God.
[00:16:54] Abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness for over 400 years, while his people complain and turn away from him, he continues to carry them like a loving father.
[00:17:05] He put up with them in the wilderness. He carried them along in the wilderness. And after destroying seven nations in the land of Canaan, he gave them their land as an inheritance.
[00:17:15] All this took about 450 years.
[00:17:19] And after that, he gave them judges until Samuel the prophet.
[00:17:25] Then they asked for a king and trust God to be their king. They asked for a king and God gave them Saul, the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin for 40 years.
[00:17:42] And when he had removed him because of Saul's disobedience and unfaithfulness, when he removed him, he raised up David to be their king, Greatest earthly king in the history of Israel, in the history of the world. Raised up David to be their king, of whom he testified and said, I have found in David, the son of Jesse, a man after my own heart. What a. What a title. Who will do all my will.
[00:18:11] Of this man's offspring, God has brought to Israel a savior, Jesus, as he promised.
[00:18:19] Adam couldn't do it.
[00:18:21] Moses couldn't do it.
[00:18:23] Saul couldn't do it. Samuel couldn't do it. The prophets couldn't do it. David couldn't do it. And so God comes of this line of this man, David, I'm going to send a savior, the Messiah, the Promised One, the one to whom all of the Old Testament scriptures point to going to send Date I'm going to send Jesus a savior.
[00:18:48] Who is that? Friends, like if I say this, I said this to our youth on Thursday.
[00:18:55] It's become a regular practice for us on youth nights, is, hey, let's pretend I'm a non Christian. Maybe some of you in the room are not yet Christians. Let's pretend I'm not yet a Christian. I come up to you and I say, who is Jesus?
[00:19:10] Or I say, what's the gospel?
[00:19:12] What would you say?
[00:19:13] And they do. Amazing.
[00:19:15] But I want you to consider, I want you to consider that scenario for you. Who is Jesus?
[00:19:21] Who is he?
[00:19:24] What's so great about this Jesus?
[00:19:28] So what Paul goes on to say, because he's going to teach us much, friends, about who the Lord, who the Lord Jesus is.
[00:19:38] God has brought to Israel a savior, Jesus. As he promised before his coming, John had proclaimed a baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel. And as John was, as John was finishing his course, he said, what do you suppose that I am? I am not he. No. But behold, after me, one is coming. The sandals of whose feet I am not worthy to untie.
[00:20:02] Jesus is great.
[00:20:05] John the Baptist was great.
[00:20:08] Okay, arguably, though I don't know that it, I mean, John the Baptist was just a more devoted guy than many of us are.
[00:20:16] He gave his life, got his head lopped off for the sake of what he believed about Jesus. What he believed about Jesus. He called out Herod and his sexual promiscuity. Bold, brave, courageous, faithful.
[00:20:31] John is saying this of Jesus. I'm not worthy to stoop down and untie the man's sandals.
[00:20:37] That's how great he is.
[00:20:40] That's how wonderful he is.
[00:20:42] I'm not even worthy to stoop down and untie it. I, I, I'm not worthy to be in the same room as he is.
[00:20:50] So John says, I am not he. I'm not worthy to untie his sandals. The one that we're talking about, this Jesus, friends, is great.
[00:20:59] He's great.
[00:21:02] And as John was finishing his course, sorry, verse 26. Brothers, sons of the family of Abraham, and those among you who fear God, that's Jew and Gentile, this is everybody, everybody in the room to us has been sent the message of this salvation for those who live in Jerusalem and their rulers because they did not recognize him, Jesus, nor understand the utterances of the prophets which he read every Sabbath, fulfilled them by condemning him.
[00:21:32] So this is a reference to the very Old Testament scriptures that the religious leaders, the Jewish religious leaders taught and studied and memorized for the entirety of their lives. He's saying, you knew about the Messiah. You knew the Messiah was coming. You knew what he was going to do. You knew that he was going to be a suffering servant. That's Isaiah 53. It's one of the most famous Old Testament passages in all of the world. You knew that this is what he was going to do. You knew that this is who he was. And he came and you missed him.
[00:22:01] And you actually fulfilled the very scriptures that you knew and memorized by condemning Him.
[00:22:10] And though they found in him no guilt worthy of death, Jesus isn't just great. He's spotless and blameless.
[00:22:17] There's no guilt in him, no sin, no defect in him. Jesus is the better Passover lamb.
[00:22:26] Passover lamb had to be spotless and blameless.
[00:22:30] To be set apart for God for holy purposes. So that the people of God might be cleansed of their sins. Jesus is the Passover lamb.
[00:22:39] There's no guilt in him.
[00:22:43] Though they found in him no guilt worthy of death. They asked Pilate to have him executed.
[00:22:49] And when they had carried out all that was written of him, they took him down from the tree and laid him in a tomb. Jesus Christ is great.
[00:22:59] He's wonderful. He's spotless and blameless and holy and perfect. There's no guilt in him, no sin in him.
[00:23:07] He knew no sin, yet he became sin.
[00:23:14] Friends, the cross of Jesus is not merely about liberation.
[00:23:21] It's not about liberating you and I from our addictions, primarily.
[00:23:27] It's not primarily about setting you on a new path or modeling for us what servanthood or the Christian life looks like, though it does all those things. Do you know what the cross of Jesus is about?
[00:23:41] The cross of Jesus, primarily above everything else. And if we miss this, we miss the whole Gospel. Which means we miss all of Christianity.
[00:23:51] The cross of Jesus Christ is about alienated sinners being reconciled to God.
[00:23:57] That's what the cross is about.
[00:24:00] Penal substitutionary atonement. Jesus Christ, who knew no sin, became sin. That means the full wrath of God that you and I deserved was put on Jesus in a moment when Jesus cried out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? The wrath of God for sin was being poured upon the Son once for all. That those in Christ would never, ever taste it.
[00:24:27] That's the good news.
[00:24:29] We're not telling people how to live. We're telling people they're alienated and estranged from God and under his wrath. And unless they repent and believe upon Christ, they'll be Damned.
[00:24:41] But by the grace of God, all who repent of sin and believe upon the Lord Jesus will be saved, reconciled to God, forgiven of their sin, clothed in his righteousness.
[00:24:55] The cross.
[00:24:56] The cross is about reconciliation to God.
[00:25:00] That's what Jesus died for, to bring us back to God. There's no greater news than that.
[00:25:07] There's no greater news than you and I today having God.
[00:25:13] If I belong to God, by the grace of God, I can endure anything.
[00:25:17] If you belong to God today you can endure anything.
[00:25:21] Anything. It's the greatest thing in the world. You belong to God.
[00:25:26] And it's because of the cross.
[00:25:32] So they laid him in a tomb.
[00:25:35] But praise God, that wasn't the final scene.
[00:25:38] If it was, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15, we would all still be dead in our sins.
[00:25:44] But God raised him from the dead.
[00:25:48] And for many days he appeared to those who had come up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are now his witnesses to the people. And we bring you the good news that what God promised to the fathers, this he has fulfilled to us, their children, by raising Jesus as also it is written in the second psalm, you are my son. Today I have begotten you. And as for the fact that he raised him from the dead, no more to return to corruption, he has spoken in this way. I will give you the holy and sure blessings of David. Therefore he says also in another psalm, you will not let your Holy One see corruption. For David, after he had served the purpose of God, verse 36, and his own generation fell asleep and was laid with his fathers and saw corruption. But he whom God raised up did not see corruption. Let it be known to you, therefore, brothers and sisters, that through this man, through one man, Jesus, not Allah, not Buddha, not, not secularism, not a politician. Through this man, one man, one way, the way, the truth, the life. This is the good news. Through this man, forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. Listen. Jesus is God. He's fully God. He's upholding the universe. By the word of his power. He became the Son of God, became fully man. In the person of Jesus Christ. He is fully God. He is fully man. He's great. He's wonderful. He's awesome. John the Baptist. Nor we are worthy in and of ourselves to untie the straps of his sandals. Yet he became sin. He lowered himself and took the form of a servant. Being born in the likeness of men. He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. He died on the cross. He was buried and on the third day, despite all odds, God raised him by the power of the Holy Spirit back to life, never again to see corruption, so that all those who are in him, you and I, after we die, the first death will never taste a second death. Our bodies will be resurrected one day, never again to see corruption.
[00:28:03] What happened to Jesus will happen to you.
[00:28:05] It'll happen to me. If you want to know what the resurrection, what heaven is going to be like, look at the resurrection of Jesus. That's what it's going to be like. His body will be like your body and mine. Isn't that amazing?
[00:28:17] His body would, he'd be raised, he raised him into newness of glorified life. And he appeared to hundreds who would be his witnesses in the first century, taking the good news of reconciliation of God through the life, death, resurrection of Jesus to all peoples.
[00:28:35] And then he says, this is one of the greatest benefits of what Jesus did through his life, death and resurrection. And one that I want you to consider two things, two implications of the life, death, resurrection of Jesus that I want you to consider this morning from Paul's sermon Number one is the forgiveness of sins.
[00:28:51] Paul says in Romans chapter four, blessed or happy is the man or woman whose sins are forgiven.
[00:29:01] He doesn't say, blessed is the man or woman who has good health, wealth, prosperity. Those are, those are, those are blessings. Those aren't bad things.
[00:29:13] But the beauty of scripture and of who God is is he wants to give us an even deeper happiness than that.
[00:29:22] He wants you and I to have a kind of happiness that supersedes circumstances.
[00:29:29] He's saying if, if you want to grow in happiness, remember this, Christian, your sins have been forgiven.
[00:29:37] Not just your past sins, but your sins today and your sins tomorrow and your sins the next day and the next day and the next day you and I will die with unrepentant sin in our life. And that stinks.
[00:29:51] I don't like that, but it's a reality. But guess what?
[00:29:56] That sin on that day, for me, whenever that day is, has already been forgiven.
[00:30:01] And the same is true for you.
[00:30:03] And a true born again person, a Christian, is not going to hear that news and want to take advantage of that friend, if that's you, if you hear that news and think, well, I'm just going to go on sinning, and that might sound ridiculous to some of you, but I have literally had that conversation with people who are living in unrepentant sin.
[00:30:27] And you tell them, you encourage them, you implore them to repent because they're in danger.
[00:30:33] And their response to me was, well, I'm one of God's chosen.
[00:30:40] If that's your mentality, friend, you might not be a Christian.
[00:30:46] And by the grace of God, you need to repent and believe today in the true gospel.
[00:30:52] Jesus didn't just die to forgive you.
[00:30:55] He died that you and I, through him, might be set apart for holy purposes to God. To live for God by the power of the Holy Spirit.
[00:31:03] And so the grace of God, the forgiveness of sins ought to lead you and I to hate sin more and desire holiness more. To want to walk in obedience to God. Not because by walking in obedience it makes us right with him, but because we have been made right with him through the cross.
[00:31:19] And so by the power of the Holy Spirit, we want to put remaining sin to death.
[00:31:23] Slay that thing, man, and live lives to the glory of God together.
[00:31:30] Forgiveness of sins is the first thing. Look at what he goes on to say.
[00:31:36] I keep losing my place.
[00:31:39] He says, forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you and by him.
[00:31:43] Everyone who believes is freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses.
[00:31:50] So the ESV doesn't add this word, but this word justification is the key word to that verse.
[00:31:56] You have been justified by everything that the law of Moses could not justify you from. To be justified means that you and I are not only forgiven of sin and guilt, but we have actually been imputed with the righteousness of Christ himself.
[00:32:14] You're not just innocent in Christ, you are righteous, you're holy, you're blameless, you're set apart. The righteousness of Christ has been given to you. So, Christians, you gotta be kind to yourself sometimes too.
[00:32:33] We talk about slaying and dwelling sin by the power of the Holy Spirit. In light of what Jesus has done, I mean that we have to do that. At the same time, you have to start saying true things about yourself.
[00:32:45] Because so many of us just see ourselves as wallowing sinners, like we're still dead in our sin. You do have sin. You are still a sinner in a sense, positionally. However, we are in Christ. And in Christ, that means our sins have been forgiven and his righteousness is now our righteousness. It's great. It's great news. And the law could never have done that for you if you're here and you're not yet a Christian. Obeying rules will never do that for you.
[00:33:15] If you, you and I need the righteousness of God to stand before him as his sons and daughters.
[00:33:22] And so that means you need him to give you his righteousness.
[00:33:27] And he's offered to do it to all who repent and believe upon him.
[00:33:35] So he goes on, he says, verse 40. So before I get to verse 40, and I am over time, but we're going to be all right. Before I get to verse 40, this is going to be our kind of landing the plane invitation, because he's going to do two things.
[00:33:55] From verses 40 to 52, he's going to do two things.
[00:33:59] Number one, he's going to give a warning to those who are not yet Christians.
[00:34:05] He's going to give a warning to those who are not yet Christians. And number two, he's going to talk about how the Christians walked in the joy of the Holy Spirit.
[00:34:15] And so that's what I want to leave us with. I want to give a warning to those in the room who are not yet Christians, saying how grateful to God I am that you're here. It's wonderful, so great that you're here.
[00:34:26] Warning and an invitation. And then for those of us who are Christians, just speak for a few minutes about how you and I might walk in the joy of the Holy Spirit as we leave this place, which I think we all desire to do. Okay, so here's the warning. In verse 40, he says, Beware, therefore, lest what is said in the prophets should come about. He's going to quote Habakkuk 1, verse 5 in this passage.
[00:34:53] Beware, lest what is in the prophet should come about.
[00:34:58] Look, you scoffers, be astounded and perish, for I'm doing a work in your days, a work that you will not believe even if one tells it to you.
[00:35:09] So the people of Israel are being persecuted. They're being killed in the days of Habakkuk, Habakkuk cries out to God and lament, God, where are you?
[00:35:17] The people are being slaughtered. What are you doing? Where are you?
[00:35:21] And God gives this response to Habakkuk.
[00:35:25] He says to his people, I am doing something in your days that you wouldn't believe if somebody told you.
[00:35:31] That had immediate context around what was going on in the days of Israel at that time. But we find in Paul's sermon that what Paul's saying is ultimately, it has an even greater meaning than what it meant specifically for Habakkuk and Israelites. What God's talking about is Christ.
[00:35:47] I'm doing something even greater, greater than you could ever imagine. I'm sending my son not to deliver you from a physical enemy, but to deliver you from sin.
[00:35:58] You won't Even be able to imagine how wonderful it's going to be. Trust me.
[00:36:02] And so the warning is, friend, that you wouldn't fail to trust God as your deliverer, that you wouldn't leave this place choosing not to trust my words in and of themselves, but to trust the words of this book.
[00:36:26] Because as Pastor Matt said, it's not the book.
[00:36:29] It's the. The significance of the words is who they're inspired by, which is the Holy Spirit and who they testify about.
[00:36:40] You've. You've been given the good news, you've been given some bad news, that because of sin you're alienated from God.
[00:36:50] And it doesn't matter what the expression of that sin is, by the way, there's no one that's greater or worse than another.
[00:36:56] You've been alienated from God. But God is love.
[00:37:02] He delights to save. And he sent his Son into the world not to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
[00:37:12] You've been given good news.
[00:37:14] What will you do with that news?
[00:37:16] I said this to our embrace, grace friends, when I had the opportunity to preach with them, that I hope that that haunts you today.
[00:37:25] And I don't mean that in a condemning way. What I mean by haunt is I hope you can't stop thinking about it.
[00:37:32] I hope and pray that the Holy Spirit would. He's the hound of heaven, that he would come after you and that he would impress your mind over and over and over again with this reality that you cannot be made right with God through what you do.
[00:37:48] And he sent a son for you. He sent a son to redeem and save sinners.
[00:37:55] Repent of your sin.
[00:37:57] Believe upon Jesus. Get involved in a local church. Be discipled. This is what you need to do. This is why you're here this morning.
[00:38:07] And for those of us who are Christians, how do we walk in the.
[00:38:10] The joy of the Holy Spirit?
[00:38:14] He says. As they went out, the people begged that these things might be told them the next Sabbath. And after the meeting of the synagogue broke up, many Jews and devout converts to Judaism followed. Paul and Barnabas, who, as they spoke with him, urged them to continue in the grace of God. Christian, continue in the grace of Go, you're not saved. In order to now keep your salvation.
[00:38:35] We continue in the Gospel. We continue in the grace of God. 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, began to contradict what was spoken by Paul, reviling him Here is a continuation of Paul's sufferings for the sake of the Gospel.
[00:38:52] And Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly, saying it was necessary that the Word of God be spoken first to you, since you thrust it aside and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life. Behold, we are turning to the Gentiles.
[00:39:05] Doesn't mean he's going to forget the Jews, but it does mean that he's turning away and he's saying that I'm now going to focus my efforts primarily here.
[00:39:15] For the Lord has commanded us, saying, I've made you a light for the Gentiles that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth. Verse 48. And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord.
[00:39:28] Here's how I want to close us. How do you and I walk in the joy of the Holy Spirit? I think it's found in this verse, verse 48. So look at it with me.
[00:39:37] As many as were appointed to eternal life believed.
[00:39:43] As many as were appointed to eternal life believed.
[00:39:48] Martyn Lloyd Jones said this, and I love it.
[00:39:50] If you want to know how to walk in the joy of the Holy Spirit, you need to walk in assurance.
[00:39:57] Where does assurance come from that verse, man?
[00:40:02] As many as were appointed to eternal life believed. You might hear that and immediately guards come up and some sort of, like, defense mechanism comes up and you're like, wait a second, wait a second.
[00:40:12] I chose.
[00:40:15] I want to lovingly challenge that this morning.
[00:40:20] Not because of my persuasion of theology, but because of what that text says.
[00:40:25] You want to know what that says in the Greek?
[00:40:28] As many as were appointed to eternal life believed. That's what it says.
[00:40:34] That means God chose you.
[00:40:39] And that ought to be wonderful news for you this morning.
[00:40:45] There's no greater news. Listen, I was adopted when I was 13 years old by my grandparents. It changed my life. It changed my life. Not just because it changed my last name and it changed my future, which it did. It changed my life because somebody loved me enough to pursue me, win me and adopt me.
[00:41:06] If you have faith in Jesus, okay, if you have faith in Jesus today, if you are resting your salvation in the finished work of Jesus Christ, it's because he appointed you for eternal life.
[00:41:21] And if you're like, gosh, but what about my non Christian neighbor or family member or friend? How do I know if he's appointed them for eternal life? You don't know. But you know what the means by which they, by the grace of God might be saved, could be it could be you.
[00:41:37] The Bible never negates evangelism.
[00:41:39] We love evangelism. We want to evangelize way better than we do now as a church. I do.
[00:41:46] Everybody tell everybody about the gospel. Evangelism missions are the means by which those who have been appointed to eternal life before the foundation of the earth will believe.
[00:41:57] That takes a ton of pressure off of your shoulders to have to coerce somebody to believe something.
[00:42:03] It takes a ton of pressure off me as a preacher. I don't have to put, like, fog lights and stuff up here to impress you.
[00:42:09] I get to just open the Bible and read it to you and trust that anyone who says yes to Jesus is by the grace of God alone. It's wonderful news.
[00:42:19] It's wonderful news for you as a Christian, that you can rest today. You're never, ever, ever going to be separated from God, ever.
[00:42:29] You belong to him, and that is eternally secure.
[00:42:33] He did it before the foundation of the earth. He chose you before the foundation of the earth. In Christ. He saw it to fruition when he called you out of darkness and into light. And he's going to see you to the end. He's faithful.
[00:42:45] And in terms of evangelism, man, we go boldly, courageously. We walk in the joy of the Holy Spirit because we know that salvation belongs to the Lord and not to us. Amen. Amen. Let's pray.
