Acts chapter 13, please. I know many of you would like a
Bible prophecy message today, but it's no use knowing about
what's going on if you don't know where you're going.
I want to thank the praying people of this fellowship.
Had the wonderful privilege of the last weeks to be able to
lead two of the members of my family to the Lord and only
because of them facing death, one has died.
My brother passed and I have a nephew who has three months to
live. The church and myself are being
shaken. We're getting rid of the dross
and the people that are coming to church and now those who
really want to know the Lord. The Bible says on the last days
that judgement would begin in the House of the Lord.
And the reality of the time in which we live is very strong.
Now. If you are hungry for the things
of God, it means you are a person of the Lord.
You are a child of God. If you're earnest about what's
going to happen with the Middle East situation, then you're
aware of the end times prophecies.
But in the meantime, in the meantime, you still got to be a
good father or a good mother. You still have to work to
provide income resources for your home.
So we still have those things we need to do.
We don't just stop and wait. We're busy about the Lord's
business in the book of Acts chapter 13, it's changed.
It was all about Peter basically up to 12, the birth of the
church. Now from 13 on, it's going to be
about Paul. We have a new section in the
book of Acts written by Doctor Luke, and it's going to deal
with Saul, who became Paul, a missionary journey.
So we've got a lot of texts to get through.
And I was thinking, you know, should I just overview, No, this
is the church. We need to read the Bible.
So we, you're going to follow along with me.
Acts chapter 13. Look at verse one.
Now in the church there was an anticoque and there's going to
be, you'll find 2 Antiochs. There's one in Syria and there's
another one in Turkey. This is the one in Syria.
To start with, there were certain prophets and teachers.
Barnabas, we've met him. Simeon who was called Niger,
Lucius of Cyrene Minayan who had been brought up with Herod.
This is Herod's half brother, foster brother or half brother.
He grew up in the House of Herod.
Herod was the one who has said it's better to be Herod's pig
than to be his wife or his brother or his sister.
And he became a Christian, became a believer.
So God's gospel, the word of Christ reaches into every area,
every area. Renee, who have been brought up
with Herod the tetrarch and Saul as they ministered to the Lord
and fasted the church usually fasted twice a week.
It was a Hebrew thing and the Holy Spirit said now separate to
me, Barnabas and Saul for the work which I've called them.
How did the Holy Spirit say this?
It wasn't a voice. Remember it.
We just read there are prophets there and so someone would have
given a prophecy and although all those were there would have
said, yeah, this is right on, this is we, we recognise this
coming from who it's coming from.
And so separate me, Barnamus and Saul for the work which I've
called them. Then having fasted and prayed.
So they fasted and prayed about that recognise what God did.
Then they laid hands, laying on hands was not to say this is
what we're going to do. This is recognising this is what
God's going to do where with it they laid hands on after the
then they sent them away. So being out by the holy, being
sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia.
From there they sailed to Cyprus, the island of Turkey,
and they arrived in Salamis, a city in village in Cyprus.
They preached the word of God on the synagogue of the Jews as
what they would do. They also had John, this is John
Mark as the air assistant. Remember in the Garden of
Gethsemane there was a a young child, a kid ran away, he was
grabbed and he ran away. His cloak was left.
He was in his PJS pretty much. He took off grab.
That was John Mark. John Mark's house was where
they've been praying. Remember when Peter was in gaol?
So this is that John Mark. He was their assistant.
When they'd gone through the island to pathos, they found a
certain sorcerer, a false prophet, a Jews name was Bar
Jesus, or son of Jesus who was with the proconsul Sergius
Paulus, an intelligent man. This man called for Barnabas and
Saul and sought to hear the word of God.
But Elimus, that's these other name the sorceress was, so his
name is translated. We stood them seeking to turn
the proconsul away from the faith.
Then Saul, and now we're going to see his name change from now
on. Who was called Paul, filled with
the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him and said all full of
deceit and all fraud. You son of the devil, you enemy
of all righteousness, will you not cease perverting the
straight ways of the Lord? And now indeed the hand of the
Lord is upon you, and you shall be blind, not seeing the sun for
a time, for a period. Welcome.
Immediately a dark mist fell on him, and he went around seeking
someone to lead him by the hand. And the proconsul believed when
he saw what had been done, being astonished, he believed.
But he believed because of the teaching of Paul, not because of
the miracle. Miracles follow the teaching
because it says astonished that the teaching of the Lord.
Faith comes by hearing, hearing by the word of God because in
the last days the false prophet, the right hand henchman of the
Antichrist is going to do a lot of miracles and people go, oh,
this is God and they're going to be deceived, greatly deceived.
We'll stop there because we're then we're going to get to
Paul's first recorded sermon. So if you want to know what did
Paul preach? What was his sermon like?
Well, if you read from verse 13 on where we're going to deal
with this morning and then compare it to what Peter
preached, you'll find out this was the sermon preaching.
This is was the teaching of the early church.
You know, I want you to compare it today with what's often
preached from Bible pulpits today.
What did Peter preach? What did Paul preach?
And compare with it? Now with what's so called being
preached from the pulpits of today, let's let's do a summary
of what we just read. So the church at Antioch,
Antioch had prophets and teachers, including Barnabas and
Saul, showing us that God works through a praying and a teaching
church, our church. We need to pray on Wednesday.
So I encourage you. And on Sundays we teach
Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Sunday morning, Sunday night.
You need the 2. You need the two praying and
teaching. Secondly, we saw the call of the
Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is running the
church. Holy Spirit, I pray, is running
this church. While the church was
worshipping, it was fasting, it was praying.
The Holy Spirit spoke. That's how God moves through a
church. If a church isn't praying or
fasting or teaching, God's not going to be able to get the
opportunity to say anything because he's not involved.
And so Barnabas and Saul was set apart for the work God had
called them to do. This is what God wanted them to
do. They didn't have a mission plan.
Oh, what are we going to do, guys?
Let's have a big meeting in Antioch.
Let's work through. So where should we go?
What should we do? What's some good ideas?
Let's come up with a marketing strategy.
No, that's not how church works. The church works by the
direction of the Holy Spirit. And so the church sends them out
every church mission. It's to be God led and church
supported. We have church mission in
Israel, church mission in Fiji. We've sent money also to
Ukraine, you remember, and our church missions from here are
supported financially. But that's, that's, that's just
part of it. But we are to support them in
prayer and to be helping them in any way possible that we can by
visiting with them. Then the ministry moved from
Antioch and Syria and open a boat.
They go to Cyprus, the island of Cyprus, southeast of Turkey.
Barnabas and Saul was sent by the Holy Spirit.
They travelled from Seleucia to Cyprus.
In Salamis they preach the word of God in the synagogue.
That's what the habit was. And John Mark assisted them.
Then came opposition from this fellow called Elimus bar Jesus,
a sorcerer, a false prophet, and he tried to turn the proconsul
away from the faith. He tried to keep him from
getting saved. You know, there is always
spiritual opposition when the gospel is preached.
Don't expect it just to be a, you know, carte blanche or to
just have it easy. That's why prayer and fasting
opens the door. You can't do anything without
the prayer and fasting and the power of the Holy Spirit.
If you just go off and try and win your brother or your dad to
Christ, we just just as it is you, you're on your own.
We, we, apart from God, we can do what?
Nothing. There is always spiritual
opposition when the gospel is preached, but now we saw Paul's
authority in God's power. Saul is now called Paul.
From now on, verse 9, he's filled with the Holy Spirit.
Paul rebuked Elimus, Elimus was struck with temporary blindness,
and 10 people left the church because they felt Paul was very
cruel and unkind to Elimus. How could he say that?
That's so rude of him. I'm out of here.
I say that with tongue in cheek, but I say it also because people
expect church to be whatever goes, just whatever goes.
No, doesn't work that way, doesn't go that way.
God's power is greater than deception and false teaching.
The pro consul, he believes, gives his heart to the Lord.
He was amazed not just by the miracle, but by the teaching of
the Lord. Faith comes by hearing and
hearing by the word of God. And so the journey continues.
Paul and his companions then sailed to Perga, which is in
Pamphilia, which is Turkey where Galatia we in the it's the book
of Galatians that area. John Mark leaves them.
We don't know why he leave them, but an upset Paul.
Paul and Barnabas would later have, you know, discussions and
quite a strong disagreement over John Mark.
Was it because John Barnabas was John Mark's uncle and he felt
that Paul was taking over? We don't know.
That's all supposition. Well, they continued and went to
the synagogue. And now we come to the first
recorded sermon of Paul the Apostle, verse 13 to 25.
Then when Paul and his party set sail from Pankhos, they came to
Perger in Pamphilia, and John departed from them.
John Mark returned to Jerusalem, but when they departed from
Perga, they came to Antioch in Presidia.
Now this is another Antioch. This is not Antioch.
In Syria there is another Antioch, and this one is in
Turkey, Presidia. That's what it says in Presidia.
And went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and sat down and
after the reading of the law and the prophets, the rulers of the
synagogue sent to them saying men and brethren, if you have
any word of exhortation for the people say on remember this was
happened to Jesus. Remember when he went synagogue.
Anyone here got something to say?
Rabbi come forward and he he turns to the prophets and he
reads out of the prophet. We call it in Luke chapter 4 and
he reads out. Then Paul stood up, motioning
with his hand. And notice how he starts.
He's a Jew, but he's a Christian.
He's in a synagogue. Men of Israel, and you who fear
God, those so men of Israel, all the Hebrews, you who fear God,
are those who are proselytes, Gentiles who now become part of
the Jewish faith. Listen, the God of this people,
Israel, chose our fathers and exalted the people when they
dwelt as strangers in the land of Egypt.
Remember that in Egypt, 400 years of slaves LED there under
the coverage of Joseph, who was Prime Minister with an uplifted
arm. He brought them out.
How did he bring them out? By Moses.
This sermon sounds a lot like Stevens, doesn't it?
Yes. Now for a time or about 40
years, he put up with, he put up with their ways in the
wilderness. So they've left Egypt.
They're wandering in the wilderness.
And what did they do for 40 years?
Oh, where wish we were back in Egypt.
I, I miss the onions. I miss the leeks.
And how come when, when it, why it's always hot out here.
What, where we going? They whinged for 40 years, says
God put up with. And when he had destroyed seven
nations, they arrived in Canaan. He distributed the land to them
by allotment through the tribes. And after that he gave them
judges for about 450 years until Samuel the prophet.
And afterward they asked for a king, Israel and the king.
We want to be like everybody else.
We want a king like everyone else.
Because up to that point, who was king, God was God was
ruling. No, we don't want you anymore.
We want to be like everybody else.
And so they got Saul, son of Kish, man of the tribe of
Benjamin for 40 years. When he had removed him, God
removed him. He raised up for them David, as
to whom king who gave testimony and said, I found David the son
of Jesse, a man after my own heart, who will do all my will
for this man's seed, seed of David, according to the promise.
That's the prophecies and the promises all through the Old
Testament. God raised up for Israel a
Saviour. You see, Paul is gathering all
this and now he's funnelling it down into through David to Jesus
because the message of the Bible is Jesus.
The message of the Bible is Jesus after John had first
preached. That's John the Baptist before
he's coming, the baptism of repentance to all the people of
Israel. And as John was finished his
course, he said, who do you think I am?
I'm not he, I'm not the Messiah. But behold, there comes one
after me, the sandals of whose feet I'm not worthy to loose men
and brethren, sons of the family of Abraham, He gathers them
together. Those among you who fear God
proselytes to you. The word of the salvation has
been sent. Jesus has come for those who
dwell in Jerusalem and their rulers because they did not know
him nor even the voices of the prophets.
In other words, all the religious leaders that said
crucified Jesus, we don't want him.
Yes, you know, put him to death. He says, says he's the the
Messiah, says he's the Son of God.
Even though they were saying all things they didn't know, they
were fulfilling prophecies they should have.
They were doing exactly what the Bible said was going to happen,
which read which are read every Sabbath day.
They they would study them every day in church and have fulfilled
them in condemning him. They fulfilled Bible prophecy by
condemning Jesus and though they found no cause for death in him,
what was that? He's innocent.
They asked Pilate that he should be put to death.
Now when they had fulfilled all that was written concerning him,
they took him down from the tree.
The cross laid him in a tomb, but God raised him from the
dead. He was seen for many days by
more than 500 witnesses. For 40 days, 500 people saw
Christ for 40 days over a period of 40 days, 500 people.
We are His witnesses to the people and we declare to you
good news, the glad tidings, the promise which was made to the
fathers about the coming of the Messiah all through the New
Testament, the prophecies, God has fulfilled this for us, their
children, in that He has been raised up Jesus.
Jesus is the Messiah as it is also written in the second
Psalm. Paul quote Psalm 2 you are my
son today I have begotten you Now all the cults, the Mormons
and the JWS go oh you see begotten so God's you know Jesus
created no the the terminology here in the context is you are
my son today I have begotten you is when Christ rose from the
dead on the third day and then he raised him from the dead no
more to return to corruption. He has spoken thus I will give
you the sure mercies of David. Therefore he also says in
another Psalm, Paul quotes Psalm 16.
Now you will not allow your holy one to see corruption for David
after he'd served his own generation by the will of God,
he died, fell asleep, was buried with his father's and his body
corrupted. He went back, you know, went
back to the the dust that it was of but Jesus and God raised up
so no corruption. He was with his disciples.
He ate he said touch me, feel me, Let's have some fish, let's
eat together new body. Therefore, based on all that,
let it be known to you, brothers, that through this man,
Jesus is preached to you. And here's the answer why Jesus
came, the forgiveness of sins and by him everyone who believes
in him is justified from all things which you could not be
justified by the law of Moses, though the law couldn't save you
and it couldn't justify you. You had to do it over and over
and over again. And we'll stop there.
Paul's message, he starts off on the common ground of faith in
God. He identifies with him God of
the people of Israel. I'm only talking about the one
God, the 17. This immediately demonstrates
that he does not represent another God, but is Speaking of
the God they all believe in. Chose our fathers.
Note Paul says Our fathers. He's identifying.
I'm Hebrew too, Paul says. Now Paul moves to their common
history as revealed in the scriptures.
He takes them on that journey. God exalted them when they dwelt
as strangers in the land of Egypt and with his mighty power
brought them out of Egypt, set them free from Pharaoh.
This was the birth of the nation of Israel as it left Egypt.
God suffered their manners for 40 years in the wilderness,
their constant murmuring and complaining.
The Jews were extremely proud of their fathers.
And Paul says, hang on a minute. Let me tell you just what we all
like. God put up with us.
We're not that good. Matter of fact, we're not good
at all. God suffered them.
He put up with them, and they rebelled against God.
They murmured against him. But still God put up with their
manners. For 40 years he went before
them, subdued the seven kings in Canaan, then divided the nation
to them by casting of lots, splitting up through the 12
tribes. After that he gave them judges
for the space of approximately, it says 450 years.
Now let me break that down for you. 400 years in Egypt,
prophesied 40 years in the wilderness, prophesied 10 years.
From the moment they crossed over the Jordan until the time
of the dividing of the land by lots to the tribes was another
10 years after that. He gave them that.
Samuel was the last of the judges.
He also was a prophet. And it was at this time they
wanted a king. Give us a king like everyone
else. So God gave them Saul for a
period of 40 years. After God removed Saul, he gave
the Kingdom to David. And God said of David, I have
found David the son of Jesse, a man after my own heart.
And you go, David, Didn't he commit murder, adultery.
Yeah, it says God says he's a man after my own heart.
Let me explain that David was not a perfect man.
You know why? Because there's no perfect man,
only Jesus Christ. But he was a man who sees his
sin for what it is, and he repents of it.
If you want to be a godly father, when you make a blue say
to your friend, you know what? That's blind to your wife.
I'm sorry. I need to ask you to forgive me.
I'm going to go to the I'm asking God to forgive me.
A godly man a man after God's own heart is one who sees sin
and calls it for what it is and repents of it.
David's greatest desire. This is why God says a man after
my own heart was that he wanted to do always the will of God,
just God's will. You want to be a godly man.
You want to be a man of God, there's your mission.
Just do what God wants you to do.
Do the will of God always in your life.
That's how you become a man after God's own heart, like
David. And so we declare to you, get
glad tidings the promise which is made to the fathers.
God has fulfilled this, Paul said through the children, and
he has raised up Jesus, as it is also written in the second
Psalm. Now Paul leaps forward to the
present age, 1000 years after David, to where they were now of
this man seed. David's seed, according to his
promise, raised to Israel a Saviour who is Jesus.
And the Jews were aware that the Messiah was to be from the seed
of David that they knew. And he quotes Psalm 2, verse 7.
You are my son today. I have begotten you.
Then he quotes Psalm 1610, verse 38.
Therefore, let it be known to you, brethren, that through this
man, he says it's preached to you the forgiveness of sins, and
by him everyone who believes is justified from all things from
which you could not be justified by the law of Moses.
The law tells you you're a Sinner.
The 10 commandments. You know what the 10
commandments are? The first one.
We can't even get past the first one.
Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul and
strength. How often do we fail that before
we even get to the other 9? So the 10 commandments, Paul
says later, is a school teacher. It says, you know, you keep
breaking the law. Yeah, I know that.
I, I, I can't get around it. But the commandments just tell
you that you're, you're a Sinner.
They tell you how we should live and we go, we can't live that
way. That's why you need a saviour.
That's why you needed a saviour. There's three points I want to
look at this morning in Paul's Sermon 1.
Bible prophecy is a guarantee of what lays ahead for us today in
the time we live .2. Only through the death and
resurrection of Jesus Christ is salvation found .3 God not only
forgives us of our sins, but he also removes them completely.
So let's look at the first one. God promised the land of Canaan
to Abraham's seed, and he gave it to them.
Verses 16 to 19, back in the book of Genesis, Genesis chapter
12, This is what the Lord said to Abraham.
Get out of your country, leave where you are.
He was an Iraqi from your family, from your father's
house, go to a land. I'll show you Genesis 13 verse
12. It says Abraham lobs in Canaan.
Abraham dwelt in the land of Canaan.
Then the Lord said to Abraham, after Lot had taken off and
camped towards Sodom and Gomorrah.
Abraham, lift your eyes now and from where you look, northward,
southward, eastward, westward, all the land which you can see I
give to you and your descendants forever.
Whose land is Israel's land? It's Israel's.
God gave it to them. Judea, Samaria at the West Bank.
Are they occupying? No, they're not.
You see the lies. It's, it's, it's this is God's
land. This is given an Abraham accord
with God. God gave all this land is yours,
Abraham, to you and to your descendants.
And I'll make your descendants as the dust of the earth, so
that if a man could number the dust of the earth and your
descendants also could be numbered.
Arise, walk in the land through its length and its width, for I
give it to you. King David back previously was
in his house. Peace was in the land.
He said, you know, look at my palace, it's pretty flash.
And I see everyone going to the Tabernacle.
And the Tabernacle, remember was a tent.
They'd go in and out, in and out.
And they'd said, now we are, I got to build God house.
Look, because look, I'm in this place.
Look where he is. Nathan said, that sounds a great
idea, David, go ahead and do it That night God says to Nathan,
Nathan, no, wrong, you blew it. You now got to go back to David
and tell him, no, he can't build me a house.
I don't dwell in a house for one thing, never have, never need
one. Secondly, David can't build it,
but I want you to tell David this.
I will build him a house. It says in second Samuel Chapter
7 verse 12, when when your days are fulfilled and you rest with
your father speaking to David, I will set up your seed after you
is the promise who will come from your body seed of David.
This is Jesus and I'll establish his Kingdom and he shall build a
house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his
Kingdom forever and I will be his Father and he will be my
son. It's none other than Jesus
Christ. Today we find our world.
The news. Each morning I watch it before I
go to bed, check what's going on.
We're heading towards World War 3, Jesus said in Mark chapter 13
verse 7. But when you hear of wars and
rumours of wars, do not be troubled.
You go, do not be troubled, man. What are we to do?
Jesus said, for such things must happen.
In other words, there's going to be more, but the end is not yet.
You know, in the Book of Revelation, when the seven you
went after the church was raptured and the seven years
begin, there are the breaking of the six seals.
You know, after the just the 4th seal, we have the four horsemen
of the Apocalypse coming out. You know, just the breaking of
the fourth seal already 1/4 of the world's population will be,
will be dead, 2 billion people. That's just just the beginning
of the period of the tribulation.
That's just the 4th seal by the time we get to the 6th trumpet
and there's now the seven balls to come after that judgements by
the time we get to the so 2 billion, there's 8 billion eight
people now, so like 1/4 of that. So it's 2 billion.
So the 6 billion left, by the time we just get to the 6th
trumpet of God judgement in the book of genera Revelation, 1/3
of the world's population will be dead.
That's another 2 billion. So by the time we get to that
half, one and every two of the people existing in this world
will be gone, dead, deceased. We're talking about a period
coming that we have no comprehension of how how bad
it's going to be. I say this to say this about
prophecy. The Bible prophesied and Paul
went through all these about the coming of the Lord, the promises
of God. Jesus was born of the seed of
the woman, the first prophecy, Genesis 315.
He was the virgin born son whose name was Isaiah chapter 714.
What was Jesus name to be? God with us, Emmanuel.
He was an Isaiah Chapter 9. He would be what unto us?
The Son is given unto us, a child is born.
Wonderful counsellor, the mighty God, Isaiah 96, he was to be
born in Bethlehem, Micah the prophet Micah said this is where
he's going to be born. So they had to have this great
movement of people. Jesus goes to Bethlehem, we
celebrate Christmas, Jesus goes there, born in Bethlehem, Micah
5/2. He was to be a descendant of
Abraham. Genesis chapter 12 as we read in
the book of Daniel, Isaiah, Zechariah, the Gospels,
Thessalonians, Revelation, just an example, all the prophecies
that were fulfilled in the coming of Jesus.
Guess what? All the prophecies that speak of
the last days that we are about to face, including the rapture
of the church will happen, will happen.
People go, well, everything that the Bible said was to happen has
happened 100% over and over and over and over.
So when you get that little bit around, I mean, the rapture of
the church, is that really going to happen?
Will there really be 7 years? Hey, just look at the Middle
East. Look what's happening with
Israel and watch all the nations.
And what you need to watch at the moment, I put it in the
bullets and is that all the nations that are, are, are, are
are involved on the outskirts at the moment because the US is not
in the last days is it doesn't get a mention.
Israel is who's, who's in Ezekiel 3839 Russia.
You know who's supplying Iran with the intelligence of where
to send their missiles? Russia.
And you know who's going to be involved in the, in that great
massive army in the Ezekiel 3839 that will come down and attack
Israel from the north, Iran, Russia, Libya.
It's, it's, it's all, you know, you play chess, you set, you set
your pieces out. You know, there are certain
moves where you're going to just take the king.
All the pieces are being set out.
Prophecy is guaranteed. But Paul says the great prophecy
is this. Jesus was promised he would come
and he would save us from our sins in the judge and the
judgement of God. Verse 23, because all the things
that are happening in Bible prophecy that we look to are all
culminating in the return of Jesus Christ, the second coming
and the judgement of an ungodly world.
The judgement because the church is going to be taken out and the
judgement of an ungodly world. So prophecy, everything that's
has happened, everything that's yet to happen is going to
happen. The rapture will occur.
There will be a Sunday when people will roll up.
Hopefully no one's here. If you're here, you've been a
hearer and not a doer. You haven't been the wise man,
you've been the foolish man .2 But only through the death and
resurrection of Jesus Christ is salvation found.
We have Islam, Jehovah Witnesses, Mormons,
spiritualist, Confucius, all the spiritual churches that are
happening and bumping up now. Jesus said there's going to be
more and more of them. Jesus came as he promised.
Though innocent himself, he was tortured, crucified.
As the scripture said, this is what was to happen.
Let us the Lamb, but he rose from the dead on the third day
in verse 34, and that he raised him from the dead.
God raised him from the dead no more to return to corruption.
He has spoken thus. I will give you the sure mercies
of David, the promise of David. Therefore he also says in
another Psalm, you will not allow your holy One, Jesus to
see corruption. David's body when he was buried
and you can go to the tomb revisited is just bones, it's
decayed. But Jesus, when he rose from the
dead, He was absolutely magnificent.
His body, no decay, no smell, nothing.
It says, therefore let it be known to you brethren, verse 38
that through this man has preached to you the forgiveness
of sins. Now Paul makes notice he's told
them a whole history. He's told them about the
promises, the prophecies, He's told him who Jesus is, but now
he makes it to the very person who's sitting in the synagogue,
the man sitting in the synagogue, the woman I ever in a
second part he says now to you, I'm speaking this man who
preached to you, if you receive him, you get the forgiveness of
sins. Paul said faith in Jesus Christ
as the Messiah brought with it 2 wonderful blessings that the law
could never provide. The first being the forgiveness
of sins. Hebrews Chapter 9, verse 13,
under the old system, the shedding of the bulls and the
calves, and you know, the the goats and all that, the lambs.
It says under the old system, the blood of goats and bulls in
the ashes of a young cow could cleanse people's bodies from a
ceremonial purity. In other words, it covered them
over because next year they had to do it all over again, do it
all over again. You had to continue to go to the
temple in Hebrews 1012. But this man, after he had
offered one sacrifice himself for sins forever, It says this
unique statement, it says Jesus sat down at the right hand of
God. Now the priests, when they went
into the the holy place, into the Tabernacle and their bare
feet, they there are no chairs. There's no chairs in the holy
room or in the holy of Holies because they were continually
moving, doing stuff, and they had chains of priests and that
was their job. Each day your your shift, you
come in, you do this, you get the bread and like that candles,
you get this. Put the stuff down in the
incense. And that happened over and over
and over. No one sat down.
Had to bring more sacrifice. And then on the Day of
Atonement, more sacrifice. The priest put it on the kill,
the one goat shed the blood and then place the blood over the
scapegoat. Take it out.
Had to do it all again next year.
No sitting down. But when Jesus offered his
sacrifice, he sat down. You know why all that was done
with? It's finished, He said.
It's finished. My blood forgives your sin
forever. That's why the temple's not
needed, that's why Jesus, we're told that now where is the Lord?
The Holy Spirit dwell in us, the Bible declares.
However, Romans 323 all have sinned, fallen short of the
glory of God as is written Romans 310.
There is none righteous. None of us are good.
There's no good person in the world.
He said well, I'm a good person. No, you're not.
The Bible says John 317 for God did not send his Son into the
world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might
be saved. Now then people stop John 316
and don't read on the next two verses.
John 318 then says he who believes in Jesus is not
condemned. But he who does not believe in
Jesus is condemned already because he has not believed in
the name of the only begotten Son of God.
The law couldn't save the Jew. It just told you how bad you
were. Circumcision didn't say didn't
make any difference. Jesus, the Bible says you have
to have a circumcision of the heart being we're of Abraham's
sea, we're the children of Abraham.
Jesus said no you're not, you're children of who?
The devil? He said to the Jews who are
arguing with him, that doesn't save you.
If I was to ask you a question, can you answer it?
I want to ask this, what does salvation actually mean?
You know someone says you need to be saved.
What does that actually mean? What is salvation?
Can you explain it? The word salvation has its roots
in the Hebrew word yasa, meaning to be wide or roomy in contrast
to narrow or restricted words like liberation, emancipation,
protection, security grow out of that word.
Same meaning root word salvation means this.
It means to move from distress to safety by being delivered or
rescued, and that requires an outside party to do it.
In other words, can't save yourself.
Someone else has to save you to rescue you, to deliver you.
In Exodus chapter 14 verse thirty example.
So the Lord saved Israel that day out of the hand of the
Egyptians. And Israel saw the Egyptians
dead on the seashore. They crossed the Red Sea, then
the ocean closed over. The greatest army of the
Egyptians killed them all. And from that moment on, the
Jews are standing on the other side.
Man, we're safe. They can't come across the
ocean. 1 They're all dead. 2 We've we've got on.
We're we're right. That's what that word means.
Rescued. Now most of you know the
Titanic. See the story.
Picture a person on the sinking Titanic is expecting to drown.
It's going down. You're going to die because the
ocean is freezing. But then they say you hop in a
lifeboat, you are rescued. You're lowered down.
You're in the lifeboat now you're you're not going to
drown. You're not going to die in the
ocean. You're rescued.
Now that you're in the lifeboat, you have been removed from
danger and death. That is safe.
You're safe now. Now picture you're in your
lifeboat and a great ocean liner pulls up alongside you, your
lifeboat, and then it lifts you and all its passengers aboard
the ship. Now they have security and
soundness of mine. We're completely safe now.
That's the salvation picture of what happens when Jesus saves
your soul. You are one saved from the death
penalty for sin and declared righteous means right before
God. 2 Now in your present life today, salvation means you are
also being saved from the power of sin over you.
What is that? It's when you get the decision.
At that moment you're about to make a decision.
You're a Christian and you're going to watch a programme, read
a book or do something that you know shouldn't, shouldn't do
this. Before you had no control over
that, you just did it. Now that you're a Christian,
you're at that moment you say, God help me, and God says, OK,
and you got no, I'm not going to do that.
And God gives you the power now to say no to sin.
Before you just went ahead and did it.
And three, you're saved from the presence of sin forever in
heaven. Once we get to heaven, there's
no such thing as sin. It's gone.
It's part, it's done for. That's what salvation means to
you. If you're saved now through
Christ, that's what the Bible calls your salvation.
Hebrews chapter 2, verse 3. How shall we escape if we
neglect so great a salvation which at first began to be
spoken by the Lord and was confirmed to us by those who
heard him? But there's one more point,
which is the real point I want to hammer in as we our final
point today that Paul preached in this sermon, Acts 13, verse
39. By him, everyone who believes is
justified from all things from which you could not be justified
by the law of Moses, couldn't be saved by the law of Moses, and
you can't be justified by the law of Moses.
What does that mean? What does it mean to be
justified means this. It means to pronounce a man,
woman, boy or girl, you're perfectly right to stand before
God. You're righteous.
It's far more than being pardoned.
And it's 1000 times more than being forgiven.
As good as forgiveness is, You see, you may wrong me and I can
forgive you. Yeah, that's all right.
No worries. But I can never justify you.
I can never say. You know what?
I'll make it so that it wasn't as if you even said that to me.
I can't do that because you've done it.
When God justifies a man, woman, boy, or girl, He says, I
pronounce you a righteous person.
Therefore, from now on, God says, I'm going to treat you as
if you have never, never, never committed any sin.
That's remarkable, any sin, salvation and justification.
Justification means sin is all passed and gone.
It's completely wiped, not merely forgiven, you know, Yeah,
I'll forgive you. But you know, I'll just keep it
in my memory. Not, not merely pardoned as if
it's, but it's as if you had never sinned.
How righteous is it? Does God see you?
He sees you as righteous as the Lord Jesus Christ himself who
had never sinned. That's pretty good, isn't it?
That's amazing because I think of the things that I've done,
said and the Bible tells me the word of God, which is the truth
tells me, Keith, now I'm saved, but also not only am I saved all
my past, it's gone. It's completely, completely
gone. That's why salvation is so
wonderful. That's why Paul loved to serve
the Lord. He says well unto me is by
preaching on the gospel. Why?
My past life, I killed people, I killed Christians, I had women
and children beaten. God has removed all of that.
That's why salvation is wonderful.
That's why if you truly are saved, if you're forgiven much
as Jesus said to the woman who was crying over his feet and
wiping his feet with her tears and her hair, if you've forgiven
much, you know what you'll love much?
People who just have a casual acquaintance with God, they
don't know what salvation is. They've never really tasted
salvation. They don't know and understand
what justification is. But if you know what salvation
is, and if you know you've been justified, man, you, you have to
be held back from wanting to serve the Lord, wanting to
worship God, wanting to praise his name because you know what's
happened to you. You know what you were and what
God has done. How does God do all this?
Paul said. Through the death and
resurrection of Jesus Christ and no other.
And how much did it cost you? It's free.
How much does it cost you to be justified?
Nothing. How much did it cost Jesus
Christ to justify you? Everything.
It's free, but it's not cheap.
How was it done? By God's grace through his Son
Jesus Christ. We did not deserve it.
We're all sinners. There's none righteous, no, not
one. We did not earn it, but God went
ahead and did it. We can't understand.
But lastly, Paul issues a warning after the gospel of
Jesus Christ, verse 40. Beware therefore, lest what has
been spoken in the prophets come upon you.
Behold, you despise us, marvel and perish.
For I work a work in your days, and work which you will by no
means believe, though one would to clear it to you.
Paul Enzi's sermon with a quote from Habakkuk, the prophet of
faith. Habakkuk 15.
Look at the nations and watch and be utterly amazed as we
watch the world events now in Israel, in Iran, in the Gulf
there. He says, for I'm going to do
something in your days that you would not believe even if I told
you, well, I don't believe all this Bible stuff.
I don't believe in that prophecy.
That's that's fair. But there's a warning because
the people who didn't believe Habakkuk when he said the
Babylonians are coming, Nebuchadnezzar's coming, you
better get things right. And I said rubbish.
And Babylonians sweep into Israel, tore down the temple,
thousands slaughtered, other thousands were captured and the
city was in ruins. They didn't listen to Habakkuk.
Jesus died my soul to save my lips shall still repeat.
Jesus paid it all, all to him I owe.
Sin had left the Crimson stain, but he washed it white as snow.
Bible prophecy. All the promises of Jesus came
through. All the promises about the
rapture, the seven year tribulation, the second coming
of Jesus. They're going to happen.
You're going to see them. I pray that you're not going to
see them here. Secondly, you are saved.
Your sins have been forgiven. He died on the cross for you.
But thirdly, you are justified in God's eyes.
He sees you in the wonder and the purity of His Son, Jesus.
Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your
word. We thank you that your word is
true, that we can have faith and trust in it.
All the promises that came through when people thought
things have gone wrong, Even Jesus disciples, when he was
arrested, betrayed and crucified, they thought it was
the end. But your word says no.
Everything's happening to plan. And now as we look at the events
in Iran, the missiles being fired, the massive nations and
warships gathering, and we see the events coming closer and
closer, Lord, we know, we sense this.
Soon you're going to call your church to come home.
Dear Lord, I pray for any here today that have never been
saved, that are not justified, that they heed the warning and
they'll come to know you today. If you're here today, you don't
know Christ and you'd like to become a Christian, see me after
the service and I'll pray with you because the time is short.
The end is coming. Judgement is about to fall on
upon an ungodly world. There's going to be wars and
rumours of of wars, nation against nation, but not the end
just yet.