Disclaimer: This transcription is provided for informational purposes, reference, and convenience. Please note that it may contain errors, omissions, or spelling mistakes due to the nature of live audio transcriptions. While we strive for accuracy, this document should not be considered a fully authoritative record of the sermon. For clarification, we recommend referring to the original source. Thank you for your understanding and patience. 

Take your Bibles, turn to Acts chapter 13. This morning I've entitled my discourse to you, “Preaching to the Proud and the Penitent” and our text this morning begins in verse 42 as we continue to make our way through Luke's historical account of the early days of the church. Follow along as I read Acts 13 beginning in verse 42.

“And as Paul and Barnabas were going out, the people kept begging that these things might be spoken to them the next Sabbath.

“Now, when the meeting of the synagogue had broken up, many of the Jews and of the God-fearing proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas, who, speaking to them, were urging them to continue in the grace of God.

“And the next Sabbath nearly the whole city assembled to hear the word of God.

“But when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and began contradicting the things spoken by Paul and were blaspheming.

“And Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly and said, ‘It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken to you first; since you repudiate it and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles.

“’For thus the Lord has commanded us,

“’”I have placed You as a light for the Gentiles that You should bring salvation to the end of the earth.”’

“And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord; and as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed.

“And the word of the Lord was being spread through the whole region.

“But the Jews aroused the devout women of prominence and the leading men of the city,   and instigated a persecution against Paul and Barnabas and drove them out of their district.

“But they shook off the dust of their feet in protest against them and went to Iconium.

“And the disciples were continually filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.”

Now, before we approach this text and examine it closely, I'd like to remind you of a few central truths in Scripture that affirms what we are about to do. Namely, I am about to exposit the word of God to you and you are about to hopefully hear it and submit to it. Over the years, I've heard visitors complain, both visitors that have come here, some that have heard me on the radio or on the Internet or whatever, and say, “You know, his preaching…” And by the way, it's not just me, other churches like ours and other pastors like me, “His preaching is basically a Bible study. That's virtually all it is. I mean, you go to that church that you won't hear any jokes. There's hardly any stories. There's no skits, no drama. There's no PowerPoint presentation, no clips from Hollywood movies or anything to really grab people's attention. It's just the preaching of the word. That's all there is. Just a verse-by-verse exposition. Obviously, he knows nothing about how to connect with his culture. So, you know, I come to church to worship, not to hear a Bible study. Why does he do that? Doesn't he know he will never have a big church if he continues to do that? “ And on and on it goes.

Well, let me answer that briefly. I want to give you a few thoughts because we're going to get into the word here. We're going to see the same type of dynamic with the Apostle Paul.

First of all, this is not my church. It's the Lord's church. And he promised to build it and to bless it. And I'm going to let him worry about that.

Secondly, I preach the word and the word alone, because that's what I've been commanded to do. And I answer to him, not to you.

Thirdly, the word of God transcends all cultural boundaries. And we are going to see that today as we look at the word transcending the culture of the Jew, as well as the culture of the Gentile. And because it does that, it alone has authority and power to both save as well as sanctify.

And fourthly, dear friends, the highest form of worship as we study scripture is the preaching of the word of God. That's how we come together and worship the Father in spirit and in truth. That's what he looks for. And frankly, the deeper we go into the word, the higher we will ascend into worship. The goal of preaching is to put the glory and the majesty of God on display. And as we look at the word of God, we see that the scripture, the Bible, is God's self-revelation.

This is where he reveals to us his character, his purpose, his plan. And as his spokesman, I have been solemnly charged, as we've read this morning in Second Timothy, to preach the word. See, again, keep in mind, only the word of God has power and authority. I have neither.

Jokes and skits and book reviews and PowerPoint presentations and movie clips and my own opinion about things, they have no power. And frankly, those things are, for the most part, a distraction from the truth that does have power to save and to sanctify. Only the word of God has that power. Paul reminded us of this in the text we read this morning at Second Timothy 3:15, that the sacred writings are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus. And that's why he went on to say, Timothy, I want you to preach the word.

Pastors, I want you to preach the word. You're my messenger. First Peter 1:23 says, “You have been born again…” How? Through “the living and abiding word of God.” Paul said it is “the power of God unto salvation; to everyone who believes to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” Again, to diametrically opposite cultures. I know we live in an age where biblical, doctrinal, authoritative preaching is considered to be offensive and frankly, ineffective. After all, nobody wants to hear that. And so you should adjust your message to make it become more relevant to your culture, and learn how to contextualize your message and study your culture so that you can really scratch them where they itch, know what their needs are and kind of preach accordingly.

And of course, the best way to do that is to get some kind of a rock band that will jack up everybody's emotions. And once you get everybody's state of consciousness altered, you can begin to give them kind of a cotton candy feel good sermonette. And then we can all be done real quick and go to lunch. That's the mentality of our day. But beloved, you find not one shred of evidence that that is what we should do in scripture. I am told, as you are, to study the word, not the culture. I am told to preach the word, not preach what people want to hear. The word of God, again, transcends all cultures and it addresses the sinfulness of man, which is found in every culture. It addresses the issues of the heart.

And frankly, man's heart, regardless of culture, is the same. In Acts one, when Jesus commissioned his disciples to be his witnesses both in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria and even to the uttermost part of the earth, he gave no instructions of the importance of making sure that you do some surveys before you go into these cultures to really know how you can kind of make your message, meet them and kind of blend in so that they will hear you to make your method of preaching or whatever you do fit how they process information. There was never any equivocation on the method, it was always preaching and teaching of the word of God.

There was no mention of the importance of somehow contextualizing the gospel so that your message and your method would somehow be better received. And again, we preach the word so that people will be saved. We teach the word so that they will be sanctified. In fact, Paul told Titus to speak the things which are fitting for sound doctrine, and he went on in verse 15 to say, “these things teach and proclaim and exhort with all authority.”

Now, might I also add that we teach in terms of expository preaching; the teaching and the preaching is expositional, it's more or less a verse by verse, take you through the scripture chapter by chapter, sequential preaching. Every now and then we move away and do a topic and that's certainly fine, but some might say, why do you do that? Well, the answer is simple. First of all, we believe that that is biblical for a number of reasons, but also, we see that it develops a comprehensive understanding of the word of God, of God's self-revelation to us. That way you develop discernment and it deepens your worship.

I have discovered over the years that most Christians have kind of a homemade patchwork theology. It's kind of a one, two, three, four, five type of thing. They have basically one favorite preacher, two pet doctrines, three cliches, maybe four favorite Bible stories and five mama told me so.

And that's kind of the extent of their theology. And when you listen to them talk about what they believe, it reminds me of the old jalopy that we as kids wanted to make and some did make in high school. That's what their theology looks like. Important parts are missing, others are absolutely the wrong parts and a lot of the parts don't fit together. A lot of them are borrowed from here and there. The jalopy is dangerous to drive, it's unsafe for others to be around, and you certainly wouldn't want to put your family in it. But people are proud of it.

That's not what God wants for us, dear friends, that type of theology dishonors the Lord as well as diminishes you. My passion and my calling is to equip you for the work of the ministry, to the building up of the body of Christ (Ephesians 4). That's what God has called me to do so that you will grow in the grace and the knowledge of Christ so that you will develop discernment so that so that by hearing the word, it will cause you to desire God more than anything else so that you will love him and enjoy him and serve him.

Remember, it is the word of God - not my word or your word or anybody else's word - that is living and active and powerful and sharper than a two edged sword. It's able to judge the very thoughts and the intentions of the heart. Peter tells us that it's the word of God that causes us to grow with respect to salvation, and so every time I stand before you, my calling and my passion and my prayer is to get you to think biblically so that you will understand God's self-revelation to you.

I frankly don't care about your culture. I don't care about your worship or preaching preferences. I certainly don't care to jack up your emotions. You're not going to hear an organ in the background every now and then kind of playing something as I get to rocking and rolling with you. I'm not going to appeal to your emotions. I want to appeal to your mind because it because it is the renewing of the mind that causes the metamorphosis of sanctification to occur in a believer.

Now, beloved, in light of all of this, I want you to hear that the word of God is transcendent. It is majestic. It is lofty. It is exhilarating. It is inspiring. It is glorious and it is life changing. It alone has the power to save and to sanctify. So it is my great joy to preach to you again this morning the word of God.

Now, there are three characters in the scene that we have read about here in Acts 13.

You've got the preacher, you've got the proud and you've got the penitent. A real simple little outline. And it struck me as I lived with this text that this is exactly what I deal with and we all deal with whenever we come together with other believers and other folks in a church service, or in any context for that matter.

There's two kinds of people in the world. There's the proud and there's the penitent. Penitent, by the way, means repentant, the humble and so forth. There's the conceited and then there's the contrite. There's those that will submit to God's authority and those who will rebel. And so this morning, my outline for you is simply that kind of a fluid, interactive outline moving back and forth between these three characters, the preacher, the proud and the penitent.

Now, before we examine the text, let me remind you that, first of all, the proud are those that the scripture speaks about often. The proud that will show up even in our in the context of a church, of its body life, even in its services, are those that are the unsaved. Those are the ones that are at enmity with God. They answer only to themselves. The scripture teaches that they are spiritual cadavers. They are spiritually dead, so therefore, the word of God is utter foolishness to them. They don't want anything to do with it. They're bored with it. They think it's silly. They're unable to understand it because they have no spiritual life. And what they do understand is profoundly offensive.

After all, ultimately, what we are saying, what God is saying in his word, is that you are fundamentally offensive to God. Everything you are, everything you do is fundamentally offensive to God and you're in desperate need of salvation. And Christ is the only way to be saved.

Well, that is a very offensive message, especially in our politically correct culture. To tell someone that nothing about you conforms to the moral character and desires of God is a very hard sell, but that's the truth. And unless a person repents and humbles themselves before the Lord Jesus Christ, they will be forever separated from God in isolation and they will be eternally damned. So the proud, having nothing but contempt for God, for his word, for his message will often concoct every imaginable excuse to avoid the sound of his voice. And we see that today in our text before us. They hear only what they want to hear, what fits into their worldview. They're blinded by pride, by prejudice. They respond to truth with animosity…”Well, I just don't agree with that…” and so they contradict and they blaspheme, as we see the proud did in Acts 13.

I was talking with some men the other day and we were talking about various issues and moral issues and the Christian biblical position on these issues. And it was interesting how how three of the men were very adamant that the Bible, the Quran, you know, everybody's got their claim on the truth. Nobody knows what the truth is. And it's all kind of the same thing. Everybody worships the same God anyway. And so, you know, it's kind of like, hey, if that's true for you, that's fine. It's not for me. You know, the typical postmodern mindset and the idea is that truth is kind of up to the individual. It's kind of what you feel. It's kind of an intuitive type of thing.

And of course, we know, according to Romans one, that when they hear the truth, they will know the truth because they will suppress the truth and unrighteousness. That's why even those men that I was talking with knew that ultimately what God is saying in his word was true, but they don't like that. In fact, we want to keep in mind that the word of God is self-authenticating when they hear the Quran and they hear the Jehovah's Witnesses and the Mormons and all these other things.

You say, well, my now it's my turn to give them the Bible. How are they going to know which one is true? The Spirit of God will take care of that. The word of God is self-authenticating. In fact, I find that most professing Christians don't really understand the God they claim to worship. I often say that you give me five minutes with the average Christian to just read the scripture passages that describe God and they will say, well, no, wait a minute, I don't know if I worship that kind of God. You see, the proud will show up from time to time in every church, and one of two things will happen.

Either a because of their stubborn pride and their unbelief, God will judicially harden their heart and they will eventually leave the church or they might kind of hang around in hypocrisy or number two, God will soften their hearts and they will believe and become like the second group of listeners that we have in our text before us. And that's the penitent, the humble, the repentant, the broken, the contrite, those who have seen their sin and have cried out for salvation. Those will be the people who want to hear the truth when they hear it, it will resonate in their hearts. They will respond to it in humility and joy. And what's fascinating is they won't be able to get enough of it. They will have an insatiable appetite for the life-giving, life-sustaining word of God. That's an amazing phenomenon that occurs, and it's not because of the preacher or the teacher or anything other than the power of the spirit of God using his word. They will glorify the word of the Lord. They'll be transformed by it.

Others will watch their lives, and they cannot believe what is happening to that individual, because as Romans 12 to and other passages say, there is a metamorphosis that occurs and people will witness a rapid spiritual growth, a dedication to service. These people will become useful vessels. They will have evangelistic zeal and so on, and they will spread the word.

And then, of course, the third person that you see in our text today is the preacher - God's messenger  - who just simply preaches the word, unleashes it to the people, turns it loose, lets the Spirit of God do what he will. And the preacher will be that person who will respond to disbelief with and criticisms with boldness and judgment and even protest, but certainly with joy.

Now, let me remind you of the context here. Remember now, Paul and Barnabas have traversed the rugged Taurus Mountains in Asia Minor. They've gone all the way up to Pisidian Antioch and their priority is to preach first to the Jews.

It's been the Sabbath day. They've gone to the synagogue and Paul was asked to preach. And because of his burning desire to see his countrymen come to know the Savior, he spoke to them; opened up the Old Testament. As we learned last week, he spoke to them about God's providential care for Israel, first of all. Secondly, God's promise of Israel salvation through Christ. And then thirdly, God's passion for Israel's salvation.

Now, all of this obviously intrigued the listeners, and he has forced them, you might say, to examine their lives and their theology in light of the word. And now we're going to see a contrast between the proud and the penitent.

Notice, first of all, the penitent in verse 42.

“And as Paul and Barnabas were going out, the people kept begging that these things might be spoken to them the next week.”

You know, this will always be the response of those who see the need to be saved, those who see the gospel. You know, when you stop and think about it, no one will want to be saved unless they realize they're lost. And these people obviously realize they're lost. And when you find a person who is lost and I have been that person before in the wilderness and I have been around other people in the wilderness who have been physically lost, you will do just about anything to get somebody to tell you how to be found. And that's what's going on here.

And by the way, might I add that this is why we must always preach law before we preach grace. You see, the Jews knew all about the law, but they didn't know anything about grace. You see, you must understand that the law of God, his standard of righteousness revealed in his word, reveals the infinite holiness of God, the character of God and the unattainable standard of righteousness that he demands.

You see, the purpose of the law is to expose sin. “Well, yeah, yeah, yeah, but that turns people off. People don't want to hear that today.” Well, yes, that's true. Most people don't want to hear it, but some will by God's grace. But frankly, the gospel preacher is not concerned with any of that, because, you see, Jesus said that it is the Spirit, not the preacher, that convicts the world of sin and righteousness and judgment. My job is simply to tell you what the truth is. It's the Spirit's job to convict you of sin and righteousness and judgment (John, 16:8).

Now, obviously, a few of these people were converted on that day and they understood their inability to keep the law. They long to hear more about the gospel of grace and in desperation they want to hear more. And certainly, the gospel of grace is always an oasis in the desert of guilt. So the penitent begged for more.

Verse 43,

“Now when the meeting of the synagogue had broken up, many of the Jews and of the God- fearing proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas, who, speaking to them, were urging them to continue in the grace of God.”

And the God-fearing proselytes would have referred to Gentile converts to Judaism. They had been circumcised. They were trying to obey the law, but obviously, like the rest of the Jews, they were terribly frustrated knowing that it was just impossible to somehow please God by doing all of the law. But here we see that some of them obviously had believed and certainly believers will always persevere. Believers have been given eternal life. Their faith and their inheritance, we know, is “protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice…” Peter said in First Peter 1:5.

So what's really being addressed here are not necessarily the ones who have come to Christ thus far, because we know they are going to continue in the grace of God, but primarily, I believe Paul and Barnabas are addressing the almost persuaded - urging them to continue in the grace of God, live consistently with the truth of the grace of the gospel of Christ, no longer according to the law.

Don't allow yourself - because of persecution, because of criticism from the rest of your Jewish brethren, your families, your friends and so on - don't cause that to make you compromise and fall back into the bondage of legalism. Continue in the grace of God.

And though they will never lose their salvation, even believers can compromise due to persecution. That's why the writer of Hebrews said in 10:35, “Do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward.” And Paul even later encouraged the Colossians in Colossians 1:23 to continue in the faith” firmly established and steadfast and not move away from the hope of the gospel that you have heard.”

Now, I know that some of you, even in this room and certainly a number of our listeners that I've interacted with, have come to Christ and found that it has cost them dearly. Some that I've talked with tell me that it has cost them their career, their spouse, their family, their home, their land, their friends, their finances. Some have experienced physical persecution. Some have been shot. Some have been beaten, had their homes burned, their property confiscated, have been placed into prisons. And my urging to all of you is to continue in the grace of God. He is your shield. He is your strength, your rock, your refuge. He is your deliverer.

But ultimately, the penitent will always continue in the grace of God, they will always persevere, it will only be the proud that will fall away. We are told this, for example, in 1 John 2:19,

“They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out in order that it might be shown that they all are not of us.”

I want you to notice here that Luke tells us that the new Jewish converts were spreading the good news to the family and friends, notice verse 44,

“And the next Sabbath nearly the whole city assembled to hear the word of God.”

I find it interesting whenever people come, truly come to a saving knowledge of Christ, there will automatically be placed within them a zeal for evangelism. That's always a mark of a true believer. But contrast all of this with the reaction of the proud in verse 45,

“But when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and began contradicting the things spoken by Paul, and were blaspheming.”

The Jews here would be a reference to the unbelieving Jews, especially the synagogue officials that we learned of in verse 15. You must remember that the Jews absolutely hated the Gentiles and it was inconceivable for them to think that God would in any way show favor to them. That was just beyond their ability to imagine, so when they saw that nearly the whole city assembled to hear the word of God, there's naturally great jealousy because the Gentiles are showing up, too. I can imagine they're saying, “Hey, wait a minute, we offer you Judaism, but now you come out of the woodwork to hear about this Jesus, this the self-proclaimed Messiah offering some gospel of grace?”

You see, friends, you must understand that the proud and the prejudice will always “suppress the truth in unrighteousness” (Romans 1). They will always be convinced that they are right, that they are better than everybody else, that they are deserving of divine favor because of their inherent goodness, because of their religious affiliation or even because of their ethnic background.

If you want me to give you a contemporary parallel, think of the Muslim hatred today for all non-Muslims. They are convinced that they are Allah's special people and that all non-Muslims are the infidel worthy of death unless they are converted by the edge of the sword. Their jealousy is fueled by the prosperity and the power of the non-Muslim world, the non-Muslim West, which somehow would indicate to them that Allah must not be as powerful as he says.

And they just can't deal with that. And so while we enjoy wealth and freedom and military invincibility and so on, they live in squalor and in bondage and must resort to killing innocent people and cowardly acts of terrorism because they are unable to field an army to fight.

Well, this is the similar kind of mentality that would have been seen in the Jews of that day. I want you to notice also that the unbelieving proud or are not only jealous, but they are antagonistic, they're unteachable. Notice, it says that they “began contradicting the things spoken by Paul.” Literally what this is saying in the original language is that they were constantly trying to refute what they were saying; poke holes in the theology. You know, if you've ever had an opportunity to witness to a proud, angry unbeliever, you will quickly find that two plus two is five every time when it comes to anything theological. No matter how you put it, it's always going to come out wrong; no matter how compelling the truth, they will distort it and they will deny it. And might I encourage you again, don't let this discourage you, because, again, keep in mind, as I've said before, they know the truth. Romans one, they're just suppressing it in unrighteousness.

In fact, in Romans two, beginning of verse 15, we read that the Gentiles “do instinctively the things of the Law,” in other words, nonbelievers,

“these, not having the Law are a law to themselves,

“in that they show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them,

“ on the day when, according to my gospel, God will judge the secrets of men through Christ Jesus.”

In other words, what he's saying is that although they know the truth, especially when they hear it, God will use their innate knowledge of God's Law and their rejection of it as a witness against them on the day of judgment. See, again, the word of God is self-authenticating when a proud, rebellious unbeliever rejects the gospel and tries to distort it and contradict it. You must understand, dear friends, that what is needed is not more compelling information, but divine transformation. And there's a big difference. Remember, nonbelievers are spiritually dead and it is the Spirit's work to convince the world of sin and righteousness and judgment.

As a footnote, this should be a great encouragement to you, parents, as you endeavor to lead your children to a saving knowledge of Christ, because sometimes that can be a frustrating thing to do.

And I want to speak specifically on that coming up here in a few Sundays. I want to speak to you specifically on the issue of child evangelism. But let me just say, dear friends, what you need to do is just unleash the truth to your children. Begin by telling them about God, the Creator, and tell them about the fall. Tell them about sin. Tell them about the Law. Help them to see how they violated the law and how hopeless it is for them to try to be good enough to save themselves.

And then in the midst of their desperation, give them the gospel of grace. Show them the Lord Jesus Christ. Point them to the cross and to the Savior, to the resurrection, and then trust the Spirit of God to do what only he can do to convict them of sin and righteousness and judgment.

That is what we must keep in mind. So when unbelievers reject the truth, they blaspheme God, as we see here in verse 45. In other words, these people in that day, as well as in today, they will slander the Lord Jesus Christ. They will malign the gospel of grace. They will insult God's messengers. They will curse matters they do not understand.

Peter speaks of this in 2 Peter 2, describing these as people who are like unreasoning animals, born as creatures of instinct to be captured and killed, reviling where they have no knowledge. And of course, dear friends, this is the sport of fools. It's sad, but mocking the God of the Bible and scoffing at born again Christians is today the only politically correct form of hate speech allowed in America. But this should be no surprise. I want you to notice how Paul and Barnabas responded, verse 46,

“And Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly and said, ‘It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken to you first; since you repudiate it and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles.

“’For thus the Lord has commanded us.

“’”I have placed You as a light for the Gentiles, that You should bring salvation to the end of the earth.”’”

Well, as we studied last week, the Lord Jesus and the apostles went to the Jew first and then to the Gentiles. And after the Lord was resurrected, we know that he commanded that repentance for forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem, Luke 24:47.

And again, remember, they are God's chosen people. They were supposed to be a witness nation, the custodians of divine truth. But as we see here, they contradicted the truth and blaspheme. We know that they murdered their Messiah. And remember, this was God's sovereign plan all along. It was always his plan for Israel to reject the Messiah. It was prophesied all through the Old Testament.

So we know that God has temporarily set aside Israel and transferred the privilege and responsibility of disseminating God's truth to the Gentile church. Jesus said in Matthew 21: 43, “Therefore, I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and be given to a nation producing the fruit of it.” So, Israel has been temporarily displaced, not permanently displaced or permanently replaced. And God will ultimately fulfill his covenantal promises made to them. But the idea of God blessing the Gentiles was absolutely more than they could bear. That would be like telling a Muslim today that Allah loves the infidels. Oh, can you imagine what a horrible thing that would be? So the Jews chose to repudiate in the original language, that means to push away oneself, to hear something that I don't want to hear that, to reject it. Reject what? The gospel of grace. And thereby they brought judgment upon themselves.

And dear friends, this is what happens when sinners refuse to humble themselves and choose instead to reject the truth. And they will do this either in outright defiant hostility towards the gospel of Christ or and this is how it's usually done through cold, indifferent, hard hearted indifference and apathy. And either way, it will bring judgment.

In fact, Jesus said in John 3:18, “He who believes in Him is not judged, he who does not believe has been judged already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” And dear friends, I tell you, if you're hearing me today and you do not know the Lord Jesus Christ is your Savior - you have never confessed your sin, repented of your sin, cried out for him to have mercy on you and to save your soul, and committed yourself to making him the absolute Lord of your life - if that has never happened, you are living under the wrath of God and you will experience it throughout eternity unless you repent.

But I want you to notice what we witness here in terms of the joy of the penitent, in terms of in contrast to the judgment of the proud. Verse 48,

“When the Gentiles heard this…” in other words, when they when they heard that the gospel would now be coming to them, it says, “…they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord; and as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed.”

This is a fascinating statement, the word appointed comes from a Greek word tassō. It means to put in place, and it is seen to be used in some ancient documents in the sense of inscribing someone or something or enrolling a person into something. And we know that to be true. Even in the Bible, we see in Revelation 3, that the names of God's elect were actually written in a thing called the Book of Life before the foundation of the world, before the world was even created. In fact, there is what the Bible calls a book of life. And we read about that where these names have been placed, where they have been appointed or inscribed. We see this in Exodus 32 through 33, Psalm 69:28, Daniel 12:1, Philippians 4:3, Revelation 3:5, 13:8, 17:8, 20:12, 21:27, and 22:19.

I wanted to give those to you in case you think I'm making this up. This is what the word of God teaches. And beloved here in this text, God reveals to us that it is his grace that is sovereign and that his grace and sovereign election really precedes faith in Christ. And yet in this text, we also see that it is man's responsibility to repent and to believe. And if he doesn't, he's going to bring judgment on himself. What an amazing thought.

Well, you know, we both can't be true. Why not? Why do you say that? Why do you say they both cannot be true? Beloved, I ask you, should we reject something simply because we cannot understand it? You know, if that is the case, you're asking me to reject creation. I don't understand that. I don't understand prayer. I don't understand the inspiration of scripture. I don't understand the incarnation of Christ. I don't understand the resurrection. I don't understand regeneration. Frankly, I don't understand in my rational mind any of the major doctrines of the Bible, nor do you.

So are we, therefore, to reject it all? You see, granted, in our finite minds, we cannot harmonize God's sovereignty with man's responsibility. It is an inscrutable mystery. It's sometimes called an antinomy, which is an apparent contradiction between two truths obtained by correct reasoning. And certainly, this is a paradox to us, but not to God. God understands it. And by faith, we accept what reason rejects.

All through scripture, we see that God is sovereign over all things, including salvation. Dear friends, you must understand that there is absolutely nothing in the universe that operates independent of God's plan to glorify himself. Nothing. No person, no atom. No, no, no, no drop of rain, no mountain, no tree, no organism within a human body. And in ways that we cannot comprehend through God's providence, he orchestrates every contingency and controls every variable in the universe to achieve his purposes.

Now, you say, well, I just can't even imagine that. Well, of course you can't. You're not God. Neither am I. And scripture is clear, God chooses man, man does not choose God. Remember, man is blind spiritually, he's deaf, he's a spiritual cadaver, he's spiritually dead. And dear friends, a cadaver can do only one thing. Decay. That's it. That's all he can do.

So God has to choose man. Man doesn't choose God. And all through the New Testament, we read about the elect, the chosen, the predestined. Jesus said in John 6:65, that “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him and no one can come to Me unless it has been granted him from the Father.” And Second Thessalonians 2:3, and this is one of my favorite texts in all of scripture, Paul says to the church at Thessalonica, “We should always give thanks to God for you, brethren, beloved by the Lord, because…” now here's why, “because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth.”

And in 2 Timothy 1:9 and Titus 1 and verses 2 as well, we see that God chose us before time began. And Ephesians 1:4, “He chose us before the foundation of the world.” It's all through scripture, and yet at the same time, man is called to repent and to believe, and if he doesn't, he will perish in his sins.

We see that the gospel call is always universal in scripture. And how do you explain that? I don't know. I let God worry with that. I just preach it. I just tell you what the Bible says. And so here we see that in some inscrutable way, God causes man to freely and voluntarily choose what he has ordained for them to choose, namely, to come to faith in Christ Jesus. And this is what we see in the text.

Now, some will try to explain it away and say, well, no, no, wait a minute. And by the way, whenever you try to explain the unexplainable, you create far more problems than you solve. Some people will say, well, these people were appointed to eternal life because they believed. Oh, really? I'm sorry, that's not what Luke tells us here. Instead, he clearly states just the opposite, he says, as many has been appointed to eternal life, believed clearly belief is the effect of divine appointment, not the cause. And child of God, I want you to hear this, that God granted us grace before we were ever even created.

See, I can share in none of the glory for my salvation, it's all of grace, it's all of God. And I praise God for my unconditional election, and you should do the same. Beloved, this is perhaps the most humbling of all doctrines in Scripture.

In Charles Spurgeon's autobiography, he gave this stirring testimony, and I quote, “In the very beginning, when this great universe lay in the mind of God like unborn force in the acorn cup, long ere the echoes awoke the solitudes before the mountains were brought forth and long ere the light flashed through the sky, God loved his chosen creatures. Before there was any created being, when the ether was not fanned by an angel's wing, when space itself had not an existence, when there was nothing save God alone, even then in that loneliness of deity and in that deep quiet and profundity, his vowels moved with love for his chosen. Their names were written on his heart and then were they dear to his soul. Jesus loved his people before the foundation of the world, even from eternity. And when he called me by his grace, he said to me, I have loved thee with an everlasting love. Therefore, with loving kindness, I have drawn thee.” End quote.

Now, friends, the proud condemn themselves to eternal hell, because as we read in verse 46, they judge themselves to be unworthy of eternal life. But the very opposite is true for the penitent, you see. The redeemed are saved because God appointed them for eternal life. What an amazing concept. We see the penitent did what they were appointed to do, they gave God glory, especially through evangelism, verse 49, it says, “and the word of the Lord was being spread through the whole region”.

What good news this must have been to the beleaguered Jews weighted down with the oppression of the Law, as well as the guilt-ridden pagans who were living just to satisfy their flesh and worshiping all manner of ridiculous idols.

Verse 50,

“But the Jews aroused the devout women of prominence and the leading men of the city and instigated a persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and drove them out of their district.”

 By the way, we're going to see the same reaction throughout the early church days in Acts

22, for example, in verses 21 and 22, we're going to read how that Paul told the Jews that God told him, “Go, for I will send you far away to the Gentiles.” And the text says, they listen to him up to this statement and then they raised their voices and said, “away with such a fellow from the earth, for he should not be allowed to live.” So this was a terribly offensive thing to be said to them, to the Jews, that God was going to go to the Gentiles.

So basically, the proud Jews enlisted the help of the politicians. And the authorities to get rid of Paul and Barnabas. By the way, this would be tantamount people today getting the ACLU and the National Education Association and the liberal media, the liberal press, liberal senators and congressmen and so on, activist judges and whatnot to basically come against the Christian. And of course, we're seeing that happen systematically.

So what did they do? Verse 51, “they shook off the dust of their feet in protest against them and went to Iconium.” Shaking off the dust of your feet was a symbolic act of condemnation. It was very familiar to the Jews. In fact, throughout Scripture, we read that whenever a Jew left Gentile territory and entered back into Israel, they would always make a big display of cleaning all the dust off of their feet and even off of their garments as an indication to the Gentiles that you are so despicable. I don't even want your dust brought into the land of Israel. Now, that's not good for public relations, but that's how it worked. And so basically, we see them doing this here.

And in fact, we know that in Luke 10, Jesus charged the 70, remember when he sent them out, he charged them to do the same thing to those who reject the gospel as an act of protest against their blasphemy and a sign of impending judgment.

So the scene concludes here in verse 52,

“And the disciples were continually filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.”

And to be sure, my friends, persecution never dampers the spirit of the penitent, but rather ignites it with worship and praise where those who know Christ and are suffering for him realize that it's a privilege to suffer for the sake of the Savior. And therefore, we praise him for his sovereignty in our life and for his saving grace. What a contrast to the proud that were left behind and their jealousy and their anger and their and their pride and prejudice, their self-righteous hypocrisy.

Beloved, I close this morning to say simply this, there are two groups of people in this room today. There's the proud and there's the penitent. One will leave the sanctuary rejoicing, filled with worship, praising God for his grace and having a zeal for evangelism. The other will leave the sanctuary angry, self-absorbed, self-righteous and will ultimately be left behind, even as these unbelievers were in Acts 13. You know, it doesn't have to be this way. And I would just invite you to come to the cross, to bow before the Savior, to confess your sin, ask him to save you, because Jesus says that all that the father gives me shall come to me and one the one who comes to me, I will certainly not cast out.

So won't you come to the Savior this morning?  Let's bow our heads in prayer.

Father, we are always awed by the eternal truths of your word. We are amazed at how you disclose yourself to us through the pages of Holy Writ. And Lord, I pray this morning that you will cause what we have learned today. To motivate us to live for your glory, and I pray especially for those that do not know you as Savior. Oh, God, by your grace, by your mercy, would you please be willing to save them and to bring them to us to yourself this day? We ask in Jesus’ name and for his sake. Amen.