Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] We're going to be in Acts chapter eleven.
[00:00:03] Lord willing. This morning we are going to look at just basically one verse as to our text, acts, chapter eleven. We've already covered this in, in our study on Wednesday night, we talked about verse number 26 and what it means to be a Christian. And so we won't cover that again. But I want to look at verse number 23 this morning.
[00:00:29] But to begin, we'll go down to verse number 19 and read 19 down through verse number, verse number 24. All right, so we'll start reading at verse number 19. The Bible says this. Now, they which were scattered abroad upon the persecution that arose about Stephen traveled as far as phenic and Cyprus and Antioch, preaching the word to none but unto the Jews only.
[00:00:53] And some of them were men of Cyprus and Cyrene, which when they were come to Antioch, spake unto the Grecians, preaching the Lord Jesus. And the hand of the Lord was with them. And a great number believed and turned unto the Lord.
[00:01:11] Then tidings of these things came unto the ears of the church, which was in Jerusalem. And they sent forth Barnabas, that he should go as far as Antioch. Now, I'll just take a little pause here and deal with one little thing here that I think is important, especially when we're talking about, especially our church.
[00:01:31] What you see here is you see the Lord doing something, that the Gospel is going out further and further from Jerusalem. It started in Jerusalem, then it went to Judea and then Samaria and went to Galilee. And this was God's plan all along. Now it seems that God's people kind of are behind what God's plan was a little bit. But the Lord's working with them and he's kind of getting them to go out further. And he's using some persecution and other events to kind of get the Gospel out further. And now that it's gotten all the way to the country of where we now call Syria, and it's to the city of Antioch.
[00:02:09] And, of course, as we saw on Wednesday, Antioch is going to be an important city as we go into Chapter 13, especially in chapter 14 of the Book of Acts. And so the Gospel is going out, and it gets to the book of Acts or gets to the seat of Antioch, rather. And some people get saved. And the Lord is doing something there to such a degree that it gets the attention of the apostles that are in Jerusalem. And so what do they do? They send verse number, verse number 22. They send Barnabas to the city of Antioch to basically see what's going on. Now, that might sound a little bit unusual. In other words, what does the church in Jerusalem have to do with the Church of Antioch?
[00:02:53] What relationship do they have? Is this a situation where you have a mother church sending out its bishops and its presbytery and its archbishops or whatever to another church, a daughter church, if you want to put it like that, to kind of make sure that everything's good? No, that's not what's happening. That's not what's happening. We're going to look at that a little bit in just a minute, but I want to just make something clear here. Now, our church is an independent church. Independent by that means, we're not part of any kind of association or denomination like that. So in other words, there's no group overseeing us that puts a heavy responsibility on us, does it not? In other words, we have to make sure that not just me, although me for sure, me, the pastor, but also all of us are following the word of God ourselves, because each one of us, remember, is a priest of God. Did you know that? You're a priest, you're a priest. If you're a child of God, you're a priest of God. That means you have direct access to God and you give spiritual sacrifices to God and you talk to God directly and there is no one except the Lord Jesus Christ between you and God. That is it.
[00:04:07] But for our church, you will not find this in 2023 where the apostles from Jerusalem are sending their people down to see what we're doing. You won't find that this was something that was specifically for this time because there were still apostles and the church was still in a stage of growth and transition. And so that's why you see this, Dinette. Well, why don't we have whatever the diocese or know coming and looking at this is the reasons, because this was temporary for the time of the apostles, as the Church was growing. Eventually, as the apostles die off, this is going to stop until you get to Rome and then it starts back up again.
[00:04:48] But this is what you have. And Paul did this too. He oversaw the churches that he started. So that's just something kind of I wanted to mention as we go, because the principles of being an independent church are biblical principles. And really it's kind of an argument from an argument of silence. In other words, there's just nothing in the Bible to describe what would be like a denominational umbrella. It's just not there. Now, that doesn't mean we hate other churches. That doesn't mean we don't like other Christians. And it doesn't mean we don't fellowship. I have friends, Pastor friends and missionary friends I fellowship with. I trust that you have friends that are also believers that you fellowship with. And you know what? You might have a friend or an acquaintance that maybe goes to a church that you personally wouldn't go to because of your beliefs are a little bit different, but you still accept them as a believer in Christ and you love them and you show kindness to them. And a lot of times Baptist people are accused of thinking only Baptists are going to heaven. That's not what the Bible teaches at all.
[00:05:54] We believe what we believe with a sincere heart and conscience before God from our reading of the Scriptures and that we're not going to apologize for. We're not going to be shy about it, we're not going to be ashamed about it. But that doesn't mean we go around hating on people.
[00:06:12] We love people, especially when they are fellow believers in Christ. And so I just wanted to mention that as we go now, let's look at verse number 22 again. The Bible says, then tidings of these things came unto the ears of the church, which was in Jerusalem. And they sent Forth Barnabas, that he should go as far as AntiocH, who when he came and had seen the grace of God, was glad and exhorted them all that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord. For he was a good man and full of the Holy Ghost and of faith, and much people was added unto the Lord. We're going to see a lot more about Barnabas here in the next few chapters, but we do see here Barnabas was a good man, was a godly man. And so he's a perfect fit to do this work. And he was a man who knew he himself was a man who was filled with spirit. He knew the scriptures. And so when we read verse 23, which is our text, we understand that when Barnabas got there and saw what was going on in Antioch, he was just the right guy because he really understood the Lord's work. He was a man who knew the Bible and he knew where God was working. It was evident to him. So let's pray together, and then we'll get into verse number 23.
[00:07:28] Lord in heaven, thank you, first of all for the Lord Jesus for our salvation, provided to us, given to us by your grace.
[00:07:38] Thank you for his blood shed for us. Thank you, Lord, for taking my place on the cross. Thank you for bearing my sins, Lord, even at times when I think my sins are not all that bad, Lord, you have remind us of the fact that you had to die. You had to take our place. You had to bear the shame all the way to the cross because of our sin. Thank you for that. Thank you, Lord, for your resurrection. Thank you for calling us, your children. Thank you for hearing us when we cried out to you. I thank you for what you're doing and the grace of God seen in our church. Lord, thank you that you are a God who is working among us.
[00:08:22] Lord, you didn't just give us a message and then just stand back and expect us to follow it. Lord, you are working even in the midst of us. Lord, thank you for that. Help us. As we look in your word today, that this work done here this morning will be a work of God.
[00:08:38] We sit back and we try to trust, Lord, that you are working among us, and that you will use your word to accomplish the things that need to be done. We entrust it to you. We ask for your help and grace. Please meet with us in Jesus name. Amen.
[00:08:56] So in verse number 23, Barnabas arrives. Now, this is all new as the Gospel goes out, these new places, new types of people. We read about the. They're speaking to the Grecians. Now, we saw before that the Grecians were Jewish people who grew up among the Greeks and spoke Greek. But there's actually a. And to be honest, I don't know which this refers to, whether it's referring to a Gentile who speaks Greek or referring to a Jew who speaks Greek, because the word Grecian can also refer to someone who's not a Greek who speaks Greek. But the point being is that the Gospel is going to new places. The gospel is going to new places, and that's what we try to do in our evangelism. That's why I've been trying to think about. I've been working with Ben and trying to send him on missions to get addresses, lists of addresses for different areas of our city. Well, we're not in the city, but in our county around us, where we can do mailings, Gospel mailings, where we can't knock doors, we can't get into those areas and witness to them. So we're trying to be creative. That's why we're going downtown. That's why we're trying different things and trying to maybe get in and help brother Burgess some in his ministry, because we want the gospel to go out further. We want to try to use our creativity that God gives us to reach out to more people. I asked you to pray not too long ago that the Lord would open a door so that we could do some ministry on Furman University. So far, we haven't found that door, but I ask you to keep praying. We were talking to Priscilla yesterday after our visiting about how we might do that, and there's different ways. And the truth be told, I don't know the right way to do it, but I just know that there's an opportunity there. And so pray with me that the Lord would give us that opportunity to go a little bit further.
[00:10:43] So Barnabas arrives, and they send him, because this is all new. Remember, Cornelius has just Gotten saved. He's the first Gentile, and his group was the first Gentiles that had come to Christ. This is all new. So a whole lot of questions are being raised that are going to be dealt with later on in acts, just a few chapters later. Like, for instance, all right, Gentiles get saved. Did they have to follow the Jewish law also like the Jews have been? And that's an important question, especially when you're looking at the Book of Acts and all that have believed have been Jews up to this point, pretty much. So what are they to do with all these things? Is God really doing this? This is the questions they have.
[00:11:26] And then verse 23, Barnabas arrives. And when he came, notice there's just a few things. I just have three main points I want to point out. We'll look at some other verses as well, who, when he came and had seen the grace of God.
[00:11:43] So Barnabas arrived, and he started looking around at these people who had professed to have believed on Christ.
[00:11:55] And what he was looking for is evidences that the grace of God was present, evidences that God indeed had been working among them. And it wasn't like a fluke or perhaps a cult of some kind, because it wouldn't be long before the cult started to pop up, even in the book of Acts.
[00:12:18] He went there as a spiritual man, as a man who understood the way that God was working.
[00:12:24] And he wanted to see, was God really working here? What did it look like now, as we understand this verse in verse 23, he had seen the grace of God. We've already looked at the grace of God. We've seen different definitions here not too long ago. And we saw the grace of God can refer to some special benefit or influence that God gives someone. We call it God gives us a grace, like the grace of giving or a grace of showing mercy. Those are graces of God. In other words, God's putting something in us and gives us a special ability that can be called a grace of God. The cross is a grace of God. The Church is one way that God shows his grace. And we looked at those things before. But I want to read this definition to you about Grace because I really want us to understand what it is that Barnabas is looking for.
[00:13:21] Grace. Listen. Now, I Know we commonly describe grace as God's favor, God's unmerited favor, and that's perfectly fine. That's okay. But Listen to this definition.
[00:13:34] GRAcE is Something received from God by the individual.
[00:13:39] Grace is benevolent divine influence. I like that in that particular Way. To put it, benevolent divine influence acting upon humanity to impart spiritual enrichment or purity, to inspire virtue or to give strength to endure trial and resist temptation. So you could say that when you come into a time of temptation, and how many of you have been in a time of temptation where you knew that you could have fallen, and yet it was as if God would just held you up and carried, you know what that is? That's the grace of God.
[00:14:20] And you could Relate the grace of God. That is, God is inclined to help you. His disposition is inclined to be benevolent and good to us. And in that case, he holds us up. He keeps us from falling by his. It's not that he owes us anything. He certainly doesn't owe us anything at all. But because he's good to us, he holds us up and carries us through the temptation, he carries us through the grief, he carries us through the tRial. And so we come out on the other side.
[00:14:52] I don't know if I would say unscathed, but we come out cleanly, we come out pure, and the Lord teaches us through it. That is the grace of God. Now, we know the grace of God touches every. Listen, every part of the grace of God. The Bible even says that we live in the grace of God. It is all, the grace of God is all around us. So I want us to understand what I'm talking about when we say he had seen the grace of God. At a minimum, what we see here, and this is what I want us to understand, that the grace of God was visible in verse 23. Barnabas arrives in Antioch, and the grace of God was visible. Now, why is that impoRtant?
[00:15:36] Because normally the grace of God as a concept, God's goodness to us is not visible. Now we believe it. We believe in the grace of God. We believe. How many of you believe God is with you?
[00:15:52] All right. How many of you believe that God is good to you?
[00:15:58] But you know that, right? You know that. But see, this is more than that. This is not just these people. Like, oh, God's good.
[00:16:08] Barnabas could see it when he had seen the grace of God.
[00:16:15] Now, in this context, the grace of God is referring to the work that God was doing among these new believers at Antioch by his grace.
[00:16:28] Again, God did not owe them anything. He's doing it because he's good and kind, and he wants to work among in people's lives, and he wants to work in your life, and he wants to work in my life, but he wants to work in our lives. And he wants to help us and strengthen us and teach us, and he wants to make us more like Christ. You know why? Because he is good.
[00:16:56] Any work of God done in us, any work of God done for us is done by his grace.
[00:17:05] It's not a reward because you are a good little boy or girl.
[00:17:10] It's not a reward because you kept his commandments. Now, there are rewards God does, God gives to us. But what God does in our life, what he does in us and for us, he does it by his grace. So that's why we say the grace of God. We kind of use it interchangeably with the way God works in our lives.
[00:17:30] It is a mark of God's goodness toward us, and it is not a mark of our worthiness.
[00:17:39] This grace was visible not to the flesh, but it affects the effects of this grace. Were visible. You think of the wind, right? That wind is a common emblem of the Spirit of God. Right? Because the Spirit of God is invisible. Spirit is invisible to the eye. But yet the effects of the Spirit of God and the power of the Spirit of God are real.
[00:18:05] Now, here's the thing I want you to understand about the grace of God. That's also true. The grace of God is a concept. It's an attribute of God. But it has effect upon you and upon me.
[00:18:19] That is visible, and that's what Barnabas is looking for.
[00:18:24] Now, hold your place here and look at Philippians chapter R1, quick, verse one.
[00:18:32] Philippians one. One.
[00:18:38] I Want to ask you a question. As we look at these verses, have you been affected by the grace of God?
[00:18:48] Is there evidence in your life of the grace of God that is visible both to yourself and to others?
[00:19:00] Barnabas got there, and he did not meet Christians in Antioch that just said, oh, I believe in Jesus.
[00:19:06] It wasn't just people talking about it.
[00:19:09] It was a real evidence that God was at work there by his grace. Philippians one, verse one. Listen to this.
[00:19:17] Paul and Timothyus, the servants of Jesus Christ. To all the saints in Christ Jesus, which are at Philippi with the bishops and deacons. Grace be unto you. Notice the term and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always, in every prayer of mine. For you all. We're making requests with joy for your fellowship in the Gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ.
[00:19:58] Pause there a second.
[00:20:01] Why has God begun a good work in you?
[00:20:08] Why? Upon what basis? His grace.
[00:20:12] His grace. That work began. You know, that work of God began in you when you first started to be awakened. Actually, you can even go any further back than that. The work of the grace of God began at the cross. It began in the heart of God long before even the world was created, when God, with his foreknowledge, knew that you would be born, that you would be a sinner, that you would be in need of savior. The Bible says that Christ died even before the foundation of the world. It was in God's plan from the very beginning. It wasn't like God. He was, like, rushing around trying to figure out what to do. No, he knew man would sin, given the chance. And he knew that man would fall, and he knew man would be condemned. And he knew that man would need a savior. And he knew that when I say man, it's referring to each and every individual here. The grace of God.
[00:21:04] The grace of God is why Jesus came to the world. Just like the boys quoted this morning, we Know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for our sakes, your sakes, he became poor, that ye, through his poverty, might be rich. What is that talking about? That's talking about Jesus, his incarnation, the grace of God. Why the grace of God? And that was long before you and I were ever born.
[00:21:28] But now, in our lifetimes, we were born, and we just lived like everybody else lived. And we sinned like everybody else sinned and brought that condemnation of sin upon ourselves. And then God started to awaken us.
[00:21:44] He started to make us feel uncomfortable with the life that we were living and our condition before God and started to trouble us. You know why, Grace? Because he's good. He didn't let us remain in our sin. He intervened, and that was uncomfortable for us. And then eventually, we came to the point where we understood that we needed the Savior. We needed Jesus to save us personally, individually. You know what that was? Grace.
[00:22:10] The fact that there was a Savior who had provided salvation was grace. And the fact that we were awakened to our need was grace. And the fact that when we came to him and believed on Christ, and the Lord responded by saving us, that's also grace. For by grace are ye saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God.
[00:22:35] So we got saved, and you could say, he which hath verse six begun a good work in you.
[00:22:41] That's what we're talking about. The grace of God has worked in you and in me, and there is an effect.
[00:22:52] Now I'm reading here the work that was begun, and that's obviously a reference to salvation when you put your faith in Christ.
[00:23:01] But since you have put your faith in Christ, notice what it says. Verse six will perform it unto day of Jesus Christ. Who is doing the performing in this?
[00:23:13] In verse six, who's doing it?
[00:23:16] Jesus is doing it. I'm not doing it. He's doing it. And why is he doing it? Grace.
[00:23:23] Grace God for no reason except for his own goodness. Not because we deserve any goodness on his part, works in our lives even after we get saved.
[00:23:38] And his work in our life produces effects that are visible. And that's what Barnabas is looking for.
[00:23:44] Things like as an example, what are some of the effects of the grace of God in us that can be seen?
[00:23:52] Well, the first one I've already talked about, turning God turns a contrary and rebellious sinner to Christ. That's the work of God. That's not something we do. That's what God does.
[00:24:04] When I started out, I was not inclined to God. I was inclined to religion. But God himself is funny. Everybody in the world wants religion, and nobody wants God, the person of God. Nobody wants the Lord. They want religion, they want to appear a certain way. But when you start, it's funny when you try to witness to people and say, oh, I'm this, I'm that religion. I believe in this denomination or whatever. They'll say that. And then you put that aside and you say, well, what about Jesus? Oh, well, they get uncomfortable. Why?
[00:24:36] Because they like religion, but they don't really want the Lord himself.
[00:24:41] That's just the reality. But the Lord turned us grace.
[00:24:47] Once we got saved, he transformed us from a person. Now this is after, right? Verse six will perform it. After we got saved, he turned us from a person who was accustomed to and in love with sin to someone who loves righteousness. He did that.
[00:25:08] I didn't do that. His word, a means of grace. How many of you remember, we talked about that last Sunday? His word changed our hearts and changed what we loved.
[00:25:20] And so he's changing us to love, righteousness. He replaced the hatred that we had for people into a love that we have for people. That's not us. That's the Lord's work in us. By grace, he put a desire in our heart not only for ourselves, but also for others, especially for others to come to know Christ as well.
[00:25:42] These are all examples of the effect of the grace of God on our life.
[00:25:50] I read Ironside, his commentary on this verse in acts. Here's what he said, and I thought this was good.
[00:25:58] The gospel proves itself by what it does to most people. You say the gospel, Christ and all that, that's a million miles from their mind. That has no relation to them whatsoever. Right? Even Brother Stewart, when he gives his testimony, he talks about, oh, yeah, Jesus died. Yeah, right.
[00:26:16] It was just like a million miles from his mind. I was the same way. I knew all the facts. Yeah, of course I know all the facts, but it's a million miles away.
[00:26:25] But see, whenever the gospel came to me, and whenever the gospel came to you, it had an effect. Now, here's the thing I want you to understand about this.
[00:26:38] Is there an effect of the Gospel in your life?
[00:26:42] When Barnabas got to Antioch, there were people who, the Gospel had passed by their way, who said and made profession that they had received Christ. And it was obvious there were evidences in their lives that something had happened, that God was working. They were changed. They were altered. Their heart was different. They were different than others around them. It wasn't just an empty words. It was. There were real, concrete evidences that God had worked among them. Barnabas saw it. He had to go around and do a poll about what everybody said they believed. No, he knew. They believed it. They lived different, they acted different. Their values were different. Their families were different. The places they went were different. What they did and did not do was different. The Lord had worked in their lives.
[00:27:37] There are many, many people in this world who make a profession of Christ but have no evidence of the grace of God at all.
[00:27:47] I'm just being honest with you.
[00:27:49] They profess that they know God. They profess that they have interacted, if I could say that with the grace of God, but there's no evidence at all that's visible.
[00:28:01] And when I say visible, don't get me wrong. I'm not saying we should just perform, put on the face, God forbid. I'm sure Barnabas, being a spiritual man, was not just looking at how people performed when they came to the church services in. No, no. He was looking at their life. That's where the grace of God is evident. It's how you talk to your husband and your wife. It's how you interact with your children. It's how you live, how you handle your finances, how you live every day of your life, how you act on your job. That's where the grace of God is evident. It affects every part of our lives, because he which hath begun a good work in you, that's grace, will perform it. That means God is going to do it whether you like it or not and whether you pitch it fit or not. He's going to do it even when our rebellious flesh doesn't want to go along with it, and he's going to do it when we're happy for him to do it, because it's his work that he's doing by grace, not us. He's doing it in us.
[00:29:04] Notice what it says in Philippians here, even as it is meat. Verse seven. For me to think this of you all because I have you in my heart. Inasmuch as both in my bonds and in the defense and confirmation of the Gospel, ye all are partakers of my grace. You see that the grace of God flowing through Paul to the Philippians. For God is my record. How greatly I long after you in the bowels of Jesus Christ. And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment. Why do they love each other? You know why? Because God is working in these people to have a church and I am not. Of course, you heard what I just said during the announcements. Having a church full of people that hate one another, there is no evidence of the grace of God in that situation.
[00:29:59] The grace of God works love among believers. Verse ten. Notice what it says. That ye may approve of things that are excellent. That's discerning between what is good and evil, what is right and wrong, what is righteous and unrighteous, that ye may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ. You see that? The grace of God cleaning us up, making us sincere servants and followers of God, being filled verse eleven. With the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ and the glory and praise of God. I'll just listen. I'm on this point. I'm about to move on. I promise. I'm about to move on. But it is a biblical fact that if our profession of the Lord Jesus Christ and our assertion that we have received him has not produced an effect of the grace of God that affects the way that we live.
[00:30:58] Then there is no evidence of the grace of God in our lives.
[00:31:02] Verse eleven, being filled with the fruits of righteousness, receiving the gospel of the grace of God will affect your life and my life.
[00:31:17] It does.
[00:31:19] Wherefore, if any man, being Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away, and behold, all things have become new.
[00:31:28] The reason why so many people have no serious evidence of the grace of God is because they haven't interacted with the grace of God. It's just words.
[00:31:42] Now, going back to acts, chapter eleven.
[00:31:49] Number one, Barnabas saw the grace of God because the grace of God was visible. Second thing I want you to see is this. He had seen the grace of God. Verse, verse 23 of chapter eleven was glad and exhorted them all that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord. So God had already started a work of grace in their life. It was evident to Barnabas.
[00:32:25] But we see from this verse that we have to put forth effort according to God's grace in us. In other words, because God works in us, we can't just sit back on our easy chair and say, well, God's going to do it or it's not going to be done.
[00:32:40] No, God gives us grace to enable us, and he expects us to respond to that grace. Colossians one. If you want to look at that, you're welcome to Colossians one, verse number 29 says this.
[00:33:05] He says, paul says, where unto? I also labor, striving according to his working. You see that?
[00:33:14] Striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily.
[00:33:19] Listen, if you're growing, how many of you feel like in your walk with the Lord that sometimes it's hard, it's a struggle, it's a battle. How many of you feel that way? Can I just give me a little. You don't have to raise your hand necessarily. Just give me a little nod. Almost everybody feels that way. Why?
[00:33:42] You know why? Because you're trying.
[00:33:47] You're trying. There's resistance. You know where that Resistance for a child of God, you know where the primary resistance comes from? Everyone wants to blame it on the devil. In this case, it's not really the devil's fault.
[00:33:59] It's this wicked old nature we've got. It hates God, right? It hates righteousness. This body of ours, it doesn't want to get up and seek the Lord in the morning. It doesn't want to respond well to evil done to us. It doesn't want to think good. It wants to think evil, wants to be critical, it wants to be negative, wants to be hateful, wants to be selfish. And all the commandments of God it hates. Listen, that's the life that every believer lives in as long as we live in this mortal flesh.
[00:34:30] But the fact that you find it a struggle is an evidence of the grace of God, because we are striving, right? Striving according to his working. That means he's already working in us. He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it. He's doing it in us, and he's urging us to get up, and we fall down and we get back up and he pushing us, you need to keep going. You need to keep going. That's what he says. Striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily.
[00:35:03] Paul says, God's working in me and I'm trying, I'm striving. That's a resisting word, right? It's a fight. But he says, I'm fighting. You know what? God's got the wind at my back. The grace of God is helping me, so the grace of God is pushing me along, and I'm also putting forth effort.
[00:35:23] Putting forth effort back in Philippians, I'll share this verse with you real quick, and then we'll move on.
[00:35:50] Be able to find this verse off the top of my head.
[00:35:56] Y'all be able to help me. The verse that says that the grace of God works in us and we respond, it's going to drive me crazy until I find the verse slip my mind.
[00:36:18] But God's grace, I'll just move on. God's grace works in us, and our response to that is to strive, is to put forth effort, is to seek to obey him, even though it's difficult, because it is God who is working in us. It is God who is working in us. Now the last thing I want you to see here is back in Acts chapter eleven.
[00:36:44] Back in our text, it says this.
[00:36:51] He exhorted them all that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord.
[00:36:58] So with purpose of heart indicates that they had to set their mind to it, indicates that they had to put forth effort.
[00:37:07] God wasn't going to do it all for them. Some people say, well, I'll stop doing this besetting sin if God just takes it away from me. He's not going to do it like that. He's going to help you and you're going to have to do. You have to work at it. You have to pray, and you're going to have to fall and mess up, and you have to get back up, and you have to work at it again. You got to fight, you have to battle. You're not going to be able to lay down, expect God to do it every day. Well, I believe in the grace of God. He's already giving you the grace to do. He's already working in your heart. You it. So you see purpose of heart. And then the last thing it says that with purpose of heart, they would cleave unto the Lord. Third thing I want you to see is this, we must cling to God.
[00:37:52] We must cling to God. You see this throughout the book of Acts.
[00:37:56] It usually comes in the form of the word. Continue in Acts, chapter one, verse 14. In acts two, verse 42, acts 13, verse 43, acts 14, verse 22, acts 26, verse 22, you have this concept of continuing. In other words, where you start is where you end.
[00:38:16] He said to these believers in Antioch, now, listen, you've believed in Christ. The grace of God is obviously at work here. I want to tell you, don't back off from the Lord.
[00:38:30] Don't back off. Same word. Cleave is the same word used in a husband and wife. Remember, the husband shall leave his father and mother and cleave unto his wife.
[00:38:38] And just like in a marriage, sometimes you get married, and over time, your grip, right, your grip in love on your spouse loosens.
[00:38:50] Revelation uses the terminology as leaving one's first love.
[00:38:54] You're not really cleaving to the Lord like, you're not really cleaving to your spouse like you used to. There's not that intensity and desire to be close to one another relationally. And so that slips and we make excuses. Well, we've been married a long time. Baloney, Baloney, Baloney.
[00:39:17] You should be closer because that's the same excuse we use in our relationship to God.
[00:39:23] Well, I've been saved a long time.
[00:39:25] I used to do that. I used to do that kind of thing when I first got saved. But, yeah, I've been saved a long time. I've grown.
[00:39:34] Where's the evidence?
[00:39:38] You see, where you end should be the same as where you start.
[00:39:45] And that's the key problem with. And when you see it happen to these new believers in Antioch, and this is what Barnabas is trying to head off. He's trying to say, look, you need to remember that the way you are right now, you're zealous for the Lord. The grace of God is obviously at work in your life. There are effects that I can see now, you need to be careful because the tendency is for you to slip, to pull away, to loosen your grip.
[00:40:12] And I'm afraid there are people that have been saved a long time that still have not purpose in their heart to cleave to the Lord.
[00:40:28] And sadly, they desire to.
[00:40:33] Well, up until this point, at least, they've been saved however many years. And up until this point, they have only loosely held the Lord.
[00:40:42] They don't have the same zeal and desire for God and love for God they once had when they first believed in Christ, when the grace of God was at work in their life. They've loosened that grip.
[00:40:54] Barnabas is saying, you need to purpose to cleave to the Lord. You know, if you're at that point, if I'm at that point, you know what the right thing to do is stop and go right back to God, to the beginning. Revelation, chapter three, chapter two, rather says, do the first works.
[00:41:14] So it says, when they left their first love, Jesus said, you've left your first love, you've fallen. You need to do the first works. You know what that means? That's this in acts, chapter eleven. That's, you need to go back to God, and you need to grab ahold of the Lord once again. And you need to hold on tight like you used to, because the reality is we do slip.
[00:41:40] LOok at first John, real quick.
[00:41:46] Chapter number two.
[00:41:58] First John, chapter two, you. The Bible says in verse number 27, but the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you. Now, what is that? Talking about the anointing?
[00:42:31] This is not a sensational charismatic talk. The anointing is just a reference to the spirit of God.
[00:42:39] Like oil, right? Poured. See, every person that gets saved, the Spirit of God is. This is the picture. It's like the Old Testament. Oil poured on the head of that person who is anointed. You know what you're anointed, Sister Pam. When you got saved, the Lord anointed you. And that anointing oil is still there. This is not something you're waiting on, some hype, some big thing to happen. No, you have the unction, which means anointing.
[00:43:07] The anointing which ye have received, which ye have received of him abideth in you. In other words, God's still working in you.
[00:43:16] Notice it says, but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things and is truth and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.
[00:43:28] You see, what it's saying there. So God is working in you. He's continuing to work in you. And because he's working in you, you're going to abide in him. That's continue. That's grabbing hold of the Lord. The Lord. Listen, here's what I'm saying. The grace of God is not going to let you go. He is not going to stop working in you. And if you're not right with the Lord, and whenever you or I. Whenever we're not right with the Lord, he's not just going to be okay with it. He's going to continue to work in us.
[00:43:55] And now, little children, verse 28, abide in him that when he shall appear, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming. See that?
[00:44:04] The question is about fruitfulness.
[00:44:09] Fruitfulness. Because here's the problem. When we don't cleave to the Lord like we did at the beginning, we start to slip. First Corinthians says that we're all going to give an account to the Lord at the judgment seat of Christ, right? And if we have not built upon that foundation, which is ChriSt, if we do have not built upon that foundation, well, we are still going to give an account, and we will suffer loss. But it says, we will be saved yet so as by fire, all that we've done will be burned up because our grip of the Lord was loose. We weren't fruitful as believers.
[00:44:45] But don't you want to go to God with that first love, with that first grip on the Lord, that ye might appear before him with confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming?
[00:45:01] Don't you want to meet the Lord like that?
[00:45:05] Not just got in by the skin of your teeth and everything you've lived for and everything that I've lived for just burn up to a crisp?
[00:45:14] Because we didn't hold the Lord, we didn't cleave to him, we didn't continue.
[00:45:18] We didn't end where we began.
[00:45:22] This is what Barnabas is trying to tell these people, trying to say, listen, there's going to be a strong tendency for you to slip away from the Lord, and this work of grace will be in vain.
[00:45:36] So I want to tell you, you need to purpose. What does the verse say? Purpose in your heart that you're going to cleave to the Lord.
[00:45:45] Maybe it's time that. Maybe it's time that some of us renew that purpose, that according to the God's grace in us, we know God's working in us and we haven't been responding well to it. Maybe it's time for us to renew that purpose. Let's pray.
