And when the Jews were gone out of the synagogue, the Gentiles besought that these words might be preached to them the next sabbath. Now when the congregation was broken up, many of the Jews and religious proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas: who, speaking to them, persuaded them to continue in the grace of God. And the next sabbath day came almost the whole city together to hear the word of God. But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy, and spake against those things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming. Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold, and said, It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you: but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles. For so hath the Lord commanded us, saying, I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth. And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the word of the Lord: and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed. And the word of the Lord was published throughout all the region.
Lo, We Turn to the Gentiles
Beloved
of the Lord……Perhaps the hardest thing to endure in this world, is the
knowledge that though Christ died for all, and God would have all men to
be saved, not all believe, and some of those whom we love most dearly,
are the very ones who push Christ away. From our
perspective this is the tragedy of tragedies, in that we know well our
dear Jesus earnestly shed His blood on the cross to save our father or
mother, our son or daughter, our brother or sister, some stubbornly
refuse to believe. This wound hurts us so deeply, at times it is hard to recover or get out of the grief. I cannot imagine what it was like for our dear Jesus to
sit upon the Mount of Olives as He looked upon Jerusalem, knowing so
many would despise and reject His free salvation purchased by the cross. Who
could imagine the pain of His heart, knowing, they "would not" believe,
or as Paul said, "Seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves
unworthy of everlasting life, lo we turn to the Gentiles."
There
are at least two important points to make here, and one is simply we
should believe the Gospel when we have the chance, lest God take it
away. The other point is that when men stubbornly despise Christ and His Gospel message of forgiveness, "Lo we turn to the Gentiles". In His earthly ministry Jesus didn't get down upon His knees before the Pharisees, begging them to believe. Rather, when they stubbornly would not believe, He admonished them for not believing and simply walked away. "Lo we turn to the Gentiles." If
the despiser will not hear us, we don't beg and plead as if God is a
beggar, rather we take the higher ground and admonish them for their
unbelief. Then we walk away, for there are others who may hear the Word and believe and be saved…. for "The
Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness;
but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but
that all should come to repentance."
I. Cause and effect….the call of the Gospel and that faith which receives the Word. How then do we deal with that question, why do some believe and not others? First and foremost we remember Christ died for all and God earnestly wants all to be saved. After this we remember God's Word is efficacious. This means God's Word itself wherever it is spoken, always carries with it the power to convince and convert. God thus explains, "So shall My Word be that goeth forth out of My mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it." When we consider Paul's audience when he was in the Jewish synagogue, we see the Word of God was not without effect. It had an effect on those Gentiles who heard. "The Gentiles besought that these words might be preached to them the next Sabbath." There were also certain Jews who received the Word as well, being convinced through Christ there was forgiveness of sins. Consider their joy, for throughout their life they had been under the bondage of the law. Try
as they may to keep God's Ten Commandments, they always failed, as we
still fail today, "For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet
offend in one point, he is guilty of all." O how we ought to pity the poor unbeliever today, blinded by the devil's religion of salvation by works. By
the preaching of the law we must break their confidence in their good
works, and by the preaching of Gospel we teach Jesus alone saves by
forgiving our sins.
That is why on the next Sabbath day, "came also the whole city together to hear the Word of God." Certain
Jews and Gentiles having heard and received the Word, they spread the
Word to their friends, neighbors, and loved ones, and the message of
Christ spread like a wildfire through the city. This
was not a false and empty hope which we might hear promised by
politicians, but this was a certain hope with substance and strength for
broken sinners, the Son of God had come in flesh and blood, to save ALL
PEOPLE from sin. Just consider verse 47 of our text. The
Father says to His Son Jesus, "I have set Thee to be a light of the
Gentiles, that Thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the
earth." Clearly, "salvation unto the ends of the earth" means that Christ was sent to be the salvation of ALL PEOPLE with no exceptions. That
Christ was a Light to the Gentiles, was proof to the Gentiles Jesus was
their Savior, for before they only understood the Jews were God's
chosen people. Now they knew Christ came to save the Gentiles also. As Gentiles today then, we too should Jesus is THE Light God sent to save this world from darkness. As Jesus said, "I am the Light of the world, He that cometh to Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the Light of Life." "We preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ."
Knowing
this true Gospel, we must beware of the many false gospels preached by
false preachers who are by far more prevalent in this world. While there are many false gospels, today let us speak of just one: double predestination. This is the teaching that God has chosen some for heaven, and others for hell. Yet
NOWHERE, and again I emphasize NOWHERE does the Bible teach that God
has elected or chosen some for hell, though He does teach the elect are
through Christ chosen for heaven. Double predestination is an argument of reason. Reason says if God chose His elect for heaven, then He must also have chosen the others for hell. How do we respond to such reason? Faith
alone in God's Word has the only proper response, namely "God was in
Christ, reconciling the WHOLE WORLD unto Himself, not imputing their
trespasses unto them." Faith knows God's Word is
always true, and God's Word is above our own reason, for reason itself
is fallible, in that we have this sinful flesh which will gladly reason
the Gospel away, even though the Bible says Christ "died for all" and
"God would have all men to be saved." When false preachers thus preach another Gospel, let us carefully measure and compare it to the Word of Truth, Christ crucified.
From all this we must learn then, how cleverly the devil works to steal the Gospel from our hearts. The
devil hates the Gospel, and wherever the Gospel voice goes forth, there
he is working to steal it away, or silence the voice. That
is why "when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy,
and speak against those things which were spoken by Paul." Their own unbelief concerning Christ caused them to fight against God and prevent that Gospel voice. It
is as Jesus said in John 8, "Ye seek to kill me, because my word hath
no place in you……He that is of God heareth God's words: ye therefore
hear them not, because ye are not of God."
II. Cause and effect….Since you have rejected life, "Lo we turn to the Gentiles"….While
the Gospel message then is the cause of our faith, and faith itself is
the effect of the Gospel cause, there is another CAUSE AND EFFECT we
must speak of today. When God in His pure grace
and mercy brings His saving Gospel to a people, and men by their own
unbelief reject it, there is also an effect from God. Unbelief being the cause, the effect is God taking His Gospel elsewhere. Note
this cause and effect in Paul's words, "Seeing ye put it from you and
judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the
Gentiles, for so hath the Lord commanded us saying, I have set THEE to
be a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation unto
the end of the earth."
What does this mean? Again note those two words, Cause and Effect. When God calls men by the Gospel, and men stubbornly despise Christ and reject Him, the effect is God Himself must turn away. Germany for example once had the pure Gospel, but they despised it and lost it. The same appears true in our own country today. In
essence, unbelief is to push the Holy Spirit away, when the Holy Spirit
works only to give life to the very one who pushes Him away. Thus a man is somewhat like a house and the Holy Spirit comes to visit. He
knocks on the door to man's heart, and the Voice tells him the good
news of salvation, yet the man on the inside throws himself against the
door, preventing the entrance of God's own Spirit. After such, the Holy Spirit then doesn't mill around the door and wait all day. He leaves and goes elsewhere. This
then agrees with the words Stephen spoke just before the Jews stoned
him, "Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always
resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye."
III. "As many as were ordained to eternal life, believed." Does this then mean we who believe did not resist the Holy Ghost, and we are thus saved by our non-resistance? By
no means, for "by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of
yourselves, it is a gift of God not of works lest any man should boast." Our boast then is Christ and not our faith, yet faith boasts Christ! As the Bible says, "They were glad, and glorified the Word of the Lord: and as many as were ordained to eternal, life believed"!
What does this mean? It means dear believer, from eternity God has chosen and elected you for salvation through Christ and not your works. God didn't call Abraham, the first Jew, when Abraham was living a good and holy life. God called Abraham when he was a pagan. Likewise God has elected and chosen us through Christ, when we were yet without strength, when we were the ungodly. It matters not if the Lord brought you to faith as an infant by baptism, or by Gospel preaching later as a teenager or adult. The point is He gave us His grace in the Word, even when we were His enemies living in sin. While
we could all share stories of the many ways the Lord has given us our
salvation by the Gospel Word, what is most important today is that we
"continue in the grace of God" as Paul said, and not depart. If
you are sorry for your sins and believe in your heart that Jesus is the
True Son of God, whose blood purchased for you the full forgiveness of
sins, you are one of God's elect and heaven is your home. God in Christ has given you eternal life, therefore believe Jesus is your way to heaven. "Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world." Therefore
though it grieves your heart and mine, that not all believe, we should
not spend too much time mourning their unbelief, for "Lo we turn to the
Gentiles". Keep praying for their conversion,
keep speaking the Word that they might believe, keep preaching Christ
crucified, but do not let their rejection prevent you from speaking to
others the Words of Life. As Christ has given you
life, share His life with others and "Fear not little flock, for it is
your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom". Rejoice and be glad, "because your names are written in heaven." Amen.
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