Today's a bit of a sad day for me. Not only do we say goodbye to the book of Acts today, but at the conclusion of today's sermon, we say goodbye to Dr. Luke. He wrote more of the New Testament than any other author. And we have spent six out of the last seven years with him. It was on the first Sunday of January 2003 that we started with the Gospel of Luke, and we spent four years there, and then we took a year off, did some other shorter books. And then, beginning of last year, we started in the Book of Acts, and now we've been with him in Acts for 28 chapters, and that comes to a conclusion today. So you'll forgive me if today I'm a little bit nostalgic because I've gotten used to his style. I know that this sounds a little bit crazy, but I consider Luke, even though he's been dead for a couple thousand years, to be one of my best friends. We say goodbye to the book of Luke. But as I say at the conclusion of every book that I preach, the point is not for us to get through the book, but the point of the book is to get through to us. And what is the point of the book of Acts? It is the spread of the Gospel. All that Jesus both began to do and to teach. Acts chapter 1 verse 8. You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem. We see that in chapters 1 through 7 in Judea, and then in chapter 8 in Samaria, and then throughout the most parts of the earth. We see that beginning in chapter 9, when Paul is converted. In chapter 10, when Cornelius is converted. And then we see, beginning in chapter 13, Paul going out. And as Paul goes out as a missionary, chapters 13 through 28, is the gospel making its way from the church at Antioch to Rome. Most recently, where has Paul been? Well, he's gotten into a bit of legal trouble in Jerusalem. He was incarcerated. He was sent to Caesarea for a couple of years and imprisoned there, even though he had done nothing wrong. He'd had several trials, and now he has appealed to Caesar, and in appealing to Caesar, he is shipped off quite literally to Rome, and in being shipped off to Rome, ran into some rough waters, and the ship was torn to pieces, it wrecked, and he was run aground. on the island of Malta where he spent the winter. When the weather was good enough, they got on a ship and they headed north and they touched in Sicily and then went to the toe of the boot in Rome and then sailed a little further north and got on the Appian Way where he has walked all the way to Rome where the brethren came and met him. That's where we are. That's where we are today. Please take your copy of the Scripture and look in Acts chapter 28. We're going to be looking today at verses 16 through the end of the chapter. And in so doing, this will conclude the book. Let's go to the Lord in prayer before we do so. Father in heaven, how we thank you for your word and for the many things that we have learned through your Spirit in the book of Acts and in the book of Luke. Thank you for your servant Luke and for the things that he wrote, for how meticulous he was, for how accurate he was, Lord. But most of all, I thank you by your spirit that you inspired him to give us truth, to give us your very word. And now, Lord, as we conclude this book, we pray that your spirit would be with us One final time, Lord, that it would be a very unusual sermon and that you would be pleased to reveal yourself, Lord, by communicating your truth to your chosen ones. Father, I pray that you'd be with me as I preach, dear Lord, that this would be a message which would be beneficial, dear Lord, beneficial to the believers, that they might be edified, Lord, that it might be convicting to those that know you not. Father, I pray that there would be a true sense of Your Spirit and Your power in Your presence this day. Thank You for the songs that we've sung. Thank You for giving us the opportunity to give. Thank You, Lord, for giving us the opportunity to fellowship and to gather. But now, Lord, most importantly, we thank You for the opportunity to hear from You in Your Word. In Jesus' name, Amen. Acts chapter 28, verse 16. Now, when we and anytime you see we in the book of Acts means Luke is with him. Now, when we came to Rome, the centurion delivered the prisoners to the captain of the guard. That was in just a nasty old dungeon. But Paul was permitted to dwell by himself. with the soldier who guarded him. The way that this would work is that the soldiers would work four-hour shifts. They would be chained to Paul. We'll see later in the text that Paul was in his own rented house. There's Paul with a chain around his wrist. It's a light chain. It's not a heavy chain. And he is chained to a soldier. And that soldier is with him. There's a soldier with him 24 hours a day. And as we'll see, that went on for two years. Verse 17. Now, it came to pass, after three days, that Paul called for the leaders of the Jews together. So that when they had come together, he said to them, men and brethren, though I have done nothing against our people or the customs of our fathers, yet I was delivered as a prisoner from Jerusalem into the hands of the Romans, who, when they had examined me, wanted to let me go because there was no cause for putting me to death. But when the Jews spoke against it, I was compelled to appeal to Caesar, not that I had anything of which to accuse my nation. Let's just stop for a second. Let me explain something. What Paul is saying here to the Jews is I want to see you guys right away, and I want to speak with you. And as we look at that, it's very, very interesting. At the conclusion of the service today, I'm going to be getting in the car with my family, and because tomorrow is Columbus Day, we're going to go across the state of New Jersey and across the state of Pennsylvania, and I'm going to visit my mother. Very glad to see her. Now, what if when I got back on Tuesday morning, and I was speaking with Peter Nicotra, and he said, how was your trip? And I would say, you wouldn't believe the leaves in Western Pennsylvania. They are so nice. And my goodness, you would not believe the gas prices over there. They're so much lower than they are here. And you know what? I got to eat at my favorite restaurant in my hometown. And it was so nice to see some of my friends from high school and just to be in my hometown. So yes, we had a really good trip. What would he probably say to me? What would he say? How's your mother? How's your mother? That's the purpose. That's why we're going. Why was Paul going to Rome? His purpose for going to Rome was what? To appeal to Caesar. As you read Acts chapter 28, there is not one syllable of his appeal to Caesar. Not one word at all. Not one word at all about his time before Caesar. Did he appeal to Caesar? Yes. Did he speak to Caesar? Yes. Do we have any record of that in Acts? No. Do we have any record of that in church history? No. Well, how then do you know that he actually got to speak to Caesar? The answer is because it was promised to him several times before that he would get to do that. Most recently when the ship was about to fall apart in chapter 27 verse 24. when the angel appeared to him and told him that he would speak to Caesar. Now what happened at this trial before Caesar? We don't know. We're left to speculate, but the best that we can put together is that Paul was tried, probably was acquitted, had to put in two years, maybe he was there for two years before he even actually got to see Caesar, but he was released and then we know from church history that he was rearrested and that he was beheaded in Rome. So that's what happened. The other thing that's very curious about this Book of Acts, chapter 28, is that what Paul wanted more than anything else in going to Rome was to see the church. You know that Paul wrote the Book of Romans, which is arguably the greatest piece of Christian literature, the most influential piece of literature that's ever been written. In it, Paul says repeatedly and at length, I long to be with you, the saints in Rome, so that I might impart unto you some spiritual gift. I want to be with you. At the beginning of the book, at the end of the book, he says, I was hindered from coming to you, but now as I make my way to Spain, I'm going to try to get to you. He wrote that on his third missionary journey. What's very curious about the end of the book of Acts is that there is not one word at all about Paul's fellowship with the church in Rome. Not a word about his appeal to Caesar, not a word at all about his, not a word whatsoever about his time with the church at Rome. But rather, what do we see? We see him getting into town getting settled in, three days later making a request. What is his request? His request is, I want to see the Jews, the unbelieving Jews. And we know from history that at this time there were no less than 13 synagogues in the city of Rome. And so he probably told Luke and his friends or maybe some members of the church at Rome, go to all of the different synagogues and bring together the leaders of the Jews, and I want to talk with them. So, that's what I've been reading in verses 17 through 19. Now, in verse 20, we pick it up, and he says, For this reason, therefore, I have called you. I have called you, the Jews, together. to see you and to speak to you. And the reason why is because for the hope of Israel, I am bound with this chain. What's the hope of Israel? The hope of Israel is the resurrection. The resurrection of Jesus Christ. And Paul says that there is a future resurrection. And for this reason, well, that's why I'm incarcerated right now. Verse 21, Then they said to him, We neither received letters from Judea concerning you, nor have any of the brethren who came reported or spoken evil of you." So, Paul, we basically don't know who you are and we haven't, all of these things that you've told us, we don't know that much about you. We're going to make our own judgment on you. We're not predisposed to you one way or another. Verse 22. But we desire to hear from you what you think. For concerning this sect, this sect that we know as Christianity, we know that it is spoken of against everywhere. There's one thing that we know about Christianity, and that is that everywhere that it is and everywhere that it is spoken of, it is spoken about negatively. So we, with our own ears, would like to hear about it. But concerning you, we don't have an opinion one way or another. Verse 23, So when they had appointed the day, many came to him at his lodging. to whom he explained and solemnly testified of the kingdom of God, persuading them concerning Jesus, both from the law of Moses and the prophets from morning till evening. All right. What we need to do now is we need to do a little bit of a Bible study to set this up. This is all part of the introduction. This isn't the main thrust of the message, but this background is very, very important. And that is this. Paul gets into Rome. He doesn't ask for a defense lawyer to help him with his appeal to Caesar. He doesn't ask for the people of the church. He just wants to speak to the unbelieving Jews. As he does, I want you to notice his message. I want you to notice his method. And I want you to notice the length of his sermon. First of all, his message is the Kingdom of God. And when Jesus met with His disciples just before His ascension, when He was with them for 40 days, Luke writes in chapter 1, verse 3 of Acts, that Jesus spoke to them for 40 days about the Kingdom of God. Now, He is meeting with these Jews and He speaks to them about the Kingdom of God and He speaks to them about Jesus. But notice that as he speaks to them about Jesus, his method is to use the Law and the Prophets. Let's do a little bit of a Bible study here, and I want you to turn back to the first book that Luke wrote. Gospel of Luke, chapter 24. Last chapter of the first book. In it, Jesus is walking to Emmaus. And he comes across some disciples. And in it, I want you to notice in Luke 24-27 what Jesus had to say. And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded to them, in all the Scriptures, the things concerning Himself. So, what does Jesus do? Jesus preaches the Gospel to them, and the message is the Kingdom of God, but the method is using the Law and the Prophets for the Old Testament. This is repeated again later in Luke chapter 24 and in verse 44. Notice what that says. And he said to them, these are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses, there it is again, and the prophets and the Psalms concerning me. So what's the message? The Kingdom of God. What's the method? He's using the Word of God, the Old Testament, showing himself in that. And then I want you to notice the longevity of the message. This isn't your typical Ed Moore one hour pithy sermon. But it says, from morning until evening, all day, these Jewish leaders from these 13 synagogues have come together with Paul. Paul who is the greatest preacher ever to preach the gospel. He has this audience in his house for an entire day. They start in the morning and they go all the way until the evening. Now, what is the result of this? Back to the book of Acts. Chapter 28, verse 24, And some were persuaded by the things which were spoken, and some disbelieved. So when they did not agree among themselves, They departed. That's in verse 25. So, when they did not agree among themselves, they departed after Paul had said one word. Now, it doesn't mean that he just spoke literally one word, but he gave them or left them with one thought. What is the one thought that Paul leaves them with? He says, The Holy Spirit spoke rightly through Isaiah the prophet to our fathers, saying, Go to this people and say, Hearing you will hear and shall not understand, and seeing you will see and not perceive. For the hearts of this people have grown dull, and their ears are hard of hearing, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, lest they should understand with their hearts and turn so that I should heal them. Therefore, let it be known to you that the salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles and they will hear it. And when he had said these words, the Jews departed and had a great dispute among themselves. Then Paul dwelt two whole years in his own rented house and received all who came to him, preaching the kingdom of God and teaching the things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence, no one forbidding him. This morning's message is going to be just a little bit different in that I'm going to have to develop a thought. And after I develop the thought, I'm going to use two Old Testament stories to illustrate that thought. And then I'm going to bring it home with six points of application. For starters, let me develop the thought by saying this. When Paul writes in Romans 1.16, I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes. There is an order in which it was presented in the first century church. And at the end of that verse, it says to the Jew first and also to the Greek or to the Gentile. And when Jesus says, you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and Judea, and then it will move to Samaria, and then it will move to the outermost parts of the earth, there is that definite call which was going out in the first century for the message to go, first of all, to the Jewish people. We need to do a Bible study in order for me to demonstrate this. Turn, please, to the beginning of Paul's first missionary journey. It's Acts chapter 13, verse 5. Don't just listen. Turn along and read with me, because this point has to be driven home. Acts chapter 13, verse 5, and I'll try to fly through these as quickly as I can. But you have to have this in the forefront of your mind. Acts 13, 5. And when they, this is Paul and Barnabas, arrived in Salamis, they preached the Word of God in the synagogues of the Jews. Chapter 13, verse 14. But when they departed from Perga, They came to Antioch in Pisidia. And where did they go? They went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and sat down. Number 2. Chapter 14, verse 1. Now, it happened in Iconium that they went together to the synagogue of the Jews. Chapter 17, verses 1 and 2. I'm trying to get through this as quick as I can, but hopefully you'll see the pattern. Now, when they had passed through, Amphipolis and Apollonia became to Thessalonica where there was a synagogue of the Jews. Then Paul, as his custom was, went into them and for three sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures. Chapter 17, verse 10. Then the brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea. When they arrived, where did they go? Well, surprise, surprise, they went into the synagogue of the Jews. Chapter 18, verse 4, this is in Corinth. And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath and persuaded both Jews and Greeks. And then in chapter 19, verse 8, this is in Ephesus, and he went into the synagogue and spoke boldly for three months. Do you see it? Over and over and over. Wherever Paul would go, he'd go into a town and he'd say, It's good to be here. Now, point me to the Jews. Where are the Jews? They're in the synagogue, and Paul would go in, and that is the first place that he would take the message. Paul gets to Rome, end of the book of Acts, nothing changes. When he's there, his primary concern is not his defense. His primary concern is not the brethren that he loves from the church at Rome. His primary concern is, I'm here, and I have to do something while I'm here. I can't go to the synagogue. Because I'm not allowed to leave, I am chained to a Roman soldier, but I can have the synagogue come to me, go out and get these Jewish religious leaders, bring them to me, and let me speak to them the Word of God. He speaks to them the Word of God. Some believe, but some do not believe. They begin to argue among themselves with one another. And Paul says, before you go, I want to leave you with one word. And here's the word. In you, is fulfilled what was written by Isaiah, the prophet. That's the concept, that's the thought. Now, let me leave you with two Bible stories. First Bible story is a very familiar one. There was a woman by the name of Hannah, she couldn't have children. Finally, the Lord blessed her. When the Lord blessed her, he gave her a little boy by the name of Samuel, and she said, I will return this little boy to the Lord for the Lord's service. And so she sent Hannah to live with the priest Eli. Who was Eli? Eli was an old, spiritually dull, fat man who had wicked sons. So here's this little boy Samuel. He's got a little tiny priest outfit. He's got a little ephod that he's wearing, a linen ephod that he's wearing. He's running around. He's like a priest in training, but he's just a little boy and it's bedtime. Samuel's lying there in bed and he hears a voice, Samuel, Samuel. What does he do? He wakes up and he runs down the hall to Eli. He says, you called me? And Eli says, no, I didn't call you. Go back to bed. It must have been someone else. He goes back to bed. Samuel, Samuel, gets up, runs down the hall. You called me? No, I didn't call you. Go back to bed. He's back to bed. He's hearing voices. Samuel, Samuel, again, runs down the hall. Eli, you called me? Finally, this spiritually dull old man says, you know what? Could be that the Lord is speaking to you. Next time you go back to your bed and you hear the voice, Samuel, Samuel say, speak, Lord, for your servant hears. All right. How many of you in some form or another, you don't have to be totally familiar, but how many of you in some form or another have either read or heard that story or heard about that story before? You are familiar with that story. All right. Hands all over the place. Most of you, the majority of you have heard that now. What I would venture to say, and I won't put anyone on the spot, is that most of you probably, probably don't know what the actual message was that God spoke to Samuel. That's what I'd like you to look at. 1 Samuel, chapter 3, verses 10 through 15. I'll read verse 9, Eli said to Samuel, Go lie down, and it shall be, if he calls you, that you must say, Speak, Lord, for your servant hears. So Samuel went and lay down in that place. First Samuel. Look at it with your own eyes, in your own Bible. First Samuel, chapter 3, verse 10. Now the Lord came and stood and called, as at other times, Samuel, Samuel. And Samuel answered, Speak, for your servant hears. Then the Lord said to Samuel, Behold, I will do something in Israel at which both ears of everyone who hears it will tingle. In that day I will perform against Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house from beginning to end." That is the message. For I have told him that I will judge his house forever in the iniquity which he knows, because his sons made themselves vile and he did not restrain them. Therefore, I have sworn to the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli's house shall not be atoned for by sacrifice or offering forever." Do you see the message that this little boy has to deliver? I've got a message for you, and here's the message you have. The man you're living with, I want you to speak to him, and I want you to tell him that he's going down, and that his sons are going down, and that none of them are going to be forgiven, and I'm going to wipe out his house. You see, we think of the story of Samuel as a cute little boy being called into the ministry, but as he's called into the ministry, he is called to deliver a message of damnation. It's over, Eli. Here's your second Bible story. Comes from the book of Isaiah. And when you think about the book of Isaiah, you probably think about two things. First of all, you probably think of Isaiah chapter 53, the story of the suffering servant. Who's believed our report and whom is the arm of the Lord been revealed? All we like sheep have gone astray. The story of the Messiah, the suffering servant. You think about that. And then the second thing you probably think about, if you know your Bible, when you think about the book of Isaiah, is Isaiah chapter 6. I want you to turn to Isaiah chapter 6. We're going to read it in its entirety. When I think about Isaiah chapter 6, I think about the holiness of God. In fact, I think it can be argued that the greatest demonstration in all of Scripture, either Old Testament or New Testament, of the holiness of God, and the holiness of God, by the way, is God's chief attribute. The greatest demonstration or communication of that comes from Isaiah chapter 6. What happened? In the year of the King Uzziah died, the government is in turmoil. I, Isaiah, saw the Lord, that is the Lord Jesus Christ. We know that from John chapter 12, saw the Lord sitting on a throne. And now there are several manifestations of the holiness and the majesty of Christ which are spelled out, which are unmatched anywhere in scripture. I saw the Lord sitting on a throne high and lifted up. And the train, speaking of his royalty, the train of his robe filled the entire temple. We have no concept of how big that building was, but his train is throughout the entire temple. And above it, that is above the throne, stood seraphim, these guardians of the holiness of God, these angels. Each one had six wings. With two, He covered His face. With two, He covered His feet. And with two, He flew. God, in His kindness, provided these angels with wings so that they could cover their faces. And the reason that they had to cover their faces... Now, they've never committed a sin, but they cannot even look upon the holiness of God. That's how holy God is. And what were they doing? They were crying out to one another. And they were saying, holy, holy, holy. With a hymn by that same name. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts. The whole earth is filled with His glory. And we notice in the next verse that even inanimate objects have enough sense to quake and to tremble in the presence of a holy God. Verse 4, And the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of Him who cried out. and the house was filled with smoke. You will not top that in terms of a description of who our God is and how even angelic beings are trembling in His presence. Our God is holy. Then you move on to the next section. And in this next section, I think it can be argued that Probably, this is one of the greatest demonstrations, if not the greatest demonstration in all the Scripture, of one coming under the conviction of sin. Seeing who they are in light of the holiness of God. And so I said, woe is me for I am undone. Again, by show of hands, how many of you have ever heard that phrase or read that phrase before? Woe is me for I am undone. Almost every person in the room has heard that. Woe is me, for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts." And then the next section shows us one of the greatest demonstrations of the grace of God and the mercy of God in cleansing and purifying and forgiving. Verse 6, Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a live coal, which he had taken with the tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth with it and said, Behold, this has touched your lips. Your iniquity is taken away and your sin is purged. And so what do we have? The holiness of God. The conviction of sin and the sinfulness of man. And the grace of God to cleanse. Beautiful demonstrations of all three. Unmatched anywhere in Scripture. But then, and I will say that there is no question on this next one. When it comes to a passage of Scripture which deals with calling someone into the ministry. Calling someone to be a pastor or a prophet or a missionary. The passage of Scripture, the quintessential passage of the Scripture, which deals with calling someone into the ministry, is found in verse 8. In fact, this is the verse that was used by the Lord to call me into the ministry. Also, I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send and who will go for us? And then I said, Here am I, send me. I can remember as clear as a bell that October evening. In 1977, when I sat there as a 16 year old boy having just been saved a few months earlier, I can remember Reverend Ellenberger standing behind the pulpit. He wasn't even preaching the sermon. All he did was sort of as a side note. Maybe it was even between hymns. said the quote from Isaiah, whom shall I send and who will go for us? And then I said, here am I, Lord, send me. And it was as if the pastor had taken an arrow and he had shot it right into my heart. And it was then that God pointed his finger at me and he said, you, you young man, you are going into the ministry for me. That was as clear as a bell. I can remember that. So we have this glorious passage from Isaiah, and you guys have heard all of these things before, those of you that know your Bibles. God is holy. Woe is me, for I am undone. Your sin is cleansed. Here am I, send me. That is all familiar to you, but do me a favor, don't look down at your Bibles and answer this question in your mind. Now that Isaiah has been called into the ministry, what is the message that he is called to go and preach? Don't say it. Just think about it. If I were a Benton man, I'd bet a nickel that most of you don't know the answer to that. Now, look at your Bibles and see what Isaiah is called to preach. You would think, in the light of this, that Isaiah was called to go and preach a great message which would bring about a great revival and which would bring great glory to God and which would advance his kingdom. Not so fast. Verse 9, And he said, Go tell this people. Keep on hearing, but do not understand. Keep on seeing, but do not perceive. Isaiah, I want you to go and preach to these people. And in so doing, I want you, verse 10, to make the heart of this people dull. And I want you to make their eyes heavy and shut their eyes, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their hearts and return and be healed. In other words, I'm telling you up front, Isaiah, you're going to go and you're going to preach this message. And as you do, it's going to have a hardening effect upon the people. They are not going to listen to you. They are going to reject your word. And what's the result going to be? It's going to be devastating. Verse 11, Then I said, How long, Lord? Lord, Lord, how long do you want me to do this? I don't know how long I can do this. And he answered, Until the cities are laid waste and without inhabitation. The houses are without a man. The land is utterly desolate. The Lord has removed men far away. And forsaken places are many in the midst of the land, but yet a tent will be in it and will return and be for consuming like a terebinth tree or as an oak whose stump remains when it is cut down. So the holy seed shall be in its stump. What is he saying? In its immediate fulfillment, what he's saying is there's going to be a Babylonian captivity where Nebuchadnezzar is going to come in and he's going to wipe this city out. There's only going to be about a tenth of the people left. You're going to see that this place, after you are done preaching, is going to be an absolute dump of ruins. Now that's its immediate fulfillment, but its ultimate fulfillment, we know as we read the New Testament, is seen in the year A.D. 70 when Rome comes in and does even to a more devastating effect to the city of Jerusalem what is spoken of here. And it is completely where 1.1 million Jews are killed and it is completely devastated. Why do you point that out? The reason that I point that out is because God inspires New Testament writers to write what they write. Yet, nowhere in the New Testament do I see holy, holy, holy and the story of the seraphim and the vision that Isaiah had repeated in the New Testament. And nowhere do I see the teaching of conviction repeated in the New Testament. Woe is me, for I am undone. And nowhere do I see the cleansing with the tongs from the altar repeated in the New Testament. And nowhere in the New Testament do I see repeated, here am I, send me. But you know what I do see repeated in the New Testament? I see repeated in the New Testament time after time after time. Isaiah chapter 6 verses 9 and 10 speaking of how the people's hearts have grown hard and dull. And I want to take you through a little Bible study of the New Testament and show you how this portion of Isaiah 6, not the famous portions of Isaiah 6, but the infamous portion of Isaiah 6 is repeated and how it is culminated in Acts chapter 28 and then what that means to us. I hope you're with me so far because this all builds upon one another. These aren't just like little segmented thoughts that kind of come together like You know, chicken soup for the soul. You've got to kind of follow the flow here. Let's start in the book of Matthew. When we were children, we were told that parables were heavenly stories with earthly meanings and they were given so that we might understand better. However, if you were to ask Jesus, what is the purpose of a parable? Listen to what he would say. Matthew 13, verse 10. And the disciples came and said to him, Why do you speak to them in parables? And he answered and said, Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. Stop. Pause. Think. Meditate. It says what you think it says. Why do you speak to them in parables? So that they will understand. No, Jesus says, I speak to them in parables because to you it has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom, but to them it has not been given. And the reason I am speaking to them in parables is because I am intentionally trying to confuse them. For whoever has to him will be given more and he will have in abundance, but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. Therefore, I speak to them in parables, because, and this is from Isaiah 6, seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. And in them, that is the unbelievers, the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says, and here you have a quote, It's a Septuagint quote. It's a Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament. Hearing, you will hear and shall not understand. And seeing, you will see and not perceive. For the hearts of this people have grown dull, and their ears are hard of hearing, and their eyes they have closed. Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, and lest they should understand with their hearts and turn. And so I would heal them. Let's move on to the next book of the Bible, the book of Mark. Why are you showing us all of this? I'm showing you that every single gospel author quotes Isaiah 6. Mark chapter 4, verses 10 through 12, Mark makes it much shorter and much simpler. Mark 4, 10 through 12. But when he is alone, Those around him with the twelve asked him about the parable, and he said to them, to you it has been given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God, but to those who are outside, all things come in parables. So that, here we go, Isaiah 6, seeing they may see and not perceive, and hearing they may hear and not understand, lest they should turn and their sins be forgiven them. How about Luke? Luke wrote Luke, Luke wrote Acts. Let's go to Luke chapter 8, verses 9 and 10. He makes it even more simple than Matthew and Mark do. Luke 8, verses 9 and 10. Then his disciples asked him, saying, What does this parable mean? And he said to them, to you it has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to the rest it is given in parables, that seeing they may not see and hearing they may not understand. Paul himself even uses Isaiah chapter six, turned to the writings of Paul. Guess which book? The book of Romans in describing Turn to Romans 11 in describing the relationship between the Jews and the Gentiles and the offer of the gospel and the rejection of the gospel. Notice what Paul says as he uses Isaiah 6 in Romans 11, verses 7 and 8. What then? Israel has not obtained what it seeks, but the elect have obtained it and the rest were hardened. Just as it is written, God has given them a spirit of stupor, Isaiah 6, eyes that they should not see and ears that they should not hear to this very day. Now, according to this verse, how did these people get blind eyes and hard hearts and deaf ears and dull senses? And the answer is, God gave it to them. You say, well, that's a very hard doctrine to swallow. That is an extremely hard doctrine to swallow, but I don't see how you could interpret it otherwise. Couple that with Romans 9.18, which says, therefore, God has mercy on whom he wills and whom he wills he hardens. Romans 11.8 says that God has given them a spirit of stupor. God has given them eyes that they should not see. See, I say all of that to say this, as we begin to bring this to a close and start to bring about the points of application. I say all that to say this. The bottom line of 1 Samuel chapter 3 is not about a little boy waking up in the middle of the night and running to the priest. The bottom line of 1 Samuel chapter 3 is judgment on the house of Eli. And the bottom line message, as glorious as it may be, in Isaiah chapter 6, is not God's holiness, and it's not our sinfulness, and it's not our forgiveness, and it's not Isaiah's calling. But the bottom line message, and how do we know it's the bottom line message? Because it is repeated over and over in the New Testament. The bottom line message of Isaiah chapter 6 is this. You're going to hear the message And unless God opens your eyes and unless God opens your ears, you are going to be dull and dead and disinterested. It is God that hardens and it is God that opens the eyes of the blind. Now, what does this have to do with Acts chapter 28? Well, turn back there one final time. Paul is not just going through some sort of a perfunctory presentation of the Gospel to the Jews. Paul loves the Jewish people. He loves the Jewish people so much that he says that, I wish that I myself could be accursed, if it would mean the salvation of the Jewish people. My heart's desire is that Israel might be saved. And we see him when he goes into Galatia, every place that he goes, into the synagogue. And when he goes on to the island of Cyprus, into the synagogue. And when he is in Ephesus, into the synagogue. And in Corinth, into the synagogue. And every place, Thessalonica and Berea, into the synagogue, into the synagogue. And now he comes to Rome. He can't go to the synagogue. He wants the synagogue to come to him. And one final time, Paul says, at the ends of the earth, to the Jew first. This is the Kingdom of God. This is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And the men that were standing there and listening to this, some of them believed and some of them did not. And when they began to argue among themselves, Paul says, this meeting is over. I just have one more thing to say to you. The last thing I have to say to you is that in you is fulfilled what was spoken by Isaiah the prophet. that you will see, but you will not see and you will hear and you will not hear. God has hardened your hearts, and with that they were gone and they were arguing as they left. How do we apply this six ways real quick? Number one, for those of you that have an evangelistic spirit and you are sharing the gospel, with your friends and with your family members and you are reaching out to people and you are not seeing very much success in terms of conversions. Know this, that if Paul himself, Paul, the greatest Christian that ever lived, Paul, the greatest preacher that ever lived, if Paul himself was unable to persuade the Jews, the Jews who had a background in the Word of God, knew the Word of God well, Paul who was using, Moses and the prophets, if he himself was unsuccessful to evangelize the lost. Application, please don't be too hard on yourself. Please don't be too hard on yourself if you are not able successfully to evangelize the lost, because ultimately the power is not in the evangelist and the power is not in the audience, but the power is in the Lord. And I know people that beat themselves up by saying, I witness all the time and nobody ever gets saved. I talk all the time and nobody ever listens. Please don't beat yourself up. If Paul couldn't do it, you're in good company. Here's number two. We need to be more patient and more kind and more understanding and more loving toward lost people in the same way that we would be toward those who are physically blind. We get angry with them because they don't see what we see. We become angry with them because they do not behave the way that Christians are supposed to behave. Do you understand that they don't understand? It's like these crazy parents that I see that are talking to their children, don't even understand the words that they're saying. And I know that the words that the parents are saying kind of sound like Charlie Brown's teacher. It's the kid is not understanding it, but they are so furious with the child, letting loose on the child, ripping on the child, and the kid just doesn't understand. I'm standing at the sink of a little boy. I've got a washcloth. An adult says to me, ring it out. I've never heard the word ring before. Ring sounds like bring. So I take the full washcloth and bring it out. Drips all over the floor. What's wrong with you? Takes my hand and puts out. Ring it out. We're speaking to people who are blind, who are deaf. who are dull. If I were to take tact and I were to put a blindfold around you and then hand you a book and say, read, read it. What's wrong with you? That's the same attitude that we have toward lost people that are completely dead in their trespasses and sins. And so we need to be more gentle, more kind, more loving, more understanding toward the lost, not tolerating their behavior, but not expecting them to behave like saved people. It says in 2 Timothy chapter 2 that the servant of the Lord must not strive or quarrel, but be gentle unto all and able to teach. Because maybe, perhaps, God will grant them repentance and they will come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil which has taken them captive to do his will. Let's be understanding toward unsaved people and not critical. They can't see. Application number three. Spiritual blindness is passed on from generation to generation. So, fathers and mothers, please know that your sons and your daughters are blind and they got their blindness from you. In Isaiah, God spoke to the people of His day. And Jesus and Paul spoke to the people of their day. And they used the same passage that Isaiah spoke. And I'm using the same passage today. Spiritually blind people get it honest. They've inherited it. We're born spiritually dead. Application point number four. In order for a person to believe, to see, to accept, to receive, they have to be given spiritual eyes. Just like a physically blind person would need an eye transplant or would need eye surgery, they would need something done to them in order to be able to see. They have to be given that ability. 1 Corinthians 2.14 The natural man or the unsaved man does not see or understand or perceive the things of the Spirit of God. He doesn't know them. He can't know them because they are spiritually discerned or they are spiritually perceived. So, It's going to happen. God is going to have to be the one to open their eyes. Application point number five. The means by which God uses to open the eyes of the blind and bring the dead to life and to regenerate them is the preaching of the word of God, the gospel. Let's not forget the part of verse 24 that said that there were some who were persuaded. And let's not forget the last two verses of the book of Acts that said that Paul was there and he would receive all who came to him and he would teach them the gospel and he would tell them about the kingdom of God. Paul could not go out and preach anymore, but people who would come to him would hear the word. And these people who heard, believed, were saved. You see, what I'm talking about today is a very tough doctrine. in terms of the sovereignty of God. I mean, when you think about the fact that it's completely in God's hands. And if somebody sees, it's because God has enabled them to see. And if someone is blind, it is because God has blinded them. That's a tough doctrine. But if we sort it out, it all comes out like this. God has an elect, people whom he has chosen. And they will come. Jesus said in John 6.37, All that the Father gives to me will come to me. And the one that comes to me I will by no means cast out. The Bible also says that there is a non-elect. We've read verses about it already from Jesus' words in Matthew and Mark and Luke. And I didn't even show you. There's one in John chapter 12 which says the same thing. It's another repeat of Isaiah 6. But there is a non-elect, and they are dead, and they are deaf, and they are blind, and they are disinterested, and they cannot come on their own. Jesus said, no one comes to the Father except through me. And then he says, no one can come to me except the Father which sent me draws him. So the question then is, how do we as evangelists sift out the elect from the non-elect? And the answer is, we don't. But we, like Paul, give the gospel to everyone. And if you've been paying attention for the last 28 chapters, hopefully you've noticed that the emphasis in the book of Acts is sharing the Word of God with the unconverted. To the Jew first, and also to the Greek. But telling everybody the good news. Who's going to accept it? Well, that's up to God. Peter begins at Pentecost. He preaches. 3,000 people are saved. Paul goes on his journey. Some people accept. Some people don't. And evangelism is the means by which the elect will be saved. Some of you are Calvinist, you believe that God is sovereign in salvation, and some of you are not, and some of you don't even know what that means. But regardless, as a Christian, you need to know this, that God commands us to spread the good news of the gospel. Are we going to see a lot of success? Maybe, but probably not. I like to go to shows and concerts. I don't so much like the concert. I mean, it's okay. I don't so much like the show. It's all right. I'm not being critical in any way. But what I really enjoy is getting in. And I have, as unscrupulous as I am, I have one personal ethic that I try to follow all the time. That is that I will not pay for tickets. So what I will do is I will stand in front of a venue and as people are walking in, I'll say, I'm looking for one ticket. Does anybody have one ticket? Whether it's a football game or a concert or a play or whatever. I'm looking for one ticket. Does anybody have one ticket? I need one ticket. Yeah, I've got a ticket here. And what the person doesn't know is that I'm unwilling to pay. It's not that I don't have the money. You understand, it's the game. It's the hunt. It's the acquiring of the ticket. I don't care who's playing. I just like getting the ticket. And I'll say, and then they'll walk by and they said, you, do you have an extra? Yes, I have an extra ticket. How much do you want? I want face value. Oh, you'll do much better than me. What do you mean I'll do better than you? I just want, I don't want to make any money. I just want face value. No, you sell it to someone else. You'll do better than me. Well, how much do you want to pay? Well, I don't want to insult you. No, really, what are you willing to pay for the ticket? Well, truthfully, I want a free ticket. All right, I want a free ticket. I paid $100 for these things. So eventually I'll stand there and say, I'm looking for one free ticket. Does anybody have one ticket? I'm looking for one free ticket. Can you give me one ticket? And people will look at you as you're either A, they don't have extra tickets, so they don't want to, they have none to give to you, or they have extra ones and they think, this guy is so cheap, or I've got to recoup some of my money. But how bold, how brash, how insulting he is that he would ask for a free ticket. I'm looking for, I guess it's embarrassing to have the pastor of your church standing out there, I'm looking for one free ticket. You know, like a junkie or a scalper and I'm looking for one ticket. Anybody got one? Do you know it's the doggone this thing. Every show I go to. Somebody's already got always has one ticket, which they do not want any money for, which they are willing to give me. It happens all the time. And I'm only looking for one. But in some ways, I think our evangelism, evangelistic mindset needs to be the same way. To whomever we meet, as Paul would do. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. You are a sinner. You need Christ. You are a sinner. You need Christ. And the majority of people will walk right past you. They will walk right past you. Their ears will be stopped. They will be completely disinterested. They will want nothing to do with it. They will mock you. They will insult you. They will despise you. They will walk right past you. But you know what? Every once in a while, there's that one person that says, will you repeat that? Yes. God loves sinners, and Jesus died for sinners. And whoever believes in Him will not perish. And their eyes will fill with tears, they will drop to their knees, and they will say, God have mercy upon me, a sinner. Now, who is that person? That person is the elect. And I am not here to sift out who is the elect and who is not the elect. I'm just here to tell everybody. And the elect will come. And that's what Paul did. Whoever came to see him, He told them the message. And so let's not let's not calculate this so much. Let's just tell people you don't know. You don't know who the elect are and who the elect aren't. But you do know that you're commanded to go and tell. Which brings me to the last point. Last point. And that is. Tell people, even though you have limitations. Even though you have limitations, maybe your limitations are that you're shy. Maybe your limitation is that you don't know too much. Maybe your limitation is that you're nervous or maybe you're fearful or maybe you become tongue tied or maybe you don't have a lot of credibility. Even though you have limitations, still speak the word. Who had more limitations than a prisoner in a Roman jail with no internet access and with no opportunity to send a radio broadcast. It was Paul. Paul was chained to a Roman soldier. He wasn't allowed to leave for two years. He had major limitations. But yet, what did he do? He told his friends, go out and tell people to come see me. I've got a message for them. And when they came, he would deliver that message. Turn, please, to the book of Philippians. Here's what you can do with your limitations. You can accomplish great things. Philippians chapter 1. I just laugh every time I read these verses. Paul wrote Philippians while he was chained to a Roman soldier. What does he say? writing to the Church at Philippi from Rome. But I want you to know, brethren, that the things which happen to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel, so that it has become evident to the whole palace guard and to all the rest that my chains are in Christ. And most of the brethren in the Lord, having become confident by my chains, are much more bold to speak the word without fear." What is he saying? He's writing to the church at Philippi, and he's saying, you know what? These chains aren't such a bad thing. Because what has happened as a result of these chains is that the man who has chained me, and they switch every four hours, a new guy comes in, and every time he comes in, he thinks that I am chained to him. But the truth of the matter is, he's chained to me. And he can't go anywhere. And so I'm preaching the gospel to the entire palace guard. And what has it done? It has inspired the people in Rome so that now they are even more bold to go and to share the gospel. You see, it was because of Paul's limitation that he was able to spread the gospel more freely and to inspire others to do it. So when you say that you have limitations, yes, I understand. But don't let that stop you from spreading the word. Oh, man, I am so sad right now to be saying goodbye to the book of Acts. How are we going to do this? started with 70 people in Jerusalem. They're fearful. They're huddling in an upper room. They get filled with the Holy Spirit. They speak in other tongues. Peter stands and proclaims the gospel. 3,000 are saved. Persecution, persecution, persecution. Kicked out of every decent town. And as they're kicked out of one town, they take the gospel to another. And in the end, it comes to Rome. How are we going to do this? We need to be filled with the Holy Spirit and take this gospel to the ends of the known world. Let's start in Bayside. Let's take it to Flushing. Let's take it to Richmond Hill. Let's take it to Yonkers. Let's take it to Fort Lee. Let's take it to the ends of the earth. How do we do it? By caring for one another, having all things in common, as they did in the book of Acts. By obedience, living lives so that when people see us, they see that we've been with Jesus. By prayer, by fellowship, by the breaking of bread, by sound doctrine, by giving, by sharing, by going. In Acts chapter 28, well, that's where it ends with Paul. He has taken the message to the Jew first. Now he says, I'm going to take it to the Gentiles and they're going to hear. But what is Acts chapter 29? Acts 29 is not in your Bible. Acts 29 is a way of saying that we have to take the gospel where we live and to the ends of the earth. Are you willing to do that? See, if you've learned a lot, if you've learned a lot about the missionary journeys of Paul and the early church, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, well, good for you. If you didn't learn from this time we had together in Acts that you need to take this gospel to the lost, then let me say that you have not learned anything. I pray that you have learned. I pray that you have learned. Let's stand together to be dismissed.