Let me now turn you to the Word of God, and I'm going to turn you to that portion that we had read to us from the Acts of the Apostles and from chapter 28. I'm going to read verse 31, but it's just one phrase that I want to focus on. Let me read the whole of the verse, the very last verse of the Acts of the Apostles. Preaching the kingdom of God. and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence, no man forbidding him." And it's that phrase, with all confidence, that I want to draw your attention to for your encouragement this afternoon. It is a remarkable statement. Here is the great Apostle Paul. He has been arrested. He has been brought by night to Antipatris and then on to Caesarea. Eventually he is brought before the Roman governor. And Tertullus informs the governor concerning the Apostle Paul, and Felix, the governor, hears the charges brought against the Apostle Paul. And he hears the Apostle Paul reason of righteousness, of temperance, and of judgment to come, and we read significantly that as he hears these truths from the Word of God, Felix trembled. And he turns to Paul, when I have a more convenient season, I will call for thee. Oh, Mr. Felix, that convenient season never came. He died without Christ, without God, and without hope. But the Apostle Paul is kept in prison for two whole years under the constant guard of a Roman centurion. He is, we are told in Acts of the Apostles, allowed visits and certain liberties. And his acquaintances, in Acts 24, verse 23, they come and they see him and encourage him in the Gospel. But after two years of confinement in prison, a new governor, Porcius Festus, comes on the scene replacing the corrupt Felix. And he is determined immediately to hear the case that the Jews had brought against the Apostle Paul. And he goes down to Caesarea to hear the Apostle Paul for himself. And he consults with Agrippa. And the Apostle Paul is given the opportunity to speak before King Agrippa and before Porcius Festus. And as Paul preaches the gospel before these two men, we read that Festus accuses the Apostle Paul of being a deranged madman. For thou art beside thyself, much learning doth make thee mad. I am not mad most noble, Estus, but speak the words of truth and righteousness. And he turns to Agrippa and applies the gospel to Agrippa. And Agrippa is almost persuaded to become a Christian, but only almost. And he too dies without Christ, without God. without hope. But in the providence of Almighty God, the apostle has made his appeal to Caesar. Otherwise, he might have been set at liberty. And we are thankful that in the providence of God, he had made that appeal unto Caesar. And Paul is handed over to the Roman centurion, a man whose name is Julius, to be transported safely to Rome. And en route to Rome, the ship is wrecked. And the men jump overboard. And when the soldiers see the prisoners, they are fearful that they might escape and they are about to slay them. When Julius, the centurion, intervenes because he wanted to save the apostle Paul. And we read of that centurion that he treated Paul with great courtesy and with great kindness. But upon arrival in Rome, the apostle is handed over by Julius to the captain of the guard, the captain of the Praetorian band of soldiers, a man who, according to Dr. Gill, is named Boris Afranius. And we read, but Paul was suffered to dwell by himself with a soldier that kept him. For two whole years the Apostle is allowed to hire his own house. But he has a soldier that kept him. Perhaps that was due to the letter which Festus had sent to Rome concerning him, in which Festus had stated that Paul was no common malefactor. A man who might have been set at liberty had he not appealed unto Caesar. We don't know. Or perhaps it was the kindly words of that centurion who had witnessed and heard the Apostle Paul, Julius, moved by the words, by the actions, by the testimony of Paul. Or perhaps the Apostle himself, as a Roman citizen, with no capital charge brought against him, exercised his own right to be placed under house arrest. But having already spent two long years in prison, he now spends a further two years of confinement under house arrest. And Paul dwelt two whole years in his own hired house and received all that came in unto him. He is not at liberty to go to and from that house. He is under house arrest. But not only is he under house arrest, We know that he is under the constant guard of a Roman soldier, for Paul was suffered to dwell by himself with a soldier that kept him under house arrest, under the watchful and constant gaze of a Roman soldier 24 hours of every day, of every week, of every month for those two years. But further we read in verse 20 of Acts chapter 28, because that for the hope of Israel I am bound with this chain. He is a bound man. He draws attention to the Jews that had gone to hear him, to the iron chains that were manacled to his wrists. Bound with iron chains and in all probability there was a chain from his right hand attached to the left hand of that Roman soldier who was guarding him. Under house arrest. Under the guard of a Roman soldier bound with iron chains. You know the Apostle Paul is not downcast. Like you and I might be. He is not disheartened. He certainly is not discouraged. And he certainly is not depressed. He uses the opportunity afforded unto him to preach the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. He received all that came in unto him. So much so that his bonds enabled him to cause the Gospel to be preached and to reach the palace of Nero. We read in Philippians chapter 1, But I would ye should understand, brethren, that the things which have happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the Gospel, so that my bonds in Christ are manifest in all the palace and in all other places. So in that confinement, Under the guard of a Roman soldier, bound with iron chains, the gospel reaches the palace of Nero. And there are souls saved. Because we read in Philippians 4 at verse 22, all the saints salute you, chiefly they which are of Caesar's household. So as the gospel goes into Caesar's palace, there are those in that palace who are saved by the grace of God. The church at Philippi sent him financial assistance by the hands of Epaphroditus. But in that confinement, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, even though his right hand is manacled to the left hand, he writes the letter to the Ephesians. For he says, for this cause I, Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles. In addition, he writes the epistle to the Colossians. For we read in Colossians 4, the salutation by the hands of me, Paul, remember my bonds. Onesimus is converted in that hired house. For we read in Philemon, yet for love's sake I rather beseech thee, being such an one as Paul the aged, and also now a prisoner of Jesus Christ. I beseech thee for my son, Onesimus, whom I have begotten in my bonds." Onesimus is born again of the Spirit of God in that hired house, as Paul is under house arrest. When he writes to the Philippians, he says, even that is for me to think this of you all because I have you in my heart in as much as both in my bonds and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel." So the letter to the Philippians was also written during that two years of confinement and in addition the letter to the Galatians. And if you think that the Apostle Paul didn't write the letter to the Hebrews, would like to disabuse me of such a view because the Apostle Paul wrote the letter to the Hebrews in that two years of confinement and the second letter to Timothy he wrote in that confinement. So we are so thankful to the providence of God that he had made that appeal unto Caesar because through that appeal he is transported to Rome, he is confined for two years And those letters that I've just mentioned were written by the hands of Paul in that hired house. And here we read in verse 31 of Acts 28, preaching the kingdom of God and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence. No man forbidding him, not even the Roman soldier could prevent him. Not even Nero in his palace could prevent him. In the midst of trial, in the midst of affliction, the Apostle Paul could still preach and teach and witness to the things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ and do so with all confidence. Chained to a Roman soldier, his hands manacled together, a chained prisoner in a hired house, dark and fearful days. The Apostle Paul does not waste a second. Every minute is precious. The time is short and he preaches and he teaches and he reasons and he persuades with all confidence those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ. And therefore I ask the question, wherein lies his all confidence? What were the grounds of this all confidence, this supreme confidence that he has? Well, one thing is clear. He had no confidence in himself. When he writes to the Philippians, he puts it like this. For we are the circumcision which worship God in the spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. No, I might also have confidence in the flesh. Any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more. And he lists those things which formerly a soul of Tarsus he had had great confidence in, but then he goes on But what things were gained to me, those I count at loss for Christ. Yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but down scubala, that I may win Christ and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith. No, he has no confidence in the flesh, No longer does he boast of his achievements, his Jewish pedigree, Pharisee of the Pharisee. No, that's a thing of the past, on that Damascus road. As he met with the risen Christ, he was humbled in the dust of the earth, and thereafter he has no confidence in the flesh at all. Too many preachers in our day and age sadly have confidence in the flesh, in their own abilities, achievements, and attainments. two might be humbled in the dust of the earth. So again, I ask the question, wherein lies his all-confidence? And it seems to me there are three grounds of Paul's all-confidence that are mentioned to us in this last chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. The first, the foremost, the principle, is the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. In this, he has all confidence. The third aim of the Trinitarian Bible Society is that we might be instrumental in bringing light and life through the gospel of Christ to those who are lost in sin and in the darkness of false religion and unbelief. The gospel of Christ. That is our confidence, my friend. The Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Listen to the Apostle Paul when he writes in the very next chapter of God's Word at verse 3 of Romans 1, concerning his son Jesus Christ. He gets straight to the point why he is writing to them. He is a man of one theme, of one subject, the glorious work and person of his beloved Savior and blessed Redeemer. concerning his son Jesus Christ our Lord which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh and declared to be the Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead. He goes on at the 16th verse, for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it is the power of God and a salvation to everyone that believeth to the Jew first and also to the Greek. He is a man who is full of Christ. When he writes to the Corinthians, he says, for the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified unto the Jews a stumbling block, unto the Greeks foolishness, but unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God. He goes on in that same chapter, in the next chapter of Corinthians, to remind them how it was that he first went amongst them. He says, for I determined to know nothing among you, save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. You see, he's a man of one theme, a man of one... of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we could cite so many examples. I mentioned the Apostle Paul wrote that letter to the Hebrews. How do I know that? Well, Peter tells me so. People say, well, Paul couldn't have written it because all his other letters, he begins, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, or Paul, a prisoner of Jesus Christ, whereas this one just begins, God, who at sundry times in a diverse manner spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets. No mention of Paul there. There is a very good reason why there's no mention of Paul there. The apostle Paul was not the apostle to the Jews. He is the apostle to the Gentiles, the apostle Peter is the apostle to the Jews, and therefore, in all humility, he doesn't put his name at the beginning of that letter. But he signs off that letter like all the other letters attributed to Paul. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. And Peter, the apostle to the Jews, he writes two letters to Jews scattered abroad throughout the providence of Asia Minor. And in that second letter, he reminds them of another letter they had received. Even as our beloved brother Paul, according unto the wisdom, hath written unto you. By a process of simple elimination, we are left with a letter to the Hebrews. God, who at sundry times, and in diverse manners, spake in time past unto their fathers, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son. Oh, if you want to know what the sermon was, he preached to these Jews here that come to his hired house, read the letter to the Hebrews. As he unfolds the glorious person of Jesus Christ, a man of one theme, of one subject, of one message, Jesus Christ, the one mediator between God and men. Jesus Christ offering that one sacrifice for sin forever. Jesus Christ putting away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. Jesus Christ, God manifest in the flesh. Jesus Christ in whom dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Jesus Christ shedding His precious blood to redeem our souls from the curse of the law that we had broken and to cleanse us from all iniquity. He is full of Christ. Full of Christ. When I was recovering after the operation and undergoing the chemotherapy, I was unable to go out of the house. And therefore, my wife and I would sit and we would listen to sermons by good and godly men. You know, it became apparent to me that we have Men today, well-known men in reform circles, who can preach an entire sermon from beginning to end without once mentioning the name of Jesus Christ. It happened. I challenge you. I have a confession to make. When I sit and listen to sermons, I look at my watch when the preacher starts. And I time how long it is before the name of the Lord Jesus Christ is mentioned. Sometimes you will listen for thirty-five minutes and no mention of Christ. Or they speak of God, don't mention Christ. Perhaps almost as an afterthought towards the end of the sermon they might mention Christ. And as my wife sat with me many a Lord's Day evening listening to sermons, I said to my dear wife, I said, they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him. These are reformed men. These are not men denying precious truths of the scriptures. These are men who believe in the inspiration and the purity and the preservation of the Word of God. These are gospel men. They don't mention Christ. No Christ. You who are preachers amongst This congregation, I plead with you, let Christ be all and in all. Let Him be the sphere, the center, the circumference of all your preaching ministry. The people who sit in the pews, they long to hear of Christ. Sirs, we would see Jesus. Let them see Him, let them hear Him. Let Jesus Christ have the preeminence. And you who are preachers, if you take note, go through your sermons as I have done. I keep all my sermons, all the notes over the past 40 odd years. I've gone through them and I burnt so many. So little of Christ's that have been burnt. Best place for them. Preaching friends, it will be better as we enter the pulpit if we stumbled and broke our necks. if we fail to mention Christ. We are gospel men. Here is the Apostle Paul with all confidence. He preaches, he teaches those things concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, persuading them concerning Jesus. Verse 23, verse 31, teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ. He is full of Christ. Preach Christ and him crucified. That's the first ground of his confidence. The second, which follows on automatically from the first, is that he has confidence in the kingdom of God. It comes out in verse 23 and verse 31 also. In verse 23, to whom He expounded and testified the Kingdom of God. And verse 31, preaching the Kingdom of God. Because He has confidence, supreme confidence, all confidence in the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, it follows that He has confidence in the Kingdom of God. It cannot be otherwise. Impossible for it to be otherwise. the kingdom of God, of God's righteousness, of peace, of joy in the Holy Ghost, the kingdom of grace. Our Lord said, I must preach the kingdom of God. And again, he said, the Lord and the prophets were until John. And since that time, the kingdom of God is preached and every man presseth into it. Oh, my dear friends, let us have supreme confidence in the Kingdom of God, the establishment of the Kingdom of God, Jesus Christ, the sole head of His Church. My dear friends, we are not to be like many in our day who rack their brains wondering what gimmick They can devise to attract a few goats into the church. If I were to stand here and tell you what's going on in churches in Suffolk, some reformed churches, it would make your hair curl. But we have the spectacle in some churches in Suffolk of introducing gardening clubs as a means of evangelism. barn dancers as a means of evangelism. One church, not a reformed church, but a Baptist church, no longer have a gospel ministry Lord's evening. They put a green carpet down and they play carpet bowls as a means of evangelism. I could go on. No, we're not like that. We don't scratch our head wondering what gimmick we can come up with. We don't wring our hands in desperation. We don't hang down our heads in discouragement and console ourselves, oh, we're in the last days. Did not our Lord say, when the Son of Man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth? No, no, we don't hang our heads down in discouragement. We do not despair with Elijah sitting under a reformed juniper tree and proclaiming, I only am left. No. Friends, we have higher thoughts. We have nobler thoughts than these. Did not our Lord say, I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it? Do we believe that? Then why despair? Why be discouraged? Why be downcast? All the powers of hell cannot prevent and cannot prevail against the Church of Jesus Christ, the Church of the Living God, they will all be defeated and Christ will reign. We read of our Lord in Isaiah 53, He shall see of the travail of his soul and shall be disappointed. He shall see of the travel of his soul and shall be satisfied. Then there is that glorious verse concerning the Messiah in Isaiah 42. Wonderful words. Listen. Speaking of the Messiah, He shall not fail nor be discouraged till He has set judgment in the earth and the isle shall wait for His law. Christ will not fail. He is not discouraged. You and I might be discouraged, but He is not discouraged and He is the head of the church. And we are told in that verse in Isaiah 42, And the isle shall wait for His law. Dear friends, I am encouraged to hear of the burden that you have to get the Word of God in many languages into the hands of men and women and young people. But there are isles in Indonesia, there are tribes in parts of Southeast Asia and Africa and Latin America, there are tribes tonight who are waiting for the Lord of the Gospel of Christ to be brought unto them for the first time. Oh, what a privilege is that of the Trinitarian Bible Society to be able to take the Word of God and send the Word of God to the four corners of the earth, to these isles that are even now waiting for the Lord of the Gospel of Christ to be brought unto them. Oh, Christ loved the church and he gave himself for it. He prayed in John 17 on the eve of his own crucifixion, those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost. None of them. There's a wonderful, well, several wonderful verses. Indeed, my wife tells me off for saying these verses are wonderful. Every verse of Scripture is wonderful in itself. But there in the book of the Revelation, in chapter 7, we read there of the church militant. And I heard the number of them which were sealed, and there were sealed 140,000 of all the tribes of the children of Israel. A symbolic number, 144,000, the church militant amidst the trials and the afflictions and the battles of this life. But then, later on, we have a description of the church triumphant in chapter 14 and verse 2, and I heard a voice from heaven and the voice of many waters, and so on. And we read of that same vast multitude, 144,000. In other words, it's the same symbolic number. Not one has been lost. In spite of all the trials and afflictions that take place between chapter 7 of Revelation and chapter 14, not one soul lost. The same number? Forgive me, Mr. Watts, for quoting a hymn. When the road is called up yonder, they'll all be there. They'll all be there. Christ shall see of the travail of soul and shall be satisfied. Oh, my friends, we of all people who believe in the biblical doctrines of predestination, election, and the effectual calling of God's people, I say again, we of all people have no cause ever to be discouraged, disheartened, depressed, dejected in the cause of Christ. None whatsoever. We are to have all confidence in the kingdom of God because we have all confidence in the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. The church of Jesus Christ has never been stronger, never been more glorious than she is this present afternoon. Think of the church triumphant. The spirits of just men made perfect, what a vast number already, our safe home in glory itself. But you know the church militant, we who are here upon earth, the church militant has never been stronger than she is today. We lament the decline in our own land. We grieve. We long for better days. We have read in our history books of what mighty things the Lord has done in days gone by, and our cry ought to be, wilt thou not revive us again that thy people may rejoice in thee? But, my friends, whilst we lament the situation in our own land, look, look away to China. I read a report in the Hudson-Taylors Ministry Report sometime in 2014 of the numbers in China professing to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. And they gave a figure of over 100 million professing believers in the Lord Jesus Christ in China. Look at Mongolia. 1992, 25 years ago, in the whole of outer and inner Mongolia put together, there were but four professing believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. The figure now is well in excess of 40,000. Look away to Nepal. And I could go on. Let's rejoice at what the Lord is doing. He is building His church. Even as I speak here this afternoon, He is building His church. In China, Nepal, Mongolia and other lands. That we can rejoice. Here is the Apostle Paul. He has confidence in the Gospel of Christ. He has confidence in the Kingdom of God. And finally, thirdly, he has confidence in the Word of God. That's brought out in verse 23. to whom He expounded and testified the Kingdom of God, persuading them concerning Jesus, both out of the law of Moses and out of the prophets, from morning till evening." What a sermon that would be! From the first ray of light at dawn to the last flickering embers of the sun at dusk. From morning till evening, here is the Apostle Paul with the Word of God in hand. He turns them to Moses. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy goes on through the historical books, through the poetical books, and on through the prophets, page after page after page after page, showing them, persuading them, reasoning with them those things concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why I say that epistle to the Hebrews is the best commentary on what he preached to these Jews when they came to that hired house. In that letter to the Hebrews, in which are some things hard to be understood, he shows them scripture after scripture, those things concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ better than the angels, better than Moses, greater than the Aaronic priesthood. Oh, my dear friends, he has confidence in the Word of God. You remember the two on the road to Emmaus? And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded of them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. Our Lord said to the Jew, Search the Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life, and they are they which testify of me. I guarantee the Apostle Paul would not be able to preach a 40-minute sermon from the Old Testament without mentioning Christ. He would see Christ on every page of the Old Testament. Here is the Apostle Paul. He has confidence in the Word of God. He does not refer them to the Jewish Mishnah, the comments of the rabbis upon the scriptures. He does not refer them to the tradition of the elders. No, he is a man not just of one theme, the person of Christ. He is a man of one book, the scriptures of truth. For holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. And there in that confinement, he writes that letter to Timothy. in which we have that wonderful verse, all scripture is given by inspiration of God. Paul believes that this book is the inspired word of the living God and because this is the inspired word of God, it follows that this book is without error. It is pure. Indeed, the psalmist tells us in Psalm 12, the words of the Lord are pure words. A silver tried in a furnace of earth purified seven times. The picture that the Psalmist paints is of the silversmith who receives the ore from the mine and he makes a crucible in the earth and builds a fire under it and puts the ore in the crucible and then heats that crucible up to 961 degrees Celsius, the melting point of silver. At that point, the silver melts and is drained off, leaving just base metal and dross behind. But that doesn't satisfy the silversmith. He gets the crucible and he tips that crucible out. All the dross, all the base metal is tipped out. thrown away and it's put back on the fire and that silver that's been once refined is put back into the crucible and heated up again. The process repeated seven times so that the silver which emerges is the finest silver imaginable without any trace whatsoever of dross or base metal. Now, says the psalmist, the words of the Lord are pure words. A silver tried in a furnace of earth purified seven times. so that Aguirre can declare in Proverbs 30, every word of God is pure. Every word. We believe and we ought to believe that this is the inspired and the pure and the preserved Word of God. The Word of the Lord endureth to all generations, Psalm 100 verse 5. We do not have to wait for men like Westcott and Hawke to discover musty old parchments in the Pope's library, or rotting away in a monastery of idolatry at the foot of Mount Sinai. We don't have to wait till some schoolboys wander into a cave, discover some ancient manuscripts, the Dead Sea Scrolls. No, no, we have none of that. The word of the Lord, we are told, endure it to all generations. There will never be a generation in the history of the Christian church that does not have the pure and the preserved Word of God, the inspired Word of God. We of all people who are supporters of the Trinitarian Bible Society, dare I suggest, we of all people are perhaps the only people who can have confidence in the Word of God. Why do I say that? Well, I could have no confidence in one of these modern Bibles, such as the English Standard Version, that changes the words, or the word in 1 Timothy 3, verse 16, great is the mystery of God, and as God was manifest in the flesh. Authorized version. The modern version, such as the ESV, changes that. Great is God's mystery, he appeared in a body. Statement of the obvious, we all appear in a body. I could have no confidence in a Bible that removes that divine title of my Saviour and my Lord in Revelation 1.11 where the risen Christ appears to John on the isle called Patmos and as John turns to see the voice that spake with him, the Lord Jesus says, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last. That title of my Lord is not there in Revelation 1 and verse 11 in the modern version. I could have no confidence in a Bible that removes the whole of Acts chapter 8 and verse 37. If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And the eunuch replies, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. So that now with that verse removed, according to a version like the ESV, it means the eunuch is baptized without any profession of faith in Christ. And I could go on. I repeat, we of all people can have all confidence in the Word of God because we believe that the Lord who inspired this Word has kept this Word pure. He has watched over it with a fatherly care. and preserved it to this day and generation in the Hebrew Masoretic Text of the Old Testament, in the Received Text of the Greek New Testament, and we can have all confidence in those godly men that produce for us the authorized version of the Word of God. Many of those 47 translators, of course, found they could hardly improve upon the work of William Tyndale a century before. William Tyndale said, I would not alter one syllable of God's word against my conscience, nor would to this day, if all that is in the world, whether it be riches or pleasure be given unto me, he was captive to the word of God. As was the Apostle Paul. As were our forefathers. Oh, my dear friends, as I close, I plead with you. Let us have this all confidence. in the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let us have all confidence in the kingdom of God. And let us have all confidence in the word of God. For as we have heard already, God's word will not return void. Amen.