If you have your copies of scripture, let me invite you to turn to Acts chapter 13. This morning we're going to be in Acts chapter 13. We're going to begin with verse 13 and we're going to read to the end of the chapter to verse 52. Again, we have another lengthy portion of scripture, so I would encourage you to listen carefully. And to reread this portion of scripture at some point this week, that you would take the time to go back to look at the details more closely. There's no way that I can cover everything in this, but we're in Acts chapter 13, beginning in verse 13, and we'll reach the end of the chapter down to verse 52. And before we read God's word, let's again go to him in prayer, asking his blessing on it. Let's pray. Father, we come to you needy and poor, naked, spiritually naked and blind. We come, Lord Jesus, for you have counseled us to buy from you gold refined in the fire and white garments and eye salve that we might see our need and our sin and we might flee to you. And so we pray as the word is preached this morning that you would give us those things that you would make us spiritually rich, that you would clothe us with your own righteousness and that you would attend on to our needs and open our eyes to see the great burden of our sins, the need of forgiveness of sins and the grace and mercy that is ours and you, the free and full justification we have. Lord Jesus, we pray that you would send your spirit with mighty power. We pray that your word would be preached and heard to the upbuilding of your church. We pray in your name. Amen. Acts chapter 13, beginning in verse 13. Now when Paul and his party set sail from Paphos, they came to Perga in Pamphylia, and John departed from them, returning to Jerusalem. But when they departed from Perga, they came to Antioch in Pisidia, and went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and sat down. And after the reading of the law and the prophets, the rulers of the synagogue sent to them, saying, Men and brethren, if you have any word of exhortation for the people, say on. Then Paul stood up and motioning with his hand said, Men of Israel, you who fear God, listen. The God of this people, Israel, chose our fathers and exalted the people when they dwelt as strangers in the land of Egypt. And with an uplifted arm, he brought them out of it. Now, for a time of about 40 years, he put up with their ways in the wilderness. And when he had destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan, he distributed their land to them by a lot. He gave them judges for about 450 years until Samuel the prophet. And afterward, they asked for a king. So God gave them Saul, the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin for 40 years. And when he had removed him, he raised up for them David as king, to whom also he gave testimony and said, I have found David, the son of Jesse, a man after my own heart who will do all my will. From this man's seed, according to the promise God raised up for Israel, a savior, Jesus, after John had first preached before his coming, the baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel. And as John was finishing his course, he said, Who do you think that I am? I am not he. But behold, there comes one after me, the sandals of his feet. I am not worthy to lose. Men and brethren, sons of the family of Abraham and those among you who fear God, to you the word of the salvation has been sent for those who dwell in Jerusalem and their rulers, because they did not know him, nor even the voices of the prophets which were read every Sabbath have fulfilled them in condemning him. And though they found no cause for death in him, they asked Pilate that he should be put to death. Now, when they had fulfilled all that was written concerning him, They took him down from the tree and laid him in a tomb. But God raised him from the dead. He was seen for many days by those who came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are his witnesses to the people. And we declare to you good news, that promise which was made to the fathers. God has fulfilled this for us, their children, in that he has raised up Jesus as it is also written in the second Psalm. You are my son. Today, I have begotten you and that he raised him from the dead no more to return to corruption. He has spoken thus. I will give you the sure mercies of David. Therefore, he also says in another song, you will not allow your holy one to see corruption. For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell asleep, was buried with his fathers and saw corruption, but he whom God raised up saw no corruption. Therefore, let it be known to you, brethren, that through this man, is preached to you the forgiveness of sins, and by him everyone who believes is justified from all things by which he could not be justified by the law of Moses. Beware, therefore, lest what has been spoken in the prophets come upon you. Behold, you despisers, marvel and perish, for I work a work in your days of work, which you will by no means believe that one were to declare it to you. So when the Jews went out of the synagogue, the Gentiles begged that these words might be preached to them the next Sabbath. Now, when the congregation had broken up, many of the Jews and devout proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas, who, speaking to them, persuaded them to continue in the grace of God. On the next Sabbath, almost the whole city came together to hear the word of God. But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy and contradicting and blaspheming. They opposed the things spoken by Paul. Then Paul and Barnabas grew bold and said, it is necessary that the word of God should be spoken to you first. But since you reject it and judge yourself unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles for so the Lord has commanded us. I have set you as a light to the Gentiles that you should be for the salvation to the ends of the earth. Now, when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified the word of the Lord. And as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed. And the word of the Lord was being spread throughout all the region. But the Jews stirred up the devout and prominent women and the chief men of the city raised up persecution against Paul and Barnabas and expelled them from their region. But they shook off the dust from their feet against them and came to Iconium and the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit. This ends the reading of God's holy and inspired word. Well, I don't know about you, but there is nothing like unfulfilled promises. There's nothing so discouraging. as unfulfilled promises. I don't know if you have experienced anything like that in your life. When I was 17 years old, I had planned a trip to go from St. Simon's Island to Washington, D.C. to visit a friend who lives many states away. And my friend had agreed to meet me there. I was 17 years old. I got on a train in Savannah. I took the long trip up to Washington, D.C. I got there. I waited for my friend to arrive. I waited. I waited. I waited. I called my friend. And my friend was in bed and had not come on that trip and had failed to fulfill the promise they had promised me. I had asked them several times before. Are you sure that you're going to make this trip? Are you sure that you're able to make it? And these people emphatically gave me their word that they would meet me in Washington, D.C. They did not show up. I remember how heavy hardened and sad I was that they had not fulfilled their promise and all that I had waited for and all that I had looked forward to. Well, it's interesting because the Bible is full of promises. The Bible is a book of promises. It is a book in which God promises his people exceedingly great and precious things. It is a book in which God promises to save his people, to redeem his people, to by himself grant the forgiveness of their sins. That is the great promise of Scripture, the forgiveness of sins. It is the great need of all of our lives. There is nothing that you need more than the forgiveness of sins. There is nothing that you need. You don't need food and clothing as much as you need the forgiveness of your sins. Because on that great day when you stand before the Lord, food and clothing will not matter to you, but whether your sins are held up against you as a testimony will stand. And, you know, the apostle Paul, I think, understood the preciousness of God fulfilling that promise to forgive sins more than probably anyone in the New Testament, because Paul had been that great persecutor, that great murderer. Paul had been that one who had done so much harm to the church, had sought vehemently to destroy the kingdom of Jesus Christ. And so, Paul, it's fitting as we find him in this, his first recorded sermon, focusing on God, fulfilling his promises, focusing on God after so many thousands of years, bringing to fruition the very thing that he had said he would do, what he had told Adam he would do in the garden, what he had told Moses he would do again with the deliverance of Israel, what he had promised that he would send a savior. And there's thousands of years in which The people of God were to wait and wait and wait. God had fulfilled in Jesus Christ. And so Paul's sermon is a sermon of promises fulfilled and the forgiveness of sin being offered freely by faith in Jesus. Well, the last time that we saw Paul, we saw him preaching to a man named Sergius Paulus. He was a ruler. Paul had pastored the island of Paphos. He had been opposed by a sorcerer named Bargesis. God had defended his word, the word had gone out, Sergius Paulus had been converted. And now it's presumable that Sergius Paulus, who was an influential man, had sent word to the synagogues where Paul was heading, that Paul and Barnabas were coming there and that they would have a good word to speak to them, that they would bring good news. And so we see in this text that no sooner do Paul and Barnabas come into the synagogue, that they are asked if they have any word of exhortation, and they are given a platform to preach this first recorded sermon of the apostle Paul here in the book of Acts. Well, this morning, we're going to see two things. We're going to see promises made and waited on. We're going to see promises fulfilled. Basically, promises made and waited on and promises fulfilled. Well, Paul and Barnabas have left. They have gone on their journey. They have come to Antioch and Pisidia. It is a different Antioch. It is not the Antioch where that first Gentile church was formed, but they went directly into the synagogue on the Sabbath day. And Luke tells us they sat down and after the reading of the law and the prophets, the rulers sent to them saying, if you have any word of exhortation, speak on. Now, I think the first thing we have to realize is that the scripture that was chosen that day is the scripture that Paul is expounding. And you might say Luke doesn't say that Luke doesn't tell us that Paul is expounding the scripture that the synagogue ruler had chosen, but it's evident that they read the law and the prophets. They read from the Old Testament. They read, presumably, about David and the kingdom and God's promise to raise up a king like David to restore Israel. And so everything that Paul is going to say is built upon what was read in the synagogue that day. It is not just a random sermon. Paul does not have this sermon tucked away in his pocket that he goes everywhere and reads. Paul hears the word of God. He hears the law and the prophets read and he begins to explain the meaning of it. And it's marvelous because he has a platform. He has an audience to listen to. It is, in a sense, a church. Paul has a congregation of Jews and Gentiles who are there and they're there to hear the word of God. Let me say before I go further that this is very instructive to us because week in and week out, you come and sit and hear the word of God. I think this has much to say to a congregation like ours, that these people here were eager to hear God's word. They were ready. They were faithful. They were committed. And yet we'll see at the end of the passage that many of them hate the right interpretation of scripture. Many of them hated what was said by Paul when he expounded to them the true meaning. of the Bible. And so there's a great warning for us that it is not sufficient that we be listeners to the word. It is not sufficient that we come and sit and listen to the word read. It is not sufficient that we listen to it or read it ourselves, but we must understand it. We must understand what it is teaching and we must embrace it in faith. I think that that's something that the Holy Spirit would have us see from this text that after the reading of the law and the prophet, Prophets, Paul stands up and in verse 16, we see him begin the sermon. He addresses the men of Israel and you who fear God. Listen, he is speaking to those Jews and to those Gentile God fearers like Cornelius, those who were not yet fully converted, but who had committed themselves to the religion of Judaism at this point, to the old covenant religion. They went into the synagogue. They went to the places of worship. They were tired of the pagan religion. These were people who were tired of hearing about the pagan temples and the sexual immorality that went on there and all of the idolatry that Paul will see in Athens. In Acts 17, they were tired of that. And so growing tired, they had committed themselves to the synagogue and to that religion in which there was one God and in which that one God had a law and in which that law structured things. And it called for obedience and holiness and it called for morality. And they had become, in a sense, moral people. And yet this was insufficient. And Paul knew that. Paul, of all people, knew that preaching morality, preaching even Christian morality, preaching being like Jesus without preaching salvation alone in Jesus is another religion. And that is a perversion. And all of Paul's sermon is going to move to the point where in verse 38, he says, look there, let it be known to you, brethren, that to this man is preached to you, that through this man is preached to you the forgiveness of sins and by him Everyone who believes is justified from all things by which he could not be justified by the law of Moses. You see, there are multitudes today in America, in our neighborhoods, even in our homes, who are trying to be justified by what they do. There are multitudes. That is the natural man's religion. man wants to try to work to please God. That is what all men try to do. And that's what these men were doing, even sitting in the synagogue, even listening to the word read. They were trying to be justified by the law of Moses. The response at the end of this chapter of the Jews who oppose the preaching of the gospel shows that. It shows that they didn't want to hear forgiveness of sins in Christ alone. They didn't want to hear justification by faith alone in Christ alone. They didn't want to hear that they were sinful and that He was holy, that He did it apart from them. Because natural man is proud. The natural man has a proud heart. The natural man wants to exalt himself. And so, there's a dilemma. Is the pride in our heart weightier than the need for the forgiveness of sins. Is the pride in our heart heavier? Does it rear up more than the sense of the need that our sins be forgiven? And that is the dilemma. That's the dilemma that all men face. That's exactly what Paul is dealing with in this sermon. Paul is setting forth the free offer of the gospel, that there's salvation in Christ alone, by faith alone, for the forgiveness of sins in him alone. And the natural man, even the religious natural man, does not want to hear that because he is proud and his pride will not let him come to Jesus. His pride will keep him from Jesus Christ and from the forgiveness of sins. We'll notice that the content of Paul's sermon begins with promises made. We see this in verse 15 when Paul begins to set this up. I'm sorry. When he begins to set this up in verse 16 and 17, he begins with these words. The God of this people, Israel chose our fathers. The God of this people, Israel chose our fathers. Paul begins with an election of grace. He begins by speaking about the election of grace. He starts by reminding them that you were chosen by the grace of God, that it was not anything that you did. And if you went back to Deuteronomy, And you went back to hear about God's dealings with Israel. He would say, I chose you not because you're better than the nations, not because you're more numerous, not because of anything that you've done. In fact, you're less than all the nations. You actually are more despised than all the nations. You actually are as sinful as the nations. But I have loved you and I have chosen you to be my people, to be set apart from all the nations of the world. And so Paul reminds them. of the election of grace at the beginning of this sermon. And then he says that God exalted the people when they dwelt in the land of Israel. And then he moves through different stages in Israel's history. He goes through the stages of the judges and then Samuel, the prophet, and then saw the king that God had appointed that first king when they asked for a king, saw the Benjamite. And then finally, and this is where Paul is moving. He is moving to that focus on David, the king. And a lengthy portion of the sermon focuses on David and the promises to David and the kingdom that God said he would establish for David. And so it's presumable that the sermon and the reading, the reading that that day, that Sabbath was about David and was about the kingdom. And so notice what Paul says there in verse 22, when God had removed Saul, he raised up for them David as king. to whom also he gave testimony and said, I have found David, the son of Jesse, a man after my own heart who will do all my will. And so everything stops with David. It stops with David and then and then Paul says. But it was the seed of David, Jesus Christ, it wasn't David, ultimately. David is not the one who's going to restore the kingdom. David is not the true King of Kings and Lord of Lords. No, notice what he says. He says he chose David, who will do all my will. And then he says in verse 23, from this man's seed, according to the promise, God raised up for Israel a savior, Jesus. You see, Israel's entire history was a history of waiting for God to fulfill covenant promises. God had made promises. You know, I still remember vividly standing in the train station in Washington DC and just the brokenness of my heart that I had been, that the promise that I had been made had been broken, that I was alone, that I was, that I had wasted my time, that I had waited in vain. And you know, I think I think oftentimes we can be that way when we think about God's promises to us. We can say, well, where is the promise of Christ's return? Where's the promise that he's coming to make all things right? Where's the promise that he's going to give me peace and I'm going to grow in grace? Why has the Lord told me that he would be with me and dwell in me, and yet I don't sense his presence? And I don't sense the fulfillment of that promise. And so Paul is saying, listen, remember, God fulfilled his promises. He fulfilled that promise that he made to David, that he would raise up a seed to sit on his throne. Paul is going to do is that he's going to quickly move through the history of the life of Jesus, the death of Jesus, into the resurrection and ascension of Jesus and say he is sitting on the throne right now. And right now, as I preach to you, I preach as an ambassador of Jesus, the son of David, who is there and the kingdom of God has come and the promises are fulfilled. But they didn't even know it. They didn't even know it. I longed to see my friend at the train station. I hope that I was standing in the wrong spot. I was looking for the wrong train and that I would see my friend just around the corner. God had fulfilled the promises and they didn't even realize he was there. He was right in the midst of them. Jesus was there. He had come. He had fulfilled them. And the people didn't even know it. And they were going through the motions of going to the synagogue and listening to the word when they should have been marveling at the fulfillment of the promises of God, everything. eternity had broken into time with Jesus. God brought all of His eternal purposes. Everything was fulfilled when Jesus came. Everything. There was nothing left unfulfilled when Jesus came. Nothing. And He came. And Paul tells us that when He came, the seed of David, the Son of David, they condemned Him. In verse 28, they found no cause for death in Him. They asked Pilate that He should be put to death. And when they had fulfilled all that was written about him, they took him down from the tree and laid him in a tomb. God fulfilled his promises, and the people that should have been waiting for those promises, who should have remembered their salvation by grace out of Egypt, that was a salvation by grace, who should have remembered the deliverance of the judges by grace, that was a salvation by grace, who should have remembered God delivering them through mighty King David, that was a salvation by grace, that they should have been ready to receive the gracious words of Jesus. They should have been ready to receive that, and yet they killed him and condemned him, and though they found nothing wrong with him, they crucified him. And they took him down off the tree and they threw him into a tomb. as if they had done away with this troubler of Israel, as though they had done away with this one who claimed to be the Messiah, who claimed to fulfill the promises of God, but had been nothing but an imposter and a counterfeit. And yet notice what Paul says. You can almost sense, you can almost sense Paul's joy as he moves to the fulfillment of promise here. He says in verse 30, but God raised him from the dead, but God raised him from the dead. They took him, they condemned him, they crucified him, they mocked him, they reviled him, they beat him, they put a robe on him, they put a reed in his hand and said, Hail, King of the Jews, prophesy to us who struck you. They spit on him, they pulled out his beard, they killed him, they threw him in a tomb, but God raised him from the dead. And that is where all the power of fulfilled promises come. Paul is going to center on the resurrection of Jesus. And it's almost like God is laughing at the futility of men. Remember, they put a stone over his tomb and they put a seal around it and they put guards there. And they thought they had it protected. And they were afraid that maybe the disciples would steal the body. And then the last deception would be worse than the first. And then everyone would think God had fulfilled his promises in Jesus. And God sends an angel to strike these soldiers dead and the stone is rolled away and Jesus is gone. And he begins to show himself. And so in the fulfillment of these promises, these are promises that are evidently fulfilled through the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. If he had only died on the cross, and he had not been the Messiah, if he had only died on the cross and he had not risen, he would have been an imposter. Had he only died on the cross, like all the thieves and all the criminals and all the murderers did, and he had not risen from the dead on the third day, he would have been an imposter and God would, we would still be waiting for him to fulfill his promises. Yet I want you to notice that there are promises, not just to Israel and not just given throughout that long period to the people of God and to us, there were promises given to Jesus about this event. And this is really this is very intricate and nuanced, and you have to try to track with me. But this is really the substance of our hope and joy. Notice that Paul, in verse thirty three, says God fulfilled this for us, their children, in that he raised up Jesus as it is also written in the second Psalm. You are my son. Today, I have begotten you. Paul quotes now Psalm 2 and then Isaiah 55 and then Psalm 16. He quotes three Old Testament passages, and each of them are promises that God the Father made to God the Son that he would raise him from the dead. And Paul sees in that this inner Trinitarian relationship that the Father was making with the Son and that the Father was saying, my son, In the resurrection, I will beget you again. I will bring you forth from the dead. You will be raised up. You will be regenerated. You will bring with you the new creation. You will be the son for all eternity over all the people of God. You will sit on the throne as the son of David. You will sit there. God the Father promised Jesus these things. These were not just promises to us. They were promised to him. And that's important because he's the mediator. And if he has no promises, we have no promises. And if the promises are not first and foremost given to Jesus, they don't mean anything to us. They have to be given to him. He has to say, yes, my father, I believe your promise. I will do your work. I will obey your will. I will suffer to the point of death and I will bleed to death and be laid in a tomb and I will be raised from the dead because you have promised. You have promised to raise me from the dead. And then notice, quoting Isaiah 55. Paul tells us that the father said to the son, I will give you the sure mercies of David. I'll give you the throne of David. You'll sit on that throne forever through the resurrection. That's the context. Through the resurrection, I will give you the throne of David. I will give you those everlasting mercies that you will rule and reign. There will never be another king. Listen to this. People of God, there will never be another king other than Jesus. No one. There will never be another kingdom that trumps his kingdom. Kingdoms rise, kingdoms fall. Every couple hundred years, kingdoms rise and fall. Jesus's kingdom is everlasting. He is our king for all eternity. He sits now on the throne of God, which is the throne of David. God has fulfilled his promises. He made those promises to Jesus. I will give you the sure mercies of David. And then, quoting Psalm 16, you will not allow your holy one to see corruption. Jesus's body did not decay. It did not rot. They came, they brought spices, they prepared it, but God raised him from the dead so that that body would not see decay and corruption. And then Paul says, look, David's body did see corruption. The promises were not fulfilled in David. They were not fulfilled in Abraham. They were not fulfilled in Moses. They were not fulfilled in any of the great men of the Old Testament. But Jesus did not see corruption. He did not see corruption. His body did not decay for one second. God raised him from the dead. I'll notice where Paul moves here. He moves from promises made to promises fulfilled and When he comes to apply these promises to the people of God, he applies them, as I've said at the beginning, in light of your acceptance, your justification before God. How can you be right with God? That ought to be the question that plagues your mind. Let me just say that. How can I be right with God ought to plague your mind. That ought to be the all-consuming question of your life. How can I be right with God? How can I be right with a God that I've sinned against so many times, a God that I have hated? A God that I have rejected, a God that I have laughed about and my heart despised, even if it's just secret. enmity towards Him. How can I be right with Him? How can I stand before Him and be accepted by Him? This God is a holy God. This is a God who sets the rules. This is a God that precisely brings justice, who will exact all of His wrath, who will pour out all of His justice. He is a just God. He is holy. There's no unrighteousness in Him. How can I be accepted by Him? Well, the Jews and many people, the Jews here in the synagogue and many people today believe that it's by being a good person, by doing good things, by trying to be a good person, by just basically getting along with people or by being religious. And Paul says, no, he says, listen, these promises were given to Israel and they were given to Jesus and they were fulfilled by him so that you may have the forgiveness of your sins. I love Pilgrim's Progress, probably One of my top five favorite books of all time. I love it because here's a man with a burden on his back. Here's a man who has a heavy weight on his back. He's got a family. He has a job. He has a life. He has a house. He has all these things. He has a family that doesn't really care about his journey. He feels the weight on his back. He picks up a book. He begins to read. The book says God is going to brought his judgment on the wicked. He realizes that God is going to destroy this world and judge sinners. And he begins to read and begins to read and he finds the good news. And he realizes that there is a gospel and there's a way for him to find relief. And so he sets out on that journey to find that relief. And he is guided by an evangelist. And at one point he comes to a mountain. And the mountain is this large looming mountain, this dark mountain with fire and trembling and lightning. It's a picture of Mount Sinai where the law was given. And he has been led there by morality and legality, who have told him, just go up there. Worldly wise men, people that tell him, this is the way. Go there. Just be a good person. Do good things. Give your money to charity. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. And that's the way that you find acceptance with God. But Christian felt burdened. He felt burdened. He saw the mountain. He thought the mountain might fall on him and crush him. He didn't feel peace. He didn't feel joy in that way of salvation. And the evangelist comes along and he says, what are you doing? That is not the way. That is not the good news. The good news is in the king who lives in this far distant land. And he's provided atonement. If you go to this cross, you will lose your burden. And Christian goes and he goes. And when he comes to the cross, you'll remember that burden rolls off his back and into the empty tomb. And he's free. He's free of his burdens. And he has joy and gladness. And it doesn't matter what hardships happen. It doesn't matter what he faces now. He is free. He is free. He is forgiven. He said, I have found rest from my sorrows. I found rest from my sorrows. His sins were washed away in the blood of Jesus, and he could face everything that came. He had joy and gladness as he traveled to the celestial city. Well, Paul has preached this gospel. He's preached that everyone who believes in Christ is justified from all things by which he could not be justified by the law of Moses. Then you see the opposition, actually, to these promises fulfilled. You see a change in Paul. Paul has been preaching sweetly. He's been preaching the gospel. He's been preaching good things. He's been unpacking. It hasn't been a lawsuit against these people. It hasn't been a hard, heavy-handed, judgmental sermon. He has preached the glories of the promises of God. But now he turns and he says, beware, lest what is spoken in the prophets come upon you. I imagine that Paul's looking out and he sees the faces of the people he's preaching to, and he sees that some of them don't like it. They don't like what he's saying. They don't like that salvation is not by keeping the law. And so Paul says, beware, lest what is spoken in the prophets come upon you. Marvel and wonder, I work a wonder in your days that you'll by no means believe that one word is declared to you. And so there's a reality as good as this sounds. There's a reality that many will not believe it. As good as it sounds to have your sins forgiven by the work of another, by Jesus Christ, as good as that sounds, that by his grace freely, your sins are forgiven. Most people will reject that even if it's declared to them. Now, the question. we ought to ask is, how ought we to respond? We see the two responses, verses 42 to 52. The first is that the Gentiles begged that these words might be preached to them the next Sabbath. There was an eagerness. They didn't just want to hear the good news one time. They wanted to hear it over and over and over. They wanted to hear more. They wanted the same words to be preached. They wanted the mysteries of the promises of God to be open to them. There was an eagerness. Do you remember, as a new Christian, I do? Vividly, do you remember the first time you heard the gospel in the depths of your soul? I remember where I was. I remember the text that was preached. I went back and read that portion of scripture from Hosea 11, where God said, I will not return in anger. I have loved you. I will not return in anger. I taught you how to walk. I took you by the hands. I led you. I guided you. I remember weeping and hearing that and wanting to go back to church and hear more and hear more and hear more. That is the response of somebody whose heart has been opened by the Spirit of God, who has received these things. The Gentiles begged that these words might be preached to them. Then notice verse 44. And the next time, almost the whole city came together. They went out. They said, listen, there's a way of justification, a way of forgiveness and acceptance made open to us freely. And that it's not by what you do, it's what this man Jesus did. And the whole city came together to hear the Word of God and to hear the good news. The Spirit of God was at work among the Gentiles, among people that had not had these privileges for thousands of years, and the people that had the promises didn't believe. They hardened their hearts, they gnashed their teeth, they drove Paul and Barnabas out. Now the question, the question is why? Why did the Gentiles believe? and the Jews disbelieve. What makes the difference for the Gentiles smarter? They certainly had less knowledge than the Jews of Scripture for the Gentiles, just naturally wiser. Were they more prepared? Had they prepared themselves better? Well, notice, notice what the spirit tells us. The spirit tells us down in verse forty eight. Now, when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified the word of the Lord and as many as had been appointed to eternal life, believed. As many as had been appointed, the word means appointed, it means set or placed, as many as God had appointed to eternal life, believed. Everyone that God had chosen in Christ responded to the preaching of the gospel, to the message of promises fulfilled. When the elect hear the name of Jesus, they respond in faith. It may take many, many years. It may take many, many decades, but all those that God has appointed to eternal life will believe. If you have believed the gospel, you have been appointed by God to eternal life. That's why it's good news. That's why you can say how sweet the name of Jesus sounds in a believer's ears. It soothes our sorrows, calms our fears, and drives away That's why you can sing praises to Jesus. That's why you love to hear about Him. That's why you love to hear about justification by faith alone, that the burden has been lifted, the forgiveness of your sins, that you no longer carry that because God has appointed you to eternal life and He's fulfilling that by fulfilling His promises and sending that out to you. Listen, there's nothing left for Him to fulfill. except to gather together all those who have been appointed. It is our work to take the good news of the forgiveness of sins by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone out to this world so that men might respond as these Gentiles did and as we did when we first believed. If you haven't believed, I hope that you are feeling the weight of your sin. I do hope that. I hope that you feel burdened. That may sound like a mean thing to say. I hope that you are wrestling and that God will not give you rest until you find rest in Christ, that you will feel the burden of your sin, that you will feel the heaviness of it. I hope you do feel that. I felt it. I was crushed by the law of God, and that's what drove me to Jesus Christ like Christian and Pilgrim's Progress. You cannot be justified by what you do, but Everyone who believes in Him will have the forgiveness of sins. All your sins forgiven. All taken away. God says He throws them behind His back. He casts them as far as the east is from the west. He puts them into the depths of the sea. He will never bring them up again. That's what Jesus accomplished. That's what God accomplished in Jesus Christ. Let him who has ears to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the church. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for the good news. We thank you that Jesus is a mighty, victorious Savior. We thank you that you have raised up the son of David, Jesus Christ, to sit on the throne. We thank you, Lord Jesus, that you are sending out the good news as you sent it out in Antioch, Pisidia. We thank you that you have sent it out to us. May it come to us as good news. May it come to us with all the power that we who have been converted knew it at the beginning. May we know it afresh. May it come to those who have never known it. May they cry out to you for the forgiveness of sins, Father. We pray that you would be redeeming those that you have appointed to eternal life. We thank you that nothing will stop the work of grace in the gospel, the everlasting gospel. We pray these things in Jesus name. Amen.