A Great Boast

God’s people would take their
Bibles and turn once again to the Book of Romans, Romans Chapter
15. On another occasion, I Characterize
the day and age in which we live, the people in it is having a
hyperactive confidence in self. Self is literally. At the core
of almost everything that takes place. Where else, for instance,
would you get a slogan that has endured for years, just do it.
As if everything and every ability, every opportunity is readily
at our disposal and all we literally have to do is do it. Our society could be characterized
almost like none other as arrogant, boastful, proud. You have entire industries built
around looks where The way people look is touted and flaunted and
placed before our eyes at every occasion. People boast of their
money, of their financial influence and power. They boast of their
fame. They let their fame literally
become their boast, throwing their weight around everywhere
they go. boast of their accomplishments,
what they have done. People boast of their degrees
in the most creative ways. People boast of their capabilities
and abilities, God given, so they say. I’ve come to the point
where I can almost hardly even watch a sporting event anymore
because of the arrogance, because of the boastfulness that comes
from the players who have long since forgotten where that ability
came from. If they ever knew to begin with.
People boast of their power, their political power, their
influence. How much they do and accomplish. And so the verse before us this
morning will come as utterly shocking that Paul, Paul found
boastfulness. To be an actually a good thing.
Paul engaged in it, he tells us. But it wasn’t just any boastfulness. It certainly wasn’t about his
looks. It wasn’t about his degrees. It wasn’t about his power. It was about his God. And as
we come into this second section of his, the beginning of his
conclusion, I have tried to encourage you, don’t get in a hurry because
I’m not. We come into this section, the
conclusion of Paul’s epistle in chapter 15, verse 13. We come
into some rich detail that Paul provides, not just about the
ministry in general, but about his own ministry. And as we saw
last week about his relationship with the Roman church, that’s
what he’s engaged in in this discussion. But he takes a moment. To do what we would think is
forbidden. It takes a moment to boast. If you would, pick
it up in verse 17, where Paul writes, Therefore in Christ I
have found reason for boasting in things pertaining to God.
For I will not presume to speak of anything except what Christ
has accomplished through me, resulting in the obedience of
the Gentiles by word and deed, in the power of signs and wonders,
in the power of the Spirit so that from Jerusalem roundabout
as far as Elycrium, I have fully preached the gospel of Christ.” We know of boastfulness from
Scripture. We know that it’s a sin. Certainly,
if you go back even to some of the earliest pages of Scripture
and find arrogant attitudes and boastfulness condemned, 1 Samuel
2 3 boast no more so very proudly do not let arrogance come out
of your mouth for the Lord is a God of knowledge and with him
actions are weighed. You can almost take that as the
Scriptures testimony regarding verbal arrogance. The Psalms
speak richly and plentifully about boastfulness. Psalm 5 5
the boastful shall not stand before your eyes. You hate all
who do iniquity. Psalm 10, three, the wicked boasts
of his heart’s desire, Psalm 20, verse 37, some boast in chariots
and some in horses, but we will boast in the name of the Lord,
our God. Dozens and dozens of references
in the Psalms, Paul himself, Paul himself acknowledges that
boastfulness in and of itself is a sin, a great sin. Remember
in Romans one when he opens and he’s basically telling you that
reminding us that. The heathen are utterly sinful,
those without God are utterly sinful, speaking of the entire
Gentile population, everybody outside of the Hebrew nation.
And he gives us what. Is frequently referred to as
the catalog of vices. And it’s in there where he says
that Men are slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful. Hater, inventors of evil, disobedient
to parents. Paul will go on in the book of
Romans chapter three and chapter four to talk about the foolishness
of boasting in the law or in somebody someone’s alleged ability
to hold to the law. When the gospel is readily available
to them. Even Abraham, he said, didn’t
have cause or right to boast before God. Paul deals with both
boastfulness in a number of his letters, and we’ll come to a
number of those this morning in passing. But Paul’s summary
thought on boastfulness, the good kind, could easily be found
in 1 Corinthians. Just listen. The base things
of the world, the despised God has chosen. God doesn’t go looking
for the powerful, God doesn’t go looking for the influential
as if he needs someone with something to bring to the table. Nothing
in my hands I bring, remember? He doesn’t need gifted people,
he doesn’t need, what he needs are sinners that he can transform. things of the world that despised
God has chosen the things that are not so that he might nullify
the things that are so that no man may boast before God. God. God loves an underdog. God loves
an abject sinner. So that in the end, God gets
all the glory. That doesn’t mean that a man
who’s talented. It doesn’t mean that a wealthy
man can’t be saved. Remember one man who said he
was thankful that he was saved by the letter M. What he meant by that was, it
doesn’t say that there aren’t any who are rich that get saved,
but there aren’t many. Paul goes on and says, but by
his doing you are in Christ Jesus. And which of us sinners must say that? It wasn’t by my
own doing. I didn’t go looking for Jesus.
John 9 is essentially my testimony. Jesus came looking for me. And
that’s the testimony of every sinner. By His doing, you are
in Christ Jesus, who began to us the wisdom from God and righteousness
and sanctification and redemption, so that just as it is written,
let him who boasts, boast in the Lord. legitimate boasting. That’s what Paul says is right
and good and proper with regards to boasting. It’s an echo, of
course, of Jeremiah 23, 9, 23 and 24, pardon me. You know the
verse, thus says the Lord, let not a wise man boast of his wisdom.
Let not the mighty man boast of his might. Let not a rich
man boast of his riches, but let him who boasts boast of this. that He understands and knows
me, that I am the Lord who exercises lovingkindness, justice, and
righteousness on earth. For I delight in these things,
declares the Lord.” In what do you boast? In what are you proud? Are you proud of your degree?
Are you proud of your accomplishments? Are you proud of your family
heritage? Are you proud of your race? Are
you proud of the fact that you’re an American? Are you proud of
all the money you’ve been able to accumulate? Are you proud
of the way that you look? Put it all aside. The only thing
a child of God should be proud of is what Christ has done and
accomplished in Him and nothing more. Turn, if you would, to verse
17. Consider it again, and I want
to take the Saints just here’s my habit, my practice. Those
of you who’ve been with me for more than a week know what I
do. It’s the simple sentence, and I want you to see the simple
sentence. Paul says basically this. Therefore,
I have found reason for boasting. Now, he’s obviously playing off
of what he said before, where he talked so richly about his
ministry and he talked about his relationship with the Roman
Church and what God had accomplished through him. But the simple sentence
is, I have found reason for boasting. And if you trace the thought
down, it gets a little complicated. And even I saw several commentators
that actually seem to almost belittle Paul’s confusing approach
here in this verse. We’re going to stop well short
of that, I think it’s absolutely clear what he’s saying. I have
found reason for boasting. And it doesn’t even complete
itself until the very end of the passage. I have found reason
for boasting, I have fully preached the gospel of Christ. That’s
his boast. That’s what he’s so thankful
for. That’s why he’s so proud, not of what he’s accomplished,
but of what Christ has accomplished, accomplished through him. But
Paul begins this section, if you will, by saying, therefore,
And he points to the immediately preceding section. Look at verse
15. He speaks of the grace given
me from God to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles,
ministering as a priest, the gospel of God, that my offering
of the Gentiles might become acceptable, sanctified by the
Holy Spirit. Therefore. That’s the flow of
the passage. Because of this relation that
he has to the Lord Jesus Christ and because Jesus Christ is intimately
engaged in this work on his behalf, Paul would be bold, even boastful. Because he’s not acting on his
own, he’s essentially pointing the finger directly to the Savior
and saying, look at all that the Lord Jesus Christ has accomplished. When he says, I found reason
for boasting, it has a what’s called a durative element. I
found reason for boasting and I did. I did boast and I continue
to boast. I will continue to boast and
boasting will well up in me. It will always be part of my
testimony, declaring the great things that God has done and
continues to do. Paul. Paul is basically pointing
out that this glorying or the boasting that he has allowed
himself to do, that he has actually looked at it and evaluated it
and judged it, deemed it to be good and right and pure before
God. He says this kind of boastfulness
will stand. God allows this. God endorses
this. In other words, it’s a legitimate
glorying. It’s a legitimate boastfulness.
Because it’s a glorying, a boastfulness that is Christ-centered. It’s
all about Jesus Christ. It’s all about what truly is
in God’s interest. It’s a glorying in the results
of His mission as a missionary, a gospel minister. Not His own
achievements, but the works of Christ I observed, I think there are
four sections in this little. Set of passages that we come
before. And four elements of this boasting that I think we
can consider and learn from this Lord’s Day, at least this Lord’s
Day. First of all, the realm of boasting,
and I told you I’m going to take my time. And I think it’s good
that we do the realm of boasting. What is the realm of boasting?
Look at what he says, therefore. In Christ Jesus, I have found
reason for boasting. I have found reason for boasting
in and only in the realm of Christ Jesus. Now, those of you who
have been with us for some time will know that this is essentially
a thought that Paul has already provided us. In fact, some time
ago at some juncture when we were in Romans, I produced a
little booklet. It hasn’t hit the bestseller
list, so they’re still free. But it was basically this consideration
of all the ways that God has blessed us with all the blessings
that God has given us because of our union in Christ Jesus. May I just review a few of those? First of all, what do we have
because of our union in Christ? We place our faith in Christ
and we are literally that’s what Romans six is talking about.
I think I mentioned this in passing last Lord’s Day or recently when
we are baptized into Christ. That’s why I believe in believers
baptism by immersion. We are literally placed into
Christ. That’s the meaning of the word.
We are placed into Christ himself, and I know that’s a difficult
concept for us to even get our arms wrapped around. But you
say, so what’s the benefit to having been placed in Christ?
We know salvation comes from that. OK, what are the benefits? And you can’t even believe how
plentiful these are in the scriptures. First of all, redemption. We
are redeemed because of the fact that we are in Christ Jesus. Romans 321, now, apart from the
law, the righteousness of God has been manifested. being witnessed
by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God
through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe, for
there is no distinction for all have sinned and fall short of
the glory of God being justified as a gift by his grace through
the redemption which is in Christ Jesus. There’s no other way.
You don’t have to apologize. You don’t have to feel bad when
you look to someone of a different religion, Muslim or LDS or whatever
the case may be. You don’t have to apologize or
feel badly that you have this opinion that you’d really rather
keep hidden. But if pressed to the wall, you
would say, well, you know, Jesus is the only way. Jesus Christ
is the only means of redemption. It’s nothing we should be ashamed
of. And from that, almost axiomatically,
it flows eternal life. Romans 6.23, which we just read,
the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal
life in Christ Jesus. We have eternal life because
of our union with, because we’ve been placed in, literally baptized
into, Jesus Christ. Paul says a little bit differently
there in the same chapter Romans 6 11. We are alive in God in
Christ Jesus because we are in Christ Jesus Romans 8 1 says
there is therefore now no condemnation. In Christ Jesus we come to know
and fully experience the love of God. I’m convinced Romans
838 that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities,
nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height,
nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate
us from the love of God, which is in the realm of us having
been placed into, baptized into, in Christ Jesus. Our union with
one another, our unity is in Christ. Our sanctification, 1
Corinthians 1-2, is in Christ Jesus. It is a work of God, the
fact that we are in Christ Jesus. It is the bestowal of liberty,
Galatians 2-4, the liberty that we have in Christ Jesus. It is the means of our justification,
Galatians 2-15 and 16. It is the bestowal of the Spirit
of God, Galatians 3, 13 and 14. It is the foundation of our faith. Romans 5, 18, Ephesians 2, 13. It’s where regeneration comes from.
Resurrection, enthronement, grace, kindness, everything. If you
read Ephesians 2, everything starts flowing our way. as soon
as we are placed in Christ Jesus. We are made partakers of the
promise, Paul says in Ephesians 3, 4 through 7. We are told that we are God’s
workmanship in Christ Jesus. We are spoken of as possessing
sainthood. Tell that to your Catholic friends.
Paul and Timothy, bondservants of Christ, who all the saints
In Christ Jesus, if you place your faith in Christ and you
have been placed into Christ, you have union with him. You
are a saint. You don’t have to die and wait
50 years. What else do we have? Because
of our union with Christ, we have joy. Philippians 3.1, 4.4,
1st Thessalonians 5.16. Because we are in Christ, we
have an upward call towards God. Philippians 3.14. Because of
that, we have peace. We have a supply of our needs.
My God, Philippians 4.19, will supply all your needs according
to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus. We have divine purpose
and grace. 2 Timothy 1.8-9. We have grace. We have salvation.
It’s overwhelming. You look at the rest of the world. They have nothing. If they’re
not in Christ, they have nothing, nothing of lasting value, nothing
of real value, nothing. So when Paul says here. That. I have found reason for boasting
and that reason is only in Christ, he’s taking us far beyond what
he says here to the totality of what he says in Scripture
in all of the the rich blessings of what we own as believers because
of our union with Christ, we have such great cause for boasting. It’s the realm that just as Paul
says he is united by faith with Christ, so his rejoicing and
boasting of the fruit of his labors is in Christ. It’s the only thing there is
to boast. He says, I found reason for boasting. I have boasted,
I will continue to boast because my union with Christ doesn’t
come to an end. When we are placed into Christ,
we can know we cannot get out of that union, we can’t break
that union. If you were never placed there
to begin with. You can get out of it real easy. But if you’ve
been truly placed into Christ, made union with him, there is
no breaking that union. It isn’t that we hang on to God
with some kind of heroic faith. God is hanging on to us. And
it isn’t even that he’s hanging on with his hand. He has enveloped
us. We are in Christ. There’s a second
element that I’d have you see. Not only the realm of boasting,
but look at the topic of boasting. Therefore, in Christ Jesus, I
have found reason for boasting. in things pertaining to God. Now, when was the last time that
you heard a boast? People will boast about all kinds
of things. They’ll boast about their golf
score. They’ll boast about their clothing. They’ll boast about
their spa. They’ll boast about where they
went and who they saw. They’ll boast about how much
they have and how much they made on a certain project or a particular
sale. But when was the last time you
really Heard someone boast in God, it’s rare, isn’t it? Boast
in things pertaining to God, and it’s a very simple point,
and I wish that I could embellish it, but I can’t. In fact, if
you would, the whole rest of the passage is a an embellishment
of that one statement. Boasting and things pertaining
to God, that’s where Paul’s headed. It basically is posting with
regard, boasting rather, with regards to his relationship with
God. It’s boasting with regards to his service. It’s boasting
about the preaching and the fruit of the preaching of the gospel. It’s not about Paul, not about
what Paul had accomplished or his great creativity and his
pulpit presence and all that other stuff. It’s not about that
at all. It’s about God. It’s about what
God has done. And I have you check your heart.
Check your heart and see what it is you tend to boast about. Is it about what God has done?
Or is it about who you are and who you know and what you’ve
done? And what your record is? And who you’re with? How much you have? Third, there’s
a third. I told you it was short. There’s
a third element of boasting and have you to see. Not only the
realm of boasting and the topic of boasting, but the cause of
boasting. Now, he’s already hinted about
this, that it’s things pertaining to God, but he’s going to explain
it. And he does so right here in verse 18 and following. Paul
says, for I will not presume to speak of anything except what
Christ has accomplished through me. Now, don’t be silly, I mean,
we saw commentators that, you know, they Try to say, obviously,
Paul had conversations that were innocuous in general in nature,
you know, so is he, you know, Paul isn’t saying that he wouldn’t
go into a market and have a casual conversation with someone. What
he’s saying here is that when it comes to boasting, when it
comes to to really touting something great. Paul says the last thing
that he’s going to do is speak about himself or what he’s accomplished. Look at the verse, I will not
presume to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished
through me. You know, that’s not always true
for Paul. The guy named Saul, when he before he was converted. He had some things that he would
have boasted about, and he tells us about it in Philippians, doesn’t
he? There was a time when Paul, he was one proud Jewish man. And I’ll tell you how I know
that, because Paul tells us in Philippians 3. I myself might
have confidence in the flesh, which means at one point he did.
He thought, you know what, I’m doing pretty well. I’m advancing
towards the kingdom. God’s got a pretty good deal
with me. Look at all that I do and how I live up to these great
standards of God’s. I have confidence in the flesh.
How so? If anyone else has confidence,
has a mind to put confidence in the flesh, I far more Circumcised
the 8th day. That’s what the law said. That’s
exactly what mom and dad did. Exactly according to the law’s
plan. Of the nation of Israel. I was
born a Jew. Couldn’t get any better than
that. The people of God. The chosen people of God. I was of the tribe of Benjamin. Oh, the glorious tribe of Benjamin. You can almost hear it. He’s
recounting it, but he’s recounting it here with shame. Hebrews, Hebrews, he acknowledges
that that was his mindset at one point. He looked at all other
Jews as being second class. As to the law of Pharisee, the
highest and most noble, the geniuses of the bunch, as to zeal, a persecutor
of the church, that there was a point in time where he actually
considered the killing of Christians to be a service to God. as to righteousness, which is
in the law, found blameless. He actually thought that he was
living according to the law. That was his mindset. But it’s not that way anymore.
I will not presume to speak of anything. And if Paul had access to a computer
today, he would boldface, enlarge the font, underline it, use every
device possible To make that as superlative as could be, I
won’t speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished
through me. Paul wants to recognize that
it’s the Savior and it doesn’t matter what your ministry is.
It doesn’t matter what you’re doing, even if it’s just taking
a tract over to your neighbor. Maybe a kindness, some flowers.
It doesn’t matter what you’re teaching. It doesn’t matter who
you are. It doesn’t matter how big your group is. It doesn’t
matter. It’s the Lord who’s doing it.
It’s the Lord who’s accomplishing those things through you. There’s
an interesting thought in Acts 1.1. In Acts 1.1, You might even call it Luke Volume
2, right? Luke turns to write Acts Volume
2, and he says the first account I composed, Theophilus, about
all that Jesus began to do and teach. Jesus isn’t finished.
He didn’t go up to the throne to sit down and just watch what
happens. Let’s hope they do well with
the gospel. Everything that we ever do, if
it’s good, it’s of God. If it is for the sake of the
gospel and we are doing it as unto the Lord and it gets done,
if there’s any blessing added to it, it’s because the Lord
Jesus Christ did it. It’s not of Paul. It’s not of
you. It’s not of me. And that means
that Jesus is still ultimately the one that’s doing the work.
That’s the whole point of that passage. But Paul basically grabs
essentially a. A twofold qualification here.
First of all, he says, I’m only going to boast of my own works,
and I know that sounds contradictory to what I just said, but what
he’s acknowledging is that his own works were done by Christ.
I’m not going to dare to boast in anybody else’s works, I’m
not going to boast in anything else other than. What I’ve done,
because what I’ve done has been only what Christ accomplished
through me. It’s only his own labor that
he attends to. It’s only that which he’s focused
upon. Boy, would that radicalize ministry in our day, wouldn’t
it? If we stopped looking at everybody else and what we think
they’re accomplishing. And focused only on our own faithfulness. If you would please turn to 2nd
Corinthians. 2nd Corinthians in chapter 10. Because Paul deals with this
whole thing about boastfulness and ministry and arrogance. And in verse 8 he takes up the
matter very clearly. Even if I boast somewhat further
about our authority, which the Lord gave us for building you
up and not for destroying you, I will not be put to shame. He
says the same thing here. Look, I’m going to boast in what
the only legitimate thing to boast is Christ working through
me. For I do not wish to seem as
if I would terrify you by my letters, for they say letters
are weighty and strong, but his personal presence is unimpressive
and his speech contemptible. Let a person consider this. That
what we are in word, by letters, when absent, such persons we
are indeed when present. For we are not bold to class
or compare ourselves with some of those who commend themselves.
But when they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves
with themselves, they are without understanding. Don’t look around
and compare yourself to others and say, oh, woe is me because
I haven’t accomplished as much as him or look at me because
I’ve done so much greater than so and so. But we will not boast beyond
our measure, but within the measure of the sphere which God has apportioned
to us a measure to reach even as far as you. For we are not
overextending ourselves as if we did not reach to you. For
we were the first to come to you even as far as in the gospel
of Christ. Not boasting beyond our measure
that is in other men’s labors. But with the hope that as your
faith grows, we will be within our sphere enlarged even more
by you. In other words, he says, look,
the very fact that the Lord allowed me to come to you and minister
to you is a cause of boasting. There were people saved. There
were people placed into the service of the Lord. And Paul says that’s
reason for boasting, not in me, not in what I’ve accomplished,
what Jesus accomplished. Verse 16. So is to preach the
gospel, even in the regions beyond you and not to boast of what
has been accomplished in the sphere of another. But he who
boasts. There’s the axiom again, he who
boasts is to boast in the Lord, for it is not he commends himself
that is approved, but he whom the Lord commends. I love the
way one pastor said it. Paul’s greatest talent. We would
think, well, he was great evangelist. Great writer of epistles, a deep
thinker. Paul’s greatest talent, he said,
was his ability to enter a completely pagan city. Which practiced devil
worship, gather a group of transformed believers in the name of Christ,
then hover over them in prayer and by constant admonition lifted
them from the most corrupt forms of heathenism to the highest
level of Christian godliness and morality. There’s reason
for boasting. Because it’s the Lord Jesus Christ
that accomplishes it and gets all the glory in the end. And that’s exactly what Paul
says, if you look at the verse. I will not presume to speak of
anything except what Christ has accomplished through me, resulting
in the obedience of the Gentiles. That’s such a curious way to
say that. And it’s almost, it’s almost tied completely to this
epistle. That idea of the obedience of
the Gentiles. It isn’t Paul’s obedience that’s
being spoken about, and what he’s talking about is the obedience
by faith to the gospel. They heard the gospel, they believed
Paul, they placed their faith in Christ because of it. Paul
mentions this in, where are you, in 2 Corinthians? Turn to Romans
chapter 1. I forgot to bring you back into
Romans 15. In Romans, chapter one, Paul
mentions this concept, the obedience of faith. This is whole mission. This could be the obedience of
faith. Could very well be distilled
down to be Paul’s marching marching orders. Look at verse one. Paul,
a bondservant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart
for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through
his prophets in the Holy Scriptures concerning his son, who was born
of a descendant of David. According to the flesh, he was
declared the son of God with power by the resurrection from
the dead. According to the spirit of holiness,
Christ Jesus, our Lord, through whom we have received grace and
apostleship. Why? To bring about the obedience
of faith among all the Gentiles for his name’s sake. And you
know, from cover to cover, Paul treats this. That’s his whole
mission. To bring about the obedience
of faith. And I say that because in Romans 16, 26. Don’t turn,
I’ll be gone by the time you get there. He says it again.
That his name was now manifested by the scripture to the prophets
according to the commandment of the eternal God. He has been
made known to all the nations, leading to the obedience of faith. They placed their faith in Jesus
Christ just as they were commanded to do so. There’s a fourth element
of boasting I would have you to consider. Not only the realm of boasting
Christ Jesus, the topic of boasting that it’s things pertaining to
God, the cause of boasting was everything that Christ had accomplished
through Paul, the particulars of boasting. We’ll close with
this. What are the particulars of boasting?
And the only way to really make any sense of this entire passage,
not the least of which is this verse and a half, is to again
look at the simple sentence. I have found reason for boasting.
I have fully preached the gospel of Christ. Everything in verse
18 and 19 hangs on that statement. May explain that I have fully
preached the gospel of Christ by word. I have fully preached
the gospel of Christ by deed. I have fully preached the gospel
of Christ in the power of signs and wonders. Don’t get nervous,
non-charismatics. I have fully preached the gospel
in the power of the Spirit. I have fully preached the gospel
so that from Jerusalem and round about as far as Ilikrim. Paul said, look, the Lord worked
through me. I took the call by God’s grace. He placed me into service. I
really had nothing to say about it. He put me in his service.
He gave me marching orders. I went out and look what he’s
accomplished. First of all, by word, what does
that mean? By word, well, you could say just his preaching,
but when you think of his defenses. Well, those defenses were amazing
opportunities to proclaim the gospel before Felix before Festus
before Agrippa. Did he go before Caesar? Acts
18, just pick up this one. In Acts 18, he began essentially
his preaching ministry. When he said and he wanted to
go across to Achaia and the brethren encouraged him, so he wrote to
the disciples to welcome him when he arrived He greatly helped
those who had believed through grace, for he was he powerfully
refuted the Jews and publicly in public, demonstrating by the
scriptures that Jesus was the Christ. Paul had this incredible
mind that the Lord used to articulate and defend and argue the points
of the gospel, acts to 17 to rather says that according to
Paul’s custom, he went to them and for three Sabbaths, he reasoned
with them. Now, that is some Bible study,
right? Three Sundays he sat there reasoning
with them through the scriptures, pounding home these points. What
about his testimonies, his testimonies, his incredible testimonies before
the Jews and others before Agrippa, these great opportunities when
he had to tell how he was converted. What a miraculous thing that
must have been to watch people’s eyes as they fix themselves on
Paul and watched as he told this amazing story. What about his
epistles that was word, wasn’t it? These amazing letters to
churches that are so alive, they’re living and active because their
scripture, the word of God and the spirit working through Paul
produced the majority of the New Testament. His preaching,
Who can ever. Ignore his preaching as as being
think of this. Quick tour turned to chapter
nine. Technically speaking, I started
five minutes late. The next chapter 9, look at verse
9, three days labor without sight. He neither ate nor drank, nor
was there a, now there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias. And
the Lord said to him a vision Ananias. And he said, here am
I Lord. As the Lord, the Lord said to him, get up and go to
the street called straight inquire of the house of Judas for a man
from Tarsus named Saul for his praying. And he has seen in a
vision, a man named Ananias come and lay his hands on him so that
he might regain his sight. And from that point forward,
the whole book of Acts, not exclusively, but largely opens up into Paul’s
ministry. We find him almost the next occasion
in Acts chapter 13, where Paul stood up in the midst of all
these Jews and in verse 6 through 41, one of the most amazing,
16 through 41, the most amazing treatment of scripture that the
Jews had ever experienced. Because this was the first time
that the mystery had been removed and that the Holy Spirit was
working through Paul to proclaim Christ to them through their
own scriptures. He does the same thing in Acts
17. Remember, Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus. Men of
Athens, I observed that you’re very religious. He saw this statue
to an unknown God and he unfolds to these heathens, the God of
the scriptures and the Savior and the fact that there is judgment.
But it wasn’t just by word. And this is so powerful, I’m
going to end here. It was also by deed. It wasn’t just by word. It wasn’t just by his testimonies.
It wasn’t just by his epistles. It wasn’t just by his preaching.
It was also by deed. And I’ll let you think about
what that means between now and next Lord’s Day. But God is at
work in Paul. God is glorifying Himself through Paul. God is
saving people and establishing churches and God will be glorified. Humble ourselves before him as
we examine our own hearts and ministries. A merciful king,
we humble ourselves in your presence. And Lord, we think of just how
arrogant our world is. And they’re arrogant out of not
just a desire to tout their own accomplishments and abilities,
But they want to put everybody down. They want to rub people’s
nose in it. They want to shame people. They
want people to feel low. But not Paul. When Paul boasts
and boasts in the Lord, he wants to elevate people. He wants people
to see the greatest and most glorious aspects of the gospel. That Jesus Christ takes dead
sinners and breathes life into them and makes them into be a
new creature fitted for his kingdom. Lord, what a gloriously good
word this is to us as we examine our own ministries. Help us to
never be boastful in what we’ve done or accomplished. Lord, where
we are used by God, grant us the grace to be humble and teachable. We might further be used by you
for your glory. It’s in Jesus’ name that we pray.