God-Honoring Ministry Part 4

Let’s turn once again to the
book of Acts, Acts chapter 20, where we have been considering
and reviewing Paul’s example in the faith, Paul’s example before the Ephesian elders,
and we have begun to ferret out some principles for ministry. I have suggested a title of Marks
of a God Honoring Ministry. It allows us to look at Paul’s
example in the ministry, to look at Paul’s life as he set himself
before the Ephesian elders, and essentially to examine our own
respective ministries in light of his example. The first time,
as we have seen, Paul came through Ephesus, it was brief. They literally
begged him to stay. He did not consent, but he did
promise, if the Lord wills, that he would return. He did return,
and he had a long and full ministry with them. It lasted nearly three
years. And it was there that he cultivated this very unique
relationship with Ephesus, business-like, almost matter-of-fact, and that
would characterize Paul’s interactions with them, really the remainder
of his days. Even in the epistle that he writes
to Ephesus, you have some of that same tone with which he
speaks to the Ephesian elders here in this particular passage.
In this passage, as we have seen, Paul knew full well that his
ministry to Ephesus was likely over. We’ve talked about this
before and it is very plausible that Paul was released again
and given opportunity to visit in a missionary journey, if you
will, that was not recorded in the scriptures. But Paul would
go on, as we talked about, to write his epistle to the Ephesians,
and that would close out his formal, or at least the formally
recorded part of his ministry. Paul is nearing the completion
of his third and final missionary journey. That said, we’ve already
acknowledge that there may well have been a fourth journey that
went unrecorded in the New Testament for God’s purposes alone. But
Paul is nearing the end of this journey. He is traveling on his
way to Jerusalem. He has a very specific purpose
there. We’ll review that this morning. But he pauses in a little port
city named Miletus and he beckons to him the leaders of the church,
the elders, and We pick that up beginning in verse 17 of Acts
chapter 20. I’ve already suggested that there
are eight marks here of a God-honoring ministry. You may find others,
and we could have a good discussion about that. I’ve already suggested
to you two, and we’ll pick up a third this morning. Beginning
in verse 17. From Miletus, he sent to Ephesus
and called to him the elders of the church. And when they
had come to him, he said to them, you yourselves know from the
first day that I set foot in Asia, how I was with you the
whole time serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and
with trials, which came upon me through the plots of the Jews. How I did not shrink from declaring
to you anything that was profitable. teaching you publicly and from
house to house, solemnly testifying to both Jews and Greeks of repentance
toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. And now, behold,
bound in spirit, I am on my way to Jerusalem, not knowing what
will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit solemnly
testifies to me in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions
await me. but I do not consider my life
of any account as dear to myself so that I may finish my course
in the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus to testify
solemnly of the gospel of the grace of God. And now behold,
I know that all of you among whom I went about preaching the
kingdom will no longer see my face. Therefore, I testify to
you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all men. For
I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole purpose of God. Be on guard for yourselves and
for all the flock among which the Holy Spirit has made you
overseers to shepherd the church of God, which he purchased with
his own blood. I know that After my departure,
savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. And
from among your own selves, men will arise speaking perverse
things to draw away the disciples after them. Therefore, be on
the alert, remembering that night and day for a period of three
years, I did not cease to admonish each one with tears. And now
I commend you to God. and to the word of his grace,
which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance
among all those who are sanctified. I have coveted no one’s silver
or gold or clothes. You yourselves know that these
hands ministered to my own needs and to the men who were with
me. In everything, I showed you that by working hard in this
manner, you must help the weak. And remember the words of the
Lord Jesus that he himself said, It is more blessed to give than
to receive. When he had said these things,
he knelt down and prayed with them all. And they began to weep
aloud and embraced Paul, and repeatedly kissed him, grieving
especially over the word which he had spoken, that they would
not see his face again. And they were accompanying him
to the ship. The first thing that we noted
about this passage I was reminded again of it this past week, how
confused we make the church. In this past week I heard the
word layman used by a respected friend as if that is a formal
feature of the local church, and it’s not. And we sometimes
stammer at terms, and I just have always preferred to use
Paul’s terms, that when Paul refers to those in the church,
he usually refers to them as the saints, the set apart ones,
the sanctified ones. They’re not laymen. The other part that I heard is
just this tendency there is to create a hierarchy within the
church. You know, the very right reverend, And even if you refer
to all the leaders in the church as elders, there’s the elders.
There’s the teaching elder, and he’s over and separate and distinct
from the others. Or there are pastors, and then
there are elders that kind of fill in the gaps for the church.
When Paul called the leadership of the Ephesian church to himself,
he didn’t call the pastors. He didn’t call the layman. He
didn’t call the elders and the deacons, he called the elders.
And when he called them to himself, he said, shepherd the church,
pastor the flock, and exercise oversight in that process. What
a beautiful concept, to just take God at his word, very simple. Well, the other feature that
we noted in this church, or in this passage rather, were these
I statements. where Paul sets himself forth
as an example to do as I do, essentially is what Paul says.
And he calls these leaders to himself and over and over and
over again, he drives this point home of his example before them. He calls that to their memory.
He calls them to remember His service among them, that He was
giving them an example even before He articulated it as such. I’ve already noted two of these
particular examples that we’re considering in the marks of a
God-honoring ministry. Paul wasn’t boasting. Paul was
doing everything that he did by the grace of God. But Paul
is calling to mind his example before these Ephesian elders
so that they too might, by the grace of God, become examples
to others. Paul would later say, these things
pass on to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.
That’s our calling. That’s our calling. To find a
godly example and to follow that godly example until which time
we become the godly example for another generation of believers. The marks of a God-honoring ministry.
We noted first of all that Paul’s personal testimony gave us this
first mark. A ministry that honors God firstly
is characterized by undaunted service. Not just service and
service to Christ as we said, but it was undaunted service.
It wasn’t going to be stopped by difficulties that came his
way. It wasn’t going to be stopped by persecution or even tears
of difficulty, tears of fatigue, tears of heartbreak. None of
those things stood in the way of Paul serving Christ. I was
with you the whole time, he says, serving the Lord with all humility
and with tears and with trials. None of those things would stand
in the way of Paul serving his Lord. And I pose the question
to you, who do you serve? Because if you’re serving people,
you’ll never have the perseverance to see it through to the end.
You just won’t. How do you serve? As unto Christ?
Why do you serve? To gain the accolades of men?
That won’t carry you very far. We saw a second mark of God honoring
ministry from Paul’s personal testimony. A ministry that honors
God is characterized secondly by a commitment to proclaiming
the gospel. Now this one on the face of it,
people probably bristled up because the gospel is never mentioned
in this few verses, 20 and 21. But the closer we looked at it,
we saw that there’s only one thing that Paul could be talking
about there. Look back at verse 20 when Paul said, I did not
shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable.
Well, we saw there that profitable isn’t just talking about, you
know, good as opposed to bad. It’s talking about the best as
opposed to even all those other good things. The most profitable
thing. Well, we know that Paul holds
in the very highest regard the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ,
even contrary to what so many in our own day and age hold to. They hold to a kind of a gospel,
but it’s an incomplete gospel. It’s a fabricated gospel, if
you will. It’s a gospel of man’s own making. And as Paul would say, there
aren’t two gospels. It’s not really the gospel at
all. The gospel is the story of the
Lord Jesus Christ. It is the account of His coming
on behalf of sinners. sent by God to take on the penalty
of sin, and to bear that penalty as a perfect sacrifice, and to
pay that penalty, and then to have the blessing of God to bestow
His righteousness on whom He will. Well, that profitable announcement,
whatever Paul is talking about there, it can only be one thing.
And Paul said that I did not shrink, I didn’t fall back, I
didn’t try to cover it up, fold it up and put it away. I stood
boldly before the world and I preached the gospel, the only profitable
thing, the only profitable message that mankind needs. gospel of the good news of the
Lord Jesus Christ. We saw that it was not only profitable,
but it was for Jews and Greeks. It was here that God opened up
magnanimously his good news of salvation to the Gentile world. That had always been the plan.
That’s what Israel was tasked with doing, was becoming a light
to the nations. But they had failed miserably.
And now they had taken the gospel only to themselves. They took
all of God’s blessings and and promises only to themselves. But now Paul, Paul said that
he went about preaching to both Jews and Greeks. And he went
about in that third mark that indicates that this is the gospel.
This is the only thing that Paul could be talking about here in
this passage. It was about repentance. Not just a change of mind about
sin, but a direct about-face, 180 degree turn, turning one’s
back on sin, and turning to God in mercy and in repentance. Not
only that, but the fourth indicator there that Paul can only be talking
about the gospel here, is that he talks about faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ. And so Paul was absolutely committed
to proclaiming Christ. And that really was all he was
about, was proclaiming Christ, proclaiming the gospel, telling
people the good news. And he says that I did not shrink
from declaring anything that was profitable. I did not hold
back from preaching to anyone the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ. But we come this morning And
how are you doing with this? Are you discovering other examples
that Paul gives to you? Because that’s what we’re doing.
We’re examining our own ministries in light of what Paul himself
did, how he conducted himself. And if you pause and are humble
enough to objectively evaluate yourself before his example,
I would say that like me, you have a lot of growing to do,
don’t you? As we notice these things, as
we notice these I statements, we either have to let them stand
as so much boasting, grandstanding before people, suggesting of
what He had done, or we take them as if they are really presented
to us. They are examples, grace-given
examples for our profit, for our benefit. We come to the third
this morning. As we look at the marks of a
God-honoring ministry, we see that a ministry that honors God
is characterized not only by undaunted service and a commitment
to proclaiming the gospel, but the faith in God to proceed into
the unknown. Faith in God to proceed into
the unknown. Look at verses 22 and 23. where Paul recounts, and now
behold, bound in spirit, I am on my way to Jerusalem, not knowing
what will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit solemnly
testifies to me in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions
await me. Paul was on his way to Jerusalem,
and just to refresh and remind, Paul, it was recorded in Acts
19.21, Paul had purposed, I love the way he says that. It reminds
me of what he had just articulated. If the Lord wills, When we say
that we have purposed to do such and such, it leaves room for
the sovereign direction of God, doesn’t it? But Paul purposed
in the spirit to go to Jerusalem. He had set his face in that direction.
He was proceeding there in order to wrap up his third missionary
journey. And may I remind you the purpose
of this journey. As Paul closed out the book of
Romans, remember Romans? Paul said, I’m going to Jerusalem
serving the saints. Which saints? Because everywhere
Paul went, it was believers. But he’s going to Jerusalem specifically
for the purpose of delivering a gift. A gift that he had garnered
from the Macedonian churches primarily, where they contributed
to the needs of the Jerusalem saints. Paul, went about, and
it records a variety of visits to Jerusalem through the course
of his ministry, but this particular ministry was a mission all its
own. It was a mission of mercy. You
see, a famine had struck the land in Jerusalem, and everyone
there was in a pinch, and Paul directed by God, reached out
with this merciful and magnanimous gift. And so it’s this service
that Paul was going to render that would be a symbol of unity
by the Gentile church. When Paul wrote the Corinthians,
here’s what he said to them. One of the several churches of
Macedonia. Now concerning the collection
of the saints as I directed the churches of Galatia, so do you
also. And these verses are so fascinating
that this is where we get many of our principles of giving,
of collecting the offering, of taking the offering. Concerning
the saints as I directed the churches of Galatia, so do you
also. On the first day of every week,
the Lord’s day, Each one of you is to put aside and save as he
may prosper. It’s not the 10% deal anymore.
It’s not the tithe. As the Lord blesses you, set
it aside ahead of time. These are good principles that
we do well to focus in on with regards to our giving. Purpose
ahead of time. Make it an act of worship and
let it start on Saturday night or even earlier in the week if
need be. put aside and save, as he may
prosper, so that no collections be made when I come. When I arrive, whomever you may
approve, I will send them with letters to carry your gift to
Jerusalem. And if it is fitting for me to
go also, they will go with me.” Well, now obviously plans had
changed, because Paul wants to steward this thing himself. The
Corinthians’ response is so powerful and so praiseworthy that Paul
mentions and boasts about them to the rest of the Macedonian
churches. And he’s not being manipulative
in this. He wants people, he wants this
to be a generous gift of the Gentile church. He wants people
to have a hand in it, if you will. And the Macedonians respond. And they respond incredibly,
so much so that Paul turns around and uses their example back on
the Corinthians to spur them on to greater levels of service. The word that is used so often
in the context of this gift is, it’s translated so blandly that
we miss it a lot of times. We tend to think of it as a contribution.
But it really, what it refers to is an act of partnership. It was an act of fellowship.
What Paul was doing by stewarding this gift to the Jewish church
by the Gentiles, what he was doing was blending the two into
one. in their hearts. God had done so already, but
what Paul was doing was taking this gift and he was knitting
their hearts together in purpose, in commonality. The word points to something
far beyond just a gift, just an offering. I was talking with
a brother this week that one of my long maintained dreams
is to have a liaison between us and whatever missionary we
support so that we can send him there and he can go and serve
among them and find out what their priorities are, find out
what their needs are, serve how he is able for a season, and
then come back and fully report to us what their needs really
are. and how deeply those needs can
be met by us. See, we tend to think of mission
support as we write the check, you know, we even do it early,
put it aside early, put it in a special envelope of its own,
missions, and we’re done. Paul said, that’s not even close. Listen to how the Corinthians,
when Paul spoke to the Corinthians, how he characterized the Macedonian
church. He said they were begging us
with much urging for the favor of participation in the support
of the saints. When was the last time that you
wrote on your little missions letter? Oh, thank you. Thank you for letting us have
the privilege before God to participate in your ministry. That’s the
truth. That’s the truth and that’s the
nature of this word. It’s communion. In a very practical
way, it’s oneness. I love the way Robert Haldane
characterized this whole theme of a participation in the support
of the church. He said, it appears that God
in all ages places some of his people in circumstances where
they’re required to be assisted, Jerusalem. while he renders others
to be able to assist, the churches of Macedonia. Because this mutually
attaches them to each other as well as tries them. Jesus said
it quite simply, where your money is, there will your heart be
also. To write a check to SGA does
not go far enough. We need to be part of their ministry.
We need to have, we need to cultivate this privileged partnership.
That’s what Paul’s doing. Paul is going as an emissary.
I’m sure Paul contributed to this offering, but so much of
it was from the Gentile churches which had come to Christ. The
fascinating thing as you step back, what Paul does, is he presents
to the Galatians the example of the Corinthians. He goes to
the Corinthians with the example of the Macedonians. He goes back
to the Corinthians with the example of the Macedonians. And then
he uses that as an example to the church in Rome. Just a fascinating
thing. And he uses this argument. If the Gentiles had shared in
their spiritual things. God had magnanimously opened
up the gospel to the Gentiles. No longer, it never was in God’s
mind, but no longer was the gospel perceived in the world to be
only a piece of good news for the Jews. And with that news,
with that reminder that they had been opened to the privilege
of enjoying the spiritual things of God, they’re indebted to minister
also in the material things. Money is a, money is far less
of a blessing than spiritual riches, right? Paul said it this
way to the Corinthians, if we sowed spiritual things in you,
is it too much we reap spiritual things from you? And so it was
in that context that Paul is going to Jerusalem with these
gifts that were a reaction to what God by His grace had done
in the Gentile churches throughout Macedonia. Paul’s going with
this gift and in this gift it’s going to remind the Jewish church
that they are now part of a privileged partnership. There is a oneness
that God is going to bring from this. Paul had been collecting
these contributions for some time, and now it’s time. Listen
to how he refers to it. Bound in spirit. You know what’s fascinating if
you look back at this? There was no ecclesiastical body compelling
him to this task. No church, not the Corinthians,
not the Macedonians, no formal church said, Paul, this is what
we want you to do. In a very real sense, this was
Paul’s undertaking. This is Paul’s appeal. There
was no church dictating this mission. God had called him to
this particular ministry. The Spirit was guiding him in
this particular mission. And Paul was compelled by his
convictions to do the right thing, to see this through. You get
the sense when he writes back to the Corinthians, finish it.
You started well. You had big plans. You made this,
what we call nowadays, a faith promise. And he basically writes
to him in 2 Corinthians and says, okay, where is it? Write the
check. Paul is bound in spirit to bring
this monetary gift from the Jerusalem church to the famine stricken
church in Jerusalem. There’s a little bit of a wrinkle.
Everywhere he goes, everybody says, you’re not going back to
Jerusalem, are you? Are you crazy? That’s essentially
what they present before him. Look at verse 22 again. And now
behold, bound in spirit, I’m on my way to Jerusalem, not knowing
what will happen to me there. Well, that’s a funny thing to
say. not knowing what will happen
to me there? I mean, we could all say that about our own respective
weeks ahead. You see, the problem was that
Paul had been made keenly aware that very difficult things could
befall him and even would befall him if he went to Jerusalem.
What Paul’s saying here is that I just don’t know the specifics.
Look at verse 22, not knowing what will happen to me there,
except that the Holy Spirit solemnly testifies to me in every city,
saying that bonds and afflictions await me. Now there had probably
been others perhaps who reported and maybe there were a variety
of these reports, but Paul had determined through the course
of receiving several of these, he says every city, Paul had determined that this
message, this recurring report that he was getting from believers,
was really oriented in the throne room of God. It came by way of
the Holy Spirit. Paul put great stock in these
things. Paul didn’t doubt the report that was being presented
to him. Paul had been called by the Holy
Spirit to this work, and now he’s staring these reports in
the face. Just following Acts chapter 20,
there’s an interesting thing that takes place. A prophet named
Agabus. came down from Judea and coming
to us, he took Paul’s belt and bound his own feet and hands
and said, this is what the Holy Spirit says. In this way, the
Jews at Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt and deliver
him into the hands of the Gentiles. Well, that’s a pretty graphic
image. To have somebody borrow your own belt, bind their hands
and say, this is what’s coming, Paul. So when Paul says, not
knowing what will happen, he doesn’t know precisely, he doesn’t
know exactly when, but what Paul exhibits here is just amazing. And it really is a mark of the
saints of God in all ages, including our own. Faith in God to proceed
into the unknown. Paul didn’t know exactly what
was going and that everything pointed to great difficulty.
But Paul is proceeding anyway. And we could take a great lesson
from this, couldn’t we? You see, we like everything mapped
out. That’s part of the reason we
carry Visa. Visa is everywhere we want to be, just in case,
right? We don’t like surprises. We don’t like things that come
as difficulties. We like it all mapped out. We
like it predictable. We like to know what we’re doing
and what’s basically going to transpire when we get there.
We like what’s called the safe bet. You know, we’ll take a little
bit of inconvenience, perhaps, but we don’t like to step into
the complete unknown. We like to minimize our risk,
right? We like things comfortable, frankly.
We like it all just orderly and comfortable and predictable,
mapped out. We like smooth sailing. We don’t
like uncertainty. We don’t like surprises, especially
if they’re potentially negative. You want proof? The psychic services
industry. Sounds strange, doesn’t it? I
didn’t even know there was such a thing. Psychic services. But
you think about it, yeah, that’s probably true. There is an entire
industry built around telling people what’s going to happen.
Just so you won’t face any surprises. So you can plan, right? You can
plan ahead. I didn’t even know there was
such an industry, but Americans, as educated as we are, as smart,
and as in control as we are, see, that’s how we explain this. That’s why so many people read
the horoscope, so they can plan ahead, right? We want to figure
it out. As smart and as in control as
we are, we want to be wise. Understand what’s coming. We
spend approximately two billion dollars a year on this nonsense. All in the pursuit of discovering
the future so that we can reduce our risk, uncover future pitfalls
and troubles, see what’s coming. Not Paul. Paul was perfectly
content, even with these reports, even attributing them to the
Holy Spirit, to move forward, even knowing, as he articulates
here, that likely bonds and afflictions await him. The bonds, we know
what those are, and Agabus illustrated it for him, that he was going
to be shackled, more than likely, bound, held against his will,
but it’s the afflictions. It’s the afflictions that usually
get to people. It’s one thing to be imprisoned. It’s one thing to be restrained,
but it’s another to be constantly tormented by your captors. And
he knew that that was gonna be part of it as well. But you know
what the amazing thing is? We take this at Paul and we think,
man, this really is a good example. Paul’s one of the greatest examples
of faith in God to proceed into the unknown that we’ve, well, come to think of it, he’s
one of many. If you would take your Bibles
and turn to Hebrews chapter 11. In Hebrews chapter 11, we tend,
I’ve heard this referred to as the hall of faith. We tend to
look at each individual child of God as they’re recorded in
scripture, and kind of see how they measure up according to
their level of faith. And here we see Paul exhibiting
great faith, and we tend to think that he was alone in that, but
he wasn’t. Well, here in Hebrews 11, the writer captures the essence
of faith, and then he begins to give many, many examples of
faith in scripture. Hebrews chapter 11 verse 1, now
faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the convictions of
things not seen. In Paul’s case, it wasn’t the
bonds that he was looking forward to. It was the freedom from those
bonds in eternity with Christ. Paul knew that there was a heaven.
Paul knew that there was more to this life. Paul knew that
there was value in serving Christ. Faith is the assurance of things
hoped for, the convictions of things not seen. For by it, by
that faith, men of old gained approval. That’s how they proved
themselves. By faith, we understand that the worlds were prepared
by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things
which are visible. We take it in faith that God
made the world. And then he begins to recount
a number of these great heroes of the faith. And I’m not going
to go through every one. There just isn’t time. But I’ll
go through a few. Look at Noah, verse 7. And there’s this pattern. By faith, Noah. By faith, Abel. By faith, Enoch. But look at
Noah. By faith, Noah. Being warned
by God about things not yet seen. Namely, rain. Noah, there’s gonna be a flood.
You can almost imagine, what’s a flood? Because he’d never even
seen rain. There’s going to be this water
that falls down out of heaven, and it’s gonna come in such measure,
in such force, that the entire globe is gonna be flooded. By faith, Noah, being warned
by God about things not yet seen, in reverence, which is always
a key to stepping out in faith, taking God at his word, loving
God in a practical measure, in reverence prepared an ark for
the salvation of his household by which he condemned the world
and became an heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.
Noah took God at his word. God said there’s going to be
a flood, Okay, if there’s gonna be a flood, there’s gonna be
rain, and God’s word is true, I better get busy. Look at verse
eight. By faith, here’s this pattern
again. By faith, Abraham, here’s another
chief of the children of God in the
exercise of faith. By faith, Abraham, when he was
called, obeyed. by going out to a place which
he was to receive for an inheritance, and he went out not knowing where
he was going. What a fascinating thing in context
of what Paul’s being called to do. God just said, go. And Abraham said, okay, you know,
we’d want a map. We’d first want to check our
finances, right? We’d want to You know, we’d want to set up
something on that end. Reservations, right? We want
to have it all squared away. Here’s how Abraham did it. In Genesis 12, now the Lord said
to Abraham, go forth from your country and from your relatives
and from your father’s house to the land which I will show
you. I will make you a great nation. I will bless you. I will
make your name great. You should be a blessing. I will
make those who bless you. I will bless those who will bless
you. And the one who curses you, I will curse. And all your families
of the earth shall be blessed. So Abraham went forth. Okay. And Lot went with him. and he
was 70 years old. I love the way Paul recounts
that whole thing in Romans 4. What should we say about Abraham? Did God mess up when he selected
Abraham as the father of the faith? If Abraham was justified
by works, then he’s got something to boast about. When he stood
before God, But in verse 18, Paul recounts
that in hope against hope, Abraham believed. In hope against hope. In other words, he looked at
his situation. He looked at this situation being
sent out. He looked at this situation, promised a son, looked at his
wife, both of them old, advanced in years. He said, okay, Lord, Hebrews 11, look at verse 24.
By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be called the
son of Pharaoh’s daughter. You know the story. Rescued in
the reeds by the Nile, ultimately taken and given to Pharaoh’s
daughter. Pharaoh’s daughter, the only child of his offspring. In other words, Moses was in
line to be king. And yet when he saw the Jews
being mistreated, he took umbrage, great umbrage, and he reacted
to that. Ultimately, that led to his departure
from the house. No wonder. In that passage, look
at verse 25, he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter,
choosing rather to endure ill treatment with the people of
God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin. Not only Abraham and Moses and
Noah, the nation of Israel. Later on in that list, verse
29, by faith they passed through the Red Sea as if they were passing
on dry land. And the Egyptians, when they
attempted it, were drowned. Can you imagine? I mean, we’ve
seen the show and we’ve, you know, we’ve seen the Hollywood
version of it, but can you imagine walking into the sea on dry land
with water standing all around you? That’s faith, faith in God to
proceed into the unknown. We don’t know what’s gonna happen
here. No one’s ever seen this before. And then the writer of
Hebrews closes with this incredible. crescendo. What more shall I
say? I take from that that, you know
what, if we started right now, we could talk until the Lord
Jesus returns about the great faith that God’s people have
exhibited over the years. For time will fail me if I tell
of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, and Samuel, and the prophets,
who by faith conquered kingdoms, performed acts of righteousness,
obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, Daniel. quenched the
power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword. From weakness were
made strong, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. Women received back their dead
by resurrection. Others were tortured, not accepting
their release. Others experienced mockings and
scourging, chains and imprisonment, stoned, sawn in two, tempted,
put to death by the sword.” And he goes on and on and on. In
other words, he almost says, how can we not exhibit such great
faith? We have the grace of God. You remember Gideon visited by
the angel? Essentially, he greets the angel with a complaint. What
in the world kind of mess have you gotten us into? Where’s God
in all this? Well, the angel responds, and essentially Gideon
puts out these tests. Prove it. Prove to me that you’re
an angel. Prove to me that God’s gonna
come to our aid. And God, in his infinite patience,
gives him that and more. And then Gideon shows up. God
says, you know what? Let’s go wipe everybody out. Get your
armies. And Gideon does it. Calls all his armies. God says,
no. I wanna prove that this is me
doing this work. Send your armies home. And he
pairs it down, what, by 22,000, remember? Gideon says, okay, you better
step up, God. And he starts to go, and God
pairs down his army again by how they drank water. How creative
is God? And then he sends them out to
go claim victory over an army that is recorded as numerous
as the sands of the seashore. God always wants us to know that
it’s God. It’s God who does it. That’s
what Job discovered, right? At the end of, you know what,
37 chapters of homespun advice by his friends, now God gets
to speak in verses, in chapters 38 to 40, 41 rather. And Job, I love this. Chapter 42, then Job answered
the Lord and said, I know. I know that you can do all things.
He probably always did, but there were those moments of doubt. I know that you can do all things
and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. Who is this
that hides counsel without knowledge? He’s quoting God here. And then
he responds with his own words. Therefore, I have declared that
which I do not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I
did not know. He’s apologizing to God for his
arrogance. He quotes God again. Hear now
and I will speak. I will ask you and you instruct
me. And Job throws up his hands. I’ve heard of you by the hearing
of the ear. I’ve known about you for a long time, but now
my eyes see. Therefore I repent in dust and
ashes. God wants us to know that he’s
God. God wants us to follow Him even
when we don’t have it clearly mapped out. Think of David starting
with Goliath, all of his battle exploits, his constant obedience
to God. You think of Daniel in the tests
with food and prayer where he exhibited just a worshipful spirit
and service to the one true God. Think of Habakkuk, who starts
with his own complaint towards God for not doing anything. And
then God leads the prophet piecemeal to the point where the prophet
can say, I heard and my inward parts trembled. I know what’s
coming is not going to be pleasant. At the sound, my lips quivered,
decay enters my bones. In my place, I tremble because
I must wait quietly for the day of distress. And then he says
this. You talk about faith to proceed
into the unknown, though the fig tree should not blossom,
and there be no fruit on the vines, though the yield of the
olive should fail, and the fields produce no food, though the flock
should be cut off from the fold, and there be no cattle in the
stalls, yet I will exult in the Lord. That’s faith. Jeremiah
goes to seminary, right? Go with me on this. So he signs
up to serve the Lord. And the Lord starts to tell him
things that he’s gonna say. Here’s your sermon material,
Jeremiah. And upon essentially graduation,
his commitment into the ministry, God says to him, you shall speak
all these words to them, but they will not listen to you.
You shall call to them, but they will not answer you. And I wonder
how many of us would have even gone How many of us would have
said, you know what? Forget it, it’s not worth it. The Psalms. I started looking through the
Psalms. There are so many examples that there’s no way that I could possibly
begin to touch them all. Psalm 27, I would have despaired
unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord
in the land of the living. That’s us. We proceed. We have no idea what lies in
front of us, but we trust God. Psalm 33, behold, the eye of
the Lord is on those who fear him, on those who hope for his
loving kindness. We walk knowing that God is watching,
right? Psalm 16, preserve me, O God,
for I take refuge in you. I say to the Lord, you are my
God. I have no good besides you. To
walk with the Lord is to walk knowing that He will see us through. You see, it’s a matter of a humble
trust in the sovereignty of God. It’s Ecclesiastes 3.11. He’s made everything appropriate
in its time. He’s also set eternity in their
hearts, yet so that no man will find out the work which God has
done from the beginning even to the end. He wants a humble
trust by His children. He wants us to trust Him. Not
map everything out and then move. What about the apostles? How’d
you like to have this for your first ministry assignment? Called
the 12, gave them power and authority over demons to heal diseases,
so far so good. He sent them out to proclaim
the kingdom of God and to perform healing. Okay, Lord, here we
go. I just need to pack, right? And he said to them, take nothing
for your journey. Not a staff, not a bag, not bread, nor money. Do not even have two tunics. God always calls the saints,
the children of God to step out in faith and to walk with him.
That they were to go and to trust God for their provisions. And
God honored that. It’s not aimlessness. It’s not
sinful presumptuousness by which we go. It’s a trust in Almighty
God to do what He’s asked us to do. I remember one time I was driving,
heading towards Phoenix and approaching Flagstaff. I hit the worst snowstorm
I’ve ever hit in my entire life. I’ve lived here almost all my
life and I’ve never hit a snowstorm like I hit there. And I can remember
the lesson of the Lord. I was following an 18-wheeler,
and when I say following, I was literally on his tail. And if
he went in the ditch, I was going in the ditch. Because all we
saw was enough to know that we were essentially in the tracks
of the vehicles that had gone before us. That’s all we could
see. And that’s what God gives us, doesn’t he? A lot of times,
that’s all we have is just enough to take one more step. And not
more. And that’s Paul. We’ll trace
what happened to Paul when he got to Jerusalem. It’s almost
exactly what he says. Goes in, troublemakers show up,
they stir up trouble, he’s arrested, he’s brought before the Roman
authorities who essentially rescue him from his Jewish captors and
persecutors. He’s taken against his will and
held and ultimately he appeals his best chance is to appeal
to Caesar? See, Paul knew, Paul knew what
a great reward heaven is. Paul knew what a glorious promise
that following Christ brings. A.W. Pink said it this way, Faith
endures as seeing Him who is invisible, endures the disappointments,
the hardships, and the heartaches of life by recognizing that all
comes from the hand of Him who is too wise to err and too loving
to be unkind. But so long as we are occupied
with any other object than God Himself, There will neither be
rest for the heart nor peace to the mind. But when we receive
that all that enters our life is from his hand, then no matter
what it may be, no matter what our circumstances or surroundings,
whether in a hovel or a prison dungeon, or at a martyr’s stake,
we shall be enabled to say, the lines are fallen unto me in pleasant
places. That’s the language of faith.
Not of sight, nor of sense. Let’s pray. Oh Lord, we come before you and
we acknowledge just how feeble we are. That we will not move
sometimes. We absolutely plant our feet
and refuse to budge until we see a bright light of promise
at the end of our investment, or the provision of safety, or
the provision of return, we will not budge. Lord, we thank you
that Paul, even in the face of seeing what he knew was a message
from God, he proceeded, knowing that this life is not a life
of ease, not always pleasant, not always easy, but he trusted
in you. He wanted to obey you because
he had heaven in view. God grant us that grace to examine
our steps and to step out in faith so as to please you and
serve you in the course of this life that we’ve been given. Lord,
we thank you for Paul’s example. Grant us the grace to be likewise.
It’s in Jesus’ name that we pray. Amen.