ask you to now get your Bibles and let's turn together as a congregation back to the Book of Acts this morning, but back to Acts chapter 13, and we're going to be considering Paul's sermon here in the synagogue in Antioch of Pisidia, which is in modern-day Turkey, and Much of the the same things that have been mentioned this morning either in some of the readings or in some of the psalms I think we see come through in this sermon I think most of the sermons in the book of Acts are really sort of the highlights of the salient points they seem a little long when you read through them, but you think, did Eutychus fall asleep this quick? You know, five minutes as Paul went on. It seems like he must have said a whole lot more than what is said here. But we're going to look at Paul's sermon this morning, but we're going to do more than look at his sermon. The aim this morning is to hear his sermon preached to us as relevant to us as a congregation as we sit here this morning. This same message to them is a message to us, and so let's seek to hear it that way. Again, Jason prayed for the Lord's illumination and blessing on our preaching, so we'll move from the reading right into the preaching this morning. Let's give our careful hearing of the reading of God's Word. I'm going to begin in verse 14b, so halfway through. Verse 14, it begins, and on the Sabbath day. And on the Sabbath day they went into the synagogue and sat down. After the reading from the law and the prophets, the rulers of the synagogue sent a message to them saying, brothers, if you have any word of encouragement for the people, say it. So Paul stood up and motioning with his hand said, Men of Israel and you who fear God, listen. The God of this people, Israel, chose our fathers and made the people great during their stay in the land of Egypt. And with uplifted arm, He led them out of it. And for about 40 years, He put up with them in the wilderness. And after destroying seven nations in the land of Canaan, He gave them their land as an inheritance. All this took about 450 years And after that, he gave them judges until Samuel the prophet. Then they asked for a king. And God gave them Saul the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin for forty years. And when he had removed him, he raised up David to be their king, of whom he testified and said, I have found in David the son of Jesse, a man after my own heart, who will do all my will. Of this man's offspring, God has brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus, as He promised. Before this, John had proclaimed a baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel. And as John was finishing his course, he said, Who do you suppose that I am? Or what do you suppose that I am? I am not He. No, but behold after me One is coming, the sandals of whose feet I am not worthy to untie. Brothers, sons of the family of Abraham, and those among you who fear God, to us has been sent the message of this salvation. For those who live in Jerusalem and their rulers, because they did not recognize Him nor understand the utterances of the prophets, which are read every Sabbath, fulfilled them by condemning him. And though they found in him no guilt worthy of death, they asked Pilate to have him executed. And when they had carried out all that was written of him, they took him down from the tree and laid him in a tomb. But God raised him from the dead. And for many days he appeared to those who had come up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are now his witnesses to the people And we bring you the good news that what God promised to the fathers, this He has fulfilled to us, their children, by raising Jesus. As also it is written in the second Psalm, you are my son, today I have begotten you. And as for the fact that He raised Him from the dead no more to return to corruption, He has spoken in this way, I will give you the holy and sure blessings of David. Therefore, he says also in another psalm, you will not let your Holy One see corruption. For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep and was laid with his fathers and saw corruption. But he whom God raised up did not see corruption. Let it be known to you therefore, brothers, that through this man Forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, and by Him everyone who believes is freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses. Beware, therefore, lest what is said in the prophets should come about. Look, you scoffers, be astounded and perish, for I am doing a work in your days, a work that you will not believe. even if one tells it to you. As they went out, the people begged that these things might be told them the next Sabbath. And after the meeting of the synagogue broke up, many Jews and devout converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas, who, as they spoke with them, urged them to continue in the grace of God. The grass withers, And the flower fades, but the Word of the Lord endures forever. I want to ask you in light of the reading this morning and this passage before us, what has your response been to the graciousness of God in your life? What has your response been to the graciousness of God in your life. I'm going to wait until the phone has left the room. Over and over again, God has, as we have just sung, and did you pay attention to what we were just singing? In Psalm 103, over and over again, He has shown you kindness, Over and over again, He has crowned your life with mercy and with love. He has been abundantly patient with you, showing you graciousness even in light of your sin and your persistence in it. And so I'm asking you, and I want you to really be thinking this morning, what has my response been? to the grace of God in my life. In fact, beyond mere temporal and earthly blessings that we could mention, God has done more for you than you can even imagine. As you sit here this morning, you probably do not appreciate even a part, even a small part of everything that God has done for you, and maybe to help you, think of some of the amazing ways God has been gracious to you this morning, and maybe as you sit here this morning, your heart is so hard that you're wondering in your mind, well, what has He done for me? I mean, how has God been gracious to me? Well, He has blessed you abundantly. Most of you have not had to worry about where your next meal is going to come from. You got in cars this morning. Many of you drove from fairly nice abodes. You young children have been raised in homes in which the Lord has been uplifted before you consistently. You have been urged to understand your need before a holy God and to be You've been urged to go to Christ and he's been uplifted in your midst as lovely and as a sufficient Savior for you. We could go on and on. In fact, that is exactly what Paul is doing in this sermon. What Paul is doing as he preaches in the synagogue here in this place called Antioch in Pisidia. And as we begin to look at this passage this morning and this sermon this morning, I hope you can appreciate that there are a lot of similarities. And that's something I'm wanting us to feel this morning is that there are a lot of similarities between what we read here in Acts chapter 13 and what we are doing right now in this moment here sitting in the Springs Reformed Church. First thing, if you noticed here, Did you see that as we have done here this morning they did there in that service? Some 2,000 years ago there were a couple of Bible readings and that has been the practice of the people of God throughout the ages ever since there was a Bible to read and a Bible to hear the Word of God has been read in the midst of his people so that his people could hear his voice. They could hear the very word of God to them. We listen to God because that is really the one voice that is needful for us to hear. We have so many voices competing for our ears today in our culture. And there is really one voice that is needful for us to hear, and that is the Word of God. I cannot urge you enough that one of the most important moments in your entire week is when you come and you gather together and the Word of God is read to you. That is the unvarnished voice of the Lord speaking. But so often we don't listen. And we don't listen in multitude of ways. We don't take the time to hear really the one voice that is needful, the one voice that can actually give us life. And we give our ears to so many other voices, and we listen so preciously little to the Word of God. You need to hear Him today, just as they needed to hear Him then. And so that's why the Word is read regularly. I want to encourage you that each time the Bible is read in our services, that you say, Lord, speak. Help me to listen. I need to hear you speak to me today. A second thing that we see here that's very similar to what we're doing here this morning is that after the reading of the Word, there's the preaching of it. You heard there that Paul and Barnabas most And it's most likely because they were wearing clothing that identified them as the teachers of the word that they actually were. They are asked, brothers, do you have anything? Do you have an encouraging word to say to the people? And so just as you see every Lord's Day, you see us do every Lord's Day morning and evening here in this church, we read that Paul stands up and he preaches. sermon. You wonder why are sermons preached in church services? Well, there's a long history of that and it starts before even the New Testament that the Word of God was preached to the people of God. Now, as I mentioned a moment ago, this is a fairly long sermon and maybe I can say it this way, it's fairly long as far as verse count goes. You probably are praying that our sermons would become this long at Springs. It took, what, five minutes to read this sermon. But instead of slowly combing through it this morning and trying to stop at each detail, there's so much here that could be, we could spend weeks looking at it. But instead of doing that, I want to summarize the two main points that Paul makes to that congregation there in that synagogue, because these are points which are entirely applicable to this congregation in this church as we sit here this morning. And the first point he makes is that they are, that they had been, I should say, as a people, they had been ungrateful instead of thankful. They had been ungrateful instead of thankful. Look at verses 16 through 25, just glance at that as I look at that, or as I read these, or summarize this, because Paul reiterates here the many gracious blessings that God had visited upon the people of Israel. He notes that God had chosen their fathers. Of all the nations, of all kinds of people in the world, God had chosen their fathers. He made them, I mean, even though they had gone into Egyptian bondage, he had made them great, made them a great people in Egypt. We read that with uplifted arm, he had led them out of Egyptian bondage. This next phrase there, I'm interpreting, it says he put up with them in the wilderness. That is really actually, there's an alternative interpretation and it is, He carried them. I am almost certain Paul is quoting from, or has in mind, or that one of the passages that was read that morning was Deuteronomy chapter 1. Deuteronomy chapter 1 verse 31 speaks of how the Lord carried his people. in the wilderness. That's what is being said here. What he's doing is he's enumerating all of the blessings that God had shown his people, had showered on his people. He carried them and he cared for them in the wilderness. He gave them the land of Canaan as an inheritance. He gave them judges to help them and deliver them up until the time of Samuel. He gave them Saul as a king for 40 years. And then He gave them David, as we heard this morning, as Jason explained it, from whose line came Jesus, the King and Savior of the world. That is to say, just taking one quick glance at their history, they could see that God had done nothing but given them gifts and graces, provided for their needs, fulfilled His promises of salvation to them, all culminating in actually giving them His only begotten Son to be their Savior. Sometimes you wonder, why do we go through all the stories in the Old Testament. Why do we teach the children all these different things? Why are all these things recorded for us? They're recorded to remind us of how gracious God is to his people. That he would bring them to himself and that he would care for them. Not for a short period of time. Most of us are pretty good for a short period of time. We can care for people for a short period of time. But the Lord cared for his people thousands of years, in multiple circumstances, doing everything that they needed because they were his people and he was their God. Here's the question, and this is what Paul is bringing up as he's preaching. How did they respond to all of that kindness and grace from God toward them? Well, they condemned Jesus, they condemned God's own Son, and asked Pilate to execute Him, even though, as we read there in verse 28, they found in Him no guilt worthy of death. Now, let me ask you the very obvious question. Does this sound like a reasonable response to all that God had done for His people? Is that the way that they should have responded to everything that God had done for them? No. This shocks us because it seems so insane in light of God choosing them, delivering them, granting them prophets and judges and kings, and finally a perfect Savior. But now let me ask you about you. What has your response been to God's graciousness and goodness towards you. As you sit here again, you might be wondering, well, what has he done for me? Again, you have life. You have breath today. You have food to eat each day. Most of you, maybe the rices, but most of you didn't walk here today. Again, you've had parents who loved you, Most of you have had parents who have loved you and taken care of you, who have taught you about God, who have urged you to read the Bible, who have brought you to hear the message of life, to hear that one voice that can save you. But what has your response been? Are you thankful for his graciousness to you? Are you grateful that he has dealt so kindly with you? Or is your attitude, is your mindset, is your life in general one that displays an ingratitude, an utter lack of thankfulness to God, similar to that of the Israelites? It doesn't have to come out in the same way as the Israelites. It comes out in multiple ways. Do you lack a contentment with the wife that God gave you, and therefore you lust after others? Women, do you complain about your lot in life, forgetful of all His blessings to you? Young people, do you grumble against your parents and your situation in life, acting like life has been so unfair to you? that no one understands you and you have it so bad. Listen, there is no anonymous life out there that is putting you in this circumstance or that situation. But there is a gracious God who controls all things, including every detail of your life, who has given you far beyond what you deserve. In other words, He has shown you nothing But grace, and listen, to not be thankful, to not be grateful is one of the most heinous sins we can commit against God. Indeed, lack of thankfulness to God always leads to worse and grosser sin. It inevitably always leads to worse and grosser sin, as we turn our back on God, we set off into the world thinking that we will be the masters of our own destiny. In fact, I want you to turn over to Romans chapter 1 for just a moment this morning. Turn over to Romans 1, because Paul spells this out so clearly here in Romans 1, and I don't give many assignments, but I'll give you an assignment. Read the whole chapter, not just the little bit that we'll read today, and frankly, don't stop at the end of chapter one. Just read the whole book. Romans is, if you've never just sat and read the book of Romans, you need to. But listen to how it begins, and listen to this matter of how a lack of thankfulness to God, a lack of gratefulness to God, leads to worse and grosser sin. But let me begin the reading. I was going to begin in verse 18. I've got to begin back in verse 16 because it's glorious. Paul's entire intent is to preach the gospel, but very often we have to understand our need in order to hear that that's good news. So listen to what Paul says in verse 16, and I'm going to read through verse 25. Paul writes, I'm not ashamed. This is what's going on in the synagogue. the sermon we're hearing, this is exactly what's going on there. For I'm not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. To the Jew first, and also to the Greek, for in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, the righteous shall live by faith. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them because God has shown it to them. For His invisible attributes, namely His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world and the things that have been made, so they are without excuse. Let me actually put it in the first person as I go through this. You are without excuse. For although you have known God, you did not honor Him as God, and neither have you given thanks to Him. But you have become futile in your thinking, and your foolish hearts have been darkened. Claiming to be wise, you have become fools. You've exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. You might think, I don't do that. Yes, you do. You worship creatures. You worship the important, beautiful people of the world. They set your agenda. The pop, the culture sets your agenda. That's worshiping the creatures. Therefore, God has given you up. in the lusts of your heart, to impurity, to the dishonoring of your bodies among yourselves, because you have exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served the creature rather than the creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. Congregation, do you hear what a lack of gratitude What a lack of thankfulness to God for your life will breed in you. And that is Paul's point as he preaches to those in the congregation of that synagogue. And that is the message you need to hear as a congregation here in this church this morning. But why are we like this? How can we be so ungrateful? You've been loved so much. and you have been given so much. Again, why are we like this? Why are we so ungrateful? It's surprising. I mean, if we just stopped to think of all the blessings in our life, it just doesn't make sense. It's so surprising that we could so quickly become ungrateful, unthankful, discontent. That's a great surprise. But there's something that is even more surprising than our ingratitude to God's love and grace, and that is God's superabounding grace in response to our ingratitude. Something more surprising, and this is where Paul goes, than just our in gratitude to all that God has done for us, and that is God's response. What a surprise. God's response to our ingratitude for all the blessings he'd given us. In other words, he doesn't give us what we deserve. And that brings us to the next point here, and that is that he actually gives us life instead of death. I mean, think about it. As we sit here this morning, if you or I were writing this story, how would it have gone? I can tell you exactly how it would go if I was writing this story. I would have rehearsed the history, I would have noted the ingratitude, and then I would have pronounced the judgment. that is coming. But since God is writing the story, and since He is who He is, that is, He is slow to anger. He is abounding in steadfast love and mercy. The next thing that Paul goes into after declaring that they had unjustly executed Jesus is not their judgment, but their salvation. Note here, He notes that even their sin, he talks about how they were so ignorant, even though the law was read to them week after week in their synagogue services, they didn't get it. And they went ahead and fulfilled the very prophecies that they were hearing read week after week. But he goes And what his point on is here is he basically says, and in doing that, God even turned their ignorance around and used it for their salvation. He even makes their sin to serve his purpose. And he notes here that after Jesus was crucified, dead and buried, God raised him from the dead. And here's the most, I think, amazing part of all. Again, if I were writing this story, This would be the revenge story. And it would go something like this. He was so kind to them, they were so ungrateful to him. And here's where I would go with the story. They killed him, but he came back from the dead, and he went after them. I mean, what could be more terrifying than to hear that the enemy that you killed has come back to life. That should strike terror in those who killed their enemy. But the one that I killed is now back from the dead. Woe is me. I would think that the next response is that now I'm going to die. He is alive, and he is angry, and he is coming after me. He's going to get his vengeance. The response that you would not expect is that the executed one would come back to life again and then turn around and offer his executioners forgiveness and eternal life. And his coming back wasn't to kill them, but was to save them. But that's the gospel. That's our God. That's the unfathomable grace of Jesus Christ. And so Paul is able to preach here, let it be known to you, therefore, brothers, that though this risen man, through this risen man, sorry, through this risen man, Forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you and by Him everyone who believes is freed. The word there is actually justified. Everyone who believes is justified from everything from which you could not be justified by the law. In congregation, that is not just an offer for them then. That is an offer for you today. Life instead of death. grace instead of judgment. Not what you deserve, but what God wants to give to you in Jesus Christ. And here is the thing, if you are, and this is what Paul's point is, if you're convicted about your ingratitude this morning, You need to not miss what is being offered to you and asked of you. If you came in here this morning with a bad attitude, if you came in here with great ingratitude in light of all of the things that God has done for you, what is being offered to you and asked of you is maybe not what you're thinking. Because here's the thing. What's being proclaimed here and what's being offered to you, what's being asked of you, is not that you would go back now and do something to take away your own ingratitude. You can't go back and, I need to go back and make it right. That's not what's being offered to you here at all. You're not being offered a second chance that you might be able to do better this time. Okay, now I see the rules of the game. Now I'm going to try a whole lot harder to be grateful. I've got my second chance. I hear it now. I see it. Okay, it's been explained to me. Now I'm going to do better next time. That's not what you're being offered. you are being offered full forgiveness of your sin of ingratitude. You can't start being thankful and somehow outweigh your previous unthankfulness. But you can be forgiven of all your ungratitude. You can be forgiven for all a life of not being thankful to the God who has given you so much. You are being offered justification before God by grace, not by being better or doing better from now on, not by the law, but by the gospel. And that's why our passage ends as it does in these last verses, verses 42 and 43. As they went out, the people begged that these things might be told them the next Sabbath. And after the meeting of the synagogue broke up, many Jews and devout converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas, who, as they spoke with them, urged them to continue in the grace of God. To continue in. the grace of God. What is your response to His grace toward you? Now, I don't want to miss, and you see it there just a few verses before the end, it is true that even in the midst of all of this offered grace, there's still a warning there in verses 41 and 42. And you need to hear it. You need to hear that warning, but here is the thing. I think you need to hear that, even that warning, as another gracious word to you. Why? Because this is telling you how you can be saved from your sin. This is warning you to not turn away from that offer. And that is gracious. God could let you harden in your ingratitude and never warn you to turn from it, and let you go to judgment. But he comes and he says, listen, the stakes cannot be higher. You either come and you take the offered forgiveness, or you will receive the threatened judgment. And so how will you respond? That warning is there, but it is not the last word. The last word is urging you to continue in the grace of God. And continuing in the grace of God will change you. God's ways are not our ways. His thoughts are not our thoughts. It is entirely different than what we would think. We think we can beat people into obedience. God loves people into obedience. We think we can warn people strongly enough into repentance. He overwhelms them with kindness and brings them to repentance. The law can't change you, but the gospel can. And God's grace will make you thankful. If you will rise up each day recognizing He has been so gracious to me, or if you will think about that throughout the day, think on His grace, that will make you perpetually more thankful. Make it a point to be thankful to God. It will make you less lustful. It's such an odd thing. You want to kill sin? Start being thankful to God. Start being content and actually grateful for what He has given you. Be overwhelmed with His goodness to you. That will kill your lust for things that He hasn't given you, and it will make you more like Christ. Jesus came to actually make you like Him, and so you cling to Him, and you continue in the grace of God. Let's pray together.