Let's pray together. Father, thank you again for this, your Word. Thank you that you are pleased to utilize your Word as a means of grace to build up your people in the faith once for all delivered to the saints. And we thank you that this is the case. We thank you that our reliance is upon you through your Word. and grace which you give us through your word. And we may trust you to give us that grace through this your word. And so we pray that this would be the case this morning as we take this opportunity to look into the scriptures that are before us. Bless us now, we pray, in the name of Jesus Christ the Lord. Amen. The text for this morning is Acts chapter 20 and verse 32. 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. After General Douglas MacArthur was relieved of his duties as the commander in Korea, he had an opportunity to speak to a joint session of Congress. Some of you may remember that speech and some of you may have watched clips of it. General MacArthur ended his remarks before Congress with these poignant words from an old army ballad. Old soldiers Never die. They just pass away. It's come time now for this old soldier to pass from the duties that you have been pleased to generously give to me. And it has been a great delight and pleasure for me to be among you for these months. But now you have elected a pastor, gratefully, And he will soon be installed, ordained and installed, and he will take his position up behind this pulpit, week by week, to proclaim the Word of God. And on this occasion, I set before you then these words from the Apostle Paul, from Acts chapter 20 and verse 32. I commend to you God and the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all the saints. The apostles' argument here is that the church at Ephesus and the elders at Ephesus should not look to him, nor should they look to Timothy, whom he has left in Ephesus, but they should look to God for his grace in his word. And this is the truth that comes to you this morning from this particular text. Trust God in his word for his grace. You notice the text. speaks to those who are sanctified. Look at Acts chapter 20 and verse 32 once again. And now I commend to you God, commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified. The word sanctified here means set aside And believers like yourselves have been set aside by God to His purposes. As the book of Hebrews rehearses the work of Jesus Christ in the 10th chapter, it indicates that by His accomplishing God's will, believers, men and women, are set aside, sanctified, And that is the case with each one of you. Because of the work of Jesus Christ, His death on Calvary's cross, His preceding perfect life on your behalf, you have been set aside to His purposes. And the Holy Spirit has come into your lives. God, by His grace, has caused you to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. By the application of the work of Jesus Christ to your hearts individually, you have in this world, in time, been set aside for the purposes of God. And so this text, Paul gives to the Ephesian elders and gives to the church at Ephesus through the Ephesian elders applies to you and applies to me. But it not only applies to you individually. It applies to you as a corporate body. You as a body have been set aside for the purposes of God. You as a church, as a corporate body, have been set aside to the purposes of God. This congregation was organized in 1800. Set aside for the purposes of God. This congregation has had eleven pastors during that time period, and a twelfth is about to be ordained. Praise be to God. And in this, as a congregation, God has been pleased to set you aside for His purposes. You've gone through some difficult times. as a congregation. And some of you who have come to this congregation have gone through some difficult times in previous congregations. But here now, God has brought you healing. And some of you have testified to me personally that this is in the case. I give thanks to God. And this is testimony to the fact that both as individuals and as a congregation, God has set you aside to his purposes. And if you look at the text again, Paul gives us a couple of the purposes. 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. One of God's purposes is to build you up in the faith, once for all, delivered to the saints. And as this is the case, as a congregation and as individuals, God is again operative in your lives. The Westminster Shorter Catechism again asks the question, what are the benefits which accrue or come from justification, adoption, and sanctification? Listen to how the catechism answers. The benefits which in this life do accompany and flow from justification, adoption, and sanctification are assurance of God's love, peace of conscience, joy in the Holy Ghost, increase of grace, and perseverance therein. until the end. You see, one of God's objectives, one of God's purposes in setting you apart is that you might grow in assurance of God's love. And that has You week by week sit under the teaching of the Word of God, and God is operative in your lives, and then you act on the Word of God more and more. You will be assured of God's love in your life. And as this is the case, you will grow in peace of conscience. You will know more fully The peace that you have from God. And the cleansing work of Jesus Christ in the conscience. And you will be able to live more fully in this world before God. And this leads, as the catechism puts it, to joy in the Holy Ghost. Joy in the Holy Spirit. As you are assured more and more of God's love and you experience more and more peace of conscience, a deep joy pervades your heart. And though the tides of the culture or the challenges of work or the difficulties of school may mount up against you, there is a deep joy in your heart because you are rooted firmly in Jesus Christ. And that joy is increasing. And that's because there is an increase of grace in your life as God works in you. And you therefore persevere in all that you do before God. In these ways, you grow in the grace of Christ. And then you also grow as a congregation. It's been very heartening to me to see individuals stand before the congregation here, as I've had the privilege of being among you, to profess their faith in Jesus Christ, and for families to come and bring their children to be baptized. God is building His church. God is building His church among you. The promise of Jesus Christ, I will build my church, is being fulfilled among you. And so the words of the Apostle Paul, once again, apply in your circumstance. And you do remember, do you not, the words of the Lord Jesus? Go, make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you, and lo, I will be with you always, even to the end of the age. Give thanks to God for the work of missions that this congregation is supporting. Give thanks to God for the work of missions that some of you yourselves are engaging in. It's a good work. And through you, God is building His church. Your new pastor comes and takes his stand and teaches you. Perhaps in this community, the rays of the gospel will be focused like the sun focused through a magnifying glass in this community, in this area, so that many others from this more immediate community will come and join you in worship. Hear the gospel and be converted. And Christ will be about the business of building His church and building you up. And the end, of course, is not simply to build you up as a congregation and build you up as individuals. Look at our text once again. 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. In the end, God's purpose is to give you a heavenly inheritance. Yes, you inherit many good things in this world as you serve Jesus Christ, but God in His mercy and God in His grace is pointing you to a heavenly inheritance. The Catechism once again, what are the benefits? The benefits that we receive from Christ at death, what are they? The Catechism says, the souls of believers are at death made perfect in holiness and do immediately pass into glory. and their bodies, being still united to Christ, do rest in their graves until the resurrection. Yes, when you pass from this life, the teaching of the Bible is that your soul will separate from this body of yours and pass immediately into glory, being made perfect in holiness. What a blessing this is! A good friend of ours in central Kansas recently died, a dear saint whom we remember fondly. And when she passed from this life into the next, both her husband and her son were standing next to her. And when she breathed her last, Her son said, Dad, she's gone. And he said, the souls of believers are made perfect in holiness and do pass immediately into the presence of the Lord. What a wonderful testimony that is. A testimony of faith. But that's not the end of the story. It's very sad, I think, that too many, even in Christian circles, believe wrongly that the body is some sort of encumbrance. Some sort of encumbrance that we need to shed in order to be free, which is A platonic heresy. And the catechism has it correct. When we pass from this life and the soul passes immediately into glory, made perfect in holiness, the body rests in the grave, still united to Christ. And this is one of the wonders of the Christian faith, that the bodies of those who have been placed in the grave are still united to Christ. Those bodies are important. And when Christ comes a second time in glory, the dead will be raised incorruptible. Listen again to the Catechism. At the resurrection, believers being raised up in glory shall be openly acknowledged and acquitted in the day of judgment and made perfectly blessed in the full enjoying of God to all eternity." I like those words, the full enjoying of God to all eternity. You see, the disembodied state is not the fullness of joy. The fullness of joy comes with the resurrection of the body. And then, in a bodily state, as Jesus Christ exists today in heaven, seated at the right hand of God the Father, in a bodily state, you will enjoy your inheritance in the new heavens and the new earth. And so, part of the purpose at least, Part of the purpose of God is to build you up and to give you a heavenly inheritance. And as Paul puts it in our text this morning, all of this comes about by grace. Look again at our text. And now I commend you to God and to the word of His grace. which is able to build you up and give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified. It is always by grace, is it not? It is by grace that you are saved through faith. And that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. There is no boasting to be had in the Christian faith. The boasting, if there is any, is in Christ and in the work of Jesus Christ. And even the faith that you exercise is a gift of the Holy Spirit as you trust in the Savior. And it is by grace that you are built up. Paul challenges the Galatian church And he says, oh, foolish Galatians, I want you to think about something. Was it by the works of the flesh that you received the Holy Spirit? And the answer to the rhetorical question is obviously not. It was not by the works of the flesh that you received the Holy Spirit. And so how do you expect to continue in the Christian life? Is it going to be by the works of the flesh? Not at all. It's going to be by the grace of God through the work of the Holy Spirit. Paul reminds the church at Philippi that this is the case, saying to them, work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for God is at work in you, both the will and to do for His good pleasure. And so it is God, by His grace, who is in you, not just to give you a willingness to follow Him, but to actually work in you for the doing of His will, so that you will not be in the posture or in the position of saying, that which I would like to do, I cannot. Paul is emphatic here. God is at work in you both to will and to do His good pleasure. You need to realize that this is the case, dear friends. And this is the grace of God before you. And then when you think about this heavenly inheritance, is this not also through the grace of God? Think about death just for a moment. Except in extraordinary circumstances, none of us is in control of the time of death. And when you slip from this mortal life, into the next, and open your eyes in the presence of the Savior, it will be by grace that that takes place. And you have no control over the coming of Christ, the second time in glory, and that future resurrection. When it comes, it will come in His time, and you will be raised by His grace. And again bodily, you will enter into glory. But our text is not quite finished. Look again at what it says. And now I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified. I commend you to God and to the word of His grace. How does this grace come to you? It comes to you, friends, through means. It comes to you through means. Look in your bulletin again, would you please? And to the catechism questions we reviewed earlier. What are the outward and ordinary means whereby Christ communicateth to us the benefits of redemption? The outward and ordinary means whereby Christ communicateth to us the benefits of redemption are his ordinances, especially the word, the sacraments, and prayer, all of which are made effectual to the elect for salvation. How is the Word made effectual to salvation? The Spirit of God maketh the reading, but especially the preaching of the Word, an effectual means of convincing and converting sinners, and of building them up in holiness and comfort through faith unto salvation. What are the means? The means include not only the reading of God's word, not only prayer, not only the sacraments, but the preaching of God's word. Our being in circumstances such as these. And as you appropriately approach the means of grace, as you appropriately understand the means of grace, God's grace will be operative in your lives. This is why Paul says, I commend you to God and to the word of His grace. That grace comes to you through specific means. And so the catechism goes on to ask the question, how is the word to be read and heard that it may become effectual to salvation? That the word may become effectual to salvation, we must attend thereunto with diligence, preparation, and prayer. Receive it with faith and love, lay it up in our hearts, and practice it in our lives. We must approach the means of grace with anticipation, understanding that through His Word, through these ordained means, God is pleased to bless us. God is pleased to build us up in the faith, once for all, delivered to the saints. I'm going to tell on my family a little bit here. On vacations, we would often drop into a church along the road. And my family would sometimes say, oh dad, do we have to? And I would frequently say to them, You pay attention to what's going on in this worship service, and pay attention to the reading of the Word, and pay attention to the preaching of the Word, and you will learn something. And that is the case. And this is why Paul, with these words, says, I commend you to the Word. of His grace. And it's not, you see, the instrument that's important. Whether it be me, or whether it be your pastor who will be ordained, it is God who is important, and it is God in His grace which is important, and it is His Word which is important, and you must trust God in His Word for His grace. You see, this is the lesson. And this is why Paul then says, I commend you to God and to the word of His grace. Paul does not say, I am anything in myself. In fact, he is adamantly opposed to that kind of a position. What is Paul? What is Apollos? Paul and Apollos are simply servants through whom you happen to have believed. Is Denny anything? No. Is John anything? No. It is God who is everything. And so, Paul says, I commend you to God and to the Word of His grace. And the word commend here is quite interesting. Because it has the idea of setting you before God. And as you think about it, that's rather strange. Paul is in essence saying to the Ephesian elders, and I am saying to you this morning, I commend you to God and to the Word of His grace. In other words, I set you. My purpose is to set you before God and set you before Jesus Christ. And why is this so important? It is important because if you really come into the presence of God, if you really come into the presence of Jesus Christ, you will inevitably be changed. Do you remember Moses? Moses saying, show me your glory. And God says, I'll show you my glory. I'll pass by and you'll be able to see my back. Seeing the effulgence of His glory would be too much. I'll put my hand over the cleft of the rock and pass by, and you'll be able to see my back. And Moses came down from that mountain glowing himself with the glory of God. And this is the whole idea of the benediction at the end of the service. I'm always quite interested to see how people will react to the benediction. And as I've had opportunity here to pronounce the benediction, you've observed me slowly, purposefully pronounce that benediction. And the reason I do so is that it's a real blessing that comes from God. It's a means of grace. It's not just an explanation point at the end of the service. And I notice often that there are quizzical expressions on people's faces as I pronounce the benediction, because they're not used to a more purposeful blessing. But it is God's means of grace. And in it, you trust God for His grace in His Word. And that's the lesson for this morning. Look at our text again. 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. William Greenhill was a Westminster divine, and he wrote a quite excellent commentary on the book of Ezekiel. And when he comments on chapter 37, which speaks of the valley of dry bones, and the request to Ezekiel to prophesy over those dry bones. Greenhill makes this comment, we must not neglect means and leave all to God. That is tempting the Most High. In other words, don't think that God will act outside of means. That's tempting Him. God has ordained particular means through which He will work. So don't tempt God. Neither must we trust to the means when used. That is to idolize the creature. In other words, don't put all your eggs in the basket of the means and idolize the creature, idolize the preacher, idolize the means that are used, idolize the particular kind of music that's sung, etc., etc. No. But rather, Greenhill says, we must use means and look to God to be all in them. And if we make Him all in the means, we shall make Him all after the means. Do you get it? If you make God all in all in the means of grace, you will make God all in all after the means of grace. And that is the objective. that Jesus Christ, that God should be all in all. Trust God in His means for His grace. Trust God in His Word for His grace. You see, there's the lesson once again. Hear the text. And now, dear friends in Jesus Christ, 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. Trust God in His Word for His grace. Let's pray. Father, this is a word I need. This is a word all of us need. And I have the privilege now of taking leave of these particular duties which you have assigned me. Pastor Tweedale has the privilege of taking up his duties among your people. May it be that all of us will trust you in your word for your grace, that that will be the case now that that will be the case next week, that that will be the case next month, and next year, and as the time goes by. Grant that we may hear these words of the Apostle Paul, 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 which is for all the saints. Grant that it would be the case, and work in this your congregation to this end, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.