“Having therefore obtained help of God, I continue unto this day, witnessing both to small and great, saying none other things than those which the prophets and Moses did say should come,”Acts 26:22.
(Preached at a special week of meetings in Kilskeery, April 20th, 2023)
When I was looking back over the 55 years which have past since my ordination to the ministry of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the 59 years from my conversion, the words of Paul in our text came to my mind.
Please consider what Paul said.
I. TURNING BACK IS NOT PART OF GOD’S PURPOSE!
‘I continue unto this day’. The word means ‘standing firm’.
1. Paul had many reasons to turn back. 2 Cors 11:22-28 (false brethren V 26); 2 Tim 1:15.
2. Turning back is the mark of the unbeliever. “From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him,” John 6:66. “Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life. And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God,” John 6:68-69.
3. Turning back marks a person as unsuitable for the service of God. “Now when Paul and his company loosed from Paphos, they came to Perga in Pamphylia: and John departing from them returned to Jerusalem,” Acts 13:13. See Matt 7:23, Luke 9:39, same word - complete departure! “And Barnabas determined to take with them John, whose surname was Mark. But Paul thought not good to take him with them, who departed from them from Pamphylia, and went not with them to the work,” Acts 15:37-38.
However remember, the believer may fall but they get up again! “Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy: when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, the LORD shall be a light unto me,” Micah 7:8. See 2 Tim 4:11.
4. Turning back makes a person incapable of serving the Lord. “And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God,” Luke 9:62. (Spirit of Lot’s wife, Gen 19:26) We are called to follow Christ, 57-62. The Lord did not turn back from His duty, Jer 4:28.
II. WE CAN ONLY CONTINUE ON WITH THE HELP OF GOD.
1. This help had been promised to Paul. Verses 16-17. (Rescue) It is a promise made to all of God’s people, Acts 7:9-10, 34; 12:11; Gal 1:4.
2. God’s help may be enjoyed even when in captivity. Paul was a prisoner (in bonds),Acts 25:14. Like Joseph, Gen 39:2-3, 23. Word ‘obtained’ translated ‘refresh himself’ Acts 27:3.
3. God would have us to witness both to small (micro) and great (mega). This was what the Saviour did. Matt 18:1-6; 1 Tim 6:13. This is what the Lord would aid us in doing. What a limitless congregation.
III. GOD’S HELP IS GIVEN ONLY TO THOSE WHO SEEK TO MAINTAIN A BIBLICAL WITNESS
“Saying none other things than those which the prophets and Moses did say should come”.
1. The preacher is but to repeat what was said by the inspired servants of God of old. Our message is ‘old’ and ‘unchanging’! God has preserved the Bible from the enemy’s attacks that we might apply its truths to today’s generation. “The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun,” Ecclesiastes 1:9.
That being so, God’s remedies for the ills of old will work still today! God’s way of salvation has not altered since it was first preached and its eternal truth is the cure for the moral ills of today!
2. The Bible is therefore the ‘whole counsel’ of God. We need no more, we are to say ‘none other things.’ “For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book,” Revelation 22:18.
3. The future of God’s purpose is revealed in Scripture and must be preached. The old preachers dealt with the ‘things . . . which . . . should come’, even the return of Christ. This is indeed one of the chief things “the prophets and Moses did say should come.” We owe much to Paul’s teaching on the return of Christ, the rise of Antichrist, the conversion and restoration of the Jews and the glorification of the saints.
It is the duty of those who would follow in Paul’s footsteps to preach of ‘things . . . which . . . should come’!
Getting back to apostolic doctrine and the zeal with which it was preached at the first is what is greatly needed today. We ought to seek to ‘consecrate’ ourselves to such a witness in these end times as was evident in the first generation of the New Testament Church, something of which was evident amongst our churches in the ’60s and ’70s.
4. Where this does not take place an understanding of the purpose of God at the cross is missed. Luke 24:25-27. The blindness and confusion, so evident today amongst God’s people, stems from this failure by preachers! There is a need to follow the Saviour’s example and ‘unfold’ the Holy Scriptures. No letter can be read while folded in an envelope. It needs to be ‘unfolded’ in order to understand its message!
God’s servants are to be ‘unfolders’!