Last Lord's Day evening, we began what will
be a relatively brief series of messages entitled,
Simple Signpost to the Celestial City.
Taking the term Celestial City from Bunyan's immortal
Pilgrim's Progress, used as a graphic synonym for
heaven, this series of sermons will be an
attempt to preach and to apply some of
the most simple and clear texts in all
of the Word of God, which indeed constitute
signposts to heaven.
Texts which address the great issues of sin
and of grace.
Texts which call us to repent and to
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Texts which contain the heart of the whole
message of the Bible concerning the great and
pressing question, what must I do to be
saved?
And if you ask why am I embarking
upon this series of messages focusing upon these
simple, basic gospel texts, I answer unashamedly that
I do so for two reasons.
First and foremost, it is because I desire
to preach that gospel which is the power
of God unto salvation in the faith and
hope and, I trust, biblically grounded expectation that
God will be pleased to call many to
Himself through the preaching of the Word, particularly
from the ranks of our own children.
Those of you who are here through no
choice of your own, you are here because
mom and dad mandate that you are found
in the house of God.
But you are not only here under the
sound of the Word.
Your name is brought daily, sometimes many days,
before the throne of grace with earnest prayers
that you would be brought to know Jesus
Christ in a saving way.
And I feel it only right that every
generation rising within anything that claims to be
a gospel-preaching church should have its walls
reverberate with these great, epitomizing gospel texts which
God has through the history of His church
often made in a very special way the
instrument of imparting saving grace and mercy to
sinners.
But then I have a second purpose, and
that is in keeping with the function of
a pastor-teacher, namely to help equip the
saints unto this particular work of service, namely
communicating the gospel to others as God gives
you opportunity.
And I want to furnish you with a
working knowledge and acquaintance with the kinds of
texts that you ought to use in your
witness to others and be able to sit
down and to open them up and one
-on-one or one in a group of
a family proclaim the blessed, saving word of
salvation and mercy in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Last week our first simple signpost was composed
of the very words of our Lord Jesus
as found in John's Gospel, chapter 14 and
verse 6, in which our Lord declares, I
am the way, the truth, and the life.
No one comes unto the Father but by
Me.
And while I have yet to hear of
any who points to that message as the
instrument of His conversion, I am delighted to
say that during the week one of our
members called me and said, Pastor, I'm so
thankful you preached that text.
I was able to preach it at the
bedside of my dying lost father, and I
had a clear gospel message to preach to
him as I gave to him in the
solemn scene of a deathbed the very message
that was preached in my ears on Sunday
night.
Well, tonight we're going to fix our attention
upon another simple signpost to the celestial city,
a signpost taken from a sermon preached by
the great Apostle Paul.
Now, have you ever wondered what it would
be like to have heard an apostle preach
the gospel?
As I have read biographies, I have wished
that somehow I could be shot into a
time capsule and taken back to some of
the open fields in England and hear the
great Whitefield preaching Christ with such passion, with
such earnestness and burning, almost seraphic eloquence.
I have wished that I could have heard
Spurgeon as I have read his biography and
accounts of everything from the captivating, mellifluous voice
with which he spoke to the earnest, tender
passion with which he pleaded with sinners.
But I must confess that beyond the yearning
to hear Whitefield and Spurgeon and other greats
of the past, I have wished that I
could have been somewhere to have heard Peter
preaching, to have heard Paul or one of
the other apostles.
Well, in the book of Acts, God has
given us a few at least shorthand summary
statements of several of the sermons of these
great apostles.
And one of them is recorded in Acts
chapter 13.
And it is to that chapter that I
direct your attention and from which we shall,
God helping us, discover another of these simple
signposts to the celestial city.
Here in Antioch of Pisidia, we have the
record of Paul's sermon preached in the synagogue
beginning in verse 16 of Acts 13 and
continuing through verse 41.
And it should not surprise us that this
sermon has three very clearly marked divisions.
Now, not all of the recorded sermons or
all of the shorthand versions of the sermons
have clear divisions, let alone clear division, three
divisions.
But this one does indeed have such divisions.
You will notice Paul begins in verse 16,
and Paul stood up and, beckoning with the
hand, said, Men of Israel and ye that
fear God, hearken.
Here is a man determined to be heard.
He raises his hand to gain their attention,
and then he solicits the commitment of their
ears.
Hearken.
And then, through verse 25, he sets forth
the history of Israel up through the coming
of John the Baptist in preparation for the
coming of the Lord Jesus.
So his first heading of his sermon in
the synagogue in Antioch of Pisidia focuses upon
Israel's history in preparation for the coming of
Jesus.
Then in verses 26 to 37, his second
heading is the history of how God fulfilled
his promises to Israel in the death and
resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth.
Notice in verse 26, Brethren, children of the
stock of Abraham, and those among you that
fear God, he is again addressing his audience.
He is fearful perhaps he has lost their
attention since he raised his hand and said,
Men of Israel and you that fear God,
listen.
They were perhaps getting a little weary, so
like a good preacher he calls back their
attention and says, Brethren, children of the stock
of Abraham, those among you that fear God,
to us is this word of salvation sent
forth.
And then he gives the history of how
God fulfilled his promises to Israel in the
death and resurrection of Jesus.
Then his third heading begins in verse 38.
Be it known unto you therefore, Brethren, having
completed his statements with respect to the history
of the death and resurrection of Jesus, he
now makes an announcement that the great blessings
of salvation are now available to men and
how they can obtain them.
Be it known unto you therefore, Brethren, that
through this man, or more literally this one,
is proclaimed unto you remission of sins.
And by him every one that believeth is
justified from all things from which you could
not be justified by the law of Moses.
Beware therefore, lest that come upon you which
is spoken in the prophets.
Behold, ye despisers and wonder and perish.
For I work a work in your days,
a work which you shall in no wise
believe if one declare it unto you.
Here then in verses 30 to 48 is
that portion upon which we shall see etched
a simple signpost to the celestial city.
And I want to make a direct appeal
as Paul did, not to men of Israel
and you who fear God, but especially to
you children and young people within these walls
tonight.
If I were to say to some of
you teenage guys who are very much aware
of the great shockwave that went through the
athletic world upon the news of Michael Jordan's
retirement, hey guys, all of you guys obsessed
with hoops to whom Michael was your idol
of idols, listen to me and if you
follow my directions, I can guarantee you in
six months you can jump and soar and
dunk and make people ooh and ah and
pack away the millions like Michael.
Would you listen to me?
You thought I wasn't just giving you a
line, would you really listen to me?
Would it be important enough to you, you
who lie upon your bed and fantasize about
the first time you're going to be able
to just touch the rim, let alone stuff
it down from two and a half feet
above the rim.
And I would say to you, listen to
me guys, I'm going to give you a
surefire way in six months you'll be Michael's
replacement.
Would you listen?
There's some of you that would.
I would say to some of you young
women, listen to me, listen carefully.
If you listen to me carefully, I guarantee
by the time you're 25, you'll be marrying
a guy handsome enough to be a movie
actor, strong enough to make Arnold Schwarzenegger look
like a wimp, wealthy enough to make the
Rockefellers go on welfare.
Would you listen?
Guaranteed!
I say to you guys, if you listen
to me, I guarantee by the time you're
25, you'll have the dream woman on your
elbow, a ring on your finger and yours
on her...
Would you listen?
In other words, what's important to you?
What would you listen to?
If I could hold it out and say,
listen and heed and follow through and this
will be the end.
Well, I say to you kids and young
people, listen, I don't care whether it's Michael
stuffing the ball through the hoop from two
and a half feet above it, whether it's
wealth and fame and money, there's a time
coming when all of that will be dust
and ashes and only one thing will matter
and it will be whether or not you
stood before this signpost and took its directions.
Only one thing will matter!
Did you stand before God's simple signpost to
the celestial city and read carefully what it
said?
And by the grace of God, take its
directions!
And all of the memories of Michael Jordan
and the Rockefellers and the wealthy and the
beautiful and the bold and all the rest
have passed into nothingness and the awesome eons
of eternity will have broken in upon us
with everlasting bliss or everlasting horror and torment.
Kids, young people, children, men and women, in
the name of the God of heaven who
has given you an ever dying soul, come
with me and gaze intently upon this simple
signpost to the celestial city.
And the first thing we notice as we
stand before it is this, that the forgiveness
or the remission of sins is the central
blessing held forth in the gospel.
When we get excited about the gospel, when
we get excited about the grace of God,
what is it that lies at the very
nerve centers of the gospel that gets us
excited?
Well, if you look at our signpost, we
read in verse 38, Be it known unto
you, therefore, brethren, that through this man is
proclaimed unto you not how to jam a
ball through a hoop, not how to land
a bold and beautiful one, but is proclaimed
unto you remission of sins.
And in those words there appears on our
simple signpost to the celestial city the truth
that the forgiveness or remission of sins is
the central blessing of the gospel.
Now the gospel is like a many faceted
diamond.
It has many planes and it shines in
many ways because our needs as sinners are
many and there is no need that we
have as sinners which is not addressed in
some marvelous facet of gospel privilege in Christ.
However, shining out of the deepest center of
that diamond and radiating to every plane of
every facet is its most marvelous provision and
that is the blessing of forgiveness of sins.
And hence when the apostle in his sermon
there in that synagogue comes to bring that
sermon to a conclusion having demonstrated in his
first heading how God prepared the world through
the history of his ancient people Israel for
the coming of his son and how under
his second head his son had come in
fulfillment of those prophecies and had died and
been raised from the dead now on the
basis of that mighty redemptive activity of God
he says be it known here is the
great blessing procured by all of this work
of the mighty gracious saving God throughout human
history.
This central blessing of the gospel even forgiveness
or remission of sins and our Lord Jesus
had this estimation of the gospel for when
he commissioned his own as recorded in Luke
chapter 24.
Notice how it takes the central place Luke
24 in verse 45 then opened he their
mind that they might understand the scriptures and
he said unto them thus it is written
that the Christ should suffer and rise again
from the dead the third day and that
repentance unto remission of sins should be preached
in heaven.
In his name among all the nations beginning
from Jerusalem as they are commissioned to preach
the gospel what is the central blessing there
to hold for it is the remission or
the forgiveness of sins that word for remission
comes from a verb that means to send
away and means nothing less than the complete
removal of our sins.
From the reckoning of God and from God's
dealings with us as a righteous and holy
judge and when sin is removed we have
no more guilt and when guilt is removed
there is no more wrath and there is
no more condemnation.
And God delights to extol how thorough is
that central blessing under the gospel when he
uses such language as we find in Psalm
103 and verse 12 as far as the
east is from the west so far has
he removed our transgressions from us.
We have a north pole we can locate
it precisely we have a south pole but
we have no east or west pole and
one can chase the east to the west
or the west to the east and never
overtake the one with the other as far
as the east is from west so far
has he removed our transgressions from us.
In that wonderful word in the prophecy of
Micah chapter 7 and verse 19 he will
again have compassion upon us he will tread
our iniquities underfoot thou will cast all their
sins into the depths of the sea.
Think of it we are told in some
places miles deep is the ocean God says
he will cast our sins into the depths
of the sea of his forgetfulness or in
the language of Psalm 130 and verse 4
if thou O Lord shouldest mark iniquity O
Lord who could stand if you should gaze
upon iniquity with a view to calling it
to remembrance.
And in calling it to remembrance view it
in terms of it's just guilt and deserved
wrath O Lord who could stand not a
one of us were God to call to
mind one act of iniquity and deal with
it in pure justice and righteousness one act
of iniquity would be enough to forever damn
us.
But the psalmist exclaims there is forgiveness with
the complete total irreversible irrevocable forgiveness with thee
that thou mayest be feared so then as
we think of this signpost to the celestial
city in Paul's sermon we must first of
all see that it sets before us the
central blessing of God's gospel provision and privilege
in terms of forgiveness of sin and I
say by way of an aside to you
my dear preacher brethren while I trust we
are increasingly committed to proclaiming the whole counsel
of God and are prepared to defend every
particle of God's truth with our life's blood
if necessary.
And while we with our people must range
over the full wide field of inscripturated revelation
let us never never never get so sophisticated
that we do not come back again and
again and again and again in our own
secret place with God in the selection of
our hymns and in the selection of our
text to take our posture as joyfully forgiven
sinners proclaiming to our fellow sinners that there
is a way for their sins to be
forgiven in this simple signpost to the celestial
city there is first of all this statement
forgiveness of sin is the central blessing held
forth in the gospel.
This Paul says is what we proclaim unto
you that through him there is remission of
sins but then there's a second line on
this signpost that we're considering tonight and it
is this that this forgiveness is found only
in connection with the Christ of Old Testament
prophecy and New Testament history.
Now you must not miss that it's not
enough to see on the signpost there is
forgiveness for needy sinners look at the second
line it says this forgiveness is found only
in connection with the Christ of Old Testament
prophecy and New Testament history you see that
in the text look at it again be
it known unto you therefore brethren that through
this man or this one is proclaimed unto
you remission of sins and by him everyone
that believe it is justified from all things
from which you could not be justified by
the law of Moses through this one and
by him now to whom is the apostle
referring well if we read back to the
first two heads of his sermon it's very
plain to whom he is making reference it
is the Jesus who was the great magnet
of all of the Old Testament prophecies it
is the Christ of Old Testament prophetic foresight
and utterance the prophets speaking of the coming
one who would be the deliverer of God's
people under his second heading he is demonstrating
that it is Jesus of Nazareth to whom
John pointed and bore witness of whom David
had spoken that his flesh would not see
corruption it was this one verse 31 who
was seen for many days of them that
came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem
who are now his witnesses you see what
Paul has been saying he has not been
holding up some nebulous ephemeral mystical Jesus concept
some new age guru that you can make
him whoever you would make him so long
as you find meaning by having trust in
him never in this simple signpost to the
celestial city there is clearly printed the statement
forgiveness of sins is the central blessing of
the gospel but then underneath it printed with
equal clarity is this statement that this forgiveness
is found only in connection with the Christ
of Old Testament prophecy and of New Testament
history for the simple reason that true forgiveness
deals with the true God and with real
sins that can only be dealt with with
the real Christ of real biblical revelation we're
not dealing with philosophical ideas kids we're not
dealing with religious theories the very God the
consciousness of whom you cannot drive from your
mind though it would make life a lot
easier for some of you if you could
the haunting awareness that he's there at your
elbow wherever you go in the secret chambers
of your thought life he's there and conscience
is activated when you think those thoughts of
dishonesty and lust and meanness and conscience is
there the eyelash of God brushing over your
moral consciousness for that's what consciousness is the
eyelash of God it's not some inherent thing
programmed in from the primeval slime it's an
evidence that you are an image bearer of
God albeit a marred image bearer and you
kids listen to me don't listen to all
of the nonsense that says that you are
an image bearer of God your sense of
guilt when you do wrong has been imposed
upon you by your mom and dad in
your church and if you're going to come
of age throw it all off that's the
surest way to sear your conscience and go
to hell you dear young people listen carefully
that's real guilt you feel because there's a
real God against whom you've committed real offenses
and the only way for those real offenses
against a real God to be really dealt
with is that there's a real Christ who
came into this real world by a real
womb of a real woman named Mary and
who was born in a real stable and
who lived up in a real place grew
up in a real place called Nazareth and
who as a real man of maturity was
plunged into the real water of a real
river Jordan and was really and truly anointed
with the spirit and with power and went
about raising really dead people and healing really
sick people and opening really deaf ears and
opening really blind eyes and went to a
place called Gethsemane and wrestled with a real
cup not a physical but a real cup
full of the wrath of God against the
sins of men a cup so ugly so
full of the stench and vileness of the
seething wrath of God against our sins that
our Lord sweat as it were great drops
of blood while he was seeking to save
us he was seeking to embrace with his
whole soul what it would mean to drink
that cup and he went to a real
place called Gabbatha and a real place called
Golgotha and real nails were put in his
hands and in his feet and upon a
real cross he was lifted up between a
real earth and a real heaven and the
real vials of the wrath of the real
God was poured upon him until he cried
my God my God why have you abandoned
me because there is a real hell that
was poured out of heaven upon the son
of God when he hung on the cross
the real hell to which you will go
if you miss the signpost dear young people
we're not dealing with ideas and notions and
religious concepts we're dealing with the stuff of
reality just as real as that little lip
you stuck out and pouted when you broke
the fifth commandment yesterday when mom asked you
to dry the dishes and you wanted to
go play with your dogs that was a
real pout that was a real defiance of
the real law of the real God who
tells you to honor your mother and your
father and that will bring upon you real
wrath and a real hell forever unless you
get God's real way of real forgiveness through
the only real Savior that is there's the
signpost it tells us forgiveness of sins is
the great and central blessing set forth in
the gospel it tells us secondly that this
forgiveness is found in the blood of Christ
Jesus Christ Jesus Christ Jesus Christ Jesus Christ
Jesus Christ Jesus Christ Jesus found only in
connection with the Christ of Old Testament prophecy
and New Testament history but then there's a
third line on this simple signpost look at
it in our passage Paul goes on to
say be it known unto you brethren that
through this man is proclaimed unto you remission
of sins and by him everyone that believeth
is justified from all things from which you
could not be justified by the law of
Moses what's the third line on this simple
signpost it's this this forgiveness is received in
Christ by faith alone this forgiveness is received
in Christ by faith alone and again for
our preacher brethren you kids hang in there
for a minute I'll come back to you
the English translation somewhat weakens the crucial emphasis
of the original Alexander suggests this very helpful
translation and from all things from which you
were not able to be justified in the
law of Moses in this one everyone believing
is justified you see the emphasis upon everyone
believing is held to the last to give
it tremendous impact upon the mind and the
spirit from all things from which you were
not able to be justified by the law
of Moses why that's all of my sins
for the law cannot justify me forgive me
pardon me give me acceptance with God with
reference to one of my sins from all
things from which I cannot be justified by
the law of Moses in this one yes
in this one but how in this one
everyone believing is justified the third line upon
this simple signpost of the celestial city says
this forgiveness is received in Christ by faith
alone one very perceptive writer has perceived the
reality of this text and spoken as follows
in these two short verses we have the
book of Romans and Galatians in a nutshell
justification by faith alone sola fide is an
endless inexhaustible theme the way to salvation so
slowly and with such difficulty prepared for us
slowly through the time of preparation in the
old covenant head one of Paul's sermon with
difficulty through the bitter suffering and death of
Jesus head number two in his sermon yet
so short and so pleasant for us to
travel short for all we need do is
to embrace the cross of Christ by faith
pleasant for here we find remission of sins
life and salvation now I don't know what
else to call that but beautiful that's not
only true dear people that's beautiful think of
what it meant for God to procure this
salvation head one of his sermon traced out
history spanning centuries head number two focused upon
history involving the bloody sweat and the agony
and the forsakenness of the son of God
and the miracle of resurrection but on the
ground of that I can have full free
eternal irreversible pardon for all of my sins
remission of all of my sins how?
upon believing upon believing hear the text by
Him everyone that believeth is justified yes
it will always be a penitent faith in
which the sins for which I seek forgiveness
will be detested and loathed and forsaken it
will be a submissive faith that disposes me
to embrace the Lord Jesus not only as
my sin bearer but my sovereign and my
master yes that is true and we take
second place to none in affirming and preaching
and defending that truth but my dear sinner
friend and my dear preacher friend let us
never never obscure the glory of sola fide
by grace are you saved through faith and
Paul does not put a big parenthesis of
course I mean penitent faith, submissive faith faith
that leads to a holy life faith that
leads to a sincere embrace of the Lord
that's all true but he dares to say
by grace have you been saved through faith
he dares to say in this synagogue as
he is etching this simple signpost to the
celestial city right in a synagogue made up
of Jews and of Gentile proselytes by Him
everyone that believes is justified you see it
is the unique nature of faith that it
is totally receptive it takes what is offered
by another it receives what is provided by
another therefore it is likened to drinking of
the water of life it is likened to
eating of the bread of life it is
likened to looking upon the serpent of brass
it is the unique capacity of faith to
have nothing in itself upon which to rest
and to go totally out of itself into
another to find all of its needs met
in that other and that other is the
Lord Jesus and you dear children one of
my greatest fears in you young people is
that because you have been soundly and properly
instructed and catechized and doctrinally sensitive and you
must be and ought to be if we
parents are to do our tasks but my
great fear is has the enemy taken what
should have been your means of blessing and
salvation and used it to get you all
in a muddle and you say faith and
obedience and repentance and I can't sort my
dear young man young woman here's the issue
do you see yourself a sinner and as
a sinner exposed to the real wrath of
a real God who could send you to
a real hell this night if he took
your life then I'm warranted as I stand
by this simple sign post to tell you
if owning the reality of your sinnerhood owning
the reality that there's nothing you can do
to scrub away your sins to make yourself
acceptable to God you're prepared to throw yourself
kids into the lap of Jesus and say
Jesus everything that has to do with my
sin problem I'm willing to entrust it to
you I'm willing to entrust it to you
in the light of what you did when
you died on the cross and rose from
the dead oh Jesus everything that has to
do with cleansing me from my sins of
lying and pouting and disobeying and strapping with
my sisters and cheating at school and being
nasty on the playground and talking dirty words
and passing around dirty jokes and you older
ones I'll not describe your sins but you
know them are you prepared to go to
Christ stinking and raking with the foul stench
of your sins and say Lord Jesus take
a stinking rotten foul smelling sinner like me
and wash me in your own precious blood
cleanse me in that blood that you shed
upon the cross Lord Jesus I'm prepared to
entrust myself to you to do all the
saving this sign post on which is written
the words forgiveness is the central blessing in
the gospel the words this forgiveness is to
be found in connection with the Christ of
biblical history and prophecy it also says that
this salvation is received in Christ by faith
alone faith alone and that's the great stumbling
block of the gospel isn't it that's the
great stumbling block of the gospel man wants
to have something plus Christ something plus faith
alone will give him the grounds to have
something plus Christ because faith alone is the
empty hand that takes a full and inadequate
Savior faith alone is the parched mouth that
drinks of him who is the water of
life now I must hasten to look at
the fourth line there on our simple sign
post and it is this look at it
in the text by him everyone that believes
is justified from all things from which you
could not be justified by the law of
Moses and what did Paul do with that
truth back up to verse 38 be it
known unto you therefore brethren that through this
one is proclaimed unto you remission of sins
the fourth line in our simple sign post
says this this forgiveness in Christ by faith
is freely and sincerely proclaimed to all without
distinction this forgiveness in Christ by faith is
freely and sincerely proclaimed to all without distinction
when Paul said be it known unto you
therefore brethren that through this man is solemnly
declared is the sense of that verb I'm
not just shooting off the mouth because it's
my job as an apostle to talk about
Jesus I am solemnly testifying as one who
stands in the presence of the living God
that there is no one here in this
synagogue within the sound of my voice whether
you are of the stock of Israel after
the flesh whether you are part of those
Gentiles who had come to embrace the God
of old covenant revelation whatever your background, whatever
your sins, whatever your blindness whatever your perversity
I solemnly declare to all of you freely,
sincerely, without distinction and then he moves from
the general to the specific that everyone by
Him everyone that believeth to all is the
proclamation made but the promise must be embraced
one by one would to God we could
bring you in in twos and fours and
sixes would to God we could get you
in on mom and dad's apron strings there's
no godly parent who doesn't wish for the
power to bring his children in with him
I've never asked for miracle powers for this,
that or the other if there's one thing
I could ask God for be Lord give
me the power to bring my kids in
but God hasn't given you that power they've
got to go in on their own you
children, you've got to go in on your
own you've got to go in on your
own you've got to stand by the simple
signpost and you've got to see that the
God who has etched these directions on the
signpost is saying to you as you stand
before it tonight this is solemnly declared to
you little ones, teenagers, preteens, postteens midlife, old
men and women it matters not forgiveness in
Christ by faith is freely and sincerely proclaimed
to all of you without distinction it's promised
only to believers it's proclaimed to all what
keeps you?
there is only one way you will ever
lay hold of Christ and that's to lay
hold of Him in the word and promise
of the gospel don't wait for something else
you won't get it and if you think
you got it, it will be a spirit
of delusion you hear me?
some of you, again, this is the great
stumbling block you say but Pastor Martin, this
is all I've ever heard from the time
I was a little kid I've never known
anything else, I have no reason to doubt
it well then why not embrace it with
all your heart and begin to live in
the confidence of it but you say I
won't know whether I will save then or
then or then well who cares believing now
you can know that now you are saved
and saved now you'll be saved tomorrow and
saved tomorrow the day after tomorrow and saved
in the day of the Lord Jesus as
you go on believing oh dear children, dear
children don't make it more complicated there on
the signpost, God is saying to you to
you forgiveness in Christ is yours if you
will believe those are the four simple lines
that God has etched on this simple signpost
of the celestial city if you've got them
in your mind line number one says forgiveness
is the great blessing held forth in the
gospel forgiveness is to be found only in
the Christ of biblical revelation forgiveness is found
in Christ only to those who believe forgiveness
is sincerely offered to all and you are
urged to believe but then as I look
down at the bottom piece of that simple
signpost there's an asterisk and you know what
it says it says warning warning this simple
signpost concludes with a warning look at it
in the passage behold or beware therefore verse
40 beware therefore beware is a word of
warning you come up to a house you're
going to a friend's place and it says
beware of the dog beware of this danger
the word beware means there's a danger lurking
about and this simple signpost ends with an
asterisk on the bottom and a warning beware
therefore lest that come upon you which is
spoken by the prophets behold you despisers and
wander and perish for I work a work
in your days a work which you shall
in no wise believe if one declare it
unto you and here the apostle takes a
quote from the Greek translation of the Old
Testament called the Septuagint from Habakkuk 1 in
verse 5 Habakkuk had predicted judgment on unbelieving
Israel and Paul concludes his gospel sermon his
simple signpost to the celestial city with an
asterisk and with a warning and the warning
is against the greatest sin of all and
you know what the greatest sin of all
is that will keep you out of heaven
it's not the sin of lying there'll be
many many forgiven liars in heaven thank God
I'll be one of them there'll be many
forgiven murderers in heaven there'll be many forgiven
adulterers and homosexuals and pedophiles and child abusers
and every vile kind of sinner in heaven
but there's one kind of sinner that won't
be in heaven you know what that is
an unbelieving sinner the crowning damning sin is
the sin of unbelief beware therefore Paul says
lest that come upon you spoken by the
prophets behold you despisers and wonder and perish
I'll work a work in your days which
you'll in no wise believe if one declare
it unto you in other words they were
listening to the word of the prophet in
a spirit of cynical unbelief and he says
such unbelievers will perish you know the New
Testament counterpart of that don't you he that
believeth not shall be damned he that believes
not the wrath of God abides upon him
and I would conclude our study of this
second simple signpost to the celestial city by
saying to every one of you kids and
men and women and friends gathered here tonight
look at the asterisk on that sign we've
looked at the four simple statements that constitute
this signpost to the celestial city but here's
the warning beware beware beware of going out
and saying oh that was nice and I
like that imagery of the signpost and that
was clever how he my friend I don't
care what you think about the sermon my
concern is will you go out with the
Savior or without Him that's the concern beware
beware lest having heard again you say either
I don't need such a Savior or such
a Savior is unwilling to receive me in
either case it's unbelief about what God says
you are or unbelief about what He says
His Son is and you've got to believe
what God says you are a hell deserving
sinner whether you're three years old or thirty
or ninety and that Christ is the only
Savior suited to any sinner three, thirty or
ninety don't go out in unbelief but embrace
the offered Savior stand by that signpost and
say oh God thank You for planting it
in Your Word for bringing me near it
in the preaching oh Lord I see beyond
the preacher and beyond my mom and my
dad and the friends and the visitors around
me oh Lord I see that I stand
before You covered with my sins I see
that there's no way to have them removed
unless Christ takes them away I see that
Christ alone can take them Christ is willing
to take them and I want them taken
what do I wait for just as I
am without one plea but that Thy blood
was shed for me and that Thou bidst
me come to Thee oh Lamb of God
I come just as I am in waiting
not to rid my soul of one dark
blot to Thee whose blood can cleanse each
spot oh Lamb of God I come may
You make haste to Jesus let us pray
Our Father how we thank You for Your
Holy Word thank You that You have given
us in the Scriptures a sure and a
certain Word revealing Your saving mercy to hell
-deserving sinners and as we have stood before
this simple signpost pointing us to a better
world and how to be prepared to meet
You and stand before You may Your Spirit
take the truth concerning Christ and make it
effectual to bring sun this night to embrace
the Lord Jesus oh God renew us in
the confidence that we ought to have in
the Gospel renew us in our expectation that
You will make it in our day Your
instrument of power unto salvation may we dare
to let it loose in all of its
pristine simplicity and all of its saving beauty
oh Lord deal with us Your people that
our sinfully silent tongues will be loosened that
we may as You give us opportunity and
as we make opportunities be bold to speak
forth so glorious a message of life and
salvation thank You our God for this day
in Your courts thank You for Your presence
thank You for Your people thank You for
all of Your institutions all of Your ordinances
oh Lord our hearts are full we give
You praise and ask Your continued blessing to
rest upon us as together we commit ourselves
and Your word to Your care in the
name of our Lord Jesus Christ Amen