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[0:00] We've made it as far as Paul in Antioch of Pisidia. He has begun to preach in the Sabbath, in the synagogue.

[0:18] I don't know how far we'll get. We could, there's a lot we could stop and dive in on, or we could just kind of, you know, bounce along the surface. We'll see what the Lord does.

[0:29] So tonight's theme is round one. This is round one, I think, for Paul. You remember when he was in, where was it?

[0:42] Cyprus, in Barnabas' hometown. Things went pretty good. I mean, he had some opposition with Elias the sorcerer, but that was no problem. The people turned to the Lord. He's like, great, let's go on to the next place.

[0:53] This is the first place that we're really going to see this pushback by the Jews, where the Jews become the opposition very strongly. And we'll continue into Paul's ministry. This is round one for Paul.

[1:05] Father, thank you again, just this opportunity, Lord. I think of when Elijah built the altar on Mount Carmel, Lord. And I always picture that when it's preparing a message. You're digging the trench, and you're laying the stones, and you're arranging the sticks.

[1:22] And it's like, does that look right? Is that how it's supposed to be? And then he just bathes it over and over and over. Lord, just to bathe in prayer over and over. Lord, just that you would wash upon us by your spirit, just to bathe our meager efforts, Lord.

[1:38] Knowing that it's your strength and not our ability, Lord. You are a sufficiency. And so, Lord, I pray you send the fire, just as you did on Mount Carmel. And you ignited the whole altar.

[1:49] And all that was left was a testimony to the power and glory of God. I pray that you do that tonight. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. So, Paul has come to Antioch of, I was going to say Poseidon.

[2:06] That's not it. Pisidia. And that was in the mountains, if you remember. So, there's Antioch of Pisidia today. The ruins, you can see it's in the heights. Where, when he landed on the mainland of Galatia, they were in Perga, in Pamphylia, which was the low country.

[2:24] It's just thought maybe Paul contracted some disease, some malaria, or had some issue with his eyes. So, Paul goes up in the mountains here, and he begins to preach in the synagogue.

[2:51] And they read the law, and then we get into where it says, in verse 16, after they invite him to say something. Then Paul stood up and, beckoning with his hand, said, Men of Israel, you that fear God, give attendance.

[3:07] And just real quickly there, you can see, again, on that map, where he's come to Cyprus, Solemus, Paphos, to Perga, and Pamphylia. And then he's up in the region of Galatia.

[3:19] There's a bunch of cities he's going to hit up there, Antioch, and then Iconium. So, this is the region. So, when you read the book of Galatians, it's not actually a town.

[3:30] Where, when you read it, something like Corinthians, that's actually a town, or city, Corinth. Galatia was a region. And when you hear Antioch, there's two of them. One of them up in the region of Galatia.

[3:43] So, Paul's up here into the mountains, and he begins to stand up, and he begins to speak. And we said last time that Christianity is based upon proclaiming the facts of what God has done. It's not so much the theology of it that comes in, for sure, but it's the facts and the acts.

[4:00] That's why it's the acts of the apostles, or the acts of the Holy Spirit. We actually have something that these are real events, and they're witnessed, and it's history. It's not just some kind of theology that was made up.

[4:10] It's not Joseph Smith, who had some kind of drug-induced vision and makes up a theology, and says that there's this whole history and this whole race that lived in the Americas that never actually did.

[4:21] And there's no historical record of that. For Christianity, we have that, because the ruins are still there. And so Paul's desire is to show that for each major event in Israel's history, this is what he's going to do now, was God's hand-directing, and for the express purpose of the Messiah.

[4:39] He wants to quickly bring them from their history down through to the Messiah. And so he starts off, as most always, the history of Israel starts off with Egypt.

[4:55] Which is funny, as we're going through Abraham, and he starts here in Egypt. Stephen started with Abraham. Paul's like, no, we've got to get to Jesus.

[5:05] We don't have time for that. You can picture him going through his notes. No, I've got to cut that out. No, we've got to move quicker. And so he starts here with Egypt. He says, So Paul's preaching about 15 years or so after Pentecost.

[5:31] We're 15 to 20 years, nobody knows for sure. After Pentecost, when Peter preached his sermon. And Peter, his sermon, very similar to Paul's in the way he goes through the history.

[5:45] And then Stephen, he does a much longer message. And then we see Paul kind of shortening it. And so the God of the fathers of Israel chose our fathers. And so he starts with Egypt.

[5:55] And what's he trying to show here? He's showing, I believe, that God was going to work, and nothing was going to prevent his work. He wants to get to the Messiah. He wants to get through the promise given to Israel, through their history, down to where when the promise was fulfilled.

[6:09] And so he's going to use these examples, and every one he's going to show that God was going to work, and nothing was going to prevent it. And so God does what? He delivers them from the land of Egypt with a high arm.

[6:22] That word there, strangers, means dwelling with those of who one is not a part. Okay, that's a stranger. But it literally means to dwell with those, living with those, trying to cohabitate with those, someone you're not part of.

[6:36] Just you're a stranger there, and nothing you do is going to change that. And about the time of 40 years, suffered he their manners in the wilderness. It doesn't mean they said bad manners when they ate the quail, and then he killed them.

[6:49] It wasn't because they ate it so fast with bad manners. It literally means he endures one's character. So he endured their character. Their character was not one that was in keeping with obedience or faith, but he endured it.

[7:04] He endured their character. As we go through this, we're going to see the timeline. So they're in Egypt about 430 years, and they're going to have the wilderness, which is 40 years.

[7:15] The judges is a period of 450 years. Saul, David, and Solomon. The three kings are 120 years, and you get into the rest of the kings, 165 years.

[7:25] The captivity, 70 years. And the silence, 400 years. Well, so what? What's the big deal? Well, there's a whole lot of history. He's going to condense into about, you know, a five-minute message, 10-minute message to get to Jesus.

[7:40] So we don't have to have all of the information to get to Jesus. People need Jesus. Today at that funeral I was doing, it was a straight-up redneck funeral.

[7:52] It was very fun. The people were really hungry. They were so desperate. There's this one guy. You could just tell that there was like, as I just was giving the gospel, they were just like taking it in.

[8:03] And afterwards, you know, he was like, thank you for giving the gospel. I've heard it before. But, you know, thank you. These are people that are nowhere, you know, living as believers.

[8:14] I don't think they're believers. But they're vulnerable, and they're hurting. And you just get right to Jesus. You know, it's like, well, we're here to celebrate this man's life. Do you know Jesus? And that's where the substance is.

[8:26] And that's where Paul's going to move quickly through this history, and he's going to get to Jesus. And we'll look at a few things, highlights, about each historical event, but we're not going to go deep into them.

[8:37] So he says, So in verse 19, we see that he did something they did not earn, they did not deserve, and they did not desire.

[8:54] And yet God was going to work in spite of this. They didn't earn this. He gave them the land. He said, go in and take possession of it. They did not deserve it. In the wilderness, they totally disqualified themselves.

[9:05] Even their children who went in, went in hesitatingly. And then they did not desire it. It wasn't even something they wanted. And they wanted to go back to Egypt, but God was still going to work.

[9:17] The promise would have its effect. And after that, he gave unto them judges, about the space of 450 years, until Samuel the prophet.

[9:29] So here with the judges, we see it was not something they appreciated. They did not appreciate the judges. They did not listen to the judges. They did not respect the judges. God gave them for 450 years.

[9:43] Now they're in Egypt, 430 years. They didn't have any judges. They didn't have anyone preaching the word to them. At the end of that, Moses comes, right? And the wilderness is only 40 years, but now he's got 450 years.

[9:55] He's just going to send person, after person, after person, after person. But they don't appreciate it. They don't ever appreciate what God is doing for them. And giving them a chance to repent, and an opportunity to walk in his will.

[10:07] They did not listen. By no means did they listen. They continued to go back into sin. They didn't respect them. Because we're told over and over in scripture, the way they treated the prophets. And then verse 21, we've had Egypt, the wilderness, the prophets.

[10:23] Then Paul says, and afterward, they desired a king. And God gave unto them Saul, the son of Cush, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, by the space of 40 years. And when he had removed him, he raised up unto them David to be their king, to whom also he gave testimony and said, I have found David, the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfill all my will.

[10:45] And so when they went and desired a king, Israel rejected those judges who they didn't appreciate, they didn't listen to, they didn't respect. They wanted a king.

[10:57] And the Lord, his response was, he did not withhold that. They desired a king. They should not have desired a king. They should not have had a king. He didn't withhold it. And he did not with strain when they desired Saul.

[11:08] He didn't say, that's not the one for you. Don't go for him. No. In fact, the Lord worked with their desires. They wanted Saul. He said, I'll give you Saul. But he also did not forsake them either when they were wanting to forsake his way for their own way.

[11:25] And so that was the history. That's the history Paul's giving of Israel. It's very brief and he moves very quickly through it. And I was thinking about it as we've moved through the book of Acts and as understanding of the word is growing, as the Holy Spirit's continuing to move, and I think as understanding of the word progresses, revelation increases.

[11:45] And I think we can bear that out in our own lives. As understanding of God's word increases in my life, revelation increases. The more I understand what God's saying to me, the more I understand what his word is speaking about situations.

[11:59] And so we see that, I think, with Paul. He's going to spend a little bit of time in their history and a whole lot of time on Jesus. And so I think as he's begun to understand more of the word and piece it together, he's getting quicker to Jesus and more of Jesus is being revealed as he's moved through this.

[12:19] And he says, I found David, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfill all my will. And the word fulfill means to bring forth or to make. To bring forth God's will. To make God's will.

[12:30] Like, well, wait a minute. Didn't we just say that God was going to work and nothing was going to stop it? His work is visible. His work is effective. His work is undeniable. And his work is circumstance altering.

[12:43] Nothing's going to stop that. And yet, we just read here, he said, oh, I found David, a man who will bring forth my will, who will make my will. I think we've talked about before, God's will, nothing's going to thwart that.

[12:55] It's just how much are we going to participate in God's will? God's will is going to happen regardless and God's promise will happen regardless. But what part do we want to play in that? And later when we get over, a ways later, towards the end, we're going to see that again with the way these, the Jews react to it, to the word.

[13:15] They have a part that they fulfill in God's word. Unfortunately, it's not the positive part. And I was thinking of how, I think of, this analogy breaks down at some point, but just, think of God's will as like a river, right?

[13:27] The river's flowing. And there's a lot of currents and eddies and in that river. And if you're in the middle of the river where the current's strongest, man, you're going to be moving along, right?

[13:38] But if you paddle over around the edge, it's going to move a lot slower. But you're still moving along with that river. It's kind of like God's will is going forward. And there's people that you'd look at their lives and you're like, well, are they in God's will?

[13:52] Well, if they're in Christ, they are. Because as we said before, there's no failure in Christ. Christ can't fail. So there's no such thing as a failure in Christ. But it may be that you just have stepped out of that current and out of the stream of God's will and you're not partaking in as much of his will as he would like you to.

[14:09] But he's going to move you forward irregardless. Like we said, everyone in Christ will arrive sanctified, fully sanctified in heaven.

[14:21] We're all going to be there. Nobody's going to be like, uh-oh, you only got 95%. 95%. Oops. Now the Lord may have to make up the difference really fast at the end.

[14:32] There's people that sometimes have a very hard time on their deathbed. Their death seems to drag out long. And for us, we think, oh, if the Lord would be merciful and just end that. Well, maybe he is being merciful.

[14:45] He's working in an area of their heart that they would not yield to before. But anyway, I was just thinking about that where he says about David, because David will bring forth and make my will.

[14:55] Well, David isn't making God's will happen, but David is essentially, God finds David and says, I see that you are willing to step into my will and then I can work my will through you. So I'm looking for someone that I can work my will through.

[15:08] And then we're going to get to Jesus. And of this man's seed, of David's, has God, according to his promise, not according to our righteousness, but according to his promise, raised unto Israel a Savior.

[15:23] Jesus. These people did not deserve this. We just looked at their history very briefly. Paul just lays out failure, failure, failure, failure, failure, and says, God delivers his promise.

[15:33] He brought you Jesus. So it has nothing to do with what we earn. It has to do with God's gift and his promise. And that's why I feel I can be justifiable in saying, God's will and promise will be done and nothing will support that.

[15:47] Now, how much of that you partake of in your life and I partake of in my life, that's kind of what's up for question, up for grabs in our relationship with the Lord.

[15:59] And then he gets into John the Baptist. So we've moved through the history of Israel and now we're going to slow, he's going to slow it down and start to look here at Jesus some more.

[16:10] What verse are we in? Verse 24. When John had first preached before his coming the baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel.

[16:23] So God brought a savior and who John preached about. He preached the baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel and as John fulfilled his course, he said, whom think you that I am?

[16:34] I am not he, but behold, there comes one after me whose shoes of his feet I'm not worthy to lose. And so before the promise comes, what does Paul put forth here?

[16:46] He's saying, Jesus, the promised savior, came. But John had to come first and preach repentance. And then what happened? John had to prepare a way before the promise.

[16:59] So we see there's repentance before revelation and there's preparation before promise in the person of John. God's people who had rejected him for so long.

[17:11] God couldn't just leave it to their hands to prepare for this promise. And thank the Lord he doesn't in our lives either. God has things he wants to do in our lives that we're not able to prepare for on our own.

[17:22] There's promises he wants to fulfill. There's his will he wants to work in our lives. But we can't prepare ourselves. And so he comes and he offers what? Repentance.

[17:33] He says, repent and believe. If we choose to partake of that, he brings revelation. He comes and says, I'll prepare you for what you have next. We say yes according to that promise and then we receive the fulfillment of it.

[17:49] So that was John's part. And so then Paul says, he says, men and brethren, so I've showed you this. I've showed you that this faith I preach, it's going to be based in fact.

[18:01] My desire is to show you that in every major event in Israel's history, God's hand was directing for the express purpose of the Messiah. All of Israel's history was to bring this to Jesus, to the promise.

[18:13] And then here's John, the final preparation. And so Paul says, men and brethren, children of the stock of Abraham, and whosoever among you fears God, the Gentiles, to you is the word of this salvation sent.

[18:31] And so he says, I bring you glad tidings of great joy. I bring you this word. It's interesting, isn't it, that he says there, to you is the word of this salvation sent.

[18:43] What does the Bible not have in it for a book? Right? It has words, but doesn't have, good job, pictures.

[18:54] It doesn't have pictures. And nowhere throughout this whole record is there an attempt to to hand off truth through image.

[19:09] Truth can only be conveyed through word. Only a word can reach the inner man, therefore only a word can be believed. You cannot convey truth through image because image can be corrupted.

[19:24] Image can be manipulated. The word is the only thing that can reach the inner man. You know, we didn't go really deep into language when we did Babel. We didn't have a lot of time, but I was reading about it, and words are more than simply communication.

[19:43] Elephants communicate. They're really social, but they don't have words. Our words convey to one another the very essence of who we are. One cannot undo what has been said unless one can undo oneself.

[19:57] And so if someone says something that hurts you, you know, says, you're a big rotten stinker and you're very offended by that, and they say, no, no, I didn't mean that. But if you would say that, why would you say that?

[20:10] Remember Jesus said in Matthew chapter 12, that really small, he says, either make the tree good and his fruit good or else make the tree corrupt and his fruit corrupt for the tree is known by his fruit.

[20:25] Oh, generation of vipers, how can you being evil speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. Our words convey who we are.

[20:37] When I speak with you and you with me, we are doing something that sight and touch cannot do, that I am essentially conveying to you the very essence of who I am and you are in return doing the same to me.

[20:51] A good man out of the good treasure of the heart brings forth good things. An evil man out of the evil treasure of the heart brings forth evil things. But I say unto you that every idle word that men shall speak, every word, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment because those words are not just words, they're an indicator of the person.

[21:10] For by the words shalt thou be justified, by thy words thou shalt be condemned. Isaiah 45, 23, the Lord says, I have sworn by myself, the word has gone out of my mouth in righteousness and shall not return.

[21:24] But unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear. So when Paul says, unto you is the word of this salvation sent. Unto you is the very essence of truth.

[21:36] This word, if you'll receive it, if you'll believe it, it will convey life to you. It will convey to you something that can change the very essence of who you are. Jesus was what? Made flesh?

[21:47] The word. The word made flesh. The enemy would gladly get us away from the word and onto image. Be very careful and very cautious.

[21:59] We're not going to go down that rabbit hole in my personal opinions, but be very careful when image is attempting to convey what God has only given the scriptures to convey.

[22:10] Just be careful because the enemy will use sight where God will use his word. We walk by faith, not by sight. Another quote, and I won't read it, but I'll just paraphrase it.

[22:23] It was talking about how that when a child is born, has no command of language, but it's able to learn language. And he said, it's like a computer that it has to have software, but it can't generate the software.

[22:36] It has to be given the software, but it's already ready to receive it. And the same way children are. So it's not, it can't be something that evolved because there's no ability for us to just on our own generate language.

[22:51] It's something that's imparted to us. We're able to receive it, but it's something that has to be given to us and imparted to us. But only a word can reach the inner man and only a word can be believed.

[23:05] Very important. And he says in verse 27, here's the word essentially he's saying. He's saying, for they that dwell at Jerusalem and their rulers because they knew him not, nor yet the voices of the prophets which are read every Sabbath day, they have fulfilled them in condemning him.

[23:28] So here we have God's word is always going to be fulfilled. Here are people fulfilling God's word and yet they're under condemnation because they've rejected God's word.

[23:40] And those voices of the prophets where he just laid out to them and was like, hey, the judges by the space of 450 years who you didn't appreciate or listen to or respect, those prophets, same ones, the rulers in Jerusalem, they didn't heed them either.

[23:59] And though they found no cause of death in him, yet desired they Pilate that he should be slain. Here are religious men willing to stoop to murder and when they had fulfilled all that was written of him, they took him down from the tree and laid him in a sepulcher.

[24:17] So these Jewish rulers played one of the biggest roles in fulfilling God's will with his Messiah. He had to be put to death. He had to be crucified. What determined their part in that?

[24:32] I think it's relationship. Relationship determines one's part in fulfillment because they knew him not in verse 27. they knew him not.

[24:44] God's will was still going to be done. It would be fulfilled. The promise would go forth. We're looking at that in Genesis and this is just the culmination in Acts. Amazing how it ties together. God's promise will be fulfilled.

[24:57] What part will we play in that? And what determined the difference was did they know him? They didn't know him. If they had they would not have slain him and they would have still been part of the fulfillment but not that side of it.

[25:13] And so God's will cannot be thwarted at any point or any time. And it was written of him they took him down from the tree and laid him in the sepulcher. Verse 30 But God raised him from the dead.

[25:26] God's will cannot be thwarted. The ultimate end of a man is death. And for the Lord it was like that's not going to stop my will. Up he comes.

[25:38] In fact it was part of his will. And he was seen many days of them which came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem who are his witnesses unto the people. And so God makes this verifiable and undeniable.

[25:52] Paul says this is verifiable they're still alive. You want to go meet them we can go meet them. They're still alive the witnesses and it's undeniable. You can't deny this because this is a fact and we have witnesses.

[26:07] Man we live in a culture that denies everything just because it feels like it. It doesn't matter what the evidence is or what the witness is. I mean a man can sit there and be like man I've been trying to get pregnant.

[26:19] It's like what? I mean what do you do with that? I mean we used to I remember when I was a teenager you'd go to conferences or whatever and Christian conferences and pastors conferences and they would always say things like when you're talking to someone if you can't agree on the basics like if we can't both agree that this is the table and this is the ground then we're probably not going to get much further.

[26:44] If you're like no that's not a table that's a watermelon and the ground is made of split pea soup or something we're probably not going to get much further than that. And that's the world we live in. You just can't talk to people anymore. It's like hi sir.

[26:56] No I'm a woman. Oh okay. Or even worse I'm sorry just the total destruction of grammar. I'm a they. That doesn't even make like it's just the enemy.

[27:07] He just creates chaos. It's just ridiculous. Anyway but at this time Paul was able to say there's witnesses and we all can agree that a witness can be trusted when you have more than one.

[27:21] And we declare unto you glad tidings. The promise prevails guys through all of Israel's rejection through the Messiah being slain the promise has prevailed and we have glad tidings how that the promise which was made unto the fathers God has fulfilled.

[27:39] The same unto us their children and that he raised up Jesus again as it is also written in the second psalm thou art my son this day have I begotten thee.

[27:49] That's psalm 2 verse 7 is what he's quoting there. Paul and Peter quote the psalms when they want to verify that scripture proves Jesus' resurrection.

[28:00] They love going to the psalms and they both do the same thing where they quote a small piece jump over to another text and take a small piece and say this is the proof of it. Which makes me feel really good because sometimes I only quote part of a scripture or I'll be like wanting to put one type one out and I'm like I really don't want the end of that.

[28:18] I like just the first part. Because as long as it contains truth and you're not modifying truth then that's fine. And Paul and Peter both do that a ton.

[28:30] Where they grab a snippet. So he grabs a snippet and says thou art my son this day have begotten thee. And as concerning that he raised him from the dead, now no more to return to corruption, he said on this wise, I'll give you the sure mercies of David.

[28:44] That's Isaiah 55 verse 3. I think I have that. Yes, because Isaiah 55, we all know the beginning of that. Ho, everyone that thirsts, come you to the waters. He that has no money, come you buy and eat.

[28:57] Yea, come buy wine and milk without money, without price. Wherefore do you spend money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which satisfies not? Hearken diligently unto me, and eat you that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.

[29:13] Incline your ear and come unto me. Hear, and your soul shall live, and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David. And Paul takes that little piece at the end and says, here it is guys, this is proof that God raised Jesus from the dead because he says, I will give you the sure mercies of David.

[29:33] I read that scripture, and I'm like, oh, I would think that's talking like to me and you, to people that come and drink. But he says, I'll give you an everlasting covenant, the sure mercies of David.

[29:45] David, he said, Jesus is the only one who can fulfill that because Jesus has risen from corruption. Lazarus rose from the grave. He died again. I think Matthew tells us that a bunch of the graves were open and a lot of the dead came out.

[30:03] Well, they all died again. Jesus is the only one who rose from the grave to die no more. And only in Christ do we rise from the grave to die no more.

[30:14] We're going to see that here. Wherefore, he says also in another psalm, thou shalt not suffer thy holy one to see corruption. For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell on sleep and was laid unto his fathers and saw corruption.

[30:29] That is a comforting scripture. By the will of God, he died. It was God's will. But he, whom God raised again, saw no corruption. I've written my Bible, not now, not ever.

[30:42] Jesus will never see corruption. Now he's going to present this opportunity to our buddies here. Jesus is our opportunity to escape corruption.

[30:52] Because he's the only one who arose out of corruption to die no more and to see no corruption. But Paul says to these men in this synagogue, he's like, guys, have you tracked with me this whole time?

[31:04] They're like, ah, sure, Paul. We're with you. It's funny, he told them the history of Israel and it's kind of disparaging towards the people.

[31:18] He presented God's faithfulness and God's righteousness and the promise fulfilled. It doesn't bother them at all. But boy, they're going to get bothered really fast as we move through the scripture here.

[31:31] By the most silly of trifles. He says, Be it known unto you, therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins.

[31:44] It's preached unto you the opportunity to escape corruption. You too can have the sure mercies of David, just as we read in Isaiah 55. And by him, all that believe are justified from all things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses.

[32:05] Beware, therefore, lest that come upon you which is spoken of in the prophets. Behold, you despisers, and wonder, and perish, for I work a work in your days, a work which will in no wise believe, though a man declare it unto you.

[32:19] So he says, Jesus gives you the opportunity to do what the law could not do. The law was for those who were still under corruption. Jesus allows us to come out of corruption.

[32:30] The law could not do that. The law could not justify us. It could not take corruption and make it incorruption. Only resurrection can do that. Only a new life. The law was to bring those that were under corruption to the place where they realized that, oh, I'm under corruption.

[32:48] It was to face their faces forward in hope and anticipation to the Messiah who was their escape from corruption. Just as we look back on it.

[33:00] But the law couldn't do what Jesus could do. Now he presents to them this opportunity. And for these men who, I don't know, year after year, you know, week after week, they're there at the synagogue.

[33:11] They're doing what they're supposed to do. They're trying to keep the law. To hear that the law is fulfilled. The law is done, guys. It's okay. You can stop.

[33:22] It's like saying, you can stop now. Oh, wow. Thank you. Amazing. Not, you don't have to do that anymore. It's not important. Forget that stuff.

[33:33] You don't need God. That's crazy. Don't do that. Just live like the world. God loves you. There's grace. No, instead it's, you don't have to. You can stop. Stop trying in your own effort.

[33:44] It's done. It's fulfilled. It's finished. Then he says, beware, therefore, good old Paul, you know, can't end in a high note. Beware, therefore, lest that come upon you, which is spoken of in the prophets.

[34:01] So now we're back to the prophets. Remember in verse 29, he said, and when they had fulfilled, speaking of Israel, I mean, speaking of the Jews, the ruling Jews in Jerusalem, when they had fulfilled all that was written of him, they took him down from the tree and laid him in a sepulcher.

[34:16] So he's saying, beware, lest that come upon you, which is spoken of in the prophets. Beware of what part of this promise of God you're going to fulfill. Beware what part of the will of God you're in.

[34:30] Behold, you despisers, and wonder, and perish, for I work a work in your days, a work which you shall in no wise believe, though a man declare it unto you. Habakkuk 1, verse 5, that reference there.

[34:44] Fallen man despises and resents truth, especially in the form of an equal, or as they perceive inferior. We do the same thing.

[34:54] It's very hard for us sometimes to receive something from someone, from an equal, especially an inferior. Right? Parents, how do you take correction from your own kids?

[35:07] Right? Powdered butt syndrome. You know? Powdered their butt. It's hard to take them serious. If they become older, and they're adults, and they're mature, and they have their walk with the Lord, and they say something, and you walk away going, well, they definitely got that from the Lord because they didn't get it from me.

[35:21] You know? And that's a blessing to see as your kids. You know, I've seen it in my kids, and it's great to see traits in them that are just gifts of the Holy Spirit, their growth in the Lord, because they didn't get it from me, or even Sue, as wonderfully perfect as she is, they didn't get it from us.

[35:36] That it was the Lord. It was the Lord working working in them. But we, for some reason, we just resent the truth when it's given to us. And when it's given, especially as correction.

[35:47] The fallen man really resents and despises the truth. He says, though a man declare it unto you. Now, if it's an angel, okay, I'm on board. You know? If it's, you know, handwriting on the wall, sure.

[36:00] If I hold my Bible open and the wind goes, and it lands right there, oh, wow, that's great. But if someone comes to me and says, hey, can I talk to you for a minute? Yeah. Yeah, sure. And it's like a loving rebuke.

[36:12] It's like, oh, wow. Thank you. I'll think about that. I'll pray about that. Where if someone comes and says, wow, brother, my life is blessed by you.

[36:22] I'm like, yes. Yes. Right? We like that. I had someone say to me once, there's things you need to remember and there's things you need to forget. And if someone insults you or compliments you, both of those things you need to forget instantly.

[36:38] Those are not the things to remember. Anyway, though a man declare it unto you, you're not going to believe it. And when the Jews were gone out of the synagogue, the Gentiles besought that these words might be preached to them the next Sabbath.

[36:50] That literally means between one Sabbath and the next. They're like, hey, this was fantastic. Come and teach us, you know, all week long. So Paul's like, woohoo, midweek Bible study. Let's go and do it.

[37:01] And now when the congregation was broken up, many of the Jews and religious proselytes, those would be the Gentiles, seeking God through the Jewish system of the law, they followed Paul and Barnabas who, speaking to them, persuaded them to continue in the grace of God.

[37:18] It says they followed them. That means what? Proximity, fellowship. They were with them. Like, we want to be with you. We want to hear you, learn from you, watch you, be part of your life.

[37:29] So there's a fellowship there. But they continued to speak to them and they persuaded them to continue in the grace of God. That word persuade means to induce to believe, listen, obey, comply.

[37:44] So they're persuading them. They're inducing them to believe. They're saying, listen, comply with this, yield to this, be part of this. Persuading them to continue in grace.

[37:55] Why? Because the natural course is to slip back into a works, merit-based system of relating to God. So the grace of God has come. They've received it. They're excited.

[38:06] And Paul says, continue in grace. Continue. What region are they in? This is Galatia. Paul's going to write to the Galatians, oh foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you that you should turn from the truth.

[38:17] You know, so recently believe. The Galatians will turn back to the law or attempt to keep the law. Paul is saying, continue in grace. Man, our tendency is to be saved by grace and try and walk by effort.

[38:32] But anyway, on the next Sabbath day came almost the whole city together to hear the word of God. Now that is fantastic. You know, Paul essentially has a Bible study.

[38:43] Well, he didn't have a Bible study. He stands up in church as a guest speaker. They say, hey, can we do a midweek study? They do that. And the next week the whole church is there. I mean, the whole city is there. Because why? Well, I think because they did continue in the grace of God.

[38:55] But the grace of God does that. The grace of God is contagious. The grace of God affects other people around us. But you can't help. You can't help but have the witness of the Spirit when you walk in God's grace.

[39:07] The whole city comes to hear the word of God. But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were so excited and blessed that God's word was being spoken and fulfilled.

[39:19] You know, as someone said to me when I told them, hey, we planted a church. Oh, like we need another church. Right? It's like, what? Come on. Could have been like we opened a bar.

[39:30] Oh, great. That'll bring in revenue for the city. Awesome. Oh, the whole city comes together. But when the Jews saw the multitude, they were filled with envy and spake against those things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming.

[39:47] That just hurts that these men who had received the word a few verses before, they were excited about this. Now, they're blaspheming and contradicting.

[39:59] Why? Because envy creates opposition where there is none. Envy will create opposition where there is none. Hey, I don't got any beef with you.

[40:11] What's going on? Well, I got something with you because envy's definition is a long one but it's a good one. Envy means pain, uneasiness or discontent excited by the sight of another's superiority or success.

[40:29] So, pain, uneasiness or discontent that is excited to rouse because of another person's superiority or success. It's accompanied with some degree of hatred or malignity and usually with a desire or an effort to depreciate the person and with pleasure in seeing him depressed.

[40:48] That is just terrible. That's horrible. Oh, oh, you have something wonderful happen in your life? Man, I wish I could destroy you and that too and then I'd feel really good.

[40:59] That's just terrible. Envy is mortified that another has obtained what one has a strong desire to possess. So, for these Jews, these men of Israel here in the synagogue, how long has the synagogue been there?

[41:15] How many proselytes did they have? How few? And now the whole city is there and they're like, that's what we wanted. We gotta get rid of Paul. And I think there's this weird thought in our minds with envy that if we can just somehow do that, we can obtain what they have.

[41:30] Think of when the landowner, the guy who owns the vineyard, the parable, he goes off and he rents it out to the husbandman and then when it comes time to receive of the harvest, he sends his servants and they beat him and they stone another and kill another and he says, I'll send my son, surely they'll reverence him and they say, this is the heir, let's kill him and then this will be ours.

[41:53] Almost as if we can get rid of him, surely then he'll give this to us. It's illogical and envy does that because envy is born out of pride, a desire to have that either is not ours or what someone else has and that's what's happening here.

[42:09] Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold and said, it was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you. It was necessary because God's promise was to Israel. It is necessary that God's word be fulfilled according to his promise but seeing you put it from you and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles and so the truth, Paul and Barnabas waxing bold, the truth does not hide behind some false emotion like envy.

[42:37] We turn to the Gentiles for so has the Lord commanded us saying, I have set you to be a light of the Gentiles that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth.

[42:48] We're not going to go into this but on your own you can look at either this was one, this verse where he says as we've been commanded to go to the Gentiles either the ministry it's either one the ministry of Jesus becomes the ministry of his people.

[43:05] So this is a scripture found in Isaiah 49 verse 6 speaking of the Messiah. The Messiah is to be a light to the Gentiles. So Jesus' ministry will then become the ministry of his people?

[43:16] I think yes. I think that fits for sure. General. Then more specific, perhaps Paul and Barnabas have this specific scripture God used to call them.

[43:26] Remember it said the Holy Spirit said separate to me all in Barnabas. Perhaps this was that scripture. And when the Gentiles heard this they were glad and glorified the word of the Lord and as many as were ordained unto eternal life believed.

[43:41] We're not going to go into that either but you can look up on your own. Ordained means appoint, set in order. It also has in it the idea appoint on one's own responsibility or authority.

[43:53] Remember earlier he said you judged yourselves unworthy of eternal life. The idea here is that those who have been ordained those who have taken the responsibility and authority to judge themselves worthy of eternal life by receiving.

[44:06] This is not a validation of the five points of Calvinism. That yes, God knew ahead of time but also it is that they have essentially received it and judged themselves worthy of that.

[44:20] And the word of the Lord was published throughout all the region. In other words it went beyond the city. But the Jews stirred up the devout and honorable women and the chief men of the city and raised persecution against Paul and Barnabas and expelled them out of their coast.

[44:36] That is the persecution there. Targeted reproach is the idea. That they have targeted reproach against them. Look who they stirred up. The devout, the honorable and devout women and chief men of the city.

[44:48] You know, if you're not in Christ, man, any mob, any movement can catch you up. And they expelled them out of their coast.

[45:00] Why? Because they could not refute what they said. Like, you know what? We can't refute this. We're just going to get rid of you. Out of here. But Paul and Barnabas shook off the dust of their feet against them and came unto Iconium.

[45:13] Iconium, we will learn about that some more next time. And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit. The word of God received leads to a joy that contradicts circumstances.

[45:29] These are not the best circumstances for these guys. But the word of God received leads to a joy that nothing can extinguish. A couple other thoughts.

[45:40] Tribulation never has the last word. So they're like, get out of here, we're persecuting you. And the disciples are like, man, we're filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit. You can't stop that. Trials are merely unrealized opportunities for the Holy Spirit.

[45:56] The Holy Spirit's going to take an opportunity of these guys being expelled and man, they're going to go into Iconium and it's going to be just another town and another and another. And Paul's going to learn this lesson. Did I have two slides?

[46:09] That one? Sorry. Sorry. Trying to wrap it up. So joy, the word of God received leads to a joy that contradicts circumstances.

[46:26] And the scripture I wanted to end with, I was just thinking about that. Joy that contradicts circumstances. It was in that scripture, verse 52, and the disciples are filled with joy with the Holy Spirit.

[46:38] I've been reading through church history, a book that I've been reading, and it has been, a lot of periods of church history are rough. You get to the Inquisition and all of that, this idea that the church existed to administer God's grace and much better for you to receive God's grace and have your body burned.

[46:59] So that was the heartbeat time of the Inquisition that we're going to destroy your body until you confess and then we saved your soul. It was just horrible. But I think of the believers who went to the cross, who were thrown in the arena in the joy that they confessed, the witness of the Holy Spirit, the filling of the Holy Spirit.

[47:18] Even something so simple like today is during that redneck funeral, like 20 people there, maybe. Man, you could see the Holy Spirit affect their lives.

[47:28] You could see it. You could see He had prepared their hearts and they were just drinking it in. And it's like, that's nothing we have of ourselves. So, that was round one for Paul.

[47:44] He's going to have these guys follow him from now on. But he's also going to have behind him an extremely solid church that has been born out of persecution.

[47:56] You know, I think this church, not collectively, but I think we all have stories where we have been born out of persecution. Maybe not for our faith, but tribulation, I guess I could say.

[48:10] We've had things in our lives that have stunk, but the Lord has used it to bring joy and a witness of the Spirit. And He's used it to bring us all here at a place where essentially we're ready to hit the ground running, ready to receive the word of His grace.

[48:29] So, Father, we thank You for that. Thank You for the testimony, Lord, that's contained in the Scripture of Your faithfulness, of the promise never failing. Despite Israel failing, despite people rejecting Your Word, the promise doesn't fail and Your will does not fail.

[48:45] Your will will be fulfilled. And so, Lord, here we are. We want to be a part of that. We don't want to be those that despise and reject. We don't want to be those that have said, hey, God's will was fulfilled because of their sin, their rejection, their whatever.

[49:00] we want to be those that, Lord, You will say, well done, good and faithful servant. Well done. When all else caved, You held firm. When the circumstances of Your life were terrible, You received the word of my grace, the word of truth.

[49:17] You continued in the grace of God. You were filled with the Spirit and You received my joy. So, Lord, I just thank You so much again that there is no mountain so high that Your grace cannot flatten it.

[49:31]  And we love You and we thank You. In Jesus' name, Amen.