We read that, didn't we, in Matthew
10? Whosoever confesses me before
me, and him will I confess before my Father which is in heaven.
Whosoever denies me, confesses me not before me, and him will
I deny before the Father and the angels. All right, turn with
me to Acts chapter 11. First of all, Acts chapter 11. This message is going to take the form of
a review of what we've been looking at through the book of Acts.
I believe it'll be a blessing to you as we look at the Lord's
dealings with the early church and try to relate them to us
as well. I've reminded you before that
the book of Acts is a history of the early church, the Acts
of the Apostles. That's what it's named, the Acts
of the Apostles. It tells of their journeys, their
missionary journeys, and the Lord establishing churches throughout
the world. tells some of the Lord's marvelous
dealings with his people, and the power of the gospel going
forth, and the establishment, the preservation, and the growth
of churches in various places—churches like this, of people. And the
New Testament church started in Jerusalem. That's where it
started, as you well know. But because of persecution by
the Jews against the church there, And because the Lord said, I
have a people all over the world. Remember, he started saying that
early on in his ministry, didn't he? There in John 3, he was talking
to Nicodemus. He said, Nicodemus, God is not
just the God of the Jews. He has a people all over the
world. God so loved the world that he gave his son for a people
all over. And because the Lord had a people
all over the world, so the gospel moved on because of persecution
and because the Gentiles were to hear it. The gospel moved
on to the Gentiles and the Lord had much people all over, much
people all over. And here in a city called Antioch,
look here in Acts chapter 11, let's read verses 19 through
21. Now you remember how that Stephen
preached there at Jerusalem, and they which were scattered
abroad upon the persecution that arose about Stephen. There was a great uproar, you
know, when he was killed and so forth. And Herod, do you remember,
vexed the church and killed James, and the church was just persecuted
at this time. And people traveled as far as
Phenicia and Cyprus and Antioch Preaching the word and we saw
this morning and other times that's the gospel they preach
the gospel. To none but under the Jews only
and some of them were men of Cyprus and Cyrene which when
they were come to Antioch. They preached under the Grecian
also preaching the Lord Jesus and the hand of the Lord was
with them and a great number believe and turned unto the Lord. So the church in Jerusalem, after
this persecution, the church in Jerusalem sent forth Barnabas,
if you remember our studies there. Barnabas was called a good man,
verse 24, full of the Holy Ghost and of faith. And they sent Barnabas, being
recommended by the Holy Spirit, down to this, up I should say,
to this town called Antioch. out of Jerusalem and up to this
town called Antioch, north of Jerusalem, okay? Antioch, remember
that. And he went up there to preach
and to teach, and after a while, Barnabas, after he saw the grace
of God, remember that message? Seeing the grace of God at work,
many people believe, turned to the Lord. He went to get salt. The Lord
was pouring out his Spirit, and he wanted these people to hear
the apostle Paul preach, because Paul was a gifted preacher, at
least a communicator of the gospel and a knowledgeable man. And
he went to get Paul, or Saul, and brought him back up. And
look at verse 26. And when he found Saul, he brought
him to Antioch. And it came to pass a whole year
they assembled themselves with the church and taught much people.
And the disciples were called Christian, Christians, remember
that, Christians first in Antioch. This is where they got that name.
Now, it was an ignominious name. It was as infamous as that's
the right term for it. People that called them that
didn't mean well by it. Yeah, they're those Christians. They didn't mean good by it.
They weren't complimenting them at all. It was an ignominious
It was an infamous name, but nevertheless, this group of believers
in Antioch was first called Christians, and this is where the Lord established
a very large church and sent it out from there. Jerusalem
was in turmoil. Herod was tearing it up, and
not too long afterward, the temple was all going to be attacked,
and that's another story. But look at verse 27, and it
says, In those days came prophets from Jerusalem. I mean, there
was a big outpouring of God's Spirit. Prophets came up from
Jerusalem to Antioch to see what was going on, to see the Word
fulfilled about the Gentiles. They had read the prophecy concerning
the Gentiles throughout Isaiah. You want to read something? Isaiah
tells much about the Gentiles receiving the Word. And prophets
came up to witness this. All right? Chapter 13. Look over
there. Chapter 13. And after a while,
the Spirit said to Paul and Barnabas, He said, It's time to take the
gospel into further regions. Time to go elsewhere with the
gospel. All right? Chapter 13, verse
1. So it was at the church of Antioch,
certain prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon, and so forth,
and Saul. Verse 2, And they ministered
to the Lord, and fasted, and the Holy Ghost said, Separate
me, Barnabas and Saul, for the work whereunto I have called
them. And when they fasted and prayed, laid their hands on them,
they went, they took off. Bye, Paul. Bye, Barnabas. May the Lord bless you. May the
Lord give His Word power and furtherance, and may it run well. Oh, it will. Wait till they get
back and tell you about what happened. All right. They sent
them. All right. This was a missionary
journey. They sent these missionaries. And I can't help but just flash,
thoughts flash through my mind of a young Walter Gruber, 30
years ago. Burr haircut and all, and a young
wife and little pequenos little children babies going down to
that foreign land. And then David Pledger went Bill
Clark a young man and so on and so forth. All right now look
back at your maps in the back of your Bible. OK. You've got
a section of maps. This will be interesting to you.
You've got a section of maps in the back of your Bible. Look
at the very last map that should tell you of the journeys of Paul
the Apostle, okay? And while I go through where
he went and what happened, you can look at it on your map there.
You can see the great lengths that the gospel traveled in this
day, okay? And the troubles and so forth.
Look back there at the maps of Paul's journey. All right, they
left Antioch. Do you see? Do you have it? Do you have it there, Paul's
journeys? Everybody got it? All right, if you'll see there,
on the right side there, it has Jerusalem and then Joppa, Caesarea,
and on up Damascus, and right on up there is Antioch. You see
it on the right? Right above Syria there, Antioch. See that? All right, that's where
they went. That's where this is talking
about, Antioch. All right, that's where the church was that we're
talking about. All right, they went from Antioch,
which was an inland city. You see it's in town in in land
a little bit they went over to this town called Salusia. You see that that's port city
Salusia and they got on a boat right there and they sailed over
to the island of Cyprus. See that little island Salamis
little town called Salamis. Well they preached there at Salamis.
All right, they sailed, and folks, it wasn't the Queen Elizabeth
that they were sailing on. It wasn't the Port-au-Prince
or the Honeymoon Suite on a big ocean liner. It was a rough sailing
vessel. And I've been on one of those
at Mexico, and I don't want to and my father-in-law will say
lollygag here, but I've been on some rough boats, down one
of those rough-hewn little wooden tiller sailboats down there in
the Caribbean. Believe me, when you get out
there, 30 minutes later, you wish you'd never got out there.
And that's what they got on and traveled a fairly long ways to
this Cyprus. They got to the town of Salamis,
and they preached there, and they went through the island.
They walked or He doesn't say how they got where they went.
They may have walked. They may have traveled by donkey,
ox cart, something, hitched a ride. Who knows? But they went through
the island and came to Papus. You see that? Papus on the Isle
of Cyprus. All right, they came to Papus.
Now, and I'm reminded when I say, when I talk to you about the
apostles, their travels now. Did 2 Corinthians 11 come to
your mind when I talked about the difficulties of their trials?
Paul said, he said, we were in journeyings often and in perils
of water, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen,
in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils
in the wilderness, in perils in the seas, in perils among
false brethren, in weariness and painfulness, in watching
and often in hunger and thirst, fasting and so forth. He talked
about being shipwrecked and so forth. And that was in another
journey that he made. But these were tough, tough journeys
that they were making now. Keep that in mind as they made
these travels. But the Lord was watching over
them. And thankfully, on this first journey, they didn't shipwreck
or go have too much of a trial in that All right, they got to
Papus, and this is where Alimus the sorcerer confronted them.
Do you remember that story? That sorcerer, that magician,
that sorcerer confronted them and opposed the gospel they were
preaching, but yet Sergius Paulus, the deputy there, he believed
the gospel. He believed. One man, that's
all I'm talking about, one man here in Papus. It's worth the
trip, wasn't it? All right, then they traveled.
I boat from Paphos all the way up there to see, do you see Italia? Do you see it? And then up to
a little town called Perga. All right? See Perga? That's
where John left them. John was with them at Paphos
and then traveled with them, and at Perga is where John left
them and went back to Jerusalem. All right? Not too long after
that, John was exiled to the Isle of Patmos. And that's where
the revelation was given to him. All right? All right. Pergas
was where John, or Perga was where John let them. All right?
Now, they left there and went straight northward. Do you see
it? Straight northward to a town called Antioch, another town
called Antioch in Pisidian. You got it? Antioch, Pisidian. Now, by this time, people, they
had traveled over 500 miles by boat, by foot, by donkey by whatever
however they could get there over five hundred miles no air
conditioning no leather upholstery tough tough sailor tough walking
all right this is where Paul preached that message in chapter
thirteen that we saw this morning Antioch where the whole town
turned out and he preached that message at Antioch, we heard
this morning. And the whole city turned down,
and it says the Gentiles were glad. The Gentiles were glad,
but the Jews were mad. But as many as were ordained
to eternal life in that little city, they believed. All right? They believed. Then they were
kicked out. They were expelled, it says,
out of the coast, or out of Antioch, Pisidia. And it wasn't politely. They didn't ask them to leave.
Would you please leave? Gather your belongings and please
Depart from Steve they bodily got they got some rough ends
and kicked them out of that city Threw them out and bodily all
right, and well they shook off the dust of their clothes. He
said well That's all the sheep. It's here. We'll go on down the
road a little further all right look at it now. They went from
from Antioch down to Iconium about 50 miles about fifty miles
down to the town of Iconium. And all the time it says that
they shook off the dust of their feet and they were filled with
joy in the Holy Ghost. John, they were walking down
the road, Paul and Barnabas, discussing what the Lord is doing
and talking about the Scriptures and the gospel. Yeah, look over
here, Barnabas, at Isaiah. Well, yeah, I was reading the
other day. And Jeremiah, and this is exactly what the Lord's
doing here. Isn't this marvelous? And they
were full of joy in the Holy Ghost, and they were having a
good time. They'd had a rough ride and rough
sailing and rough time, but they were enjoying themselves and
the Holy Spirit and the gospel. All right? And it says they preached
that Iconium for a long time. And God gave testimony to the
word of his grace. That's what it says. He gave
testimony to the word of his grace, but he divided the people.
It says that some held part held with the apostles and part held
with the Jews. You remember that? And there
was a conspiracy in Iconium to kill Paul. They said, listen,
we won't have this fellow preaching to us anymore. Let's kill him.
And the Jews are the ones that put them up to this again. The
Jews. You remember in Paul's imprisonment,
he kept appealing to the Jews. He said, listen, I'm a Jew, too.
Oh, brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel
is that I'm a Jew. And to the Jews of promise, those
are those things he was talking about in the Romans. He was a Jew, but it was the
Jews that hated him, hated the Gospels, hated him. All right? The Lord gave testimony to his
word, and they conspired to kill him, so they left. They left
Iconium and went to Lystra. You see that? Lystra? All right,
they went down to Lystra. All right? Down at Lystra there
was a little crippled fellow that had to hear the gospel. They went on down. It just so
happened, they said, where are we going to go today? We've got
to leave. That's for sure. We're going
to be killed. Where are we going to go? Let's see. We could go north. We could
go west. We could go east. No, let's go
south. There's a little town down there
called Leestrup. We'll go down there and we'll
try that." One little crippled fellow that
had to hear the gospel. They must need to go through
Leestrup, Henry. They must. The gospel must run
there. They went down there. That's
another 30 miles by foot or whatever. And then they went up to Derby. All right, now back to Acts 14.
Act chapter fourteen. All right back there. Act chapter fourteen. And here
at Lystra after well here at Lystra is where they encountered
this mob you know. And where they stoned Paul. At Lystra is where this big mob
scene took place. You know, these pagan worshippers
and all the Jews, once again, got up an angry mob against them. And they stoned Paul, and it
says, verse 19, they drew him out of the city, they stoned
him, killed him, drug him, drew, drug him, his body, bloody body,
out of the city, supposing he had been dead. And this is, I
believe, what Paul refers to in 2 Corinthians 12. where he
said, I knew a man, whether in the body or out of the body,
I cannot tell. But he went to the third heavens.
Do you remember that message? And he heard things that were
unlawful, not saw, heard things that were unlawful to utter. I knew a man. I knew a man. All right? Verse 20. How be it?
How long he laid there, I don't know. But verse 20, it says,
As the disciples stood round about him. Who was it? It could
have been just that little crippled fellow in Barnabas. It just doesn't
say. It could have been just those
two. And they were standing there. They were standing there looking
over Paul's bloody, lifeless body. Brother Henry, they were
sad. They were weeping outside of town, you know. Is this it? Lord, is this it? Is this the
end?" And that little, whatever the fellow's name was, old cripple,
he was saying, oh, I believe this gospel too. The Lord healed
me, surely. Surely the Lord can do great
things, surely. And Paul jumped up. Paul jumped
up. Right there, right in front of
him. I said, boys, let's go. That's what it seems to indicate,
doesn't it? It doesn't seem to indicate that he suffered any
adverse effect, unless, Brother Rick, this could have been where
Paul suffered that eye problem that he suffered with from that,
throughout the day. He had an affliction, a thorn
in the flesh. That could have been, you know,
they beat him in the head with rocks, and they could have nearly
put one of his eyes out. caused him great damage and he
may have suffered with that from that day forward. At any rate,
he was bloody and he was beaten and he got up from the ground
and said, let's go. Barnaby said, where? Well, let's
go preach the gospel. Lord, give me that courage. Goodness
gracious. What a pitiful lot, what a pitiful
bum I am. Let's go down the road and preach
the gospel. There's a little town called Derby down the road
there. We'll go down there, verse 20. And they departed and went
down to Derby. And when they had preached the
gospel to that city, they preached the gospel to that city and he
taught many. They returned again. Where'd
they go? They went back to Lee's truck. Well, Paul, they just stoned
you to death. There's some believers there.
Maybe the little crippled fellow stayed there. Maybe there were
some other believers. Let's go see about them. But aren't you
scared? I died, and the Lord raised me. What can I? Fear not them which
kill the body, and after that they can do no more. And these are places, and they
went to Lystra, went to Iconium, they threw them out of Iconium.
Antioch, there's a conspiracy to stone them there. They went
right back to those places. Places they'd already been thrown
out of, their lives had been threatened. Why? They counted
not their lives dear unto them, but they counted those people
very dear unto them. And besides, they truly believed,
these men believed, if God before us Who can be against us? Huh? The gates of hell will not
prevail against us. I remember, Barnabas, don't you
remember the Lord saying something to Peter about that? Huh? Don't
you? Yeah, I do. Peter told us himself
that. The gates of hell will not prevail
against you. Old Brother Farrell used to say,
now this is not, gates don't do attacking. Gates don't attack. You ever known in a war for gates
to rush the people? Come at them? No. No, people
stormed the gates. And they don't prevail. They
don't hold back. They open when they storm. And that reminds me of Psalm
24, that open these gates. Somebody's coming in. God's Word's
coming in. And nothing can prevent it. Whatever
God opens, no man can shut. Right? The gates of hell. And Paul, walking down the road
to one of these towns like Lystra, I bet he was thinking to himself,
Barb, I bet he was thinking, Now, they just killed, they stoned
me there. But, you know, I know whom I
have believed. And I'm persuaded that he's able
to keep that which I've committed against whatever comes my way.
Let's go, Barnabas. Oh, my. God's people are immortal
until God Almighty says it's time. Would to God we could get
a load of this, get a hold of this, huh? In our various travels
and so forth. This will help you, believer.
We're so tossed to and fro with worries and troubles and aren't
we? The least little—we're so worried about a snowstorm. in a car wrapped in a steel vehicle. Oh, ye of little faith. Various
travels. I think, once again, about these
missionaries in our day. Ken Wymer. Africa is literally
overthrown with AIDS. Literally taken by it. That nation's about to die, literally. The whole nation's about to be
wiped out by AIDS. Does Ken Weimer have to worry
about AIDS? Huh? There's snakes, he says. He's
seen snakes in his front yard. There's a little green snake,
I forget the name of it. He said, one bite and you're
gone. He said, you're just gone. You're dead. They don't even
do anything. They don't even try to help you. You're dead.
He's seen them in his front yard. His kids play in the front yard.
You've got to play in the front yard. Bill Clark, he's had malaria
three times. It never leaves you. There's
nothing more, no more sickening sickness than malaria, they say.
Walter's got a permanent amoeba in his body that he carries,
and it crops up every now and then. Milton, down in that Chiapas,
you know, he says he's been a powder keg ever since he's been there.
He's been stopped on the road by 17-year-olds with submachine
guns ever since he's been there. David Pledger was down there
journeys journeys these men went through during their wives of
Betty about that Betty contacted. Whatever it was and about that
Walter had to give her injections for several weeks I was going
to lose her and little children in in diapers. Perils of water
perils by playing peril to God's people to travels and missionary
even And highways and painfulness and sicknesses and diseases and
so forth, but they're always delivered. Right? Always delivered. I think about
other men's travels too, not only the missionaries, but other
men you know, other preachers of the gospel and so forth. My
own travel, that's nothing to speak of, but going back down
to Winston-Salem not too long ago, during that ice storm, and
old Mindy was worried, and I was a little bit apprehensive, There's
nothing to worry about. Is there really? All of us, we
make travels. Your dad right now is on the
road. How many ice storms has your dad traveled through? Steven? No, he's right now, he's on that
road in that big 18-wheeler. Nuts out there! Nuts! They'll
hit you. They'll pull out in front of
you. Nuts! No, ain't nothing going to happen
to Joe Parks. Ain't nothing. Come hell or high
water!" There's no pun intended. High water is very familiar to
me right now. Nothing's going to happen to
Joe Parks. Nothing's going to happen to him until God says
something to happen to Joe Parks. Where's Nancy? Is she in the
nursery? Don't worry, Nancy, if you hear this. Ain't nothing to worry about.
Would God be quick worry. Would we know where God's watching
over our ladies I think about our ladies coming to church the
other night we were leaving and one of our ladies it was dark
pitch black she got in her old beat up car and. I waited around for a car to
start and made sure it was at least heading in that direction.
And I thought I prayed I was honored order but when she turned
her direction after my lord watch over you will. Know nothing to worry about. Nothing to worry about. Vicky hey nobody will come in
his church. While you're here long play for
you it's. God's with you you believe that you believe anything
you better believe that. Fear not, I am with thee, O be
not dismayed, for I am thy God, I'll still give thee aid." Fear
not death, fear not trouble, fear not travels, fear not sickness,
fear not disease, fear not the enemy, fear not man. There's
only one thing you need to fear, one you need to fear, fear God. You fear God, you won't fear
anything else. If we fear God, We wouldn't fear
anything or anybody else. Right. Well so Paul and Barnabas and
went back to these towns again. Nothing happened to them John.
Not a thing. Not hiding their hair. Not a
flea bit them. A flea didn't bite them. A mosquito
didn't bite them this time. God said they've had enough.
Don't you touch my anointing. And they walked through these
towns again verse twenty two said they confirming the souls
of the disciples and exhorting them to what continue in the
faith. Cleave to Christ like Barnabas
told the people of Antioch. He told him cleave to cry cleave
to the Lord confirming exhorting them preaching the gospel. Exhorting them to cleave to cry
trust cry put all your trust in cry keep believing trusting
looking to cry put all your hope your confidence in him believe
the gospel more and more strongly grow in grace and the knowledge
of the Lord prove him prove the Lord hadn't he proved himself
to you time and time again huh Jesus Jesus how I love the how
I prove the over and over hadn't he proved himself to you that's
what it means by how I prove thee it's not that he's on trial
and we're trying him it's just He has proved his word to be
faithful to us over and over again. How my life has proven
the things he's done for me has proven him to be faithful. He's
never, never let me down yet. Fifty-some years now. Sixty-some
years now. Charles, it's about to be seventy-some You ought to be singing louder
than anybody in here. Let's start believing. Trust the Lord. Cast not away your confidence.
Be grounded and settled in the truth. Be not tossed to and fro. Be established. You want a good
word study in the Bible? Look it up sometimes. Establish.
Look up that word establish. You do a study. Get your concordant
and look up establish. You'll get a blessing out of
it. It's a good thing to be established. May the Lord establish you, strengthen
you, perfect you, establish you, grounded and settled in the truth
of who your God is, who your Christ is, and of his care for
you. All right? And then he forewarned
and foretold these people in verse twenty-two, and this is
my text, but I won't stay long there, I promise. It says he
exhorted them to continue in the faith and that we must, through
much tribulation, enter the kingdom of God. We must, through much
tribulation, enter the kingdom of God. Well, how do you know,
Paul? Well, I know. Paul said we must, through
much tribulation. Look over John 15. The reason
he knew is because the Lord said it to begin with. And the Lord—it
happened to the Lord himself. John 15, look over there. Some
people say, Well, I thought the Lord wanted us to be happy and
healthy and wealthy. Well, he does, but not in the
way that we think. He wants us foremost to want,
and that's a bad term, isn't it? He purposes for us to be
healthy and wealthy and prosperous spiritually, primarily. And if it's His will for us to
be in health and prosper and happy temporally or materially,
that's fine, too. That's His will and purpose.
But primarily, God's purpose is for us to prosper and be in
spiritual health and prosperity. OK? That's his sickness and affliction. Let me just remind you of this,
too. And God sends trials. Whatever
comes about, God sent it, Violet. Whatever, an aneurysm, whatever
it may be, God sent it. Not the devil. That's your only
hope and comfort, isn't it? God sent it. And he's the judge
of all the earth. He's your judge. He's your father.
And he does what's best. He never does what's wrong. He
always does what's best. And that worked together for
your good. Can you see that a little bit now, maybe? You will someday,
if you don't now. You'll see perfectly clearly.
You'll know even as you've been known. You'll know all about
that. You'll look back. The Lord's going to sit you down
and tell you why he did that, perhaps, and you're going to
not be able to contain yourself. Oh, Lord, thank you. Thank you,
thank you, thank you for bringing me through that. I just didn't
know at the time. Tribulation. Now, sickness and
affliction of body. Now, those aren't tribulation
per se. That comes with the territory.
Henry, you get nobody. That's going to happen to you.
Sickness and affliction, it happens to everybody. Is that a trial
sent by God that people out in the world get sick? Try their
faith? It's not to try their faith,
huh? That comes with the territory, okay? This is not the tribulation
he's talking about here. Did our Lord mention sickness
or affliction in that way in Matthew 10 at all? Huh? You remember
what he was talking about there in Matthew 10? Look at what he
says here in John 15, verse 17. He says, Now these things I command
you, that you love one another. Why, Lord? Why is that so important?
You're going to need one another. You're going to need one another.
And I'm telling you right now, you better love one another.
You're going to need one another. Why? Because, go on, if the world
hates you, the world's going to hate you. That's why. And
you know it hated me before it hated you. If you were of the
world, the world would love his own. But because you're not of
the world, I've chosen you out of the world, therefore the world
hates you. Remember, the word that I said unto you, you remember.
Paul and Barnabas remember this. This is what they were telling
the people. that they must go through. Remember, now, the servant
is not greater than his Lord. If they persecuted Christ, they'll
persecute you, too. They kept Christ there, and they'd
keep yours. But they didn't, and they won't. And all these
things, will they do unto you? They're going to do it. They
will. They must. For my name's sake, because they
don't know God. They don't worship your God. And you dare to stand up and
tell them about your God? They're going to hate you too. This is the tribulation he's
talking about that we must go through. Persecution for his
namesake. That's it. Persecution. In the
world you shall have tribulation. The word tribulation means pressure. That's what the word means. It
means pressure. It means to be crowded in. Lot had tribulation, that he
was vexed. Elijah had tribulation, why he
felt all alone, felt like he's the only one. In the world you
shall have tribulation, because many are called, but there's
few out there, hear me, there's few out there worshiping God in the
Spirit, rejoicing in Christ, but no confidence in the flag.
There's very few in Pharaoh, and they're coming at you, aren't
they, from all sides. Coming at you, persecution for
my name. Pressure, trouble, trials of persecution. Remember, he
said, in the world you shall have tribulation. A world of
tribulation. Look back at 1 John 4, quickly. 1 John chapter 4. John talks
about this. What do you know about it, John?
Oh, I was exiled to the Isle of Patmos. Why? For the message. For who
I believe. What I believe. That's what tribulation
is talking about, John. Look at 1 John 4. You know, the
churches, these prophecy hounds talk about going through the
tribulation period. Don't they? Oh, we've got to go through the
tribulation period. You know, the Lord's going to be a tribulation
period that we're going to go through. We've been in it. The Church has been in it, Brother
Henry, ever since Christ was here, and beyond that. It's been
in the tribulation period. I John 4, verses 4 through 6,
"'Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them.'" Who?
The world. "'Because greater is he that
is in you, Christ in you, the hope of glory, than he that is
in the world.'" Who's that? The God of the world. Therefore,
speak thou of the world, and the world meets a path to their
door. And they have big crowds and big hearings, and everybody's
lovey-dovey and uniting together in one big ecumenical movement
to hate you. That's what the ecumenical movement's
about today—hate the gospel. Put it out of business. We're
of God, verse 6. He that knoweth God heareth us.
You read that article by Brother Terrell this morning, the bulletin?
Read it. Good article. How do we know we're of God?
Because we're talking about God. How do we know somebody else
is of God? They'll believe us when we talk about God. How do
we know we're of God? We preach God as God from the
Scripture, from God's Word. How do we know people are God's
people? They'll hear God as God, and they'll worship God as God.
They'll hear Christ as God's righteousness. They'll bow to
it. They'll believe. Ain't no ifs, ands, or buts about
it. Huh? John went on to say there over
in verse 19 of chapter 5, We're of God, and the whole world is
lying in wickedness. They're worshiping false gods
out there. Another God who can't say. Another Jesus. Another gospel.
This is the gospel, Henry. If it's not, I quit. I quit. And if God's not God, I sure
quit. I'm going to hide in a cave somewhere. Anybody want to go with me? Because
I'd just be scared to death. The world events are just...
If God's not God, if the devil's on the loose and got just as
much power, John, let's get our rations together, buddy, and
get our MK-47s. and our camouflage suits on let's
find a scapegoat. God's God. And the church has been persecuted
from the beginning. From the beginning. We must through
much tribulation. Look at chapter five there. Whosoever
believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God and everyone that
loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of
him. By this, Jehovah's Witnesses are just not God's people. They're
liars. They're antichrists. Tell them. Tell them. You may become their
enemy for telling them the truth, but you have given God the glory.
You've told them who God is, who Christ is. Now, which is
better? I mean, who are we going to take
up for? For lack of a better way to put
it, who are we going to take up for? Are we going to feel sorry for them?
and fear hurting their feelings, they have blasphemed our God,
our Lord, our Master, brought Him down, our Christ, our altogether
lovely One. I don't just take up for Him
first. Not that He needs it, but we need to. Use compassion, use discernment. Some make a difference. This is the love of God. We keep
his commandments. Verse 4. Whosoever is born of
God overcometh the world. This is the victory that overcometh
the world. Faith. Faith. We must, through much
tribulation, enter the kingdom of heaven. We must, through much. Judgment has begun at the house
of God. Tribulation is here. It is here. If you don't believe
it, just dare to tell the truth. I challenge you sometimes, John. If people stand around talking
about the Bible sometimes, just open it up to Ephesians 1. Just
read four verses. That's all you have to read,
four verses, if you get that far. Romans 9. Just read the Word of God, and
you'll find out real quickly what the world thinks about God,
about God's Word, about the faith, real quickly. Judgment has begun
at the house of God in religion. That's where it is. The message is still, who's on
the Lord's side? Isn't that still the question? Who's on the Lord's
side? Everybody everywhere is talking
about man's rights, aren't they? Everybody's insisting on man's
rights, huh? Poor man. Robert Shuler said the next revival
will be a in preaching of man's dignity and man's worth and self-esteem. We've got to build up people's
self-esteem. Let's everybody be four men. Well, it's still
the question still, who's on the Lord's side, huh? Man's still
a rebel. It hasn't changed any. We haven't
got sophisticated and kind and sweetened up any and less sinful.
Man's still a rotten rebel against God, an enmity against God, huh?
Isn't he? And the question is still, who's
on the Lord's side? Who believes the truth? Who's
in it for God's glory? Who's in it for God's truth?
Who believes what God says? Who God is? Who's worshiping
God in spirit? There aren't many. A lot of them
draw near with their lips. Who's rejoicing in Christ and
Christ alone? Are you? Rejoicing in Christ
alone, putting no confidence in fleshly, away with that stuff,
away with that. Give him not place to that stuff
for a minute, not for a minute, nor these fellows. I told you
about that fellow preaching down there. He didn't even mention
Jesus Christ's name for the last five minutes of his message, and even that was some pitiful
little... do this or that and so forth. I didn't even speak
to that man. I didn't even want to see him. I didn't even want
to speak to him. We're the true circumcision.
So they preached the gospel and they confirmed this gospel to
the churches everywhere. And verse twenty-three in our
text says that they commended them to the Lord. Acts fourteen twenty-three. Commended
them to the Lord. Look at it. This is a blessing
at the end of this. It says that when they had ordained
them elders in every church and prayed with fasting, they commended
them to the Lord on whom they believed. Verse twenty-four,
and after they passed through Pisidia, they just backtracked
to where they came. They came down to Pamphylia.
When they preached the word, they went back to Pergamon and
preached there again and went down to Italia, and from Italia,
that was a coastal city there. They sailed, oh, they didn't
go back to Cyprus. They sailed all the way back
to Antioch where this whole thing started, where they left. Now, how long they were gone,
I don't know. But they were gone a good while,
and they went right back to where this whole thing started, where
they had been recommended to the grace of God for the work
which they fulfilled. And when they were come and the
church got together And they gathered the church together,
and they said, folks, folks said, how'd it go, Paul
Barnabas? Well, let's just tell you about
it. You got a little time? Let's just, y'all sit there,
and we'll tell you what great things the Lord has done. We
got a lot to say. And they rehearsed. what God
had done with them and how he had opened the door of faith
unto the Gentiles, to the Gentiles. And they stayed there a long
time. They needed a good rest. They needed a good rest, about
like Walter or Ken coming back to the States, you know, back
to friendly places. They needed a good, long rest. And they stayed there a good
while in fellowship and rejoiced and so forth until the Lord said,
It's time to go out again, Paul. It's time to go again. What happened, Paul? Oh, the
Lord hath done great things for us, and we are glad. We're glad. There's a lot of
people out there, too, that are mighty glad we came. And we're
glad we went. Suffered a little bit, but it's
all right. The Lord's faithful. He's faithful. All right. Like I said, just
trying to preach to you. Word of God said to us that we
must, through much tribulation, enter the kingdom of heaven. We read there in Matthew 10.
Now the Lord said, I've come to set a man at variance, come
to set a woman at variance against her mother, a man against his
father, and so forth. And he said, don't be afraid.
You confess me before men. And the Lord said, this is the
way we confess him. First thing we do, we believe
this gospel. The gospel I preached this morning.
And I called on you this morning to ask you whether or not you
believe this or not. And I said, if you believe, then, if that's
the gospel you believe, this is Christ you believe, you're
trusting in, no one, nothing else, then that's where you confess
him. You come and we'll baptize him. That's how the Lord said to confess
him. That's what he said. You confess me before me and
I'll confess you before the Father which is in heaven. Well, Heather
Shinsley came to me after the service. She said, I want to
talk to you. And this is what she said to
me. I said, what is it? She said, well, I've been struggling
and thinking about this thing for some time now, several weeks,
hearing you preach and all. And she said, I want to be baptized.
I want to confess Christ. I said, you believe this Christ
now? This sovereign Christ? Is he the one you're bowing to
in the Word? Yes, yes. a sovereign God electing God
and you are center in his hands and you must have that righteousness
of Christ yes yes that's a that's a good this gospel that I preach
that's what you believe all your hope you're not trusting anything
no no you want to confess you in bed yes yes that's good enough and good enough
so she comes confessing Christ in Baptism tonight, and we receive
her in the membership of this church as a result of that. If you rejoice in that, say amen
with me. Amen. All right. Heather, if
you'll go get ready, and I'll go get ready, and Sherry, you'll
come up. Brother Terry, would you come
up here? I want you to lead us in singing the hymn. Would you please
come up here and play? Number three ninety-three, take
my life and let it be. you. Take my life and let it be consecrated,
Lord, to Thee. Take my hands and let them move
at the impulse of Thy love, at the impulse of Thy love. Take my feet and let them be
Swift and beautiful for me Take my voice and let me sing Always,
only for my King Always only for my king Take my lips and
let them be filled with messages for thee. Take my silver and
my gold, not of mine would I withhold, not of mine would I withhold. Take my love, my God, I pour,
at Thy feet its treasure store. Take myself and I will be ever,
only, all for Thee, ever, only, all for Thee. Thank you very much.