Look in verse 42 with me now.
And when the Jews were going out of the synagogue, the Gentiles
besought that these words might be preached to them the next
Sabbath day. Now when the congregation was
broken up, many of the Jews and religious proselytes followed
Paul and Barnabas, who, speaking to them, persuaded them to continue
in the grace of God. And look down in verse 50. But the Jews stirred up the devout
and honorable women and chief men of the city, and raised persecution
against Paul and Barnabas, and expelled them out of their coasts.
Now wherever the apostle Paul went, and the apostles went,
in the book of Acts, there is a stir, always a stir. People
either got glad, the Jews, the Gentiles received the word of
God gladly. They either got real glad, got
happy and rejoiced, or they got very angry and got very mad.
And the scripture says that they went turning the world upside
down. They said they that turned the world upside down, they'd
come over here too. And they did. They turned those
people's world upside down. Upside down to everything that
they believed, hoped and trusted in. And it's been this way throughout
history. It's always been that way. The
first murder was over religion. Cain slew Abel because Abel was
more righteous than Cain. And he couldn't stand that God
would accept him on the basis of blood and that he actually
came as a sinner before God. And Cain wouldn't come as a sinner.
He said, I may not be a sinner, but I'll tell you what, I'll
kill the fellow who is. If he thinks he's better than
I am, I'll just destroy him. And that's what these people
did. And it's been this way throughout history. Jeremiah, the prophet,
he was up preaching and he kept preaching and preaching and they
kept telling him, you better shut up, you better shut up,
you better quit saying those things. He kept pronouncing what
God was going to do to Israel, what God was going to do to the
king. You know what they did to him? They said, we'll shut
you up, we'll put you in a pit. We'll put you in a muddy pit
up to your elbows and we'll, damn near once in a while, we'll
let down a bucket with a little water in it or bread in it and
we'll shut you up. Well, they eventually brought
him back up out there, and he just kept preaching. After a
while, they got the words that he wrote down, he wrote his message
down, and the king himself had a fellow said, you take that,
and he took a knife, a pen knife, and cut his words all to pieces.
So men have always despised the gospel. Martin Luther was a man. They hunted him like a dog all
the days of his life, but God protected him right up until
he said, and Huss and Cranmer. They were hated by leaders, but
they were loved. Here's the difference. They were
loved by those who loved and heard their message. Oh, I would
have loved to heard the Apostle Paul. And I've heard a few Pauls
in my day, I believe. And what Brother Barnard said,
he said, you can't alternate, you know, our message is the
same as his. If he was here today, he'd say what we're saying, we're
saying what he said. And this is what's going on here.
And Paul's first message you can find in Acts chapter 9, verse
20. Remember, he's on his way to
Damascus to put those people in jail, and the Lord struck
him down on the Damascus road. And then the scripture says that
after three days Ananias went over and laid hands on him and
told him what the Lord intended for him. And the scripture said
he straightway went from hating Christ to preaching Christ. Straightway
preached Jesus Christ was the Messiah. And a little while they
got so aggravated at him they had to slip him out of town in
a bucket and let him down out of town. And old Paul had done
a lot of preaching up to this point. But though it's not recurrent,
but on this one occasion, this message is recorded, you can
read it all the way up to this time. But there's always results
to good preaching. There's always results. Folks
are always going to get glad, or they're going to get mad,
they're going to love the message, they're going to reject the message.
And look what happened before us here. First of all, the Apostle
had great encouragement when he preached the Lord Jesus Christ,
the priest of this group. He had been preaching for quite
a while and the great big congregation was together. And it says here,
when the Jews were going out of the synagogue, verse 42, the
Gentiles besought that the word might be preached to them the
next Sabbath day. Now when the congregation was
broke up, many of the Jews and religious proselytes followed
Paul and Barnabas, who speaking to them persuaded them to continue
in the grace of God. First of all, they had a great
encouragement. There was a people who desired to hear. They sought that these words
might be preached to them again. Would you preach these words
to us again? And in the margin it says, does not wait till the
Sabbath day between this Sabbath and the next Sabbath. Would you
preach to us? Would you come and preach to
us? We want to hear what you've got to say. They desired somebody,
they desired Paul and Barnabas, please preach to us, listen to
us. And the Gentiles, then there was Gentiles that said this.
Gentiles, dogs, men that the Jews wouldn't have anything to
do with. And always said, would you preach to us? And I tell
you what, to have somebody to desire to hear what you got to
say, to have somebody to desire to hear the gospel, to have people
that desire to come and hear what's the truth as it's being
preached in the Lord Jesus Christ. And not only did they desire
to hear, but they were persistent. Look what it says there, the
Jews and religious proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas. They didn't just desire to hear,
they said, listen, we'll just follow you, and when you get
time, you preach to us. They said, we'll just follow
these fellows. And that's why Paul says, follow me as I follow
Christ. And they followed Paul and Barnabas.
Wherever they was at, that's where they were. Wherever these
fellows went, these fellows fell right in behind them and wanted
to hear what they had to say. Well, wouldn't that be something?
Wouldn't that be something? The gospel is getting established
in these days, and they followed Paul and Barnabas. And as they
followed them, who was speaking to them, and I mean they followed
them, and whenever there was an opportunity, they sat down
and began to speak to them, began to preach to them, and this is
what they preached to them. They had preached the grace of
God, Job. They had preached the grace of God in Christ to them.
They had preached that through this man is preached unto you
the forgiveness of sins, and by him you can be justified from
all things from which you could not by the law of Moses. Therefore,
you beware. And so Paul, he continued, and
he sat here and said this is what he persuaded them to do,
to continue in the grace of God. Now what does he mean, continue
in the grace of God? That means continue in the way
that God saves sinners. Continue in the message that
you heard. You continue in what you've heard. Paul preached to them that salvation
was by grace. That salvation was a gift of
God. That salvation was everything
that God done for the sinner. That the sinner didn't do nothing
but only God in grace done it up. That everything comes from
God and it comes as a gift of God. Nobody deserves salvation. Paul didn't deserve it. The Gentiles
didn't deserve it. The Jews didn't deserve it. Adam
didn't deserve it. Abel didn't deserve it. Nobody,
nor did Noah deserve it. But he says, you continue in
the grace of God. Continue in believing the grace
of God. Now, I'll tell you something,
beloved. Very few people continue in grace. Very few people continue
in pure, free grace. When I talk about pure, free
grace, I'm talking about the salvation. That man contributes
absolutely nothing to his salvation. The only thing that he brings
to the equation is sin, flesh, weakness, and inability. And
if he gets faith, God's got to give it to him. If he gets eyes
to see, God's got to give him sight. If he hears the gospel,
God's got to give him an ear. If he believes the gospel, God's
got to open his heart. God's got to raise a man from
the dead and give him life, and that's what I mean, and it's
pure and is free and you absolutely do not, you cannot buy it, you
can't earn it, you don't have ever, what I'm saying is that
not one of us in our lives have ever contributed anything that
would, contributed anything to our salvation. I still haven't
after all these years. You know in March, next March,
I will have been among this group for 35 years And I still ain't
contributed nothing to my salvation after 35 years? You say, well, you pray. I know,
but God gives me the desire to pray. You say, you believe. Yes, but God gave me faith. And I was ordained to believe.
Also, when we're talking about grace, it's rare for somebody
to continue in grace. They'll start out, and I thought
last night about some fellas that I remember. They came among
us years and years ago. And some young preachers, and
they came among us. And I could tell you about, I
could call their names. One of them decided, well, I
cannot preach that particular redemption of Christ, that particular
love of Christ, because nobody can be saved under that message.
So he compromised his message. And now he's a pretty big shot
out in California, and a great big church in California. And
there's another fella, he decided that he won't become a Presbyterian
because he can make more money as a Presbyterian. And another one comes along and
he says this, he says, well, he said, I know that salvation
is by grace, but he started realizing that you have to live a good,
holy, dedicated, sanctified life and that there is a righteousness
of our own that God gives us when he imparts it to us and
we got to live righteous enough to please God. And those are actually the three
preachers that I can name off the top of my head that used
to come among us, and they have not continued in the grace of
God. But oh, bless His name, I can tell you a whole bunch
more than I have. Did you? And not only some that
have, but God's brought others among us that do. Oh my, we're
going to, that's what, and grace comes through Christ. And I want
to tell you this is the first one of the evidences of the grace
of God. And I rarely talk about evidences.
But the one of the evidences of the grace of God is make you,
it makes you deny yourself. It makes you say, I have nothing,
can do nothing, have nothing, know nothing, except what God
gave me. What did you do? I didn't do
nothing. What have you contributed? Nothing.
How did you get saved? God saved me. How did you hear? God gave me ears. So you see,
that's what I mean, denying yourself. You don't put yourself forward
at all. You just absolutely refuse to contribute and attribute anything
to anything you've done. Thank God for the grace of God! If it wasn't for pure, free grace,
there wouldn't be a soul on the topside of God's earth saved! Oh, and salvations of the Lord,
and that's what he says, now you fellows, I've been preaching
grace to you, and now I say, you continue that grace. You
don't ever stop. And God willing, maybe, you know,
that's why Peter says, we believe that through the grace of our
Lord Jesus Christ, He said, we shall be saved even as God saved
these Gentiles. And you know, a lot of folks
fall from grace. And when I talk about falling
from grace, what is it to fall from grace? It's to add anything
to Christ or take anything away from Him. Add anything to grace
or take anything from you. It's either all of grace or all
of works. There's no mystery. If it's of
works, then it's not of grace. If it's of grace, then it's not
of works. It can't be both. It can't be
both. And I remember a fellow telling
me that one just very plainly one day. He said, you cannot
talk out both sides of your mouth. And I quit trying to talk out
both sides of my mouth when I found that out because I tell you,
Only God can teach a man the grace of God. Not only were these
folks ready to hear and desired to hear, and they followed them
and they were persistent. But look what happens next here
in verse 44, they were ready to hear. And the next Sabbath,
verse 44, the next Sabbath day came almost the whole city together. And I love this, what did they
come together for? to hear the word of God. They said, we're going to have
a great meeting. We're going to drive selling drinks to all
these beer joints and people selling drinks we're going to
run them out of the county we're going to run pornography and
abortionists out of the county we're going to get rid of all
this sin we're going to have a great meeting and run everybody
out of town that don't believe like we do no no that's not what
they got together for they came to hear the word of God oh my
That's what I love about you, when you open your Bibles and
we can follow along and see this stuff ourselves. They came to
hear the Word of God. Now let me tell you something,
beloved. Hearing is necessary to faith. I mean without. Faith cometh by hearing. That's why Paul asked the Galatians,
did you receive the Spirit by works or did you receive the
Spirit by the hearing of faith? You see, when a man sits and
listens, God sends the Holy Ghost, He sends the Holy Spirit, and
you start listening, and you start saying, Boy, listen, I
believe that. I believe that, because along
with the truth comes the ability to believe the truth by the grace
of God. And it's grace that enables you
to believe, and you know that faith comes as you hear what
the truth is. And let me say this, Very few
people come to the truth without fighting it. Very few people. You know why? Because most folks had to come
out of false religion. Had to come from a false profession.
Had to come from a place of tradition and falseness. And so you see
when they first start hearing the truth, they start saying,
well now wait a minute. Well, do you think it's this
way? Do you really believe it's like that? I know I did, and
I'm sure some of you did. But they came to hear the Word
of God. And after a while, when you start looking and seeing,
yes, that's what it says. That's what it says. Yes, that's
what it says. I see it with my own eyes here. You see, faith
comes by hearing, hearing by the Word of God. And as we hear
the Word of God, and that's why myself, I come here this morning
as empty as a fire shotgun. I mean just as empty as a human
being could possibly be. And yet, beloved, when I come
here and I hear the gospel, it does something for my own faith.
It strengthens my faith, encourages my faith, lifts me up in faith.
And it causes me to embrace Christ much more and to believe the
Word of God more. And I'll tell you something,
they came together to hear the Word of God. And I'm fearful,
I'm afraid for people who don't come to hear the Word of God. To hear the Word of God. That's
what we want to hear. Hear the Word of God. That's
what we want. Oh, when you come preacher, tell
me what God said. Not what you think, not what
you feel, but what God said. But now listen, wherever you've
got folks that love to hear it, desire to hear it, and gathered
to hear it, and ready to hear it. And he said almost, almost
the whole city. Wherever the truth is, you're
always going to have opposition. Look what happens now. Look at
the opposition. Always going to be somebody that
don't like it. But when the Jews saw the multitudes, They were filled with envy and
spake against those things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting
and blaspheming. The Jews, now listen, these Jews
were the ones so privileged, they had the prophets, they had
the priesthood, they had the sacrifices, they had the oracles
of God. I mean, beloved, they were the
most privileged people on the face of the earth. God set them
apart as a nation, brought them up out of Egypt, gave them Canaan
defeated seven nations to give them that great place to dwell
in, and gave them peace, gave them David, a son after his own,
a man after his own heart, gave them Solomon and all of his wisdom,
gave them Hezekiah a good king, Josiah a good king. No, God blessed
them and blessed them and blessed them, and they were so privileged. And they found their salvation
in their privilege. But look what they said, when
they saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy. That's
what happens, they were filled with envy. They said, man, these
fellows are getting off. Everybody's following these guys.
Ain't nobody listening to us anymore. They got jealous. They
got full of envy. They saw the multitudes and they
became jealous. And look what it says, and they
spake against those things. They couldn't rejoice in the
grace of God. They couldn't rejoice in the
gospel of Jesus Christ. They couldn't rejoice in being
justified from all things in Christ that you couldn't be from
the law of Moses. And they spake against those
things. They contradicted the grace of God. They said, Oh no!
You can't be saved by grace. Look over here in Acts 15 verse
1. This is what I'm talking about. This
is what these fellows did. And certain men, which came found
from Judea, taught the brethren and said, except you be circumcised
after the manner of Moses, you cannot be saved. They said, Paul, you're preaching
grace, we're preaching Moses. You're preaching grace and we're
preaching law. You're preaching salvation in
Christ. We're preaching salvation in Moses. And we're not going
to agree with you. And we're not going to ever have
anything to do with you. They contradict in grace. They
said, no, no, no, you can't be saved by grace. They contradicted
the salvations of the Lord. They contradicted Paul's message
of man's fallen, utter, absolute ruin in sin. They contradicted
God's electing, sanctifying grace. And you know what God told it?
They spoke against those contradicting Paul and spoke against those
things which were spoken. I couldn't tell you how many
times I've had that happen. Oh my, it's been a long, long
time, but it used to happen all the time. Look what it says,
contradicting and blaspheming. God says when you contradict
the gospel, you contradict the grace of God. You contradict
electing grace. You contradict salvation, being
of the Lord. You contradict man's utter and
absolute ruin. You say, well, everything's bound
about man, but he's free will. Bruce Crabtree brought a message
a couple of weeks ago on free will of slaves. Go up on Sermon
Audio and get that. Free will of slaves. You've never
heard of the bondage and the inability of man and how bound
a man's will is really saved. Nobody could do it better than
Bruce Crabtree. And you go listen to that message,
free will of slaves. You see, our Lord says you cannot
come to me. You can't see, you can't hear. And that's what he said then,
Paul. And they're contradicting Paul. They said, listen, don't
listen to this man here. You know better than this. You've believed in Moses and
the Lord all your life. What in the world are you doing
turning from Moses and turning to grace? What are you talking
about? That's salvation to the Lord.
What about fasting and tithing and praying? And what about church
attendance? And what about Sunday school?
And what about all the honors we've had? And all the money
we've spent? And all the things that we've
done? What in the world are you talking?
They contradict it. You know what God said here?
He said He called it blasphemy. It's called blasphemy. I tell
you what, listen, I know this is so, a deliberate rejection
of known truth is the unpardonable sin. Guess what happened to the
Jews? That's what they did with our
Lord. They saw evidence. They saw the
works. They saw the grace. They saw
the miracles. They heard the message. They
heard the words. A multitude of evidence that Jesus Christ
was the Son of God. And what they did, they saw that
truth and said, We don't want it. I'm not going to have it. I'm not going to believe it.
I'm going to fight with all my might against it. And God said,
I'll damn you for it. That's blasphemy. And I know
some folks that's blasphemed. A willful, deliberate rejection
of known truth is the unpardonable sin. To turn to hear it and say,
I refuse to believe it. A willful blasphemy of the truth
as it's made known. That's awful. But what do you
think Paul and Silas should do? Oh my, they've had their feelings
hurt. People's made fun of them, people's
argued with them, people's blasphemed them, people's got in their face
and screamed at them and hollered at them and tried to shout them
down and tried to get them to quit preaching. Oh, Paul and
Silas said, Oh Lord, why you let such things happen to us?
We intend so, we're trying to do best we can. No, no, look
what it says, verse 46. Then Paul and Barnabas waxed
bold. All that done, make them roll
up their sleeves, spit on their heads, and say, let's get at
this. He said, oh my, I ain't fixing
to back up, just because of a little opposition, because somebody
don't believe what you mean. Oh, listen, that hurts my feelings
so bad, somebody don't believe what I'm saying. Oh my, oh made
them bold. Made them bold, wax bold. And listen, and they didn't fold
their tent. Look what it says here, what
Paul says. It was necessary that the word of God should first
have been spoken to you. To the Jew first. Everything
went to the Jew first. Not because they were first,
but because God They were God's chosen people and God sent the
gospel to them first. He sent the word to them. Christ
came through them. The apostles and preachers. And
it was necessary to you first. God sent us to preach the gospel
to you first. God sent Peter to you first.
He sent Christ to you first. He sent the gospel to you first.
He sent the word to you. He sent everything to you first.
You all got the first of everything. And oh, but listen to what he
says. Seeing you put it from you. Listen, you talk about great
plainness of speech. Seeing you put it from you. Oh
my. You put it from you. What you
had first, you say, I don't want it. I don't want it. I don't
want it. It's like the fella that got
his penny at the first morning, 9 o'clock got a penny, 3 o'clock
got a penny, 4 o'clock got a penny, 5 o'clock got a penny, and then
the fella you know that got up there and the last guy got there
and he got his penny, that first fella looked up and said, wait
a minute, we worked all day long, we ought to get more than a penny.
He said, did you agree with me? Yes I did. He said, is it not
lawful for me to do what I will with my own? So God gives it
to first, And they said, we don't want it first. That's why God
says the last shall be first. And the first will end up being
last. And oh, listen to what he said. He goes on to say now,
seeing you put it from you, and listen to this, this is absolutely
mind-boggling to me. And judge yourselves, judge yourselves
unworthy of everlasting life. You put the truth from you? You
put grace from you? You put salvation of the Lord
from you? You put everything that God is,
holy, righteous, justice, and how He saves sinners through
Jesus Christ, and you say you put it from you, and you judge
yourselves? You judge, you make a judgment
on yourself that I don't want this. I don't want this life
you're talking about. I don't want this grace you're
talking about. I don't want this Jesus you're talking about. I
don't want this salvation you're talking about. I don't want this
election you're talking about. I don't want this sovereignty
of God you're talking about. I don't want this man lost and
ruined and unable to do anything for himself. I don't want to
hear about how despicable the human race is. How despicable
I am. And Paul says, since you've made
that judgment, do you know what we're going to do? We're going
to go to the Gentiles. You fellas think you're better
than them and you all don't want it? He said, I know somebody
who does. Look what he said. He says, what this law means
is right now we're going to turn to the Gentiles. Believe me.
We turn to the Gentiles. Why is this so bold? Why is this
so bold? They put the word from themselves.
And that's the thing that people got to understand. When God crosses a man's path, it's not to cross his path to
give him an opportunity, to give him a chance. It's to tell him
the truth. And what he does with that truth
will determine What are you going to do? Are
you going to believe the gospel or are you going to be like a Jew? And look
what Paul said here. He says, listen, we're going
to turn to the Gentiles. Let me show you something over
here in Acts chapter 7. This happened to Stephen. They judged themselves unworthy. They did it. Paul didn't do it. You and I didn't do it. I've
never judged anybody unworthy of everlasting life. You look
in the scriptures, God saved men that were abusers of themselves
with mankind over in Acts chapter 6, 1 Corinthians 6 and 9. It
said, you know, drunkards and effeminate and abused themselves
with mankind. And all these kind of people,
God said He saved them through the name of the Lord Jesus Christ
and sanctified them through the Spirit and justified them. Every
kind of sin known to man, God does forgive. And if you haven't
done it, you've done it. And here's the thing, God forgives
of every sin, but a man that says to himself, I do not want
that. In fact, not only do they not
want it, but they go around and there's lots of preachers and
lots of people go around saying, listen, don't go listen to that
fellow, don't go listen to that fellow, don't go listen to that
fellow. He'll confuse you. He'll mix you up. You know good
and well what and how to be saved. You've been in the Baptist church
since you was a little boy. But oh, listen, look what he
goes on to say next, chapter 7, in verse 51. Look what he said. This is Stephen preaching now. Look what happens to him. He
preaches just like Paul. He's very, very plain. You stiff
necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you do always resist
the Holy Ghost. Oh my! Do you know why you did
it? Because your fathers did. You're
just like your daddy. Which of their prophets have
not your fathers persecuted? Go through the Old Testament.
Find a prophet in God they didn't persecute. And they have slain
them which showed before of the coming of the just one. Now listen
to this. Whom you have been now betrayers
and murderers. who have received the law by
the dispensation of angels and listen to this and you didn't
keep it you didn't keep it and when they heard these things
they were cut to the heart and gnashed on him with their teeth
oh my that's right then and there they says oh listen we don't
want this we don't want this we don't want this mark this
message we don't want this gospel we don't want this truth and
that's what they said they said oh my You told us that we got,
we're stiff necked, uncircumcised in heart. And when it says gnashed
on them with their teeth, that means they began to blaspheme
him. They got so angry and they got foaming at the mouth. And
they got so upset with him. He said, you got the law and
you didn't keep it. And so that's why Paul says,
we're going to turn to the Gentiles. Now look what he said in verse
47. And I love this right here. For
so hath the Lord commanded us. Acts chapter 13 and verse 47. After he told them that you know
sin you put it from yourself for the Lord hath commanded.
Commanded us. He commanded us to do what? Preach the gospel. preach the
truth be honest and look what he said he said I have sent thee
to be a light of the Gentiles that thou shouldest be for salvation
unto the ends of the earth you see he declared God's purpose
he commanded us to do this he declared God's purpose I have
sent thee to be a light now who in the world needs a light people
sitting in darkness our Lord himself said those who sit in
darkness have seen a great light He says, those in Seraphath,
even they saw a great light. And here's this Gentile people
sitting in the darkest, darkest idolatry you can imagine. And all the idols they had, and
the gods they had, and the people they had. And over in one place
here in Ashes says that they got all their books together
after Paul and Barnabas went and preached. And they took over
$50,000 worth of books in those days. which was sorcery and berituary
and all of that stuff and they took them out in town and burned
all of them because they knew that they were against the gospel
that they was hearing and believing and oh he said I commend them
and here you are you're sitting in darkness and God said you're
going to be a light among those people They're sitting in darkness,
but there's going to be a light come to them. And he says, you
should be for salvation, Christ should be. And that's when he
goes over to you go in Isaiah, and it talks about Christ being
that light. Christ being for salvation unto
the ends of the earth. And Paul is preaching the Lord
Jesus Christ. And oh beloved, not just Jews
and not only in Jerusalem, but God going to bring salvation.
To the east, to the west, to the north, to the south, and
he says, give up! Give up north, give up south,
give up east, give up west, give up who? Give up all my people. Because I've given redemption
for you. Come get up! Come on! And beloved,
they do. And then look what happens, verse
48. Oh boy, and when the Gentiles
heard this, they were glad. Ain't you glad? Don't the gospel make you glad?
Ain't you glad that God come here and crossed your path with
the gospel and you heard it and you heard this and they were
glad? I remember Scott Richardson preaching,
I guess some of you all do. He said, what would make you
glad? When the disciples saw the Lord Jesus Christ rise from
the dead, and they saw Him there, and they were glad. And they
fell at His feet when they heard His word, they were glad. What
would make you glad? Well, let me tell you what. What
would make these Gentiles glad, when Peter and Paul said, we're
going to come preach to you, we're going to turn to you, we're
going to make you our ministry, we're going to preach to the
ends of the earth, and God's going to say, oh, some of you
Gentiles, some of you dogs, and you're going to throw away your
idols? You gonna throw away your gods? You gonna throw away your
crucifixes? You gonna take down your pictures
of Wild Bill Hickok? You gonna put one of these things
on your lapel? You gonna quit running around
telling everybody and trying to win everybody to Jesus? You're
not gonna take the the gospel and cast it to dogs
and cast it to pearls and to the hogs and let them turn rindem
to you again. Oh, and then when they heard
this, they were glad. And look what it said here. They
glorified the word of the Lord. They began to praise God. Thank
God for the Word. Bless you, Lord, for that Word.
Thank you for that Gospel. Thank you for that truth that
came to me. Thank you for that blessed Word that came to me
right when I needed it. And they glorified the Word of
the Lord. Look with me over in Romans 15. You keep that now.
And look in Romans 15, just a minute. And I tell you what, we glorify
the Word of the Lord. Do you know what it does for
us? Can we talk about the power of
the word and the blessedness of the word and the encouragement
of the word and the power of the word and the salvation that
God gives us through his word being born again not by corruptible
seed but incorruptible by the word of God. We're glorifying
the word of the Lord. That's what we're doing. And
look what he said here in Romans 15 9. Look at verse 8, Now I say that
Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth
of God to confirm the promises made unto the fathers, and that
the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. as it is written
for this cause I will confess to thee among the Gentiles and
say unto thy name and again he saith rejoice you Gentiles with
his people and again praise the Lord all you Gentiles in the
law of him all you people and again Isaiah saith there
shall be a root of Jesse And he that shall rise to reign over
the Gentiles, in him shall the Gentiles trust. Well this old
Gentile dog is. This old Gentile dog is. Now
look what else it said here. They glorified the word of the
Lord, and listen to this, and as many as were ordained to eternal
life. Paul knew he wasn't one of the
fools there. It's like when Eliezer went to
get a bride for Isaac. He didn't go down through the
street hollering, anybody want to marry my master's son? Oh,
Isaac is wealthy. No, listen, no, no. He knew exactly
where to go and he went to one people and he ended up with one
person. And he talked to one person about Isaac. And that's the way God does.
He goes and gives them one at a time. And as many as were ordained
to eternal life, as many as, and it'll always be this way,
as many as God has given Him, He gives eternal life to. As
many as received Him, to them gave He the power to become the
sons of God. And I'll tell you what, it'll
always be this way. And that word ordain, let me
say this, and tell anybody if you want to, that word ordain
is the same word as predestinate. Ain't it Gary? Same word as predestinate. You say, well I don't believe
in predestination like that. Boy, I'm certain glad I do. I'm
glad that's the way God does things. Huh? Had thou not chosen
me Lord, I never would have chosen thee. Now ain't that right? And
I tell you what, I didn't know I was ordained to eternal life
until for quite a while after I believed. Then I got to finding
out, you know, that God did this on purpose. He didn't sneak up
on me, you know. He didn't bring me alive, you
know. He didn't sneak up. I mean, oh,
bless His name. And then look what it said here.
And the word, verse 49, the word of the Lord was published throughout
all the region. Published that means they went
out and preached it that means they went out and told it that
means they went out Brought the glad tidings and published peace
through the Lord Jesus Christ And all beloved. That's what
oh, and there's that's what thank God for the gospel Let me show
you this now show you what happened now They not only had the joy
and the Gentiles had joy and they received the gospel and
they are believed Because they were ordained to eternal life
God blessed the Word and published it all through that region. But
the Jews, now we don't know how long this took. We have no idea
how many days, how many years, how many weeks, how many months,
we don't know. But the Jews turned up the devout and honorable women.
They went and got all the Jewesses, honorable and devout and honorable
women, and the chief men of the city. I mean, beloved, they went
and got the best of the best of the best of the best of the
opposition. And raised persecution against
Paul and Barnabas. And they come to them and says,
now we want you out of our city, we want you out now. And they
had such a crowd that God against them and says they expel them
out of their coast. You remember, you go through
the Gospels and see how many times the Lord Jesus was told
to depart from us. Depart from us. And the scripture
said, especially in Luke, I believe it's 17 where it says there,
and he departed from us. They said, depart from us, and
he did. And that's what they said. They said, leave. Get out. We don't want you here. We don't
want your gospel. We don't want you bothering us.
We don't want you troubling us. And the animal wind, they raised
this great persecution and expelled them. And oh beloved, let me
show you something. You keep this and look with me
in Luke chapter 19, just a moment. Oh listen. In Luke chapter 19
and verse 41. This is what our Lord, look what
happened when our Lord went through Jerusalem. This is what, this
is no doubt how Paul felt. There's no doubt how Barnabas
felt. They wasn't mad, they wasn't angry. I'm sure that they thought,
oh these people, oh my, if they just had any idea of what they've
rejected. Look what it said here in verse
41, Luke 19. And he was come near, he beheld
the city, talk about Jerusalem, and wept over it. Stood there
and cried over it. Wept. You could hear him weeping. When it says wept, that means,
beloved, you could hear him. You could hear him weeping and
crying and saying, if thou hadst known, even thou, at least in
this thy day, the day that Christ, the day of the gospel, the day
of salvation, the things which belong unto thy peace, or the
peace you could have had, but now, now, They're hid from your eyes. They're
hid from your eyes. And that's what happened over
here. They refused it so God said they let them and run them
out. Look what happens back over here in Acts 13.51. But they
shook off the dust of their feet against them and came unto Iconium.
Now, let me ask you this. When you think about somebody
shaking off the dust of his feet, you reckon they got out of town
and went like that? I don't think they did. I think
that as they were walking out of town, the dust of that city
fell off of their feet and said the dust of that city will never
get on us again. We'll never go back there. And
as they walked away, that dust of that city fell off of their
feet and it'll never get back on their feet again and they'll
never ever go back in there. And you know, that's what it
meant. I don't think they just I know an old preacher, Frank Southern,
he lived to be about a hundred. One time some Jehovah's Witnesses
were at his place and he was sitting out in his yard and he
had a poker sitting there. sitting there talking and just
fisting, just sitting around. A bunch of Jehovah's Witnesses
stopped and he tried to talk to them and he said, I'm telling
you, get out of here. I don't want to hear anything you got.
They just kept on going. And old Frank was pretty tough
and he got out. I mean, he went around with us when he was way
up in his eighties, didn't he, Steve? I mean, he was an old man. And
he got up with that poker and he says, now I'm telling you,
get out of here or I'll wire this poker out on your head. And they did.
And they said, well, we'll just shake the dust off. And he said,
I'll buy you even back like you won't shake the dust off. I'll
get you at this poker. Get in your car. He said, don't even
shake the dust off. That's the way old Frank was,
wasn't he? He was tough. He was tough. Oh, I never will forget that.
He said, don't even stop to shake the dust off your feet. Cause
they was going to do that, you know, go out, go out under, they
going to get out of the yard and go like this. Don't even
tell you to do that. But do you, you know, that's
what most folks think. But as they walked out of town,
the dust of that city just got off and it picked up. And this
is what they're saying is we'll never get the dust of your city
on us ever again. And then look what happens here.
And then finally, and the disciples saw how they were greatly blessed.
And the disciples were filled with joy. He said, oh, that's
going to upset them guys so bad, get run out of town. No, no. Disciples were filled with joy
and with the Holy Ghost. Oh, it didn't upset them at all.
Never made them mad, never made them angry. They left there full
of joy and full of the Holy Ghost. Amen. The Gospel. the gospel. It resolves the blessedness of
it and that rejection of it. Our Father, in the blessed, blessed
name of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, thank you for the
gospel. Thank you for the truth. Thank
you for the Word of God. Oh, it blesses us so. It blesses
us so. It instructs our minds, our understanding,
opens our heart, feeds our souls, gives us direction and comfort,
and we bless you for it, in Christ's name. Amen. Thank you, Lord, for saving my
soul. Thank you, Lord, for making me Thank you, Lord, for giving to
me Thy great salvation, so rich and free.