Okay, open your Bibles, if you
would, to Acts chapter 19. The name of the message is Faithful
Brethren. Faithful Brethren. Praise God for Faithful Brethren.
Praise God. Acts chapter 19. During our last
lesson from the book of Acts, we finished chapter 18. And now we'll be continuing with
our study in Paul's second missionary journey. We read these verses. Let's stand up and read verses
one to five. One to five. And it came to pass that while
Paulus was at Corinth, Paul, having passed through the upper
coast, came to Ephesus, and finding certain disciples, he said unto
them, Have you received the Holy Ghost, since you believed? And
they said to him, We have not so much as heard whether there
be any Holy Ghost. And he said unto them, What then
were you baptized? And they said unto John's baptism.
And Paul, Then said Paul, John verily baptized with the baptism
of repentance, saying unto the people that they should believe
on him which should come after him, that is, on Jesus Christ. And when they heard this, they
were baptized in the name of our Lord Jesus. My, oh my. In our last lesson, we saw how
Apollos knew only the baptism of John, In all probability,
his parents were probably believers, who had been converted under
the ministry of John the Baptist. John preached the coming Messiah.
And now think of this, I want you to note something. Paulus
wasn't rebaptized. The disciples weren't re-baptized. We would think that they were
baptized by John. We're not sure. The scripture
doesn't tell us. But if they were, they weren't re-baptized. And Apollos only knew the baptism
of John. He was born at Alexandria, which
is a metropolis of Egypt. He was a Jew. He'd been instructed in the things
of the Lord by his parents, his believing parents. He was fervent
in spirit. He was a very eloquent teacher
and preacher, and he, by the grace of God, was mighty in the
Scriptures. Now, John's baptism had two requirements. Believing, and repentance. Sounds familiar, doesn't it? Sounds familiar. Believer's baptism
is you have to believe. Baptism doesn't save you. You
believe and you're repentant. So here comes the quandary. You don't already know what it
is, sister. I know you do. I know. I saw you look earlier.
You already knew. But here's the quandary. John Gill believes
that the ones who were baptized weren't the disciples spoken
of there. They were other people who believed.
John Calvin believes that they were, they were, they heard the
gospel under John the Baptist. They believed because the text
says they believed, right? They believed. Otherwise, John
wouldn't have baptized them. Right? They hadn't believed,
John said, no, you're not getting in the water. I'm not putting
you under. So they had faith. But they had
not been taught. It's like when the Lord saves
someone, we don't know everything, do we? We still don't. Amen, sister.
Thank you. Amen. We still don't. And if
somebody thinks they have, they're in trouble, aren't they? Now
we can grow and we can learn and we can expound on scriptures,
but we're still just babes. We become young men or young
women in Christ and then mature in Christ. But even in our most
mature state, we're still learning. We're still teachable, right? So here's Apollos, he's preaching
the gospel. He only knew the baptism of John.
In other words, he had a limited understanding of the gospel,
which he preached. So here's Priscilla and Aquila. He comes to Ephesus, and there
he boldly preached Christ. We know he preached Christ, because
the text told us that last week. Or Aquila and Priscilla heard
Paul's preach, and then they took him aside and they expounded
onto him the things of Christ, and then he went and preached
Christ. He wasn't rebaptized. He'd already been baptized under
John's baptism, which is a baptism of faith and repentance. And
who were they looking to, beloved? The number one thing. Who did
John point them to? He was a forerunner of Christ,
wasn't he? He was pointing them to the Messiah. See, we're going
to look at both sides. I'm not going to just give you
one opinion. We're going to look at both sides. We're going to
look at both sides. And we'll leave it up to the
Holy Spirit, because it's His Word. It comes into a section
of, I don't know. And I'm not ashamed to say that.
I don't know yet. Two men who I admire greatly
in studies, and even Hawker. Hawker leaned towards Calvin's
interpretation, and I really lean on Hawker a lot. God knows, doesn't he? But it's
not a gospel issue. They believed, the scripture
says. That's the key. They believed. My, oh my. So, Apollos was already a baptized
believer when God the Holy Spirit increased his spiritual understanding.
Again, we don't read where he was rebaptized. Because, as a lot of commentators
say, John's baptism was believers' baptism. They didn't baptize
that way until John came along. They just didn't. Now, that truth is very important
to our understanding of these first five verses in the 19th
chapter of the book of Acts. There's been many misinterpretations
of these verses, actually teaching that believers
under the ministry of John the Baptist had not received the
Holy Spirit. I ask you, how would they believe
if they hadn't received the Holy Spirit? Can we believe without the Holy
Spirit? No, it's impossible, isn't it, brother? Yeah, it's
impossible. You must be born again. I've been having a talk
with my dear buddy Jim across the road about this. He believes
the Old Testament saints didn't have the Holy Spirit. And I said,
well, how did they believe? How did they believe then? You
can't believe unless you're born again. My, oh my. Now, they may not have had
the understanding that we, by the grace of God, have now been
given with the New Testament, but they were looking to Christ,
weren't they? These disciples, they were looking to Christ.
Scripture says they believed. They believed. And notice on our text in verse
1 there, it says, And it came to pass that when Apollos was
at Corinth, Paul, having pressed through the upper coast, came
to Ephesus, and finding certain disciples. Who are disciples? We're followers of Christ, right?
God's saints are followers of Christ. The disciples were followers
of Christ. And remember how we talked about
the sign gifts and how they've ceased now and that they were
only given by an apostle? Paul is going to put his hands
upon them and they are going to receive the extraordinary
gifts of the Holy Spirit of God. Doesn't mean they weren't born
again because they already believed. You see the struggle with this
passage then? We got a lot to learn, don't
we? Lord, help me. Give me an understanding. Now,
I don't have to understand this. I believe it, because that's
what the Word of God says. That's what's most important,
right? And how do we believe it? By the grace of God. Who
wrote these words? God the Holy Spirit. Well, even
though I don't understand it, I'm going to bow my knee to it.
Oh, my. Oh. No, the only way they could
believe Old Testament saints, and I call them Old Testament
saints, because remember, the elect are all the Old Testament
saints and New Testament saints in one body. You ever hear, when
we were dispensationalists, they used to say, well, the Old Testament
saints, they're just friends of the bride. No, they're part
of the bride, beloved. The Bride of Christ, it's all
the elect from all the ages, from the Old Testament to the
New, Adam, Eve. All the way to the last sheep
that the world will save and it'll be all wrapped up. That's
the Bride of Christ. As I said in Sunday school, out
of every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation. In Philippians chapter
3, verse 20, it says, our conversation is in heaven. And in the Greek,
that word in the Greek is citizenship, right? And so it also brings
forth in the Greek a community. Now think of this. We are part
of a community of people. And you know how I feel about
races, right? There's only one race. God looks at mankind and
he sees one race. There's not multiple races. The
only difference is the pigmentation in our skin. That's the only
difference. That's what that is. But man
is so, we're so evilly bent, we've divided people into races.
No, there's a human race, period. And this Greek word brings forth
a community aspect, right? Think of this. I love this. I
got so excited when we were talking. The born-again believer is part
of a community out of every kindred, tongue, tribe, and nation. We're gonna see Scythians in
heaven, the barbarians of the barbarians, the worst of the
worst. How do we know that? Well, Colossians says, Scythians,
bond or free. My. We're going to see them Gauls who are
mighty warriors. We're going to see them in heaven,
some of them. Isn't that amazing? Out of every
tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation that's ever been on this earth,
there's a people of God. My. Isn't God merciful? And how do they believe? By the
regenerating power of God the Holy Spirit. You know, John the Baptist, a
lot of folks believe he was regenerated in the womb. They say, well,
how can that be then? Well, he's still a sinner. Scripture says he's conceived
in sin. I'm still learning about that one. I'll just leave that one alone.
But isn't that amazing? How do you get people out of
every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation? Babies die all the time, don't
they? I don't know how you feel about
that, but it's amazing. It's amazing. God's gracious, God's merciful.
But if that's true, if that's true, they would have to be regenerated,
wouldn't they? Yeah? They would have to be. My, oh my. God's so merciful. He's so graceful. So note in
verse one, our text tells us that Paul found certain disciples
when he came to Ephesus. In this term, certain disciples
have as reference to true followers of Jesus Christ. They're true
followers of Christ. My oh my. You can't be a believer until
God sends his spirit into your heart, revealing Christ in his
gospel. When we're born again, we don't know everything. But
we do know one thing, don't we? Christ is my savior. Christ saved
me from all my sins. When we were children, we didn't
know everything, did we? But we learned. When our children
were children, they didn't know everything, but they've learned.
As we got older, what did we learn? We learned our parents
were very wise, didn't we? My, oh my. So I believe these are just young
converts. Young converts. They're called certain disciples.
Notice that word certain again, we've been running into that
all through Acts. Not all disciples, certain disciples. These guys
are gonna be pivotal at the church at Ephesus. And the church at Ephesus is
gonna grow so big that, I think it's in chapter 20, Paul's gonna
call together the elders, plural, at Ephesus. That's incredible. Now, we see Paul ask those certain
disciples of the Lord Jesus this question, have you received the
Holy Ghost since you believed? Now... One commentator I think it was
Gail said, he's not asking them if they've received the Holy
Spirit by his regenerating power, because the scripture says they're
already believers. Let's look at this. Right before, look at what he
says, he said unto them, have you received the Holy Ghost since
ye believed? Several commentators believe
this is talking about the spiritual gifts that are going to be given
to them because we're going to see that later on. That they're
going to receive spiritual gifts. I don't know. I'm going to leave
it there, okay? All I see is it says they believed.
What's that mean? It means they believed, right?
They believed. My, oh my. And the Holy Spirit
has put that in the text for us. That since ye believed. They believed Christ was the
Messiah. They were baptized by John. Because they had faith
in the coming Messiah. They had repentance before God,
which is all free of the Spirit. Right? Remember what we've talked
about many times? This piece of paper. When we're
given faith to believe, on one side is faith, and on the other
side is repentance. And you'll never find them without
each other. So, from that, knowing that in
our studies, they were believers. They were believers. Again, he wasn't asking if they're
being born again. because they'd already been delivered from the
power of darkness. They'd already been translated into the kingdom
of the Lord Jesus Christ. They would not have been true
believers and true disciples if they'd not been born again.
See, that's the important thing, isn't it? Now, not, you know,
Eric and I have been talking, but if you people say, you know,
this doctor and that doctor and this doctor, what's important
is what think you of Christ? What do you think of Christ? That's what's important, beloved. And John Gilbrick is forth, that
Paul could have put this, have you received the extraordinary
gifts of the Holy Ghost? For it falls since you believed. And that's in Christ, of course,
because you can't receive any spiritual gifts outside of Christ.
None. And it's God, the Holy Spirit,
that works in us. So John Gale says this believing
is to be understood of true spiritual special faith in Christ. End
quote. Let's read verse two again. Acts
chapter 19, verse two. He said unto them, have ye received
the Holy Ghost since ye believed? And they said unto him, we have
not so much as heard whether there be any holy ghost. I ran
into a fellow in Oregon one time, first guy I'd ever ran into like
this. I was working at a computer store
and this fellow was a technician there, I got to know him pretty
good. And I asked him, I said, have you ever heard the gospel?
And he said, what's the gospel? And I said, well, salvation in
and through Jesus Christ. He goes, I've never heard it. And I said, are you joking with
me? He goes, no, I've never heard it, Wayne. I've never heard it.
He goes, I've heard the name Jesus Christ, but I don't really
know who he is. And I was shocked because I thought,
surely. And so I got to tell him about
the gospel. I got to tell him about Christ,
who he was, that he was God in the flesh. And he said, I've
never heard this before. I've never heard this. And think again, when we're babes
in Christ, we don't know a lot. But we do know this, Jesus Christ
is my all in all. He's my everything. He's my everything. Listen to this verse, listen
to verse two, keep track of it in your scriptures, but listen
to this in the Berean Study Bible. Did you receive the Holy Spirit
when you became believers? No, they answered, we have not
even heard that there is a Holy Spirit. Now we're going to see Paul's
talking about giftings because we're going to see that coming
down. So these certain disciples responded to Paul's question
by saying, we've not so much as heard there be any Holy Ghost. And those disciples of our Lord
to whom Paul was speaking would have known the promises of the
Old Testament because John preached the coming Messiah. John preached,
I'm a forerunner. John the Baptist did that. He
said, there's one coming whose shoe latches I'm not even worthy
to clip on. I'm not even worthy to snap his
shoes together. So they'd known the prophecies
of the Old Testament that God recorded in Joel. Now listen
to this too. They would have known this prophecy recorded
in Joel, which I believe occurred When at the outpouring of the
Holy Spirit with special giftings, now that's ceased. I believe
that's ceased. I'm a secessionist. I don't believe there are spiritual
gifts now in the sense of tongues and these... I still believe
there's miracles. God does miracles all the time.
We're living miracles. The born-again believers are
living miracles. But I'm talking about tongues and all that. Now,
true tongues, you learn a language. God gives you the ability to
speak in another language, that's true tongues. Not the gibberish
that's going on out in the world. But they'd have known this. They'd have known that Joel said,
and it shall come to pass after the word that I will pour out
my spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and daughters shall
prophesize. My, they'd have known that promise. And that promise was fulfilled
on the day of Pentecost. Peter said so in Acts 2, verses
16 to 17. And when our Lord's disciples
said, we have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy
Ghost, they're referring to the fulfillment of Joel's prophecy. They, along with many other true
disciples of the Lord, were in the early stages of the gospel
age. Remember this. Like Apollos that we saw last
week, they needed to know the way of God more perfectly. How
do we learn that? By God the Holy Spirit increasing
their knowledge and teaching us. How do we really grow under
the preaching of Christ and Him crucified? We can fill our heads
with all kinds of knowledge. We can get puffed up. But what's
the end of that? I want to know more about Christ,
do you? I want to know more about my Savior. Tell me more about
Him. Travis, when you and I teach,
we present Christ. Is there any greater topic than
Christ? There's really not. But people
say, well, I already know that. Give me some meats. I'll tell
you why. You start reading into Christ
and who He is and what He's done. What's the best steak? Porterhouse?
I don't know. It's far better than Porterhouse, though. It's
far better than T-bone. I like me a good steak, do you?
But it's far better than that. This is spiritual food. Soul
food. Food for our souls, beloved.
You know where that's found? Right in these pages. Green pastures of God's Word. Who do they testify of? Christ,
amen. From beginning to end, this book
testifies about Christ. I like what somebody said. History
is his story. He's the creator. He maps it
all out, doesn't he? We're just living in it. And by the grace of God, he saved
us. My, oh my. So they, along with, again, other
true disciples of the Lord, were in the early stages of the gospel
age. And like Apollos, they just needed to learn more. And so do we. No matter where
we are in our walk, we need to learn more about Christ. I heard
Henry Mahan in that sermon, the Collected Ones, he said we need
to be, instead of being students of theology, we need to be students
of Christology. I like that. Students of Christology. Students of Christ. And the more I look through the
Old Testament, the more I look, the more I see Him. All over. And I know, I marveled that one
time I couldn't see Him. But now by the grace of God,
I see Him. And like we said, not by eyes, physical eyes, but
by eyes of faith. Isn't that wonderful? Who gave us those eyes to see?
The great and glorious God, the Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior
and our Redeemer, who shed his precious blood to save our eternal
souls and to obtain eternal salvation for us. Praise his mighty name. My, oh my. In verse 3, Paul said unto them,
what were ye baptized? And they said, unto John's baptism.
These are plain enough words, right? They were baptized under John's baptism. Paul's
talking to true believers who had been baptized. They'd made
a public confession, hadn't they? Yeah. When John baptized them,
they were making a public confession. that they were looking to the
Messiah. Remember, even the legalists and everything came out and watched
John, wondering, what in the world is he doing? Oh, my. Now, verses 4 and 5 have
to be read together. Then said Paul, John verily baptized
with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people that they
should believe on him which should come after him, that is, on Christ
Jesus. And when they heard this, they
were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. One of our old preachers in the
grace movement said this about these two verses. Read the two
verses together, put the whole passage in quotation marks. Both
verses are to be understood as Paul's exhumation of John's baptism. He is stating that John's baptism
is actually the same as we practice today, the immersion of professed
believers in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And then John
Gill says this about verse 4, he says, that they should believe
on him which should come after him that is on Christ Jesus.
Gil brings this forth. John the Baptist preached faith
in Christ, because he's the Messiah, as well as repentance towards
God, and made one as well as the other a necessary prerequisite
unto baptism. John would not baptize anyone
who didn't believe and have repentance before God. in the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ, after they heard the... Then we see, in verse 5, that
these 12 men, these certain disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ, were
baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, after they heard
the words of Paul. Now, here's one side. One side
says, verse 5 is teaching us that those who heard the gospel
preached by John the Baptist were baptized in the name of
the Lord Jesus. Believer's baptism is what? It's
a public confession, right? It's a public confession of Christ.
Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. We're telling others that the
Lord Jesus Christ has saved us. We're telling others that the
Lord Jesus Christ became a man and that he saved us from our
sins. That he perfectly honored the law of God in our room and
place. That he established the perfect righteousness for his
chosen people. That's Old Testament saints and
New Testament saints. And we're publicly confessing
that Jesus Christ, as our Savior, was the one who, by his substitutionary
death, ordained or obtained eternal redemption for us. And when we're
baptized, we're declaring that we're one of his. Now, can false
professors do that? Yeah, they can. Yeah. We take people at their word,
right? Take people at their word. But true believers do that too,
don't they? People who are truly converted do that. They receive
believer's baptism, not for any saving effect, because they're in Christ. They're
already saved. It's just a profession. It's an incredible honor. I think it's welcoming into the
community of local believers. We're already in Christ, though
our citizenship is already in heaven. We're already part of
all the elect of all the ages once the Lord saves us, and we
actually have been part of him even before he saved us, because
he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world. The only reason we're born again
is because God sends the spirit of his son into our hearts, whereby
we now cry. And it says, and because you
are sons in Galatians, God sends forth the spirit of his son into
your hearts, whereby we now cry, I have a father. How long have
we been sons? Since before the foundation of
the world. Isn't that amazing? That's amazing. Now let's read verses six and
seven. We're gonna go continue on here now. We see here, Paul will lay his
hands upon them, and the Holy Ghost will come upon them, and
they spoke with tongues and prophesied. And when Paul had laid his hands
upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them, and they spake with
tongues and prophesied, and all the men were about twelve. So this is proof positive that
these certain disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ already had
the Spirit of God dwelling in them, Because number one, they
could not have believed on Christ if they didn't have the Holy
Spirit dwelling in them. And they would not if they if
they if they weren't born again, they would not have believed
on the Lord Jesus Christ. See. I don't have to unpack verse
five, because to me, the key is the fact that they believed
on the Lord Jesus Christ and they were born again. and they were already baptized
by John's baptism. Now, as a new believer, when
the Lord saved me, I was baptized. Here's something for you. You
know how many times I've been baptized? Four times. First time was when I was a little
baby, a Catholic, Second time was when I got into religion. Third time, I thought, well,
maybe that first one didn't work. And then the Lord saved me. Chris, you and I talked about
it. We were lost Calvinists. And when the Lord saved me, then
I went in the water. Then it meant something to me. Born again by the Holy Spirit
of God. Oh, my. Pulled through the knot
hole of life. Right? Oh, my. God's so good, beloved. He don't leave his sheep in error.
He don't leave his sheep in error, beloved. These gifts could not have been
received unless the Holy Spirit was dwelling in their hearts. And as a result of receiving
these special gifts, there would be no doubt in their minds that
the Old Testament prophecies concerning God pouring out His
Spirit upon flesh has been fulfilled. And notice, notice this isn't
any, this isn't any disciple of Christ putting their hands
on Paul or on these disciples and giving them those spiritual
gifts. And it's God, the Holy Spirit, but it's one of the apostles. They were the only ones who could
confer these gifts by the power of God, the Holy Spirit. Oh my. So all that stuff that people
say is tongues, that ain't tongues. That's just a bunch of gibberish. Now, I've known people, and I'm
sure maybe some of you guys have known people who have went on
the mission field. David's doing this right now.
D's grandson. He's on the missions field out
in the jungle, and he's learning their language. God's given him a gift of tongues
by learning the language. Because I'll tell you what, in
the Greek, you can't get around it. In the Greek, it's known
languages. You just can't get around it. There's no way around
it. It's a known language. It's like my dad, he didn't speak
English until he was 14, he spoke French. So it'd be like him all
of a sudden coming up to me and speaking to me in French and
me being able to understand what he's saying and speak back to
him in French. Because remember what happened on the day of Pentecost?
Those folks said we hear them in our own tongue. which means
there's a saying, we hear them in our own language. Now the
reason these gifts were given to these men is because they
are gonna be instrumental in the church at Ephesus. Isn't
that amazing? And think of this too. This is
something I was pondering about too. Paul, he lands in Ephesus
at the same time those 12 men are there. all by the grace and providence
and sovereign power of our great God beloved. And who do they
meet? Paul the Apostle. Let's just
wonder at God's providence. Let's wonder at his working power.
It's amazing. And these special gifts were
only given through God's ordained apostles. Therefore, when all
the Lord's apostles left this life, these special apostolic
gifts ceased. We now have a complete Bible.
So the gifts are not needed, like the ones, now we still prophesize,
prophesize just preaching. It's not like these yo-yos on
YouTube, he says, I got a word from the Lord, you hear that?
Run, run, run as far as you can. Guarantee it, they don't got
no word from the Lord. My, we have a complete Bible. It's complete. And God sends
his preachers and his missionaries wherever he's pleased to send
them, right? All over the world. And what
do they do? The preachers, they preach Christ.
And these 12 men, they were faithful servants of the Most High God.
They said, to the law and the testimony, if they speak not
according to this word, it is because there's no light in them,
Isaiah 8.20. So think of this, think of this. This is how important
it is to preach Christ. If they're not preaching Christ,
the scripture says, there's no light in them. My. We don't have to pull the measuring
stick out, do we? You listen to 10 minutes of what someone's
saying, and you know it's time to shut it off. Right? There's no light in them,
beloved. Somebody says, well, that's awful
harsh, Wayne. Well, that's what the scripture says. It's not
my opinion. It's what the scripture says. There's no light in them. They're not sent by God. This
is why it's so vital to preach Christ, especially even now in
the lost and dying world, we hold up Christ, the only savior
of sinners. Do you know a man can know all
kinds of theology, know all kinds of stuff, and still go to hell?
And a man can know nothing about Christ and still go to hell.
Because they will, right? He's the way, the truth, and
the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by Him. And the
only reason we know about Christ is because He's revealed Himself
to us. Praise His mighty name. What grace. Isn't this wonderful? You know, we're citizens of heaven
now? Right now? When Paul writes to the Philippians
and says, you're citizens of heaven, it talks about a fixed
thing right now. We're not waiting to be citizens
of heaven, beloved. We're citizens of heaven right now in Christ.
That's wonderful. And you know, this citizenship
can't be revoked. And it's not based upon, well,
it is based upon birth, the new birth. But it's not based upon
our physical birth. See, your citizenship is based
upon the fact that you were born in America. And my citizenship
is based upon the fact that we were born in Canada. But this,
this citizenship, the heavenly citizenship, is based upon you
must be born again. Ain't that wonderful? And the same spirit that regenerates
us is the same spirit that gave these men these apostolic gifts. Now, let's read verse 8 of Acts
chapter 19. Where's Paul gonna go? I love
this. Paul gonna go preach the gospel. He's probably rejoicing with
these guys. Let's go. Go into the synagogue. And he
went into the synagogue and spoke boldly for the space of how long?
Three months. Look at that. In Ephesus. Disputing and persuading the
things concerning the kingdom of God. What's Paul on? He's on the divine mission, isn't
he? His mission is to preach Christ. His mission's not to
get caught up in politics. His mission's not to get caught
up in social things. Eh? His mission is to preach
Christ. Isn't that amazing? Paul knows
he can't change the world by himself, but Paul knows that preaching
the gospel will change people. Preaching to Christ will change
folks. You know, God's people become better citizens? They
do. They do. Henry Mann used to say,
there's something that even our animals, when we're born again,
even our animals know it because we treat them better. Henry Mann
used to say that. Men can be cruel, can't we? But
those around us will see a change in us if we're truly born again. It's amazing. We'll become more
long-suffering. We'll become more merciful. We
give more grace now. We're quick to forgive. That's
all because of God working in us, beloved. We can't take any
credit for it. It's God working in us. His will
and purpose, and it's wonderful. And like I stated earlier, the
transition between Judaism and Christianity was taking place
during the early ministry of the apostles, and many of our
Lord's disciples were still meeting at Jewish synagogues. And during
that time, the Lord Jesus Christ had ordained for Paul to stay
at Ephesus, we see here, and faithful preach the gospel of
the Lord Jesus Christ for a space of three months. Three months,
what an open door. What an open door. Twelve consecutive
Sabbath days. Paul went and preached the gospel
to them. Paul went and said, Christ is
the Messiah. He taught them the things concerning
the kingdom of God. In Jerry and Noah's three months,
our Lord Jesus Christ enlightened the minds of many of his chosen
lost sheep. his blood-bought children, those
he had purchased with his precious blood, and they had no clue at
all. But God knew him, didn't he?
How long has God known us? From eternity, hey. You ever
stop and think about that? God has loved me, and God has
known me from eternity. I look back on my life and I
just think, oh my goodness, the things I did and the things I
said. And yet he still loves me. And he
still loves me still, even today in my sinfulness. Isn't that
amazing, beloved? What a God. What a Savior is
Jesus Christ our Lord. And He doesn't merely overlook
our sin. He cleanses us from it by His precious, precious
blood. That's how much He loves us.
He gave His life for us. My. So those weeks of continual preaching
by Paul the Apostle were all ordained by the Lord Jesus Christ
to add to his church such as should be saved. We saw that
over in Acts 2.47. God adds to his church daily
such as should be saved. And God's ordained time for his
people to separate themselves from these Jewish synagogues
was drawn close though. Look at verse nine. But when
divers were hardened and believed not, but spake evil of the way
before the multitude, he departed from this and separated the disciples,
disputing daily in the school of Tyrannus. Now, like we've looked at many
times in our studies, in this wonderful book, one of the way
that the Lord reveals that it's time for Paul to move on or other
missionaries of his, persecution will come. Persecution will come. It's time for them to move on. And remember, all that is according
to God's divine providence, right? All that is happening according
to God's divine providence. All for his will and all for
his purpose. And look, it says, the Lord Jesus hardened the hearts
of those unbelieving Jews. He hardened Pharaoh's heart,
didn't he? What does God have to do for a person's heart to
be hardened? There you go, sister. Leave him
alone. Just leave him alone. What does
God have to do for our hearts to be softened? Everything. You
must be born again. Look unto me and live, the scripture
declares of our great God. all the ends of the earth. My, and these Jews who the Lord hardened
their hearts, they didn't believe. They rose up against Paul, we
saw, and they were, and those who were true followers of the
Lord Jesus Christ, not only did they rise up against Paul, but
they rose up against all believers in Christ in Ephesus. They hated
them all. Remember how we hated when believers
used to come up to us and talk to us about things? I hated it.
I really did. I didn't like it at all. Now
I love it. I meet someone who professes
Christ, talk to me, talk to me. And then like we were talking,
Chris, you get together with people who you're on the same
exact, you're like, my, this is glorious. We agree with everything. What fellowship, what sweet fellowship
you can have. That's the one thing when I came
here, it was wonderful because you guys believe like I believe.
Because you've been taught that way, right? The Holy Spirit,
you were born again, you were taught, and it was so nice to
come here. And you guys had a heart for getting the gospel out. You
still do. That's wonderful. That's right
up my alley. I love it. Because that's what
we're here for. We're here for the furtherance
of the gospel. And in the furtherance of the
gospel, we ourselves will be edified by our own fellowship
together and sitting under the gospel and rejoicing in the wonderful
things that Christ has done for us. It's glorious. It's glorious. So the whole reason we come to
church is not a social gathering, is
it? We come to church to hear about Christ. We come to church
to worship Christ. We come to church to fellowship
with one another. Who are we fellowshipping in?
Christ. Who's our focus when we get together
and sit and talk? Christ. And we now see everything
through the lens of God's sovereignty. all the world events, right down
to little things in our lives, all according to the grace and
sovereignty and will and purpose of God. It's amazing. Well, we see they rose up against
them, these unbelieving Jews, and Paul departed from them and
he separated the disciples from them. He didn't want them getting
involved in that stuff. And then they started meeting
together in a schoolhouse founded by a man by the name of Tyrannus. Some believe he was still living.
I don't know. Some believe he was strongly
influenced by Paul's preaching, allowing him and God's saints
to meet there on a regular basis. May or may not be true. But we
know this, that it was by God's divine providence that they were
meeting there. by God's divine providence they're
meeting there. God had ordained that he would
provide a place for his preacher and that he would provide a place
for his hearers. Isn't that amazing? Every grace
church you go to, where they're preaching the gospel, that's a provision of God. in
a weary, weary desert of this world. My, what a blessing we
have the privilege of meeting together. It's wonderful. It's wonderful. And many, many well-established
churches started out this way. Many churches started out this
way. Little group meeting in a home or a rented hall They
flourished as our Lord was pleased to give the increase. Now let's
read verse 10. Acts 19, verse 10. And this continued
by the space of two years, so that all they which dwelt in
Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks. Marvel,
marvel, beloved of God, by God's will and purpose, Paul came to
the city of Ephesus, met these 12, Men who believed, we see
in the scripture, they believed God. They believed Christ was
the Messiah. They started meeting together
in a little room in the schoolhouse to worship our great God and
to preach the gospel. And from the beginning, they
met with opposition, right from the beginning, from the Jews,
the zealots. And not just them, though, but
also the idolatrous worshippers of Diana. Ephesus was a hotbed
for the worship of the false goddess Diana. They had a temple
there, a big temple there. So not only... And we're going
to see next week, we're going to see next week these fellas
that think they can cast out demons. And that evil spirit says, Jesus,
I know. And you know what that word,
when he says, Jesus, I know, you know what that is? Agonoska. They know him intimately. And
then he says, and Paul, I know, different Greek word, acquaintance. But you, I don't know. Wait till
you see what happens to them fellas. If you want to read ahead,
go ahead. We'll be there next week. But I thought that was
incredible that they said, Jesus Wiganuska, we know him. Well,
how do they know him? He's the King of Kings, and he's
the Lord of Lords, and they're all subject to him, beloved.
Isn't that amazing? Oh, my. My, oh my. So here they are now
meeting at the school of Tyrannus. Satan did everything he could
to stop the spread of the gospel. He got the Jews riled up, and
then we're gonna see later on in this chapter, we're gonna
see he gets the silversmiths riled up, and all the idol makers
riled up, so the whole city's against them. It shows you the vileness of
man. It shows you the depravity of
man. They hate God so much, and they
can't get at him, but they're gonna get at his
servants. Now remember that if you're persecuted for your faith,
it's because they can't get to God, but they can get to you. I always have to remember that
when people are spewing hate about what we believe and what
we preach, they're not arguing with me, they're arguing with
God. Their opposition is with God.
And it just brings out our natural depravity, how we're just vile. But remember this, God shall
change these vile bodies into glorious bodies. Right? These shells that we're
in, these tents that we're in, will be put into the ground,
and we will be raised. We will go to meet with the Lord.
and our glorified bodies will put on immortality. Isn't that glorious? All because
of what the Lord Jesus Christ has done for us. My, oh my. So Satan does everything he can
to stop the spread of the gospel at Ephesus, but we see again,
Paul and his little band, they went right on preaching the gospel,
didn't they? Do you notice this? They had no regard for other
people's religions. You ever hear even Christians
say this? Well, we don't want to offend them. Paul didn't. He had no regard
for what other people believed, because there's only one true
living God. People say, well, that's awful
harsh. God himself said, I'm the way, the truth, and the life.
No one cometh unto the Father but by me. That's pretty narrow,
isn't it? It's pretty narrow. So Paul had
no regard for the religions of people or even their opinions. Say, well, I think this says
it. I don't care what you think that says. This says this. That's why two men I love to
read and study, they got different opinions. I'm just going to leave
it be. I don't got light on that right now. I'm just going to
leave it be. Nothing wrong with that, is there? Because if I
start speculating what's going to happen, the speculation leads
to trouble. It does. Maybe God will give me light
before he takes me home. Maybe he won't. It's OK. It's
not a gospel issue. Paul and these disciples had
one concern, the glory of God. The glory of God. That was their
concern, the glory of God. And God always honors people
like that. We see in less than three years
time that this little band of believers becomes a large influential
congregation, well grounded in the doctrine of Christ. Turn,
if you would, to Acts 20, verse 17. How do we know this? Well,
by the end of three years of faithful preaching, the church
at Ephesus was so large that it required several elders to
oversee its ministry. We see that when we study Acts
20, verse 17, but let's read it. And from Miltus, he sent
to Ephesus and called the elders, plural, of the church. This little
group of 13 of them had grown into this large congregation
now. So much so that they had multiple
elders. Isn't that wonderful? Praise
God for his mercy and his grace. It's absolutely incredible how
great and how good our God is. It's absolutely incredible. My,
oh my. My, Brother Neil, can you close
us in prayer?