I invite you to turn with me
now to Acts chapter 17. I preached many times from the
end of Acts 17, but never from the beginning. So this morning
I want to preach from verses 1 through 3 in Acts 17. And I titled the message, Preaching
What Must Be. not preaching what men want to
hear, not preaching what tickles the
ears of men and women, fills the pews, preaching what must
be. This is just a little portion
of the history of the early church and the ministry of the Apostle
Paul which is why I wanted to read to you from Acts 9 about
his conversion. The Apostle Paul was a true evangelist. He was a true evangelist. From
the time of his conversion, it said straightway, I read it to
you a little while ago, straightway he preached Christ in the synagogue. From the time of his conversion
until his death, Paul traveled city to city and village to village
and town to town. What was he searching for? Why didn't he just stay in one
spot? Why did he keep going? Why did
he keep moving? What was he searching for? What
did he hope to gain? Why would he subject himself
to such a life? The Lord said he was going to
show him what great things he must suffer. And still he went. Why would a man subject himself
to such a life and such hardship and such pain and suffering?
I'll give you two reasons. There are many reasons, but let
me just give you two. First of all, because God sent
him. God sent him. There's not something
you want to tackle on your own. You young boys coming to the
place where lots of young boys have found their ruin, they get
excited about the doctrines of Christ and the doctrines of grace,
and they're gonna preach his gospel. Problem is, God hadn't
sent you. It's not something you want to
tackle without God. God calls and sends preachers,
and Paul was sent of God. God called him into the ministry,
and when God calls a man into the ministry, he enables that
man to do what God called him to do, even great suffering. You know, later on in the ministry,
Paul, oh, he prayed and prayed and prayed that thorn in the
flesh be taken from him, whatever it was. God told him, he said,
Paul, my grace is sufficient. And Paul was satisfied with that. And here's the second reason.
Why would a man subject himself to such pain and suffering and
living in poverty and out there with a predator sleeping on the
ground and all of these things? Well, Paul subjected himself
to such a life being convinced by God and his own experience
that what he was doing was absolutely necessary to the saving of men's
souls. I don't know anything that riles
men more than that. Well, are you saying that God
didn't save me? One man told me, he said, well,
how do you justify my profession? Why would I want to justify it?
It's your profession, you justify it. I'm just telling you what
God said. And I tell you, let God be true
and every man a liar. I don't care if he cries and
weeps and how godly he appears and how long and all of these
other things. Listen to me. Let God be true
and every man a liar. Paul was absolutely convinced. There's no other reason for a
man to subject himself to the kind of life that Paul subjected
himself to, imprisonment, who was beaten within one stripe
of his life three times. He was stoned and carried outside
of town believing he was dead. Maybe he was. Maybe the Lord
raised him again. I don't know. Don't say. He was
despised, oh my soul, how the Jews despised him. He was there. He was the follow-up to the Billy
Grahams of the Jews. And now look at him. Now look
at this proud Pharisee. Look at this man in whom we invested
all of our time and trouble in teaching. Look at him now. He
was despised. He subjected himself to this
kind of life, being convinced by God and his own experience. I'm not talking about some isolated
I'm talking about the overall experience of grace. I'm talking
about your being convicted of sin. Coming to that place where
you understand there's no hope for you in yourself. You're in a pit you can't climb
out of. Man is of a few days and full
of trouble. He drinks iniquity like water.
none good, none righteous, none that understandeth, none that
seeketh after God. God brings you to that point
when he convinces a man of sin, he convinces him of his own inability
to save himself. And he cries, Lord, save me or
I perish. You ever been there? That's the experience of grace,
not some warm feeling going down your back or bursting into tears
over this, that, and the other. It's God the Holy Spirit convincing
a man of his own inability and then setting before him all ability
in the Lord Jesus Christ. All glory, all righteousness. Here's the effectual Savior,
the Lord Jesus Christ. And when a man comes to that
point and he experiences these things, he understands the necessity
to preach the gospel. He had to be led by the hand
to a town and God's ambassador had to come down there and preach
to him. Now I know he was taught of Christ and called up into
the third heaven and all of these other things, but before any
of that took place, God sent Ananias down there and he preached
to him. And he tells you, if you'll read
over there in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, let me just turn over there
real quick and read that to you. what he says over here, 1 Corinthians
chapter 15. He says in verse 3, For I delivered
unto you first of all that which I also received. He's not preaching something
that came to him in a soap bubble dream, he's preaching here something
that he received from God. I deliver it unto you first of
all, that which I also received, how that Christ died for our
sins, according to the scriptures. Now, if Ananias had not preached
to Paul, how did he know to be baptized?
Isn't that what it said in that record I read to you a while
ago in Acts 9? The scales fell from his eyes.
He was filled with the Holy Spirit and he was baptized. He heard
the gospel. Paul believed in the necessity
of the preaching of the gospel. And he told this very church
here in our text, the church at Thessalonica, listen to this.
He said, I know your election of God. Well, that's saying something,
ain't it? I know your election of God. I wish I knew it the
way he did. I were in fret over mine, but
Paul said, I know yours. Because my gospel came not unto
you in word only. It wasn't just another doctrine. It wasn't just another meeting.
It wasn't just another sermon on Sunday morning. One just another
Sunday school lesson. My word came unto you. And my
gospel came unto you. And when it came, it didn't come
in word only. It come in power. And it come
in the Holy Ghost. And it was effectual. It brought about a regeneration.
It brought about a new man. A new creation. And a mind was
put there that could think and reason with God. and a heart
to love God and receive His mercy and grace. And Paul told this church not
only that, but he told them that he thanked God for them, because
when they received the Word of God, which they heard of Him, they heard it and received it
not as the Word of men, but as it is in truth the Word of God,
which affectually worketh also in you that believe. He believed
in the necessity of preaching the gospel. In his second letter
to this same church at Thessalonica, he said, God hath from the beginning
chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the spirit
and belief in the truth, whereunto he called you by our gospel. What was Paul looking for? He
traveled city to city, he prayed constantly. What was he looking
for? He was looking for an open door
of opportunity to tell men about his savior, to tell men about
the son of God who had come and accomplished the redemption of
his people, and then ascended back into glory and sat down
at his father's right hand expecting till his enemies be made his
footstool. He wanted to tell what God told
him. And I'm gonna tell you something,
preachers, if God called you to preach, and these other preachers,
I talk to them, I know what's on their mind and heart, they
tell me, preachers believe in divine providence. Do you? Do you believe that he worketh
all things after the counsel of his own will? If you don't,
you can't believe in predestination because that's the only way it
could be. He must have absolute control
over everything in order to have that end out yonder. Preachers believe in divine providence
god our savior working these things and paul said to the colossians
he said pray for us pray for me pray for these men that are
traveling with me that god will open a door of utterance unto
us i don't want to just go well just go why don't you just get
a tent and start out across the country i had a preacher up 13th
street who said that to us young preachers one time. Wanted us
to get a big tent and go marching all over the country. And it
did, I didn't know why at the time, I was young, I was in my
20s, but it just didn't, didn't gel. It just didn't, I couldn't
find it anywhere in the word of God where these men did that.
It says in here that the spirit forbade them from going into
this place, or the spirit opened the door for them to go into
this place, or they was led of the spirit. I don't know who God's elect
are. I know God's elect gonna hear. I do know that. This gospel
falls on their ears. They hear. Blessed are your ears
for they hear. Blessed are your eyes for they
see. But I don't know who they are.
I don't know where they are. So I'm shut up to the providence
of God. I'm going to tell you something.
I prepare these messages and I have your faces before me in
my study when I'm preparing them. But I don't know who's going
to show up. I don't know. I don't know. We've had people
walk in here right off the street, just walk in here, been one day
and gone. I don't know. People call me
from here and there and yonder, ask me to come up here to preach
or ask me to go over there and preach. I go over there and preach. I'm shut up to the providence
of God. He said to the church at Rome,
and we know that all things work together for good to them that
love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
And he said that, though many things come to pass which are
not good in and of themselves. Imprisonment is not a good thing.
That's not a good thing. Disease, not a good thing. Floods and famines and earthquakes
and on and on it goes, yet even these things like the gears and
cogs and a great clock are all working together for good. Your good and His glory. And to the unregenerate eye,
Paul's imprisonment was Just bad luck. Boy, that man had bad
luck. Whatever luck is. Or it's unforeseen circumstance. But to Paul, it was an open door
to preach the gospel, even in his imprisonment. Do you know
that a lot of the books that he wrote in the New Testament,
he wrote from his prison cell? Probably wouldn't have wrote
them if he wasn't down there in the prison. Here in our text, Paul's granted
an opportunity to come into this Jewish synagogue
and speak to them out of the Scriptures. So here's the first
thing I want you to see. There's three or four things
here I want you to call your attention to in these verses.
It says, for three Sabbath days in a row, he reasoned with them
out of the Scriptures. That is the Old Testament Scriptures. I'm gonna tell you something,
especially you young men who are being brought to face some
opposition by your friends and classmates. It's okay to reason
with them out of the Scriptures. if they will agree to subject
themselves to the word of God. You feel free to reason with
them and talk to them from the word of God. If, however, in
this conversation they want to bring into this conversation
the philosophies of men and concepts of false religion or general
feelings, visions, and experiences, pull the plug. just stop talking
and when they ask you why, tell them. I've got no other basis,
no other information about God or the origin of man or the salvation
of a man's soul except the word of God. Now if you want to go
there, I'm willing to listen. But if you want to go off yonder
here, let me tell you something. When you do that, you open the
door for every crackpot and nut in the country to stand up and
tell you, because that's the basis of his calling. He had
an experience. He heard a voice. He saw a vision. God's Word is the basis of all
that we believe and preach. God's inspired Word is, as far
as I can discern, the only reliable information we have on these
things. And if we give assent to any
man's feelings and ideas and experiences and logic, we open
the door for every crackpot and false prophet in the world. Paul
being a former Pharisee, he was very aware of the many Jewish
writers and teachers and teaching aids and schools and all that
they had. But he didn't make reference
to any of them. Rather, he used all his allotted
time. He believed that this day, he
didn't know he was going to have three Sabbath days in a row to
reason with these Jews. He just had today. I don't know
if I'm ever going to have another time to speak to you. I have
today. I have this morning. This is
it. And every message a man preaches ought to be geared that way.
It ought to be geared as though it was the last message he'd
ever preach. Now I guarantee you, a lot of
the junk that we pin down on paper will go in the trash can. Paul believed this was an allotted
time given to him of God, and he wanted to use that allotted
time to reason with him out of the Scriptures. An old fellow
told me one time, he said, I've never heard any preacher in any
denomination preach what you're trying to preach to me. Let me
ask you a question. Is a thing false because it's
ignored by the multitude? Huh? Is the thing false because
the multitude out here knows it? Is the accepted doctrine of the
multitude how truth is established? If it is, then God made a mistake
when he judged Israel at the border of the promised land because
the multitude didn't want to go in. If it is, then Jesus could not
have been the Christ because he was rejected by the multitude
and embraced by only a few. If it is, then the doctrine of
works is established and the grace of God is rejected. Rejection of the multitude is
not how truth is established and believing it isn't either. Had a fella in the old church,
he used to say, I just believe. I don't know how
many times he'd say that in our conference. I just believe. Or
I'm made to believe, he'd say. If a man believes something completely
and sincerely and with his whole heart, does that make it so?
Huh? no bearing on truth whatsoever. Paul so believed his pharisaical
doctrine that he was willing for Stephen to be stoned for
being opposed to it. And my own father was so steeped
in the teaching of the Nazarene religion that he was ready to
cut me off as his son. And he was the most sincere man
I've ever known in his religion. but he was sincerely wrong he
was wrong a thing's not so if it's established
because a man believes it a thing is so because God says it now
you can write it down if God says it, it's up Listen to this. I was trying
to find this verse earlier in the week. I was having a phone
conversation with Brian and I was trying to find this and couldn't
find it. It's over in the book of Isaiah, Isaiah 44. He said, God frustrateth the
tokens of liars. Who does? God does. He frustrateth
the token of liars and maketh diviners mad. He turneth the wise men backward,
and maketh their knowledge foolish. But he also confirmeth the word
of his servant, and he performeth the counsel of his messengers."
And that's all. That's all. Isaiah 44 verses
25 and 26. And if he says this also in the
book of Isaiah, if they speak not according to this word, it's
because there's no light in them. Isaiah 8 verse 20. All right, so Paul with a favorable
providence and the power of the sovereign spirit of God, he's making men willing to hear
him The Holy Spirit is, he's creating this opportunity, this
open door to speak. You know, if you just went up
to the door and you said, hello, my name's Darwin Pruitt, I'm
a Calvinist, I'd like to speak to your church this Sunday. They
run you off, they call Sheriff. We've got enough down here, come
and get him. But God, in his providence, opens
doors like that. Brother Todd Nybert, there's
an Armenian church right across the street from him. And Todd has a television broadcast
up there in Lexington, Kentucky. And this preacher got to listening
to Todd on there and asked him to come over and preach for him.
While you couldn't make that come to pass, but God can. God
can. Here's Paul. He has the favorable
providence of God and the power of the Spirit of God making men
willing to hear him. And he reasoned with these Thessalonians
three Sabbath days running. But the Bible's a big book. Those
of you who have read it know what I'm talking about. It's
a big book. It's filled with genealogies. It's filled with
science and history and inventions and future prophecies and music
and law and all of these things. So what subject will he choose? God's opened the door for him. He's called him in here. He's
given him the opportunity to speak and now he stands up and
here's all the church gathered out there and they're all listening
to him. What's he going to talk about? What subject will he choose? And I'm telling you, I've known
preachers for years, and I used to put myself through this. Oh,
you just drive yourself insane trying to figure out what you're
gonna preach. And one day a preacher told me. He said, we're not looking
for what we're gonna preach, just where we're gonna preach
from. I already know what I'm gonna preach. There's only one subject that
any God-called preacher has in mind, and that is Jesus Christ
and Him crucified. And he may take the Old Testament
types and sacrifices, or he may take the prophecies or plain
declarations of the prophets, but his subject will always be
Jesus Christ and Him crucified. One old woman had come and listened
for I don't know how many weeks running, she'd come and she'd
listen to Brother Scott Richardson preach. And one Sunday, she'd
had all she could take. And she met him back by the door
and she said, all you ever preach is Christ, Christ, Christ. And
he stood there for a few minutes and he said, well, somebody put
that on my tombstone. All Scott Richardson ever preached
was Christ, Christ, Christ. Now I'm going to tell you something.
You can't preach the legal reform and reason with men from the
word of God because it ain't in there. You can't preach ceremonialism
and reason with men out of the scriptures. It's not there. You
can't reason with men concerning righteousness by their own obedience
and call it reasoning out of the scriptures. It's not there.
You can't climb on your little soapbox and rattle on and on
about a flat earth and say I'm reasoning with you out of the
scriptures. There's only one basis by which
God will reason with men and that is Christ crucified. Come,
he said, let us reason together, saith the Lord. Though your sins
be as scarlet, I'll make them white as snow. You want to reason
with God, that's where you'll reason. The rest of this stuff is just
idiotic. It's just showmanship. That's all it is. All Paul had in his possession
was Genesis to Malachi. Boy, I love to go to Ephesians,
don't you? Ephesians 1 and 2. Oh, my soul. I love to go to the Thessalonians. I love to go to the Book of Romans
and nail it down. He didn't have that. He had Genesis
to Malachi. And he reasoned with them from
what he had. Somebody said, well, the gospel's
a New Testament thing. Oh, no, it ain't. No, it ain't. Is it Hebrews? Let me see if
I can find that real quick over in the book of Hebrews. Chapter four. He's talking about
those back there in the wilderness and bringing them up to the edge
of Canaan. And then the spies brought back
a bad report, and God cursed them for it. And listen to what
he says. Let us therefore fear, lest a
promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should
seem to come short of it, for unto us was the gospel preached,
now listen, as well as unto them. What did Moses preach to them
back then? He preached the gospel. What
did Abraham preach to his sons? He preached the gospel. He preached the gospel. Abraham
rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it and was glad. You believe not Moses, how you
gonna believe me? Moses spoke of me. Moses preached
the gospel. Now here by his own testimony
and that of the Holy Spirit of God what this man of God preached. It says he opened the scriptures
and alleged. What in the world does that mean? He alleged. That's a legal term. You know what it means? We just
read these things, just pass over them, don't we? And that's
why we don't get nothing out of them. When a lawyer stands
up to defend a client, he alleges a fact that he intends to prove. That's what it means to allege.
Paul alleged that God was sovereign, and then he proved it. He alleged
that Christ's most needs have suffered. And then he proved
it. He alleged. He stood up and he
alleged. He stated a fact which he was
about to prove. And he opened the scriptures
and alleged that Christ's most needs have suffered. Now let
me just stop there for a minute. The Jews believed in a coming
Messiah. That's what the Sanhedrin was.
It was a council. I mean, they had other duties,
but primarily their duty, they were trained in the prophecies
of Christ so they could look for Him and recognize Him when
He comes. They believed in a coming Messiah.
That woman at the well said, I know that Messiah is cometh,
which is called Christ. They all believed that. but they
had no belief or expectation that he was to suffer and die
and be raised from the dead. They were totally ignorant of
that. They thought that the Christ would be a man like Moses, a
deliverer to guide them into paradise, or a man like David
to conquer. A man like that to restore them
to their former prominence and and respect and place in society. But in Psalm 40, verse seven,
he said, lo, he said, I come. In the volume of the book it's
written of me, I delight to do thy will, O God, yea, the law
is within my heart. Now let me show you this verse
being applied by Paul as he preached it. He's reasoning with these
men out of the scriptures. This may have been one of the
scriptures he used, I don't know. But in Hebrews chapter 10, verse
seven, it says, then said I, talking about Christ, lo, I come. In the volume of the book, it's
written of me to do thy will, O God. What will? What will? By the witch will,
we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus
Christ once for all. Now he took these Old Testament
scriptures and he alleged that Christ must need to suffer and
then he showed it to them in the scriptures. There's no believing
in Christ apart from the understanding of his purpose in coming. He
came to accomplish the Father's will. He said to them, I come
down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of Him
that sent me. And this is the will of Him that sent me, that
of all which He's given me I should lose nothing, but raise it up
again at the last day. There can be no peace except
as it's wrought out by the blood of the cross. In Christ Jesus
Paul said, ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the
blood of Christ. And he reasoned with them out
of the Old Testament scriptures that Christ must needs have suffered. Listen to Isaiah 53, 4. It says,
he hath borne our griefs. Who did? This coming Redeemer. He carried our sorrows. And we
esteemed him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. Wounded
for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement
of our peace was upon him. By his stripes we're healed.
The Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all, and it pleased the
Lord to bruise him. He hath put him to grief, when
he shall make his soul an offering for sin. Christ must needs suffer. That's what Paul taught. And
that God shall see the travail of his soul and be satisfied. He must need suffer the just
for the unjust to bring us to God. He must be made sin for
us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of
God in him. And Paul preached in Romans 3
24 that God's elect are all justified freely by his grace through the
redemption that was wrought out in Christ Jesus. whom God set
before us throughout the whole Old Testament as the propitiation
for our sin through faith in His blood. Not faith in that
Lamb's blood, but the coming Lamb's blood. He reasoned with them that Christ
must needs of suffered, sin must be paid for, justice must be
satisfied, righteousness must be established and redemption
must be accomplished. And then what's this? Here's
the third thing. He opened and alleged that Christ
must need to have suffered and rise again from the dead. I'd
like for you to turn with me to Romans chapter four. I want to show you in the word
of God the plainest simplest, most accurate reason for the
resurrection of Christ given anywhere in the scriptures. A
child ought to be able to grasp this. Romans chapter 4, verse
25. Who was delivered for our offenses
and raised again for our justification. What happens if he didn't rise? Then you're still in your sins.
That's right. When Jesus Christ sat up in that
burial chamber and neatly folded his grave clothes, he wasn't
in hurt. His work was done. And he sat up on that stone bench
or whatever it was inside that barrel chamber and he took off
those grave clothes one part at a time and neatly folded it
up and laid it on the bench. That's what the women saw, folded
and laying on the bench, his grave clothes. And he walked out of that tomb
by the power of God. An ever-chosen son of God was
fully and completely justified before God when he rose from
the dead. Like Saul of Tarsus, he may yet
be a threatening presence to the church, He may be out here
seeking papers to punish and slaughter those who preach the
gospel. He may very well be participating
in all that rebellion, even consenting unto the death of the martyrs,
which he did. But he was fully justified when
Christ came out of that tomb. And I'm going to tell you something
else. His calling was as sure as his justification. All those things link together
in Romans chapter eight, don't they? The golden chain of assurance. God is in heaven and you and
I upon the earth and the only revelation, the only evidence
of our salvation and standing with God is manifested in our
covenant head and in our representative, the Lord Jesus Christ. The law
can't save you. You can't save yourselves. All
the suffering of all the damned in hell for an eternity cannot
satisfy the justice of God. Christ must die. And if he didn't, you will. His soul must be made an offering
for sin and he must then be risen from the dead to show and declare
God's satisfaction for him and all who were in him. And his
resurrection declares that he who gave his life for the sheep
has ascended up into heaven to make intercession for his people
and to rule over all things concerning the salvation of his elect. When
he walked out on that mountainside with his disciples, he said,
all power in heaven and earth been given unto me. Here I stand
before you, the God-man. Can you just imagine a man standing
before you and telling you, all power in heaven and earth been
given unto me. I'm the one mediator between
God and men. And I've secured the salvation
of my people. Now you go preach. You go preach. Somebody said to me one time,
if I believe what you believe about election and all, well,
I wouldn't even preach. I said, no, if I believe what
you believe I wouldn't preach, there'd be no need. There'd be
no need. The death of Christ and the resurrection
of Christ guarantees the calling of His elect. It guarantees it. How do I know a dead sinner's
gonna be regenerated? Because Christ is on the throne,
that's why. How do I know he won't just resist
and choose a different way? He gonna be made willing in the
day of my power. Huh? I couldn't believe in this
Armenian junk and go out and preach, what would be the use? And His resurrection declares
that He who gave His life for the sheep has ascended up into
heaven. He makes intercession for us
and rules over all things concerning the salvation of His elect. In
Romans 5 verse 8 it says, God commendeth His love toward us
in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. Much more
then, being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved
from wrath through him. For if he saved us, when we were
yet enemies, how much more shall we be saved through his life,
his resurrected life, enthroned in glory? All of the means of salvation
would be for naught but for the resurrection of Christ. If Christ
be not risen, our preaching's vain. Now he said, sure it is. Just a vain show. Your faith
is in vain, and if Christ be not risen, we're found to be
false witnesses of God because we testified that He rose from
the dead. And if Christ be not risen, then
you're yet in your sins, and if Christ be not risen, those
who died in the faith are perished forever with no hope of the resurrection. And they who believed in Him
and gave their lives for Him and in this world are of all
men most miserable. But he did rise. He did rise. Men who believe that Christ died
for them and by his death secured them for glory and have no need
to hear his gospel, believe on his son and repent of their sins,
have no real understanding of his death. Now that's just so. His resurrection secures and
guarantees the ordained means of God by which his people shall
be called. It is the ascended Christ, Paul
tells us over in Ephesians chapter four, the ascended Christ that
gave apostles to the church, and prophets to the church, and
evangelists to the church, and pastors and teachers to the church.
Who did it? The same one who descended that
ascended up on high. And as he ascended, he gave,
he gave, he gave. If I go not to the Father, the
Spirit of God not gonna come. Isn't that what he said? You see what I'm getting at? The ascended Christ gives the
reason for giving these things. For the perfecting of the saints. For the work of the ministry.
for the edifying of the body of Christ until we all come unto
a perfect man. Oh, does that mean we're getting
better and better and one day we're going to break over that
plateau and we're going to be perfect in this world? No. You're
a perfect man in Christ. That's what that's talking about.
That's talking about growing in grace and knowledge of Christ
unto a perfect man. And then it says, he opened the
scriptures and alleged that Christ must needs have suffered and
risen again from the dead and that this Jesus, whom I preach
unto you, this Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God, the Son of Man,
the Son of Mary, He is the Christ. I tell you, if He ain't, I'm
in trouble. But He is. He is. And the scriptures of
the prophets and apostles testify of the same from one end to the
other. That Jesus of Nazareth, he's
Christ. He's the Christ. And when a man
sees it, you know what he cries? Men and brethren, what are we
gonna do? What are we gonna do? We didn't know we were persecuting
him. We didn't know that we were preaching a false gospel. What
are we gonna do? repent, believe, and be baptized.