I invite your attention to the
Acts of the Apostles and the last chapter in that book. The Acts of the Apostles chapter
28. My text will be verses 23 and
24. And my subject this morning is,
Will You Believe the Gospel? When we come to the 28th chapter
of the Acts of the Apostles, as we just observed, it is the
last chapter in that book. The book began with Jesus ascending in the glory
and telling his disciples to tarry in Jerusalem until they
received power from on high. Then they were to fulfill the
great commission of going into all the world and preaching the
gospel to every creature. That power came down on them
on the day of Pentecost as we read in Acts chapter 2. We then
begin to read of the ministry of the apostles and of the church
there in Jerusalem. Remember that our Lord had said,
that the gospel and his witness would start there in Jerusalem
in Judea then go into Samaria and into Galilee and then to
the far ends of the earth. Well in chapters 3 and 4 we read
of the ministry there in Jerusalem and then in Acts chapter 8 You're going to read of Philip
preaching to an Ethiopian eunuch. Then you come to chapter 9 and
you read about the conversion of Saul of Tarsus. I'm going
to come back to him in just a moment. But then you go to chapter 10
and chapter 11 and now Peter will take the gospel to Gentiles. And then you come to chapter
13 and you'll find Barnabas and Saul of Tarsus are in the church
that was in Antioch. And the Spirit of God said, separate
them for the work whereunto I have called them. So Barnabas and
Saul having been separated to this evangelistic ministry by
the Holy Spirit received the blessing of the church to go
and preach. So Barnabas and Saul, and at
the first, Barnabas' name was usually mentioned first, They
began to go and to preach in Asia Minor and also on the island
of Cyprus in the Mediterranean. Then they came back to Antioch
and gave a report and then Paul and Barnabas went separate ways.
Barnabas went on an evangelistic journey to one place and Paul
went to another and Paul made two more trips as an evangelist. We call it a missionary today,
but as an evangelist going forth and preaching, taking advantage
of every opportunity that was given to him to do so. Then,
he's arrested. Why? Preaching the gospel. And it was his own countrymen
that had him arrested. And so Paul is put on trial,
and then he said, I appeal to Caesar. And the judge said, then
to Caesar you shall go. So a time was set forth to send
Paul to Rome. He's sent there as What he's
not so much. in a paddy wagon and, you know,
not so much as being bound. He was a trusted prisoner, and
they took him to Rome and let him have his own house during
this imprisonment, at least, of which we're reading. In other
imprisonments, and there were more than one, but in other imprisonments,
he was put in terrible conditions, in dank and dark and damp, cells
under the ground or under the basement, probably. But Paul
here, they trust him. I mean, he's a Christian. What's
he going to do? Is he going to try to escape?
He didn't try to escape in Philippi when the Lord turned the prison
loose by means of an earthquake. So Paul had his own rented house. And this is the state in which
we find him in chapter 28. And I'm going to begin reading
in verse number 11. After three months we sailed
in an Alexandrian ship whose figurehead was the twin brothers. which had wintered at the island. And landing at Syracuse, we stayed
three days. From there, we circled round
and reached Regium. And after one day, the south
wind blew, and the next day we came to Perioli, where we found
brethren and were invited to stay with them seven days. And
so we went toward Rome. Notice that the brethren in Christ
treated even the soldiers comfortably with hospitality. And from there,
when the brethren heard about us, they came to meet us as far
as Apiphorum and Three Inns. When Paul saw them, he thanked
God and took courage. Now when we came to Rome, the
centurion delivered the prisoners to the captain of the guard,
but Paul was permitted to dwell by himself with the soldier who
guarded him. And it came to pass, after three
days, that Paul called the leaders of the Jews together. So when
they had come together, he said to them, Men and brethren, though
I have done nothing against our people or the customs of our
fathers, yet I was delivered as a prisoner from Jerusalem
into the hands of the Romans, who, when they had examined me,
wanted to let me go, because there was no cause for putting
me to death. But when the Jews spoke against
it, I was compelled to appeal to Caesar, not that I had anything
of which to accuse my nation for this reason. Therefore, I
have called for you to see and speak with you, because for the
hope of Israel, Jesus Christ, I am bound with this chain."
And they said, We neither received letters from Judea concerning
you, nor have any of the brethren who came reported or spoken any
evil of you. But we desire to hear from you
what you think. For concerning this sect, that
is, the followers of Jesus Christ, we know that it is spoken against
everywhere. So when they had appointed him
a day, here we come to our text, when they had appointed him a
day, many came to him at his lodging, to whom he explained
and solemnly testified of the kingdom of God, persuading them
concerning Jesus from both the law of Moses and the prophets
from morning till evening, And some were persuaded by the things
which were spoken, and some disbelieved. Now, note the point that here
is made in our text. A number of men, and these were
leaders of the Jews and perhaps leaders of the synagogue, they
came at Paul's invitation because he was confined to his house.
They came to hear what he had to say. And Paul preached Christ
and the gospel to them. And notice, some of them were
persuaded. That means they believed the
gospel. And others disbelieved. My friend, that happened every time Paul
preached the gospel. That happens every time the gospel
is preached. That will happen today as I preach
the gospel to you. You will either believe it Or
you will reject it. Now you may say, but preacher,
I believed it many years ago. I did too. But I tell you what,
I still believe it every time I hear it. Every time I hear of Jesus Christ
and of his salvation, I believe in him all over again. I believe
in him. I trust in him. I again let him
know, I believe in you. But some will reject this message
and bear in mind there is no middle ground in this matter
of Christ and the gospel. Jesus said, he who is not with
me is against me and he who does not gather with me scatters abroad. There is no middle ground between
Christ and the gospel. You either believe you reject. If you do not believe, you have
rejected. That is the case every time the
gospel is preached. My father was a faithful minister
of the gospel. The Lord saved him about a year
after I was born, and my father very shortly afterward began
preaching the gospel. And from the time that I could
hear and understand words, I heard my father preaching the gospel.
I heard it, I even became very religious, but for 27 years,
I rejected the gospel. Oh, I had a good dose of religion,
and I was very zealous in my religion. My wife will vouch
for that because the Lord saved me after we were married. The
Lord saved her. after we were married. We both
were professing Christians when the Lord saved us, but in reality,
we had not truly believed the gospel. Or we had received religion
and accepted it. But oh, there's that day when
the gospel became effectual and we believed it. And you know
what? We have been believing it every day since that day,
the first time that we truly believed it. I rejected the gospel
every time I heard it for 27 years. I can recall sitting in
a congregation and Even as a wee lad and as a young man, and I
could listen to my father, and I'd try to be, I'd try to think
about everything else I could do. And my mind was somewhere
else. I was rejecting the gospel. And
that is the way that it is every time the gospel is preached. You will either believe or reject
the gospel when it is preached. We're going to look at some instances. I'm not going to finish the message
today, but there are a number of examples that have passages
that I want to deal with. But we're going to be looking
at a few different groups of people. Sorcerers, idolaters,
philosophers, Judaists, and rulers. These were the sorts of people
who are highlighted in the ministry of Paul the Apostle. He preached
the gospel every time he had the opportunity to do so. And every time he preached it,
the gospel was either believed or it was rejected. Okay. Let's look at the first point.
You have the synopsis inside your bulletin, the one titled,
Will You Believe the Gospel? You can follow along with me
today in the outline. Number one, the gospel was either
rejected or believed by sorcerers. Now, consider that word, sorcerer. It, in the original language,
is the word magos, M-A-G-O-S. The plural is the word magi. We get our word magic and magician
from this. But notice something about this
one who is called a magos. It is the name given by the Babylonians,
Chaldeans, Medes, Persians, and others to the wise men, teachers,
priests, physicians, astrologers, seers, interpreters of dreams,
augurs, soothsayers, sorcerers, etc. Now, as you can see from
that list of persons who were called by this term, the Magi,
some were honorable and some were dishonorable. Honorable. Who were these honorable Magi? Do you remember when Jesus Christ
was born, and you read in Matthew's gospel, chapter two, that wise
men came from the east looking for him. They came from Babylonia
or Chaldea, somewhere over in that direction. But these men
were magi, and this is the word that is translated sorcerer.
But these were not sorcerers. They were highly educated men
and they had seen the star of Jesus and by some means had followed
that star and had come. They're called wise men. But
it's the same word that's translated sorcerer. But these were honorable
wise men. Then there were the diabolical
sorcerers. These were the ones that employed
evil spirits and the occult. And this is the term by which
that this word is used in the Acts of the Apostles. When you
read of these magi or the magi in the Acts of the Apostles,
they were sorcerers. They were, well, locally, obia. or those that practice some sort
of witchcraft or whatever. All right? Well, Paul preached
the gospel to these types of people, sorcerers. And his gospel was rejected by
some, but believed by others. Let's consider those who rejected
it. Locate, if you will, The book
of Acts chapter 13. Now we're gonna be giving some
examples from the Acts of the Apostles and the first one is
in Acts chapter 13. Locate that passage and let me
present to you a sorcerer who rejected the gospel of Jesus
Christ. Acts chapter 13. Verse four, I told you a while
ago about Barnabas and Saul being sent out by the Holy Spirit.
That was in verses one through three of chapter 13. Here is
the beginning of their ministry. The first people evidently to
whom they presented the gospel included a sorcerer. So they,
verse 4, being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to
Seleucia, and from there they sailed to Cyprus, an island in
the Mediterranean. And when they arrived in Salamis,
a major city in Cyprus, they preached the word of God in the
synagogues of the Jews. They had also John, that would
be John Mark, as their assistant. There were at least the three
or four of them. Barnabas and Saul, John Mark,
and perhaps Luke. Now when they had gone through
the island of Paphos, they found a certain sorcerer, a false prophet,
a Jew, whose name was Bar-Jesus, who was with the proconsul, Sergius
Paulus, an intelligent man. This man called for Barnabas
and Saul, and sought to hear the word of God." Now, a proconsul
means he was a very high-ranking Roman official. I recall, I think it was 1982, when I was
visiting in Guyana, there was a situation that arose
and I had to go to the embassy in Georgetown and I recall going up to the gate
And I said, I need to see my consulate. Yes, sir. I'm an American
citizen, OK? Yes, sir. I was going to speak
with one of the highest ranking Americans in Guyana. And he took care of the situation,
took care of it remarkably and very favorably. But this man
had influence in Guyana Well, here is the proconsul from Rome. He's a high-ranking Roman man
down here in this place, and he heard of Paul and Barnabas
preaching, and he said, Come here, I want to hear what you've
got to say. Verse 8, But Elymas the sorcerer, that's the same
one identified earlier, as bar Jesus. But Elimas the sorcerer,
for so his name is translated, withstood them, seeking to turn
the proconsul away from the faith. Then Saul, who also was called
Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him and said,
Oh, full of all deceit and all fraud, you son of the devil,
you enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease perverting
the straight ways of the Lord? And now indeed, The hand of the
Lord is upon you, and you shall be blind, not seeing the sun
for a time. And immediately a dark mist fell
on him, and he went around seeking someone to lead him by the hand. Sorcerer. That means he was doing
magic. In fact, read the description
that is given of him. Here in verse number 6 Acts chapter
13 verse 6 He was a certain Sorcerer he claimed to have magical powers
He was a false prophet He claimed to prophesy the future He was a Jew, that means he knew
better. He had been raised under the
law, had at least been instructed regarding it. He knew that the
law condemned sorcery. He knew better than to do what
he was doing. His name was Bar-Jesus. Now that word bar Jesus means
son of Jesus. We're not really sure who this
Jesus was whom he claimed to be the son of. Whether it was
Jesus Christ, we do not know. But I can tell you this, I can
tell you this. There are many sorcerers and
false prophets around today who claim to be sons of Jesus Christ. Bar Jesus, they would say. That's
my name. That's my name. And they're practicing
sorcery. You can watch them, if you have
a mind to, on the religious stations on your TV. You can watch them. Sorcerers. if you know what you're
looking for. And false prophets, they're there. They're flooding religious TV
stations. They're just like this fellow
was. And by the way, his name also was Elamis. That's translated
wise man. He called himself Bar-Jesus,
son of Jesus. And then he said, my name is
wise man. And you know what? He would not
believe the gospel that Paul preached. He withstood Paul. He tried to prevent Sergius Paulus
from hearing the gospel. When you get home today, take your bulletin home with
you, and before the day is over, read a certain article that is
in that bulletin by our dear friend Todd Nybert about the
time that he was witnessing to an atheist and a professing Christian was
agreeing with the atheist in arguing against Todd Nybert,
a faithful gospel preacher. Well, that professing Christian was
like a Lamas, perverting the straight ways of the Lord. That's
what Paul said to him. You are perverting the straight
ways of the Lord. And that's what this man did. He rejected the gospel. He claimed
to have magical powers. Now listen to me, listen to me
carefully. Paul the apostle did not claim to have magical powers. Paul did not claim to be one
of the magi. But he did something that even
this sorcerer could not do. Paul, lead of the spirit, you
son of the devil, you enemy of all righteous, The Lord's gonna
strike you blind. Folks, don't talk like that. Unless you know God's gonna fulfill
it. The Holy Spirit fulfilled it.
Be very careful, all sorcerers. They that are putting blindness
on the others will have blindness put on themselves. Here is a
lemus. The sorcerer, bar Jesus, now
he's begging, somebody lead me, somebody lead me, I'm blind.
Yes, he's blind, not only physically, but spiritually. When people reject the gospel,
they increase their blindness. All right, now there were some
who received the gospel. This was true in, Ephesus of
Asia Minor. Locate Acts chapter 19. Acts
chapter 19. We're going to read about certain sorcerers. who believed the gospel. Look
in verse 11. Now God worked unusual miracles
by the hand of Paul. Notice, Paul did not perform
the miracles. God did it through Paul's hands. So that even handkerchiefs or
aprons were brought from his body to the sick and the diseases
left them and the evil spirits went out of them. Have you heard of preachers who want to sell you an anointed
prayer cloth? One cent, one to you, right?
You and I have talked about it. Yeah. Anointed prayer cloth. And they... they take pieces of cloth and
they claim that they have anointed them with the Holy Spirit and
if you'll send them twenty dollars or whatever they'll send you
one okay they'll send you one and so you know you send them
the money and they send you their anointed prayer cloth and they
say just go around and Put it on those who are sick. Are you
sick? Here, lie down and put my prayer cloth there on your
head, and if you've got faith, it'll save you. It'll heal you,
all right? And people buy this stuff up.
And you ask these, you ask these televangelists, where'd you learn
that trick? Oh, that's what Saul of Tarsus
did. No, it ain't. No, it ain't. The point that is here being
made is that Saul, when he worked, he broke out into perspiration.
He'd pull out a cloth and he'd wipe the sweat off of his brow,
lay it down. And it was observed that if you
took that sweaty, perspiration-filled cloth to wipe someone who was
with a sickness, the sickness went away. That's not magic. Paul did not go around trying
to do acts of magic. Paul did not say, I have anointed
this with the Holy Spirit. The only thing it was anointed
with was his sweat. Alright? But here we read that
even handkerchiefs or aprons were brought from his body to
the sick and the diseases left them and the evil spirits went
out of them. Then some of the itinerant Jewish
exorcists They claimed to be casting out demons. They took
it upon themselves to call the name of the Lord Jesus over those
who had evil spirits, saying, We adjure you by the Jesus whom
Paul preaches. It may be that Paul had cast
demons out of someone. He could do that by the power
of God. It may be that someone saw him
do it and some crook, some dishonest, false prophet, heretical preacher
said, I can do that. I mean, you see them on TV doing
it, all right? And we adjure you by the Jesus
whom Paul preaches. Also, there were seven sons of
Seba, a Jewish chief priest who should have known, brother, who
did so. But then again, it should not surprise us in our day and
age that most people claiming to be able to cast demons out
are priests. And the evil spirit answered
and said, Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but who are you? I almost wish I could have been
there. I know who Jesus is, I know who Paul is, but I have no idea
who you are. Then the man in whom the evil
spirit was leaped on them, overpowered them, and prevailed over them
so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. Sorcerers, claiming to be exercising
demons. You see what happens? This became
known both to all Jews and Greeks dwelling in Ephesus. And fear
fell on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified. Now listen to me carefully. Listen
to me carefully. I want you to see this. And many
who had believed came. Believed what? The gospel. The gospel They came confessing
and telling their deeds. And also many of those who had
practiced magic brought their books together and burned them
in the sight of all. And they counted up the value
of them, and it totaled 50,000 pieces of silver. I have no idea
how much money that was, but one piece of silver was worth
a lot of money. 50,000? 50,000? Here were people who practiced
sorcery. They had books. It may have been more than books.
Might have been their statues, their talismans, their magical
tools, whatever it is they used, their idols, all right? Whatever
they used in practicing their witchcraft, they put it all in
a big bonfire, set it afire and burned it. You recall a few months ago,
I went to minister on the island of Haiti. The pastor with whom I went to minister has a website. On the front page
of his website is a picture of him. By the way, he's wearing
short and tie and he's dressed up. He's got a can in his hand
and he's pouring it. But the picture's not that clear.
You can't make out all the details. And so I asked him, I said, is
that gasoline in that can or kerosene? He said, yeah. What
are you doing? He said, well, let me tell you
the story. He was preaching the gospel and a certain lady who practiced
voodoo, heard him. She heard him preaching. She
was a priestess, voodoo religion, in her house. all these things,
you know, whatever, you know, the little dolls you stick pins
in and, you know, maybe some shrunken heads, perhaps, or,
you know, chicken heads, they slaughter the chickens. But,
you know, she had to have chicken blood for this and for her incantations
and all the tools of voodoo witchcraft. When she believed the gospel,
she told the pastor, Help her to get rid of them. So he went
to her house, gathered up everything she used in voodoo, put it in
the pile, and he says, I poured some fuel on top of it and I
lit it and got back and we just watched it all burn. That's what they did. Here in
the Bible. They brought it all together,
set a fire. All right. While I am in Haiti, my wife,
as you know, is an artist. And she has friends who also
are artists. And one of them found out that
I was in Haiti. and says, oh good, I hope you'll
bring back something of voodoo for us. And my wife makes a statement
such as, do you not know who he is? You want him to bring
me? Those are the things we burn. But the world's entranced with
him. When the Lord saves us, there probably are a bunch of
things in our house that ought to be thrown on the bonfire and
lit. Probably a lot. I hope, if you're a believer,
I hope there's nothing like that in your house. Nothing of false
religion. and sorcery, voodoo, obia, whatever,
all right? The curious arts. Hope none of
that is there, but if it is, take it out and burn it. Don't
give it to somebody. Don't take it to the consignment
shop, you know, whatever. Burn it! Get rid of it! They
did. And guess what happened then?
Verse 20. So the word of the Lord grew
mightily and prevailed. When you get the glory, you're
going to see some people who were sorcerers, doing all the magic stuff. But you're gonna see that some
of them are not in glory. Why? Some sorcerers have believed
the gospel and others have rejected. But notice this, God saves even
witches. God saves witches. God saves the priests and the
priestesses of sorcery if they believe the gospel. If they believe
the gospel. And I hope he'll do so today. Oh God our Father be pleased
we pray to bless the word that is now before us. May none of us be like bar Jesus
Elymas, the wise man, the sorcerer, perverting the straight ways
of the Lord and lying about the God he claimed to serve. But
I pray that we might be like these sorcerers who not only
believed in you but burned everything that had brought
dishonor to them before. And I pray that you bless our
worship of your son in whom we have believed. We thank you for
the faith by which we have believed in him. We pray it as your gospel
is preached today right here in this congregation that every
one of us will be found believing it. and none of us will be found
rejecting it. To your glory in Jesus' name
we humbly pray. Amen.