Turning your Bible again to your
bookmark, Acts chapter 18. Acts chapter 18. I'm taking the
title for the message from the words found in verse 13. Acts 18 verse 13. The accusation against the Apostle
Paul was that this fellow He persuades men to worship God. And he did. He persuaded men
to worship God, but to worship God in Christ. But their accusations
against Paul was that he was telling people to come to God
contrary to what was written in the Word of God. And we know
for sure their accusations were totally false. We worship God
according to the scriptures. That's the subject and title.
We worship God according to the scriptures. That is our aim and
goal and desire of our heart, that every time we meet together,
as believers that we worship the true and living God. As we
read in John chapter 4, to worship God in spirit and in truth. For
the Father seeketh such to worship him in spirit and in truth. There can be no true worship
No true worship of God apart from the truth of God being established
in the Lord Jesus Christ. How would a guilty sinner approach
God? How would a guilty sinner worship
God? only in the Lord Jesus Christ. For He said, I am the way, I
am the truth, I am the life. No one comes to the Father but
by and through me. It's only upon the ground of
His righteousness, His faithfulness, His blood atonement that we have
any access to the throne of grace. He said, come boldly to the throne
of grace through me. You need a mediator and a high
priest, an advocate, and that's exactly what we have in the Lord
Jesus Christ and Him crucified, risen, ascended, and seated in
glory. Now we learned last time from
our study in Acts 18 Acts 18, we learned last time the Lord
had commanded Paul by a special vision to remain in Corinth for
18 months and to preach the gospel, and he did so. He did so, willingly,
he did so. It says in the last part of verse
11 that he continued there, teaching the word of God. Teaching the
Word of God, that is how to approach God, how to worship God in the
Lord Jesus Christ. That was his lesson. That was
his message. Remember too that the Lord promised
Paul during those days that no one would hurt him or harm him. And the Lord used the preaching
of the gospel. The Lord was pleased to call
out his elect. through the preaching of the
gospel, and many were brought to faith in Christ. It says in
verse 8 there, Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue, was converted. He believed on the Lord. Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. And not
only did he believe, but his house was blessed to believe
the gospel. Many of the Corinthians, they
also hearing, believed. and were baptized. The Lord had
a people in that city. He said, I have much people in
this city, the last part of verse 11. So the Lord blessed the preaching
of the gospel, called out his elect through the word of the
Lord. It pleased God to do so. But
something else took place. Many heard, many believed, many
were baptized, and many rebelled against God. You remember back
up here in verse 5 and verse 6 where it says that Paul reasoned
with them every Sabbath day, reasoned with them out of the
Scripture, and Paul was pressed in the Spirit and testified,
verse 5, to the Jews that Jesus is the Christ, Many heard that
message, the sheep did, and they believed the message, but there's
something else that happened. Many of those Jews opposed God,
opposed themselves, blasphemed, and he shook his raiment against
them and said to them, your blood be on your own head, I'm clean,
I've told you the truth. from henceforth I'll go to the
Gentiles." And he said, they will hear, they will hear the
gospel. So what happened in Corinth?
The same thing that happened every place where Paul went and
preached. Revival and rebellion against God. Revival and rebellion
against God. They made insurrection against
Him, as it says there in verse 12. When Galileo was deputy of
Achaia, the Jews made insurrection with one accord. They were all
in agreement. One accord. One accord. Against Paul. They assaulted
him or attempted to assault him. Now, some believe and some believe
not, right? Who made them to differ? It's
God that makes the difference. It's not of him that willeth
or of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. If you're
a believer of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, it's because
God granted you faith and that God had mercy upon you. by his
precious, precious blood atonement made for us. We see in verse
12 and following, we see trouble again over the gospel there in
Corinth. There was many blessings, but
there was also trouble. Do you remember back in our study
in Acts chapter 14, when Paul was stoned at Lystra and drug
out of the city as a dead man? And then he got right back up
and went back into the city and preached the gospel again to
them. And then he writes this, we through much tribulation must
enter into the kingdom of God. And that's true of every believer.
And then in second Timothy three, when Paul sits on death row in
a Roman dungeon, waiting to be executed for the gospel, he said,
yea, all that will live godly in the Lord Jesus Christ shall
suffer persecution. The Lord Jesus Christ told his
disciples on the eve of his crucifixion, he said, if the world hates you,
remember that it hated me before it hated you. And then this scripture
that I often quote to you in John 16, the Lord said to his
disciples and us, These words have I spoken unto you, that
in me you may have peace. In this world you shall have
tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome." Now notice
who leads this opposition against the Apostle Paul. It was the
Jews. It was the Jews who led this
opposition against the Apostle Paul. Who were these people?
Self-righteous Jews. They hated the Lord Jesus Christ.
They nailed Him to a tree. They said, away with Him, we
have no king but Caesar. Their hatred reached right down
to the servant of the Lord who preached Christ and Him crucified. Reached right down to Him. Our
Lord said and warned His Apostles about those things, about those
Jews that would persecute the Lord's people. Turn back a few
pages to John chapter 15. John, excuse me, John chapter
5, that worked much better. No, excuse me, John 15. I'll
get it right here, just be patient. John chapter 15. John chapter
15. Verse 18, John 15, 18, if the
world hates you, you know it hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the
world would love his own, but because you're not of this world,
but I have chosen you out of this world, therefore the world
hateth you. Remember the word that I said unto you, the servant
of the Lord, the servant is not greater than his Lord. If they
persecuted me, they will persecute you. They've kept my saying,
they'll keep yours. But all these things will they
do unto you for my namesake, because they know not Him that
sent me. And then in John 16, look at
this. John 16 verse 1. These things
have I spoken unto you, that in me that you should not be
offended. They shall put you out of the
synagogue, give you the time cometh, that whosoever killeth
you will think they're doing God a favor. a service, and these
things will they do unto you, because they have not known the
Father, nor me." Now that's who these people, those national
Jews, He came unto His own, His own received Him not, they said,
away with Him. We have no need of Him. Our Lord described these people
who persecuted Paul, and it's the same religious crowd They
were going about to justify themselves by the deeds of the law, therefore
they hated the message of the way of grace. To be in opposition
to the message of God's servant and the minister of the gospel
of God is to be in rebellion against God himself. Paul was sent of God with God's
message and yet they railed on him and hated him. Why did they
do that? Because by nature, man hates
the truth that God is God and that we are guilty sinners. With one accord, they came and
made insurrection against Paul and brought him to the civil
judge and accused him of wickedness. You see, to persecute the Lord's
people is to persecute the Lord. Remember Saul of Tarsus, the
one who hated the Lord Jesus Christ, the proud Pharisee? When
he met the Lord, remember what the Lord said to him? Why are
you persecuting me? You see, to persecute a believer
is to persecute the Lord. These people spake against Paul,
but in essence, their rebellion and hatred was against God. And
that's man's problem by nature. He is a rebel against God who
must be broken. And only God can break the heart.
He's nigh them of a broken heart, save as such as be of a contrite
spirit. And here's what they accused
Paul of in verse 13. They said, this fellow, now you
know they weren't speaking kindly of him, Notice that word fellow
has been added. You can just put a blank in there
and add whatever mean adjective you can think of. They hated
Paul. They hated his message. This
wicked man, this wicked man persuades men to worship God contrary to
our traditions, the Jewish traditions. That's what they're saying. What
they accused Paul of was absolutely false. He did exactly the opposite. He pointed sinners to approach
God in a way that God has established. The whole Lamb of God that taketh
away the sin of the world, determined to preach Christ, Christ, Christ,
and Him crucified alone, alone. Over there in Matthew 12, I won't
turn and read it, but you know they said the same thing of the
Lord Jesus Christ. When He healed a certain man,
they said, this fellow, blasphemous, he's an evil man, away with him. They say the same thing today
about God's servants. 18 months, Paul preached the
gospel to them. It says there in the last part
of verse 11, teaching the word of the Lord. What does the word
of the Lord teach? The whole message of scripture
is to approach God in the merit righteousness of the Lord Jesus
Christ upon the shedding of His blood to enable God to be just
and justify the ungodly. We only approach and worship
God through the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what Paul preached. We
go back to Genesis 1, all the way through the Word of God.
We find sinners approaching God through a blood sacrifice. That blood sacrifice all through
the Old Testament points to the Lord Jesus Christ and Him crucified
for us. This is what Paul preached to
the people. He wasn't preaching contrary to the Word of the Lord. You remember back in chapter
13, turn over there. Chapter 13, we have Paul's first gospel message
that he preaches on his first missionary journey. Acts 13,
we'll pick up at verse 26. Men and brethren, children of
the stock of Abraham, whosoever among you feareth God, to you
is the word of this salvation sent. For they that dwell in
Jerusalem and their rulers, because they knew him not, nor yet the
voices of the prophets which are read every sabbath day, they
have fulfilled them in condemning him. Verse 28, Though they found
no cause of death in him, yet desired they Pilate, he should
be slain. And when they had fulfilled all
that was written of him, written of him, the word of God, they
took him down from a tree, laid him in a sepulcher, but God raised
him from the dead. He was seen of many, many days. many witnesses in Galilee and
Jerusalem. And we declare unto you, glad
tidings, how that the promise which was made to the fathers,
God hath fulfilled them. Now look down to verse 38, Acts
13. Be it known unto you therefore,
men and brethren, that through this man is preached to you forgiveness
of sins, By him all that believe are justified from all things,
which you could not be justified by the law of Moses. So Paul,
when he preached the gospel to them, took the word of God, the
written word of God that they had in that day, the law of God,
the scriptures of God, and he preached unto them, Jesus Christ
is the fulfillment of the smitten rock, the brazen serpent, the
Passover lamb. Christ is the fulfillment of
every type and picture. You remember our Lord said, we
read it earlier, John 5, search the Scriptures, in them you think
you have eternal life? They are they that testify of
Me. All Scripture. You see, the point
I'm making is this, you remember from our lesson, 1 Corinthians
15, Christ, how that Christ died for our sins, according to the
Scriptures, how that he was buried the third day and raised again
according to the Scriptures. Every promise, prophecy, and
type recorded in the Scriptures, Old Testament Scriptures, the
Prophets, and the Psalms are concerning the Messiah, the Lord
Jesus Christ, and they all have their fulfillment in Him. The
Old Testament contained the New Testament in picture-type prophecy,
and the New Testament is the Old Testament fully and plainly
revealed in the Lord Jesus Christ. Old Testament and New, both have
one message, one message. Christ is the way to worship
God. The only way we can approach God is through the Lord Jesus
Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ came to
save us by honoring honoring the law of God for us. He said, I didn't come to destroy
the law and prophets. I came to honor the law and the
prophet. Every precept of the law, he
honored it. Every penalty of that law, he
honored it for us. That's how we approach God. That's
how we worship God. In Christ, fulfilling the scriptures
for us. Honoring the law of God for us.
He redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse
for us. Now, here we have Paul before
this judge, who could say, take him out and kill him. He could
say that. Or he could say, take him and tie him to a post and
whip him. He could have said that. But look what happens. Notice how the Lord protects
him. He said, no man's going to set
hurt on you. Is God good to his word? Absolutely. And when Paul
was about to open his mouth, God didn't even let him get a
word out to defend himself. Galileo said to the Jews, if
for a matter of wrong or wicked lewdness you Jews reason, would
that I would bear with you. But if it be a question of words
and names, that is according to your Old Testament law, of
your own law, you look to it. You take care of the matter.
He said, I'm not going to get involved in religious matters. If it's a civil matter, yeah,
I'll take care of it. If it's a charge against Rome,
I'll take care of it. But if it's a charge against
what you say, then you take care of it. Look what he does. He
drove them out of there. He put them out. He put them
out then, verse 17, now this is interesting, then all the
Greeks, now these have to be unbelievers, I would think. I don't think this is referring
to believing Gentiles, but unbelieving Greeks who were just fed up with
the Jews, fed up with their religion, and fed up with all these things.
They took this man Sosthenes, who was the chief ruler of the
synagogue, and he was probably the ringleader. And they beat him before the
judgment seat. He couldn't get out of there
quick enough. They got a hold of him, and they said, we're
just going to whip on you. And Galileo cared for none of those
things. So the one who accused the Apostle
Paul, he was the one that ended up being beaten, being persecuted. Paul didn't even utter a word. But now here's an interesting
note on Sostenes verse 17. Most think, at this time, that
Sosthenes was the ringleader in this. But later, this man
was converted by the marvelous, sovereign grace of God. Maybe
that beating did him a little good. Maybe the Lord used that
to make him consider what Paul was really preaching. Sostenes
was later on brought to faith in Christ. Now, how do we know
that? Remember last week we read 1
Corinthians 1, verse 1? And here's what that says. Paul
called an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God and Sostenes,
our brother, unto the church of God which is at Corinth."
Now, isn't that amazing? Isn't that amazing grace? And
here's the point. There is no sinner that is beyond
the reach of the mighty hand of God to break and convert. Just think of Saul of Tarsus.
I mean, that man was a hardened rebel, persecuting believers,
yet God broke him. This man, Sophonis, One day he
stood in complete opposition to what Paul preached. Now he's
called a brother in the Lord. There's no sinner beyond the
reach of the mighty hand of God. If God saved me, he can save
anyone. His hand is not shortened, Isaiah
59. Behold, the Lord's hand is not
shortened, that it cannot save his ear. is not heavy, that he
cannot hear. You see, he's able to save to
the uttermost all that come to God by him. Now you remember
the story I told you before about those two preachers that lived
back in the 1700s. All of you know the song Amazing
Grace, how sweet to sound. John Newton wrote that song somewhere
around 1750. He died in 1805, I believe he
died. But John Newton and William Jay were two preachers of the
gospel. And one day William Jay came
over to John Newton's house. He said, Brother Newton, have
you heard about so-and-so down in Bath County, that notorious,
wicked, rebellious man? God saved him by his grace. And William Jay said, William
Jay said, I'll never despair of God saving anyone since he
saved that wicked man. And John Newton said, Brother
Jay, I've never despaired of God's grace saving anyone since
he saved me. Amazing grace, Newton wrote,
how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was
blind, but now I'm found. I once was blind, I once was
lost, now I'm found. I was blind, blind, now I see. You see, the truth of the matter
is the Lord Jesus Christ didn't come to call good folks. He came
to call sinners to repentance. This is a faithful saying and
worthy of all acceptation. The Lord Jesus Christ came to
save sinners. And Paul, O son of Tarsus, the
apostle Paul, same man, he said, I'm the chief one. Oh, wretched
man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death? I
thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Sostenee was converted
by the grace of God and was made a brother in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's experience of grace. That's
how God saves sinners, by his grace. Now, in the rest of this
chapter, I'll make a few points here and we'll be done. After
Paul had served God's purpose and God's time there in Corinth,
after he tarried there a good while, We know 18 months he took
his leave of the brethren and sailed then into Syria, and with
him he took this couple, Priscilla and Aquila. We're going to run
into them again in the last part of this chapter. And Paul here,
he took some kind of a vow, having shaved his head in Sancreia,
that was a port city next to Corinth, And then they sailed on to Ephesus. Now, there's been much speculation
of what Paul did here. Paul takes a vow, and the word
just simply means a pledge, upon himself. And I've read all the
different writers, and all of them have different thoughts.
But I know this for sure, Paul is not trying to mix in the law
of Moses and the gospel at the same time. He's not telling sinners
how to approach God and then himself taking on himself this
Jewish vow to try to present himself before God as being a
righteous man. We know that's just not so. But
rather I think this, I think this is what he's doing. He's
publicly demonstrating that he is committed unto the will and
purpose of God, and he does so with this Jewish tradition about
shaving the head. He makes a public statement of
thanksgiving and gratitude and commitment to the Lord Jesus
Christ. I don't think we can make any
more of that. We can see that this is going to happen again
when we get over to Acts chapter 21. when Paul does something
similar, and we'll look at it there. But I had to make mention
of that. Look at verse 19. Now he came
to Ephesus and left them there, but he himself, that is, he left
them, that is Aquila and Priscilla, He left them in a city, and he
went into the synagogue, and he reasoned with the Jews. When Paul came to this city,
he went into the assembly of the Jews, and he does as he did
before. He preached the gospel unto them. If you look back in chapter 17,
Verse 2 and 3 of Acts 17, Paul, as his manner was, went in unto
them, and three Sabbath days reasoned with them out of the
Scripture, opening and alleging that Christ must have suffered,
risen again from the dead, and that this Jesus whom I preach
unto you, He is the Christ. That was his message. The same
message he preached over and over and over again, how that
Christ died for our sins, according to the Word of God. Verse 20
of Acts 18, And when they desired him to tarry long time with them,
he consented not. Now we know that Paul spent some
time here at Ephesus. This is his first visit here.
But we know that he came back later He said, if God will, down
in verse 21, because right across the page, in chapter 19, verse
10, this continued by the space of two years, so that all which
dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews
and Greeks. Paul spent two years with those
brethren there in Ephesus. when he came back to them and
we know that he preached the same gospel message to them.
His heart was knit together with those people there in Ephesus. We have the letter that he writes
to them in Ephesians chapter 1 through 6. In closing, In closing,
I want to make this observation in verse 21. Paul left them there
because he bid them farewell, saying, I must by all means,
verse 21, Acts 18, all means keep this feast that cometh in
Jerusalem, but I will return again unto you if God will. And he sailed from Ephesus. And
when he had landed in Caesarea, and gone up." That means he went
up to Jerusalem, saluted the church, he went down to Antioch,
and after he spent some time there, he departed and went over
all the country of Galatia, Phrygia. This is the beginning of his
third journey, strengthening all the disciples. Now here's
the point that I want to make. Paul said goodbye for a while,
because he was committed to be in Jerusalem at the time of the
feast. You see that in verse 21? Now
this feast here was a Passover feast, and all the Jewish people
that were of the Jewish religion, all them at the time of Passover,
they all came there to observe that special Jewish feast, to
observe what the Lord did in Egypt those many years ago. You
remember they put the blood on the door? on the ladle and the
post. And God said, when I see the
blood, I will pass over you. He said, put the blood on the
door, go inside and sit down. And God said, when I see the
blood, I'll pass over you. Now, I know that Paul didn't
go to Jerusalem to observe the Passover. He went there to Jerusalem
to preach Christ is our Passover. That's what he was doing. Christ,
our Passover, we studied in 1 Corinthians 5, verse 7, for even Christ,
our Passover, is sacrificed for us. He took that Passover feast. And he preached to them the blood
of the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world, the
Lord Jesus Christ. I know that's exactly what he
did. You see, it's only the blood atonement of Christ that makes
full satisfaction for our sin. Christ is our Passover. Christ
is our sacrifice for our sin. God made him to be sin for us,
who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of
God in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why he went to Jerusalem.
That's what he's doing at the Passover, an opportunity to preach
the gospel to those Jews. They were religious, but he said
they were ignorant and lost. What does an ignorant, lost man
need? The truth. The truth will set you free.
He preached to them the Lord Jesus Christ, the fulfillment
of that Passover lamb. He said, herein is love, not
that we love God, but that he loved us and that he sent his
son to be the sacrifice for our sin. You see, it's his blood.
The blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, that cleanses us from all
our sin. That's the only way this sinner
can approach a holy God. How can this sinner approach
a holy God? only in Christ my Mediator, only
in Christ my Great High Priest, who has the perfect remedy for
my sin, His blood. He put away sin by the sacrifice
of Himself. We are redeemed with the precious
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's how we're redeemed, and
that's how we worship God. That's how we come to God, through
our Passover Lamb, who sacrificed for us. You see, He obtained
for us eternal redemption with His own blood. He said their
sin and their iniquity will I remember no more. That's how prevailing
the blood atonement of Christ is. We have no sin in Him because
He put it away. There is therefore now no condemnation
to those who are in the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, may God burn
that in our heart, in our soul. How can we worship God? How can
we come to God? Well, He's holy. No doubt about
that. I'm sinful. No doubt about that. How can we be reconciled? Only
in the Lord Jesus Christ. He's reconciled us unto God by
the sacrifice of Himself. That's it. We'll pick up there
next time and finish that chapter, Lord willing.