This is showing a pattern that we should be following today actually of having men in
the church that are preaching and teaching God's Word and that are separated personally,
they're separated spiritually, that can go out and preach the Gospel in other cities
also.
Now, the church begets the church, okay?
All the way back to Genesis chapter 1, we see that everything brings forth after its
own time.
And so, one church should generate other churches.
You know, it started out in the Bible with the church in Jerusalem and then that church
multiplied by sending people out to these different places.
Now, in chapter 13 there, we see the church in Antioch, this had become a main hub of
the Gospel, this had become really a thriving church because if you remember back in chapter
11, they went there, they reached a ton of the Gentiles, a whole bunch of people got
saved, the church was really growing and thriving with Paul and Barnabas preaching to them.
Well, they've got these other guys here too, they've got now Paul, Barnabas, they've got
Simeon that was called Niger, they've got Lucius of Cyrena, Manan, these are five guys
that are doing a lot of preaching, a lot of teaching and so God says, separate unto me
Paul and Barnabas for the work that I've called them and he's going to pull them out and send
them to go preach in other cities.
Now, that's what ought to be happening at our church and really everybody believing
church.
Now, first of all, if someone's going to go out and start a church, they should be sent
out of a local church, they shouldn't just be totally out of church and you'll run into
people like this, they're not going to church anywhere, okay?
And a lot of times they'll say, well, I can't find a good church in my area, you know, and
I understand that, that it can be tough to find a good church in certain areas, but they
shouldn't just say, well, I can't find a good church, so I'm just going to start a church
and just start pastoring.
No, if they're in an area where there's no good church, then they need to get themselves
to an area where there is a good church or at least find a church that they can line
up with in some way where they can get the training and get the experience of preaching
and teaching God's word and then be sent out of that local church, have the church, you
know, basically pray for them and send them out, they should go out with that church's
blessing, not just say, well, there's no church, so I'm just going to take it upon myself to
start one, you know, and I can understand the mentality, but still biblically, the church
should beget the church and so really if someone wants to start a church, then they
should get in a Bible-believing church that they want to be like and then have that church
teach them and train them and they can get the experience there so that they can be sent
out to go start a church somewhere else in another city.
But you see, the key here is that these guys, before they go out and do it somewhere else,
notice that they were already found faithful where they were.
In chapter 13 verse 1, it says, there were in the church, that was at Antioch, certain
prophets and teachers, and he lists these different people, and it says, as they ministered
to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, separate me, Barnabas and Saul, for the work
where unto I have called them.
So these are guys that are already prophets, they're already preaching, they're already
teaching, they're praying, they're fasting, and they're separated, okay?
He said, separate unto me Paul and Barnabas.
Now the word separate is an important word, and it's similar to the word sanctify or make
it holy, to set it apart.
The Bible says in the book of Psalms, the Lord has set apart him that is godly for himself.
Being set apart, being sanctified, being godly, this is what God expects of anyone who's going
to preach the word of God, okay?
The Bible says, take heed unto thyself and unto the doctrine.
Continue in them, for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself and them that hear thee.
The first thing that you have to do in order to be a preacher is you have to yourself live
by God's word and follow God's word and be separated from this world, different than
the world around us, living a godly and sanctified life.
But then you also need to be working in your local church, because if you're going to go
out and start a church somewhere, you need to be doing the work right here in the church
that you're in today.
Now there are so many people today who want to be a missionary in some foreign country,
but yet here they are in the United States, the fields are white unto harvest, and you
don't see them going out there, knocking the doors and preaching the gospel, and that tells
me that they're not going to do it when they get to that other country either.
If you're not going to do it here, you're not going to do it there, because the location
doesn't matter.
I mean, you are you, you are saved, you have the Holy Spirit living inside you, you have
the Bible, and you're surrounded by unsaved people, okay?
You don't have to raise all this money and go to some other place.
Why don't you just do it right where you are and win souls right here?
Because you're not a soul winner, that's why, and that's the problem.
Not the location, not the geography, and so you need to make sure that you don't always
just think about these great things you're going to do for God in the future and say,
wait a minute, I'm going to do it right now in the church that I'm in right now.
You see, if you're going to start a church someday, you're going to need to now be able
to win people to Christ and get those people to come to church, you know, and be able to
take someone under your wing and be able to train them and teach them.
And there are people in our church right now that you can take under your wing and teach
and train things and take them soul winning and teach them things out of the Bible.
There are a lot of opportunities right where you are, okay, and if you're not going to
take those kind of opportunities, you're never going to be able to be used of God greatly
in some other place in the future if you're not faithful today.
You see, long before I ever started the church, I was a church member, and I was out soul
winning, I was bringing people to church, I was getting people baptized, I was teaching
young people, soul winning, I was training others, and so that's what you've got to do.
You've got to take the opportunities that God gives you before you just expect to be
sent out to this great work that God sent Paul and Barnabas to do.
You know, they earned the right to do that, they basically paid their dues to get to that
point.
It says in verse 4, so they, being set forth by the Holy Ghost, departed unto Seleucia,
and from thence they sailed to Cyprus, and when they were at Salamis, they preached the
word of God in the synagogues of the Jews, and they had also John to their minister.
That says John Mark, we're going to see more about him later.
But basically, John Mark is their minister, he's their servant, okay?
That's what the word minister means, just like Jesus said that the Son of Man has not
come to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many.
So this man John Mark, you know, before he became a great man of God in the future, he
needed to learn from somebody else and serve them for a while.
That's why John was serving with Paul and Barnabas, who were two of the greatest apostles
and two great men of God at that time.
He was serving them and helping them, and a little bit later, he failed.
You know, he quit, he went home early, and that's why Paul gets really angry.
But see, later on, in the book of 2 Timothy chapter 4, he says, take Mark and bring him
with you, for he is profitable to me for the ministry, and he went on later to write the
gospel according to Mark.
So he was somebody who was greatly used by God, but he started out being a servant, being
a minister, and that's what he's doing here where we see him with Paul and Barnabas.
Well, it says in verse 6, and when they had gone through the isle of the papa, they found
a certain sorcerer, a false prophet, a Jew whose name was Bar-Jesus, which was with the
deputy of the country, Sergius Paulus, a prudent man, who called for Barnabas and Saul and
desired to hear the word of God.
But Alimas the sorcerer, for so is his name by interpretation, what stood them is seeking
to turn away the deputy from the faith.
Then Saul, who is also called Paul, filled with the Holy Ghost, set his eyes on him and
said, O full of all subtlety and all mischief, thou child of the devil, thou enemy of all
righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord?
And we'll finish that in a second.
Basically, Paul comes to this city and he's preaching the gospel where there's a man in
the city who's kind of an important man.
He's the deputy of the country, so he's a political leader, Sergius Paulus, and he calls
for Barnabas and Saul.
He hears that they're in town and they have a reputation of doing a lot of preaching,
and so he said, well, I want to hear what they have to say.
So he calls them in, but there's a man that's trying to stop this from taking place.
He's trying to stop them from hearing the gospel, and that's this man Eilimus, the sorcerer
of our Jesus, depending on which language you look at that in.
And basically Paul just turns to this man and very sharply rebukes him and says to him
in verse 10, O full of all subtlety and all mischief, thou child of the devil, thou enemy
of all righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord?
And now behold, the hand of the Lord is upon thee, and thou shalt be blind, not seeing
the sun for a season.
And immediately there fell on him a mist and a darkness, and he went about seeking some
to lead him by the hand.
Keep your finger there.
Go over to Galatians chapter one, Galatians chapter number one.
So this man was a false prophet, the Bible says, and he was also a sorcerer, is what
the Bible also called him, and he's trying to stop people from hearing the gospel.
He's trying to stop soul winning from going forward in that chapter.
But look in Galatians, what it says in verse number six, it says, I marvel, Galatians 1
6, I marvel that you're so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ
unto another gospel.
But watch this, which is not another, but there be some that troubled you and would
pervert the gospel of Christ.
So you see, more often than not, what the devil uses is he doesn't have his own gospel.
This is a totally separate message that he made up, his own satanic gospel.
No, what he does is he takes the true gospel of Jesus Christ and he perverts it.
The word perverted means twisted, okay, corrupted, twisted, changed.
And so he basically takes the truth and just twists it and changes it.
And then if you take the truth and twist it, obviously it becomes a complete lie, okay.
And so he's saying that there are those that pervert the gospel of Christ, look at verse
eight, but though we are an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that
which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.
So that's a pretty strong word right there.
He says that he needs to be accursed if someone's preaching a twisted or perverted or corrupted
form of the gospel.
Go back to Acts chapter 13.
So in Acts chapter 13, we see Paul being very harsh with this guy because he is what the
Bible calls a child of the devil, okay.
Now, I've heard a lot of preachers and people say that every person who's not saved is a
child of the devil.
I don't believe that at all, okay, because when you become saved, you become a child
of God.
And we always make that very clear that once you're a child of God, you're always going
to be God's child.
You know, it's sort of like my son will always be my son.
You know, even if he disobeys me, even if he does everything that I taught him not to
do, he's still my son because he was born into my family and that is something that
will never change, okay.
He's my son.
I'm his dad.
Well, just as when a person becomes a child of God, that's a permanent condition.
You know, there are some people who have become a child of the devil, according to the Bible.
And the Bible talks about those people in the book of Jude in the context of false prophets,
false teachers.
Go to Jude, if you would, I'll show you that.
And he says that these men have crept in unawares.
Now, you're always going to find this consistent throughout the Bible.
Look up every time it talks about the children of the devil, okay.
It's always people who are preaching a false twisted gospel, who are preaching lies, who
are trying to deceive people.
It's not just your average unsaved person who is deceived.
Now, remember the apostle Paul, he had preached false doctrine in the past.
But he said, I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly and unbelief.
He wasn't trying to do wrong.
He thought he was doing the right thing.
He wasn't an evil person just out to twist the gospel or twist the Bible for financial
gain or for his own pride or whatever reason.
He was just honestly doing what he thought was right, but he was sincerely wrong, okay.
But that's why he obtained mercy.
But there are others who have purposely crept in, who purposely go about to sow seeds of
false doctrine and lies and heresy.
These people are the children of the devil and the Bible is always consistent with that.
Look at the book of Jude.
The Bible says in Jude, verse number four, for there are certain men crept in unawares
who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God
into lasciviousness.
Now notice, they're taking something that's true, right, and then they're changing it
into something else.
You see that?
They're turning the grace of God into lasciviousness.
So they're taking true Bible doctrine and twisting it into something that it's not,
and denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.
He talks about it in verse five that they are unbelievers.
And then if you go down a little bit, I'm not going to read the whole chapter for sake
of time, but he's describing these people over and over again.
Look at verse 12.
These are spots in your feasts of charity when they feast with you, feeding themselves
without fear.
Clouds they are without water, carried about of winds, trees whose fruit withereth, without
fruit, look at this, twice dead, plucked up by the roots, raging waves of the sea foaming
out their own shame, wandering stars to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever.
So they're trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots.
Okay?
Now, we don't have to turn there, but I read it, I believe, on Sunday night, Matthew chapter
13.
It talks about the parable of the tares.
He said, he that sows the good seed is the son of man.
Well, the good seed represents the children of God, or the wheat that grows up is the
children of God.
The children of the kingdom are the wheat.
And he said, the tares are the children of the wicked one.
Now when did the tares appear?
What were the tares?
Well, the tares appeared, the Bible says, but when the blade sprung up and brought forth
fruit, then appeared the tares also.
At that time, the tares sprung up, and the tares were a counterfeit that looked like
the wheat.
And the householder tells the servants, don't try to pull up the tares, because he said,
I'm afraid you're accidentally going to pull up the wheat, because they look so much alike.
So he said, let both grow together until the harvest.
The Bible says a few verses later that the tares there are the children of the wicked
one.
So according to Matthew 13, the children of the wicked one are those who would basically
infiltrate and try to look like true Christians, try to look like a Bible preacher, try to
look like a real soul winner, but they are an imposter, they're a counterfeit.
And that's what the tares are.
And they look right, but they don't bring forth any fruit.
And notice, when do they show up?
When fruit is brought forth.
You know, they're going to infiltrate a place that's winning a lot of souls, that's getting
a lot of people saved.
That's where they're going to want to creep in.
And their goal is to hinder the work of God, to hinder soul winning.
Now, that's why the Bible has such harsh words for them, okay?
Now I run into people all the time who don't believe right, who don't believe the truth.
And I don't give them harsh words.
You know, if I knock on somebody's door, and they're not saved, and they don't want to
hear the God, I just say, hey, have a good day.
You know, I mean, it's not their fault, they're blinded, they're deceived.
You want to reach those people, you want them to get saved, hey, they didn't get saved today,
maybe they'll get saved tomorrow.
We run into all kinds of people who are not saved, and we're not rude to them, we're nice
to them, we love them, we want them to be saved.
But you know, every once in a while, you'll run into just these total false prophets.
You know, these kind of people who are just out to destroy everything that's right, out
to destroy everything that is the truth, and you'll run into people where you're trying
to give somebody the Gospel, and they just want to get in there and just stop you from
preaching the Gospel.
That's exactly what happened in Acts chapter 13.
Paul is trying to give this guy the Gospel.
He's really interested.
Well, this other guy says, well, I'm going to stop this.
And this guy, Elimus, gets in there and just tries to confuse everything, is just blowing
off his mouth at Paul and everything, and that's why Paul gets so angry, because this
guy is a false prophet, child of the devil, trying to twist the Gospel, because he said
that he perverted the right ways of the Lord.
And this guy gets a really harsh rebuke from the mouth of Paul.
Look at Titus chapter number 1.
It says in Titus 1, verse 10, for there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers.
Notice, deceivers.
There are many deceivers, especially they of the circumcision, whose mouths must be
stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not.
Why?
For filthy lucre's sake.
One of themselves, even a prophet of their own, said, the Christians are always liars,
evil beasts, slow bellies.
This witness is true, wherefore rebuke them sharply that they may be sound in faith, not
giving heed to Jewish fables and commandments of men that turn from the truth.
Now, when he says, rebuke them sharply that they may be sound in the faith, I think he's
talking about the people that they're subverting would get sound in the faith, if they'll rebuke
these false prophets and false teachers.
Because he says, these false prophets, he says they're creeping in and they're teaching
things which they ought not for filthy lucre's sake.
It's not that they're just mistaken.
You see the difference?
It's not that they just, well, I didn't learn that yet.
I'm a little mixed up.
No.
They're saying, I'm going to teach false doctrine for the sake of me getting paid.
You know, I'm going to make more money.
And there are all kinds of preachers all across America today that are preaching false doctrine
because of money, because of filthy lucre.
They want to drive a fancy car.
They want to have a fancy building.
And look, it's not hard to figure out the formula for building a giant, fast-growing
church.
It's not hard to figure it out.
You know, you bring in the NIV, you bring in a rock concert, you don't preach anything
controversial, you tell everybody that everything goes and that there's, you know, everything's
fine and never talk about hell and don't rip on specific sins.
I mean, it's not really that hard to figure out.
And you see these churches spring up overnight, Adventure Church, you know, community fun
Baptist, you know, fun center Baptist.
And they preach lies because they know that that is what is going to attract the biggest
crowd of mindless people that will just come and rock out and jam for Jesus with them,
and they're doing it for money.
That's not somebody who's just misguided.
That's not an accident.
And those people are damned, my friend, for standing up and knowingly preaching lies,
okay, because of the fact that they want financial success in this world.
Nothing could be more wicked than to twist the message of the Bible for money.
I mean, how corrupt could you be?
And that's who he said needs to be rebuked sharply.
And if you look at who Jesus rebuked sharply, he rebuked the Pharisees because they were
false teachers, they knew that they were liars, and they preached everything because they
loved the praise of men, they loved the glory of men, they loved the money and the offerings
that they got.
He preached the hardest against those kind of people.
You know, other sins were definitely condemned.
I mean, he definitely condemned adultery, he definitely condemned everything else, but
the people that he really railed on were the false prophets, the false teachers, the people
who were knowingly preaching lies.
And so that's why this guy gets chewed out like that in Acts chapter 13, it says in verse
11, and now behold the hand of the Lord is upon thee, and thou shalt be blind, not seeing
the sun for a season.
And immediately there have thaw on him a mist and a darkness and he went about seeking some
to lead him by the hand.
So this guy got cursed with blindness right there by the apostle Paul.
Now, it's interesting because this is where he starts being called Paul.
And to be honest with you, I have no idea why, but all throughout the book of Acts,
he's always called Saul.
And then all of a sudden in verse 9, it just says, then Saul, who also is called Paul,
and then from then on it just never calls him Saul again, it just only calls him Paul.
So I don't know why sometimes God changes people's names or calls people by a certain
name, but for some reason, you know, I mean, it's not really that different, you know,
it's just one letter, it goes from Saul to Paul, I'm not really sure why.
If you have any idea why, then see me after the service and explain it to me, because
I don't know why.
But everywhere else in the Bible from here on out, he's going to be referred to by nothing
except for Paul.
So that's where the switch takes place.
I'm not sure why.
But it says in verse number 12, then the deputy, when he saw what was done, believed, being
astonished at the doctrine of the Lord.
Now, you'd think he'd be astonished at this guy who was struck with blindness, but really
the Bible says he was astonished at the doctrine, he was astonished at the word that he heard,
being preached by Paul.
Isn't that interesting?
And it's funny because when Jesus did a bunch of miracles, I remember the same type of thing
happened where the people came to him and they were marveling at all his miracles and
the disciples really marveling at some of the miracles that Jesus had done, and he answered
and said to them, let these words sing down into your ears.
You know, he put the emphasis on God's word all the time.
And you know, that was an amazing miracle, but what got this guy saved was the doctrine.
That's what he was astonished at, was the doctrine.
But it says in verse number 13, now when Paul and his company loosed from Paphos, they came
to Perga in Paphilia and John, departing from them, returned to Jerusalem.
This is where John, Mark basically bails out and heads back to Jerusalem.
But when they departed from Perga, they came to Antioch in Pisidia and went into the synagogue
on the Sabbath day and sat down.
Now, it's really obvious from this chapter, but just in case you don't pick it up, this
is a different Antioch.
This Antioch in Pisidia is different than the other Antioch.
Because if you remember, the other Antioch is where they actually came out of.
There was already a well-established church there.
They'd been there for years.
But now they're in a different Antioch in Pisidia, kind of like there's an Antioch in California.
I mean, they're all different Antiochs.
They're all different.
You know, there's a Glendale, Arizona, Glendale, California, Glendale, Illinois.
And so this is a different Antioch, just in case you didn't pick that up.
And so it says they went into Antioch in Pisidia and went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day
and sat down.
And after the reading of the law and the prophets, the rulers of the synagogue said unto them,
saying, Amen and brethren, if ye have any word of exhortation for the people, say on.
Then Paul stood up, and beckoning with his hands, said, Men of Israel, and ye that fear
God, give audience.
The God of this people of Israel chose our fathers, and exalted the people when they
dwelt as strangers in the land of Egypt, and with a high-arm brought he them out of it.
Now, I'm not going to read all this for the sake of time, just because we already read
it a little bit earlier.
But he basically just preaches through a little bit of Old Testament history.
He gets to verse number 24, when John had first preached before his coming, talking
about Jesus Christ, the baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel.
And as John fulfilled his course, he said, Whom think ye that I am?
I am not he, but behold, there cometh one after me, whose shoes of his feet I am not
ready to loose.
Men and brethren, children of the stock of Abraham, and whosoever among you fearth God,
to you is the word of this salvation sent.
Now, when he says that John preached the baptism of repentance, keep your finger there.
Go to Acts 19.
Acts chapter 19, you're in chapter 13.
See, there's a false doctrine today that we're always faced with, where people try to say
that in order to be saved, you have to repent of your sins.
Now, that phrase is never found in the Bible.
And when you ask someone to show you that in the Bible, you'll say to them, hey, show
me in the Bible where I have to repent of my sins to be saved.
What they'll do is they'll take you to tons of verses that say repent, but conveniently
they don't say the words repent of your sins.
They just say repent.
So the word repent doesn't mean repent of your sins, because there are actually 46 verses
in the, I'm sorry, 36 times in the Bible, the verses are talking about God repenting.
Out of all the mentions, I think 105 verses that mention repentance, 36 of them mention
God repenting.
Of course, if you're reading the NIV, New King James, ESV, or any other of these modern
versions, they completely take out God repenting, because they want to prop up this false doctrine.
They take out Judas Iscariot repenting.
They take out Paul repenting when he decided he was going to write a letter and then change
his mind about it.
They take that out.
And they try to say, well, every time the Bible says repent, it means repent of your
sins.
Well, that's a lie.
And so whenever somebody's trying to show you a scripture on this, make sure it actually
says of your sins.
And then guess what?
It won't be there, because there's no such verse.
So when the Bible's talking about repentance, it's just talking about some kind of a change.
Now, that change could be a change in what you believe.
It could be a change of mind.
It could be a change of action.
It could be all manner of different things.
You have to read the context to figure out what is changing.
There are people who are lukewarm in Revelation 3.
They needed to change.
So what needed to change?
The fact that they were lukewarm.
In 1 Thessalonians chapter 1, they're worshiping idols.
They needed to change and worship the true and living God, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, look at Acts chapter 19, and we can figure out the context of the baptism of repentance.
Look at Acts 19, 4.
It says, then said Paul, John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance.
So we see that exact statement there, the baptism of repentance that we saw back in
Acts 13.
And by comparing spiritual with spiritual, we can see what that baptism of repentance
was.
It says he baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people that they should repent
of their sins and start living a Christian life.
No.
He says he preached the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people that they should believe
on him, which should come after him.
That is, on Christ Jesus.
When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.
Back to Acts 13.
And so sometimes repentance could be talking about turning from a sin, but whenever it's
talking about salvation, it's always talking about changing what you believe.
And if it's not talking about changing what you believe, then it's not talking about salvation,
because the only thing that has to change in order for you to get saved is your faith,
your belief.
Not your lifestyle, because if your life had to change in order for you to get saved, that
would be salvation by works.
If you had to make some change in your actions and change in your lifestyle, that would be
salvation by works.
But if it's just believing on Christ, well that's by faith.
And so if a person is not saved, something has to change.
And that something is what they believe.
I mean, it's pretty simple to understand.
It's not hard to see.
If somebody's Islamic, something's going to have to change.
They're going to have to believe on Jesus Christ and forsake that false religion.
If somebody's a Catholic, they're trusting in their works to save them, that's going
to have to change.
And they're going to have to change from that and put all their faith on the Lord Jesus
Christ in order to be saved.
And by the way, when you're out soul winning, if you knock on a door, and you preach unto
that person, and when you leave the door, that person still believes the same thing
that they believed when you got there, that person didn't get saved.
Either one of two things is true.
Either they were already saved, or they're still not saved.
Because in order for a person to get saved, what they believe has to change.
It's not like, well I got there and they believed everything right, but I just prayed with them
and now they're saved.
It's like, well, if they already believed everything right before you got there, they
were already saved.
And if they believed wrong when you got there about the Gospel, about Jesus Christ, obviously
a lot of people have wrong beliefs about other things that don't really matter that much,
but when it comes to your belief on the Word of God and on Jesus Christ, that's going to
have to change in order for them to be saved.
So your goal when you're soul winning is to change what people believe.
That's what soul winning is.
You're going out and you're changing what people believe, or inviting people to change
what they believe by showing them the Word of God and preaching unto them, trying to
get them to change what they believe.
That's all that soul winning is.
And you know, I'm a strong believer in praying with people and assisting them and calling
upon the name of the Lord as their savior, but they have to change what they believe
or else they're not calling upon anybody there.
I mean, they're just speaking words and it means nothing.
The change has to take place in what they believe, because how then shall they call
on Him in whom they've not believed?
And if their faith is not in Jesus Christ when they call upon Him, well then they're
just talking into the air and they didn't get saved.
And you got a lot of people today who go around just praying with people and just quickly
show them a couple verses, okay let's pray, but what changed about what they believed?
That ought to be what we ask ourselves.
And if nothing that they believed changed, then they didn't get saved.
And so that's what it means, repentance in regard to salvation.
Now some people don't have to repent of anything when they get saved, because some people don't
really believe anything.
And you talk to them and you preach in the gospel and they believe it and they get saved.
But people who are believing in another gospel or another god, they're going to have to repent
of that.
They're going to have to change.
Some people just don't have any belief.
They don't have any God that they worship and they just believe the gospel and they
get saved.
So you say, do you have to repent to be saved?
It depends on the person.
Because if you don't believe anything, then you don't have to repent of anything.
You know what I mean?
You just believe the gospel.
Some people say, well you have to repent of unbelief.
Well okay, that's like saying, well you have to repent of unbelief and believe.
Isn't that a little bit redundant?
You know, it'd be kind of like, you know, would you please shut the door and don't leave
it open?
You know, I mean that doesn't make any sense.
Redundant.
You know, because a lot of people say, well you've got to mention repent.
Well then why did the book of John never mention repent?
When the book of John is the only book in the Bible that claims to be written so that
someone will get saved.
It says these words are written that you might believe on the Son of God and that believing
you might have life through His name.
That's the purpose of the book of John and yet it never mentions the word repent.
Because you don't have to mention the word repent when giving the gospel because guess
what?
If a person believes on Jesus Christ, that's enough right there.
But the problem is that if they believe in some other false god, they can't believe on
Christ until they repent of that thing.
So it's enough just to say believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, I would tell someone that they needed to repent if they believed a false doctrine.
That's why usually when you see preachers in the Bible using this, they're using it
on a religious ground.
They're always preaching.
Where do you see repentance preached the most in the Bible?
The book of Acts.
Because who are they constantly preaching to?
The Jews.
And all throughout the book of Acts, they're preaching to the Jews saying repent.
What about when they're preaching to the Gentiles?
You know, you don't really see it.
Because you see it focused more at the religious crowd.
You see it focused at the Pharisees and the Sadducees.
That's when John really preached repent is when they showed up.
That's when he really started preaching on repentance.
You look at the Philippian jailer, he's just told, believe.
Believe on Christ.
You know, we don't know that he had anything that he really needed to repent of there.
He just needed to believe the gospel.
He just needed to believe on Christ.
And so, don't let people fool you on that.
We have hundreds of verses in the Bible that say salvation by faith alone.
You know, don't let somebody shake your faith on that and try to add something here.
And say, well before you believe, you have to repent of your sins.
Okay, well that's work salvation.
That's right.
And Jonah 3.10 spells that out.
Okay, so let's get back to Acts 13 here.
Basically, he begins to preach about Jesus Christ.
I've got to hurry for the sake of time here.
Because my throat's giving out.
Everybody's sick, of course.
So, I'm just going to blow through this tonight.
Basically, he begins to preach about Jesus Christ.
Talk about how he died on the cross.
And how they basically, look at verse number 29, it says.
Actually, look at verse 27.
This is interesting.
It says, for they that dwelt 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.
So, why did they crucify Jesus?
Because of the fact that they didn't know God's word.
They couldn't hear the voice of the shepherd.
They couldn't hear God's voice.
It says in verse 30 that after Jesus died on the cross, it says,
but God raised him from the dead.
So, who raised Jesus from the dead?
God.
God, right?
Okay, keep your finger there.
Go to John 2.
Keep your finger in Acts 13.
Here's a great verse for the Jehovah's Witnesses
that we're turning to in John chapter 2.
Really, for two reasons.
Because right here, it proves not only the deity of Christ,
but it also proves the bodily resurrection of Christ,
which the Jehovah's Witnesses deny.
The Jehovah's Witnesses do not believe that Jesus rose from the dead.
They don't.
They'll try to tell you that they do.
They'll lie to you and say,
oh, we believe Jesus rose from the dead.
And you say, oh, he physically rose from the dead?
Oh, no, no, just his spirit left his body.
Well, James 2.26 says, but as the body without the spirit is dead,
so faith without works is dead also.
So according to James, the spirit leaving the body is called death.
That's not a resurrection.
And they do not believe that Jesus Christ bodily rose from the dead.
And if you actually pin them down and ask them,
they'll come right out and tell you that they do not believe
that Jesus rose from the dead physically.
But look at John chapter 2.
This proves that Jesus' resurrection was not a spiritual resurrection.
It was a bodily resurrection.
It says in verse number 18,
Then answered the Jews and said unto him,
What sign showest thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these things?
Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple,
and in three days I will raise it up.
Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple and building.
And wilt thou rear it up in three days?
But he spake of the temple of his body.
Now that right there shows that the resurrection was Jesus' body raising up.
Not a spirit, not a soul.
He said destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.
He spake of the temple of his body.
He rose up his body.
And not only that, but who rose it up?
He said destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.
And yet in Acts chapter 13 and in many other scriptures,
it says that God raised up Jesus from the dead.
The Father raised up Jesus from the dead.
And yet Jesus said, hey, I lay down my life willingly.
He said I have the power to lay it down and I have the power to take it up again.
So Jesus said that he rose himself up from the dead.
Physically, bodily, and so is the Bible right when it says that God raised him up?
Yes. Is the Bible right when it says that Jesus Christ himself raised himself from the dead?
Yes, because Jesus Christ is God.
And people make a mistake when they try to separate too much between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
And they try to divide those three up.
No, these three are one.
And so don't try to divide those three up.
The Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost are one and the same.
Which is why this statement can be made so many times both ways in the Bible.
You've got several scriptures that say Jesus raised himself up.
You've got several that say God raised him up.
It's because Jesus is God.
But back in Acts chapter 13, it says in verse 32,
And we declare unto you glad tidings, how that the promise which was made unto the fathers,
God hath fulfilled the same unto us their children,
and that he hath raised up Jesus again, as it is also written in the second Psalm,
Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee.
Now, this glad tidings, this phrase is found in Isaiah 61.1.
And it's quoted in Luke chapter 4 as the word gospel.
So glad tidings is a term used throughout the Old Testament.
Gospel in the New Testament is used synonymously.
Glad tidings is like good news.
That's basically what gospel means.
And so you're saying, hey, the good news is that God has fulfilled his promise
by sending Jesus Christ to be the Savior.
And it says he's raised him up again, as it is also written in the second Psalm,
Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee.
Now, don't go past that. Stop and read that in verse 33.
That's an interesting statement.
Because what does Jesus, rising from the dead, have to do with that verse that's quoted right there?
Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee.
Doesn't that seem a little out of place at first?
Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee.
Was fulfilled when Jesus was risen from the dead?
You say, hmm, how does that work?
Well, keep your finger there.
Go to Revelation 1.
Revelation chapter 1.
And we can begin to shed a little light on that, why it says it in that way.
It says in Revelation chapter 1, verse number 5,
And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness,
and watch this, and the first begotten of the dead,
and the prince of the kings of the earth,
unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood,
and have made us kings and priests unto God and his Father,
to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.
So in Revelation 1 right there, we see that Jesus is what?
The first begotten of the dead.
So that's what ties in with Acts chapter 13,
when he said he raised Jesus from the dead as it is written in the second Psalm.
Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee.
So that phrase, it's a very common phrase in the book of Psalms, Hebrews, elsewhere.
When he says thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee,
what day is he talking about?
The day that Jesus rose from the dead.
That's the day he's referring to, according to Acts 13.
That's the day he's referring to, according to Revelation chapter 1.
Now the reason that that's important is because the word begat,
it has different meanings in the Bible, it's used in various ways,
and I'm not going to get into all the intricacies of that tonight,
but it's used in a few different ways throughout the Bible.
But I will say this.
One of the main meanings is basically to cause something to come into existence,
to generate life.
Now, a lot of people would mistakenly think that
thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee,
would be referring to when Jesus Christ was placed in the womb of Mary, per se.
Well, Jesus Christ existed before that.
Jesus Christ was already in existence before Bethlehem,
before Mary was with child.
Jesus Christ is from everlasting, the Bible says.
Jesus Christ was in the beginning with God, Jesus Christ was God,
and so we don't want to think of it as him coming into existence
when he was placed in the womb of Mary.
But, at the resurrection, he was dead, and basically came back to life.
Now, the reason that that's important, that that was called a begetting,
when Jesus rose from the dead, because that ties in with our salvation.
The Bible says that we have been begotten again, begotten again.
He's begotten us again until alive.
Begotten again, similar to the term born again.
We have been begotten of God, the Bible says.
So, before we're saved, we're dead in trespasses and sins, according to the Bible.
The moment that we believe on Jesus Christ, our spirit is resurrected.
Our spirit is quickened, and at that point, we become a child of God spiritually,
because our spirit comes to life in the same way,
and this is compared throughout the scripture, throughout the book of Romans, 2 Corinthians,
that what happens to you when you get saved is a picture of what happened
when Jesus Christ rose from the dead.
Just as Jesus Christ rose from the dead, basically, the moment that you believe on Jesus Christ,
your spirit is resurrected from the dead,
in the same way that Jesus' spirit was resurrected from the dead.
Now, has your body been resurrected? No.
And so, according to the Bible, our spirit is saved.
Our spirit is regenerated.
Our spirit has been begotten again, but our flesh has not.
We still have the same sinful flesh that we had before we got saved.
Go to Romans 8, and we'll close with this for a second time.
Go to Romans 8, and you'll see this played out.
It says in Romans 8, in verse 23,
And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit.
So we have the firstfruits of the Spirit.
The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 1 that God has given us the earnest of the Spirit.
Now, who's ever bought a house before?
You remember the earnest money? Does that sound familiar?
Well, the earnest is basically money that you're putting down on that offering.
It's a down payment.
Well, that's what the Bible is saying in 2 Corinthians 1,
when it says that God has sealed us and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts.
Basically, our whole body, soul, and spirit has not been saved or regenerated yet.
But we've received the firstfruits of the Spirit.
Our spirit has been resurrected. Our spirit has been regenerated.
But our body is still unsaved. Our flesh is still sinful.
Which is why we still commit sin, because we're in the flesh.
If we walk in the Spirit, we'll do what's right.
If we walk in the flesh, we'll continue to sin, because our flesh has not been redeemed yet.
Look what it says here. It says,
Not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit,
even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the what?
The adoption.
And what is the adoption?
It says, to wit, the redemption of our body.
So, have we been adopted as God's children?
Spiritually, yes, already.
The moment that you got saved, you became a child of God spiritually.
The moment that you believed on Jesus Christ, you received the earnest of the Spirit.
You were spiritually quickened, spiritually regenerated.
Your spirit was saved, but your flesh was not yet saved.
Your flesh is the same unregenerate flesh that it was then.
We are still waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.
So we've already received the adoption of our spirit, whereby we cry,
Abba Father, as it says there in the chapter.
But we have not yet received the salvation of our body.
That will take place in what's known as the first resurrection,
which is described in 1 Thessalonians 4.
It's described all throughout the Bible.
That's another sermon of itself.
And so, our spirit is saved.
We are children of God, but our flesh, not yet.
Not until what's known as the first resurrection or the rapture, as it's commonly called,
when we will be changed in a moment and twinkling of an eye.
That's when our bodies will be actually saved,
and our body will be resurrected like Jesus was.
That's called an adoption.
That's why the Bible says,
Come out from among them and be separate, saith the Lord,
and touch not the end of any thing.
He says, I'll be a father unto you, and you shall be my sons and daughters.
You say, wait, I thought we were already his sons and daughters.
Yes, you are, when you're walking in the spirit.
But when you're in the flesh, that's the part of you that is not yet redeemed.
That is not a child of God.
And so that's why the Bible said all that, you say,
What does that have to do with Acts 13?
All of that ties in to why it said that it was written in the second Psalm,
Thou are my son, this day have I begotten thee, about the resurrection of Christ.
Because the resurrection of Christ was when he was begotten,
just as our spiritual resurrection is when we're begotten of God,
and when we're born again,
and then at the first resurrection, we'll be begotten physically into the family of God,
and then we will be soul, body, and spirit, a brand new creature,
and we will never sin again once we get to heaven.
But until then, we're going to continue to sin,
because we have the flesh, and we have the spirit.
If we walk in the spirit, we'll not fulfill the lust of the flesh, and vice versa.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, thank you so much for your salvation that you've given us, dear God,
and for the faith that we have in Jesus Christ that has saved us, dear God.
Thank you for giving us your word that created that faith, dear God,
and just please help us to preach the gospel to every creature,
as these men in the book of Acts did.
Help us to be faithful and win souls to Christ.
And Father, I pray that our church would someday be able to send out men
who are preaching and teaching the word of God
that could go to other distant cities and start churches
and win souls to Christ in other areas.
And in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.