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Good evening, thank you so much for coming to Pure Words Baptist Church. We'll get started this evening. Let's go to our little handout hymnals and we'll do the Psalms 150. Psalms 150 from our importance hymnal here. Psalm 150, or you could even follow along in your Bible there in the verse. Praise ye the Lord, praise God in his sanctuary, Praise him in the firmament of his power, Praise him for his mighty acts, Praise him according to his excellent greatness, Praise him with the sound of the trumpet, Praise him with the sultry and dark, Praise him with the timberland dance, Praise him with stringed instruments and organs, Praise him upon the loud cymbals, Praise him upon the high sounding cymbals, Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord, Praise ye the Lord, praise God the Father, Praise God the Son, Praise God the Holy Ghost, Praise God in three persons. Very good singing. Brother Jeffrey, would you lead us in prayer this evening, please? Amen. Let's go in our hymnals to song number 30. Nothing but the blood. Classic. Song number 30, nothing but the blood. What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is the flow that makes me white as snow. No other fount I know. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. For my part in this I see. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. For my cleansing this my plea. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is the flow that makes me white as snow. No other fount I know. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Nothing can force an atone. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Not of good that I have done. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is the flow that makes me white as snow. No other fount I know. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. This is all my hope and peace. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. This is all my righteousness. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is the flow that makes me white as snow. No other fount I know. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Good singing. If you need a bulletin, there should be still maybe one over there. On the inside we have our service and soul winning times. And we also have our stats. Is there any soul winning to report up for the last few days outside of the day? OK, what about on the inside? We have our expecting ladies. Continue to pray for Mr. Nell. Also down below we have our guest preaching, brother Ben Naim, coming this Sunday, January 23rd. So that's real exciting. He's real excited to come down here. He loves getting to see everybody and preach for you guys. Also a couple of prayer requests, brother Edward Gomino and his mother for cold and flu. And brother Iyer was still in here. How's he doing? Is he doing OK? All right. Well, we'll just continue to pray for them and pray for their families. I know some people have been out sick and everything like that. And so we'll continue to pray for our church family. Also, I don't know if I made it as clear, so I just wanted to double check with everybody. But we are doing a New Testament challenge. So it's for everybody. I left some cards over here. I think they had said steadfast on it, but it's for every single person. But essentially, anybody that reads the New Testament in the month of January, there's a special prize. It is only for those who read it, though. So you could always listen to the Bible on an audio book or whatever you want. That's great. But if you want to successfully complete the New Testament challenge, you've got to read it. So it's obviously only for people that can read as well, for children that are able to actually read the Bible. And it's to encourage people to read. That's the whole goal of the challenge. It's not just to get a prize or something. It's to actually read the word of God and be able to get through the Bible. And it's difficult to discipline ourselves to read the Bible every single day and then do a lot of scripture. So it's a good exercise and discipline. One thing, I'll give you a little secret, okay? If you notice, well, if you pay attention to the actual challenge, it actually gets easier through the month. So the amount of reading that you have to do, it kind of decreases a little bit as you go through, as far as number of pages that you would actually end up reading. So even if you get a little bit behind, you still have the opportunity to really crush there in the last little bit. And so we still got a little bit of time here. You know, you can really power through and get through that New Testament. And then there'll be a price that those who complete. Who's doing the challenge? Or who's been, okay, all right, praise the Lord. We got a lot of people in here reading their Bible. Shame on you that are not, no, I'm just kidding. But seriously, you gotta read the Bible. And I'm encouraged that a lot of people are participating. And it's great. I love, for me, the New Testament is like dessert. You know, like you kind of read the, some of the Old Testament, it's kind of like, you know, the asparagus or, you know, some of the broccoli or whatever. But man, when I get to the New Testament, it just feels like the dessert. It's a lot of fun reading. And I really like a lot of the epistles and everything like that. And so I just encourage you to read the Bible on a regular basis. But if you have any questions you could always ask me, I'd be happy to answer those. That's pretty much all I have for announcements this time. So we'll go ahead and go to our third song. Let's do song 27. Put a song 27 in our hymnals. The Old Rugged Cross. Song 27. The Old Rugged Cross. On a hill far away, stood an old rugged cross, the emblem of suffering and shame. And I love that old cross, where the dearest and blessed, for a world of lost sinners was slain. So I'll cherish the old rugged cross, till my trophies at last I lay down. I will cling to the old rugged cross, and exchange it someday for a crown. Oh, that old rugged cross, so despised by the world, has a wondrous attraction for me. For the dear lamb of God, left his glory above, to bear it to dark aviary. So I'll cherish the old rugged cross, till my trophies at last I lay down. I will cling to the old rugged cross, and exchange it someday for a crown. In the old rugged cross, stained with blood so divine, a wondrous beauty I see. Porch was on that old cross, Jesus suffered and died, to pardon and sanctify me. So I'll cherish the old rugged cross, till my trophies at last I lay down. I will cling to the old rugged cross, and exchange it someday for a crown. To the old rugged cross, I will ever be true, it's shame and reproach gladly fair. Then he'll call me someday, to my home far away, where his glory forever I'll share. So I'll cherish the old rugged cross, till my trophies at last I lay down. I will cling to the old rugged cross, and exchange it someday for a crown. Very good singing. At this time we'll turn to our Bibles, Acts 28, Brother Brandon's gonna read for us. Acts chapter 28, we'll pass the offering plate, and we'll read the entire chapter, Acts chapter 28. All right, we're there in Acts chapter number 28, and the Bible says, when they were escaped, and they knew that the island was called Miletah, and the barbarous people showed us no little kindness, for they kindled a fire, and received us every one, because of the present rain, and because of the cold. And when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks, and laid them on the fire, there came a viper out of the heat, who fastened on his hand. And when the barbarians saw the venomous heat, hang on his hand, they said among themselves, no doubt this man is a murderer, whom though he had escaped to see, yet vengeance suffereth not to live. And he shook off the beast into the fire, and felt no harm, howbeit they looked, and when he should have swollen, or fallen down dead suddenly, but after they had looked a great while, and saw no harm come to him, and they changed their minds, and said that he was a god. In the same quarters were possessions of the chief man of the island, whose name was Publius, who received us, and lodged us three days courteously. And it came to pass, that the father of Publius lay sick of a fever, and of a bloody flock, to whom Paul entered in, and prayed, and laid his hands on him, and healed him. So when this was done, others also, which had diseases of the island, came and were healed, who also honored us with many honors, and when we departed, they laid us with such things as were necessary. And after three months, we departed in a ship of Alexandria, which had wintered in the isle, whose sign was Castor and Pollux, and landing at Syracuse, we tarried there three days. And from thence, we fetched the compass, and came to Riggium, and after one day, the south wind blew, and we came the next day to Cooley, where we found brethren, and were desired to tarry with them seven days. And so we went toward Rome, and from thence, when the brethren heard of us, they came to meet us, as far as Campi and Orem, and the three taverns, whom Paul saw, and he thanked God, and took courage. And when we come to Rome, the centurion delivered the prisoners to the captain of the guard, but Paul was suffered to dwell by himself with the soldier that kept him. And it came to pass, that after three days, Paul called the chief of the Jews together when they were come together, and he said unto them, Men and brethren, though I have committed nothing against the people, or customs of our fathers, yet when I delivered prisoner from Jerusalem into the hands of the Romans, whom when they had examined me, would have let me go, because there was no cause of death in me. But when Jews spake against it, I was constrained to appeal unto Caesar, not that I had ought to accuse my nation of, for this cause therefore have I called for you, to see you, and to speak with you, because that for the hope of Israel I am bound with this change. And they said unto him, We neither received letters of Judea concerning thee, neither any of the brethren that came showed or spake any harm of thee, but we desire to hear thee what thou thinkest. For as concerning this sect, we know that everywhere it is spoken against. And when they had appointed him a day, there came many up to him in his lodging, to whom he expounded and testified the kingdom of God, persuading them concerning Jesus, both out of the law of Moses, and out of the prophets, from morning till evening. And some believed the things which were spoken, and some believed not. And when they agreed not among themselves, they departed after Paul had spoken one word, well spake the Holy Ghost by Isaias, the prophet unto our father, saying, Go unto this people, and say, Hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand, and seeing ye shall see, and not perceive. For the heart of this people is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have they closed, lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them. Be it known therefore unto you, that the salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles, and that they will hear it. And when he had said these words, the Jews departed, and had great reasoning among themselves. And Paul dwelt two whole years in his own house, and received all that came into him, preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching those things which concerned the Lord Jesus Christ, with all confidence, no man forbidding him. Let's have a quick word of prayer. Heavenly Father, we just thank you for giving your Lord the peace and the opportunity to be a priest, and to be a warden, and to be here in the place of the church, and to be here in the holy and active world, and to be here in my church, and to be called to the outside, and to be here in the church. Amen. So we're finishing up the book of Acts. We're in chapter number 28, and it's kind of a conclusionary chapter here, and we are still kind of in a journey. The apostle Paul has been on a long journey to Rome, and he's been really imprisoned in a sense. He's been kind of a captive of the Romans, and being dragged through the court system for a really long period of time. And most recently in chapter 27, they had basically crashed into an island, basically just kind of saved themselves. They've been in this storm, and it's kind of a winter time, and so it's a really dangerous time. They crashed the boat. They swam out from the boat, and they kind of land on this island. They don't really even know where they are exactly. They just simply were lost at sea, crashed kind of into this particular island. But if you remember, the apostle Paul had made it clear that they were going to be saved, because he had told them they had a vision from the Lord, that the Lord had spoke to him, and told him that everyone was going to be saved. So they find themselves on this island, and that's what we see here in verse 1, chapter 28. And when they were escaped, then they knew that the island was called Melita. So escape there is simply escape from the drowning sea, and the drowning in the boat. Basically, the boat had been destroyed. They were in the tumultuous sea, and so the escaping there is simply from that hazard of the waters and death there. They basically made it onto this island. It says in verse 2, And the barbarous people showed us no little kindness, for they kindled the fire and received us everyone because of the present rain and because of the cold. So wherever they crashed, it was noticed by people that are living on this island, and apparently those people decided to help them. Now, they're described as being barbarous people. Essentially, this is just talking about people that are not necessarily as civilized. You know, the barbarous people is kind of, I envision people that are living more in like huts, temporary kind of housing. They don't necessarily have a civilization like other parts of the area. They're not maybe having streets and an official government. They're probably more tribal. They're more just essentially barbaric in the sense barbaric is just meaning kind of simple, you know, bare bones, just rudimentary in kind of its context. So a barbarous people would be that they're just real basic. You know, they have fire, you know. Ooh, fire, fire, you know. Water, rain, you know. It's just kind of like a real simple type arrangement as it were. But we see that they still are kind people. You know, they ended up, it's raining. We see this ship. These people come. They don't even know who they are. Yet they help them. Yet they assist them. They give them heat. You know, they kindle the fire which is going to be pretty important because back then they don't have inside. They don't have HVAC. You know, they don't have heating and ventilation and air conditioning, you know, running through the ceiling or anything like that. They don't have a heater in their car. So the only way to really probably generate heat is going to be through a fire, especially since their clothes are wet. You know, that's kind of dangerous in a cold time. You get hypothermia. They're probably needing to take off their clothing, get it dry by the fire. So fire is real important. And if it's raining and you just escape from a ship, you're probably not going to be able to create a fire. You know, you're not going to have the necessary equipment, tools or whatever to just make a fire real quick. You know, they probably don't have a BIC glider or anything, you know, on them. So they're just kind of at the mercy of what's around. And these people build a fire. They're helping them because notice this will be present rain and because of the cold. So that's the reason why they're helping them with this fire. Says in verse number three, And when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks and laid them on the fire, there came a viper out of the heat and fastened on his hand. Now it's interesting that you have a bundle of sticks. You know what you do with bundles of sticks? You throw them in the fire. Okay, and there's a word in our English dictionary that means a bundle of sticks. It's called a faggot. Okay, or faggots. Faggots is a bundle of sticks. And you know, the only purpose for faggots is to put them in the fire. Okay, now of course, you know, it comes out of a bundle of sticks or a bunch of faggots is a viper, right? And the viper just happens to come out of the fire symbolizing, you know, a lot of things, right? We see the devil is like a serpent. He's like a snake. He kind of comes out of the fire. And you know, the devil will literally come out of the fire because the Bible teaches in the future, the devil be thrown into hell, you know, for a thousand years. And then he's going to be released back on the earth and he's going to come and terrorize the earth. So he's literally like a viper coming up out of the fire. But what's interesting is this viper ends up fastening on Paul's hand so that basically we can kind of envision a snake just coming out of nowhere, just biting Paul, just right on the hand. He's kind of stuck on him. Okay, because his fangs are like sunk into Paul. And so he's just got like this snake just kind of like hanging off of his hand or whatever, you know, and it says in verse number four, and when the barbarous, sorry, when the barbarian saw the venomous beast hang on his hand, they said among themselves, no doubt this man is a murderer, whom though he hath escaped the sea, yet vengeance suffereth not to live. This is basically, you know, these people believed in the final destination, you know, or I don't know if you've ever seen that movie, anybody, okay, all right. This is a stupid movie. It's basically like you escape death and then death will get you the next way or whatever, you know, so they have this idea like, oh, he escaped the ship. He shouldn't have escaped the ship. He should have died. So then a snake comes out of nowhere and kills them or whatever. So they're really, you know, superstitious. They kind of, you know, must have this idea that, you know, bad things happen to bad people and while that is generally true and the Bible teaches that you're gonna reap what you sow, that's not always true, okay. Sometimes bad things happen to good people, sometimes good things happen to bad people, okay. And they presume because the snake bit him, he is a bad person. He's a murderer. You know what I like about this verse? It also illustrates in their mind the worst sin. And I often say this when, you know, I'm going out soloing and I'm talking to people. I say, if you believe in Jesus today, then tomorrow you committed the worst sin. What do you think the worst sin is? And pretty much everybody agrees it's murder and I agree. I think that murder is technically the worst sin. Now obviously there's sins that reprobates do that we don't really want to talk about. We're just talking about like normal people. What's probably the worst thing you could possibly do? I would say murder. You know, you're taking someone else's life innocently. I mean, that's about the worst thing you can do. Obviously you could hurt someone physically, do damage, there's a lot of bad things, but just taking their life is a really wicked, selfish sin. And in their minds, they're thinking, he's a horrible person. What sin do they attribute to him? Murder. Because murder is literally a very evil, wicked sin. It's probably the worst, you know, of least the natural sins. You know, it's probably the worst thing someone could do. That's why, you know, we should avoid murder at all costs. And they believe that he's a murderer because of this beast. But verse five, it says, and he shook off the beast in the fire and felt no harm. That's interesting because the Bible is not only saying that Paul get bit by a snake literally, that somehow he could just shake it off and he didn't even feel any pain. Now that's weird because I guarantee you it hurt, all right? So that must mean it's a miracle. You know, you can't interpret this any other way than it would be a just pure miracle. It says in verse number six, howbeit they looked when he should have swollen or fallen down dead suddenly, but after they had looked a great while and saw no harm come to him, they changed their minds and said that he was a god. So here's the thing, anybody could be bit by a snake and shake it off. Now they would experience pain, but the pain would only be known to the person that actually was bit by the serpent. Now we know from the narrator telling us Paul didn't feel any pain. So Paul would know it was a miracle right on the onset. They wouldn't know it's a miracle though for a little bit, for a little while because they're just kind of waiting. They're like, well, this guy's dead. You know, this guy's dead meat, right? But then after, you know, after 10 minutes or 20 minutes or an hour, however long it would normally take, they're sitting here thinking like, how in the world did this guy get bit by a snake and there's like nothing happening to him? Like he's not dying. He didn't swell up. There's no like poison and they're like, and we know this is a venomous beast. We've seen him kill lots of people, okay? And this is what's funny. They literally like in one moment think he's a murderer and just moments later he's now a god, right? That should just show you how fickle people are. People will literally just flip a dime on people and it'll go the back the other way sometimes too. You know, we even read in previous chapters of Acts how when Paul is coming into certain areas, they think he's a god and then later they want to kill him just like the same day basically. I mean, and so people are just really fickle by nature. They'll turn on people and change their opinion real quick. This is really observable in sports, okay? There's what you call bandwagon sports fans and literally they will drop their team like a bad habit as soon as they're losing and just join the team that's winning, okay? Or they just happen, they'll like some superstar athlete but then he breaks his leg or he loses or something bad happens to him and they're just like, he's the worst ever and we hate him. I mean, people are just so fickle. They'll pick up their idols and drop them just like a, you know, a New York minute. You know, I mean, it just doesn't matter to them at all and there's no real difference here with the Apostle Paul but when you change your opinion about people this quickly, it shows you don't have like a real strong personal attachment to them. And what I mean by that is someone that you truly love or you have like a real relationship with, you're not gonna flip a dime on them, you know? Even if you were to find out something really bad about them, it would take a long time for you to kind of end up changing your opinion and evolving on how you feel about them. Imagine your spouse or your children or whatever. It's like they would have to do a lot in order for you to really change your opinion of that person. I mean, it's like if my wife committed murder, you know, depending on who it is, I might not even change my opinion over that much, you know? It would kind of depend, it would kind of have to slowly evolve, you know, it kind of, you know, some people, you know, it's like eh, whatever, good job. No, I'm just kidding. But I'm just saying like, you know, whereas a stranger, it's really easy to kind of just change your opinion, you don't wanna be around that person or whatever, but even someone that you truly love, even if they did something really bad, you're still gonna have love in your heart towards that person, you know, if it's your son, if it's your spouse, if it's your brother, if it's someone you really care about. So you should be aware of people who, with their lips, proclaim this great love and affection and desire towards someone, but then they end up switching on a dime against that person. And it doesn't really matter what it was. Just worry about anybody that just is flipping switches like that on people, about people, and is like, oh, you're the greatest, I love you, whatever, and then the next day, I hate you, whatever. It's like that just shows that person's just a really vain person, kind of on the surface, surface level. They're not real deep, they're real shallow type person. They just kind of go wherever the wind blows. You know, and it's not John the Baptist. John the Baptist is not one of those that just, you know, is carried about with every wind of doctrine, you know, Reed's shaking with the wind, but he's just a stable person, you know, he just knows who he is, he knows what he believes. People even do this with religions. They'll just kind of like put on a religion or they'll start going to a certain church. They get real excited for like a week, and then later, they're just kind of nothing. And it just really shows these people don't have a lot of character, they don't have a lot of integrity, they're not actually a very sincere person. You know, you shouldn't just flip a switch on the things that you truly care about, and that you love, and that you desire. And it's weird how they can go from just murderer to God all of a sudden, right? Obviously, also showing that they don't really truly have an appreciation for the Bible, because, you know, Paul's not a God, right? We know that there is no multiple gods. There's only one God, Jehovah in heaven, and Paul's not that person. But they think because he escaped death, he's a God. Here's another thing that's interesting. It kind of gives us insight how people are going to accept the Antichrist, right? Because what happens with the Antichrist? The Antichrist dies and then comes back, and then everybody's just like worshipping the beast all of a sudden. And they're just thinking like, who can make war with the beast? And, you know, they wondered after the beast is what the Bible says. And so, and really, it makes sense. Because I guarantee, any person that's popular right now, if they literally, we saw them on TV just like get knifed, or stabbed, or whatever, and they died, and then they came back, you know everybody would be like, oh man, this guy's a god. You know, let's follow this guy. He's so awesome. He's so wonderful. People would just be all over that, and so excited, and just ready to worship them, and fall down, and whatever. Give me a mark now, you know? And really, that's what's going to happen. Just like these people just quickly just want to jump on the Paul bandwagon, they're going to jump on that Antichrist bandwagon. Because Paul, to Paul them is no one. They don't really know, they don't really care. And so to the world, when the Antichrist is on the scene, and he goes through this, you know, mock gospel, fake gospel that he dies and comes back to life or whatever, then they're going to all just be like, let's believe in him. Let's follow him, or whatever. The reason why they didn't want to jump on the Jesus bandwagon is because number one, they didn't see it. And number two, Jesus then started preaching the truth, and they hate the truth. But the Antichrist, they're going to all see it. And then secondly, he's going to tell them all the things that they like to hear, because he speaks of the world, and they're of the world, so they hear the world. That's why there's a big shift, a big difference here. Now it says in verse number, well, before I move on, I want to go to a few verses, okay? Let's keep our finger, let's go to Isaiah 54 for a moment. Let's go to Isaiah 54. Some other things that I thought were interesting about this passage is just the fact that Paul, again, he felt no harm, right? Well, here's one picture of that. After you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you're saved, where is the sting of death? Where is the sting of sin anymore? It doesn't exist, because we can't go to hell. Oh, grave, where is thy victory? There is no sting of death anymore, because we believe in Jesus Christ. That means, hey, when you sin, yeah, there is consequences, okay, and I'm not saying there's not consequences. What I'm saying is that sting of hell has been removed, and we don't feel that harm anymore. There is no harm of, you know, we're not afraid of dying in the sense of going to hell. Obviously, no one wants to die. We all have a desire to live, but we're not fearful of hell anymore. It's been removed from us. That's a picture of how that serpent can bite, and yet, we feel no harm, because of course, we're all gonna sin, even after we're saved, and what does the serpent often picture in the Bible, just sin itself, right? That kind of is a picture of how sin is not gonna cause us any harm after we've been saved. Here's another thing that it could kind of picture. It's just the attacks of the enemy, right? Serpent pictures the devil, and the devil's gonna try to attack God's people, but here's a really famous verse, and I like it. It says in Isaiah 54, look at verse 17. No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper, and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment, thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord. So, according to the Bible, you know, God gives us kind of this promise that when the wicked are forming their weapons, and forming their lies, and whatever, even if they are able to lie about you all kinds of ways in judgment, or you know, whatever, it's not gonna end up prospering in the end. You know, it's gonna come to their demise, and think about it. It could cause bad things to happen to you. Go, if you would, to Mark 16. I wanna explain this a little bit further, so go to Mark 16 while we're thinking about this. You know, let's think about Jesus for a moment, okay? Did they lie about Jesus in judgment? Oh yeah, absolutely. He had false witnesses come, and speak against him, and blasphemed, and everything else in between, and did that end up causing harm to Jesus? Yeah, it did, didn't it? He died, okay? He was crucified, right? We all know how that worked, but did their lies really prosper? Think about it that way. Is the death, burn, and resurrection a failure? No, it was actually a success, and in fact, what he ended up accomplishing is exactly what he meant to do. He meant to die, was buried, and rose again, and so even though they said all these lies on Jesus, and they wanted to destroy him, actually that was God's plan anyways, and it fulfilled God's perfect will, and what ended up really prospering was the gospel and Jesus Christ, so even though that weapon that was formed against, it obviously caused him personally harm, it was a success, okay? So we could think of this in other ways, like how about Stephen? Stephen's a martyr, right? What do they wanna do? They want the gospel to stop being preached, and who's preaching it? Stephen, okay? So what is their goal? Well, let's stone Stephen, and let's kill him, and we're gonna shut up the gospel, but what ended up happening when they killed Stephen is they scattered all of these Christians over the whole world, and caused Christianity to spread even more, so it's kinda like that idea of like, you know, you kill one snake and two pop up or something, and you kill that one and it just like keeps popping up, and it's like their lies didn't prosper. You know, their weapons didn't prosper, and maybe in the moment, maybe for a second you feel like it prospered, but when you look at it in hindsight, you realize actually it was a complete failure on their part, just kinda like that serpent. I mean, the serpent literally came out of the fire, it literally snatched on Paul's hand, so for a moment it could look like, oh wow, that was a bad deal, but then what happens? He ends up getting to shake it off, feels no harm, and then nothing ends up being accomplished by the serpent, biting Paul. So in our lives, we can have setbacks, we can have bad things happen to us, evil could happen to us, but somehow it'll work for God's glory. Somehow it'll turn out to where God will be glorified and good things will happen in Christianity, even if it comes to our own detriment. But all things that come to our own detriment are gonna be rewarded in heaven. So you're not gonna be sitting in hindsight when you're up in heaven enjoying all those mansions and rewards that you got in heaven, you're not gonna be like, oh man, I'm really disappointed that bad thing happened to me. You're sitting here thinking like, this is the evidence of the bad thing that happened, you're looking at your mansion and you're thinking like, this is what happened to me. It's not gonna seem like it was really a bad thing, you're gonna be like, wow, it really prospered me. You know, what they had planned ended up working out good for me. How about Joseph? You know, it was in the immediate future seeming like a really bad thing. Didn't his brethren sell him out and sell him into Egypt? I mean, no one in their right mind would say like, well, that worked out good for me, I just got sold by my brother and into Egypt, right? That seems like it pretty much sucked. How about when Potiphar's wife lies about Joseph and then he goes to prison? Again, you would say like, well, the weapon formed against me worked because didn't she lie about him and falsely accuse him and he gets thrown in prison? So we have to interpret and balance the Bible. Is Isaiah 54 saying, well, no one will ever lie about you and in the temporary, it'll seem like it worked. Of course not, it's gonna happen lots of times, in fact. I can show you all kinds of examples of where people lied and then something bad happened to them in the immediate future. But then it worked out in the end, right? Joseph then was in the right place at the right time to be elevated to be second in command of all of the land of Egypt and to save all mankind. Daniel in the lion's den, isn't it kind of, he, you know, at first their plan is all right, we're gonna get the king to sign off and no one can make any petition, save the king for 30 days and we know Daniel's gonna pray and so we're gonna catch him. And then what happens, Daniel prays, they got him, it's like their plan worked, doesn't it? I mean, and then what happens? He gets thrown in the lion's den. Wouldn't you say plan worked? Wouldn't you say like, oh man, we got it. But they didn't think about this, the lions are gonna eat him. And then he had no harm, right? And then he came out and then they're thinking like, and then what happened? They got thrown in the lion's den. So did their lie end up prospering? No, it doesn't mean that in the immediate future it won't seem like, oh wow, it's kind of working or oh, their plan's coming together. But in the end it'll be destroyed, in the end it'll be condemned, in the end God will make it right and restitution will be made. Okay, another thing that's interesting about Mark chapter number 16 is, it's actually coinciding with what we read about in Acts, chapter number 28, look at verse 17. And these signs shall follow them that believe. In my name shall they cast out devils, they shall speak with new tongues, they shall take up serpents, and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them. They shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover. Now, couple things about Mark 16. Number one, there's a really weird group of Pentecostals that think that this is legit for today, that any person that's saved can literally just start dancing with serpents and they're called snake handling Christians or whatever, Pentecostals are crazy, okay? And they literally will dance with serpents, then they'll get bit, and here's the thing, they're not Paul, they don't shake that beast off and just keep dancing, they die, okay? And they just convince all their backwood neighbors in Kentucky or whatever that this is legit. That's a fraud, okay? That's not real Christianity. And here's the thing, if the snake thing isn't legit, then I'm gonna say that all of it's not legit. I'm not gonna pick and choose which one of these is legit. It's not a smorgasbord of like, well, which one of these is gonna work? Because you know what's interesting about the other group of Pentecostals, that's the crazy Pentecostals. But you have to admit this, at least they're theologically consistent, okay? They read this and say, well, we believe that you can speak in tongues, lay hands and serpents and all of it, right? They're not like picking and choosing which ones they believe are true. The other group of Pentecostals, which is the vast majority of them, we're not taking up serpents, they pick and choose which one of these are legitimate. And they'll say, oh, well, the serpent one, no, okay? But you know, the speaking with new tongues, yeah. Yeah, they like that one, okay? But they don't like the serpent one because they know, or the drinking the deadly thing, you know, that one's off the table, the serpent one's off the table, but the speaking in new tongues, woo! Oh, la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la! You know, why? Because nobody can verify that. Number one, and number two, they're not really in any jeopardy of dying whenever they said that, right? The drinking the deadly thing and the being bitten by serpents, that one's a little more testy, you know what I mean? That one's gonna be a little more obvious to people. So they like to pick the ones that don't really, you know, aren't very verifiable. Here's another thing, though. They'll be like, oh, Benny Hen Crusade, and they'll be like smacking people over and healing them or whatever, and they'll point to verses like this. But here's the thing. It says, they shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover. It doesn't say like maybe, hope so, could. It's just like a done deal, okay? It's not like a questionable thing. It's not like, well, if they have the faith or whatever. So a lot of these Benny Hen Crusade types, they'll point to these verses, but then when it doesn't happen, because it doesn't happen, they'll be like, oh, well, you didn't have enough faith or whatever, or just, you know, it's just all a charade and a scam, because no one on this earth can literally just, just unequivocally just lay hands and recover people. Now, obviously I do believe God heals, okay? I'm not against prayer. I'm not against the laying on of hands for prayer, because in other chapters like James 5, the Bible literally teaches, if someone were on their death bed, the elders of the church would come, anoint them with oil, and the prayer of faith shall save the sick. That's what the Bible says, okay? So I do believe in healing. But, you know, healing is found everywhere in your Bible. Not limited to the New Testament. But if we take in connection all these other things, it's limited to the book of Acts, where we see a group of people that are speaking new tongues, taking up serpents, drinking the deadly. I mean, these all in connection are kind of limited to the book of Acts as far as a timeline. We don't see John the Baptist doing this. In fact, John the Baptist in the Bible says, did no miracle, okay? We don't see Elisha, or we don't see Moses, we don't see them doing these type of things. Moses isn't going around speaking Mandarin, okay? Moses isn't, you know, going around and doing a lot of these things that it's saying. He's not just laying hands on people and walking up down the aisles and getting people, you know, healed and doing all this stuff. It's really concentrated in the book of Acts. And in fact, in the book of Acts, we have confirmed every single one of these, with one exception of the drinking the deadly thing. I can't show you an example of where someone drunk something that we know that was deadly and it didn't kill them. I believe that it happened, but I don't have a scripture to say, like, here's that confirmation. But every other one of these we have. Acts chapter number two, what happens? They start speaking with new tongues, don't they? Okay. Then also taking up serpents, we have Acts chapter number 28, okay? We also have the fact that they're casting out devils. Well, they constantly did that throughout the Bible. That's in fact why Paul and Silas were thrown in prison in Acts chapter number 16. You know our famous verse of what must they do to be saved? That's coming because they cast out the devil that was in that woman that was falling around being like, these be the servants of the most high God or whatever, right? They cast that devil out of her. And those guys got mad that they were gonna lose all their money, their gain that they had gotten from this lady. So they riled up all the people and got Paul and Silas thrown in jail. And then later we get the famous, you know, sirs what must they do to be saved and all of that happens, right? But that's not even the only place where devils are cast out. We read in many places in the book of Acts, devils are being cast out, people are speaking in new tongues and they're laying hands on people and they're recovering. And in fact, in Acts chapter 28, we're gonna see even further proof of the fact that the apostle Paul on Melita heals a lot of people. And in fact, he doesn't heal a lot of people. He heals every single person that comes to him. There's not like an exception in the book of Acts where Paul's like, oh, I don't wanna heal this person. No, it's every single person. So what will be the right way to interpret Mark 16 and the book of Acts? Let me help you. That these are the signs of the apostles, okay? Now it does say in verse 17, and these signs shall follow them that believe. But what does that mean? To me, it's a little bit vague, but I believe when you study the Bible, it's clearly just saying this is what's gonna happen for the apostles specifically. And we do not see recorded in scripture non-apostles performing these acts as far as the initiating or the originating act. Now we have the apostles laying hands on people and those people speak in tongues, okay? I get that. But we don't see non-apostles laying their hands on people and then them speaking in tongues. We don't see non-apostles laying hands on people and they magically, or not magically, but just supernaturally, miraculously, instantly heal them. We don't see non-apostles getting bit by serpents and not dying, okay? We don't see non-apostles casting out demons and basically they're just going out of these people. So if really we only see the apostles fulfilling these signs and we don't have any apostles and no one can do this anymore, and when I say that I mean it literally, then that must mean that these specific miracles died with the apostles, okay? From a theological perspective, there's a fancy term for this. It's called secessionism. Who's ever heard of that, secessionism, okay? All right, the opposite would be like continuism, okay? Now, secessionism, if you go to the root word, it's like cease, okay? You're putting cease into a bigger word like secessionism. You're saying something stopped. If I said cease, or cease and desist, right? If you get a cease and desist letter, what does that mean? You're stopping something, right? If you're continuing, continuation, what is that? It's meaning something's continuing, right? So basically you kind of have a couple different options here. Some people would say all of these miracle gifts have continued with Christians from the beginning of Jesus' ministry, the apostles' ministry, all the way to now, or you have those that say they ceased at some point, okay? I would be what's considered a cessationist because I believe that these sign gifts were for the apostles and ceased with the apostles, okay? And that nobody after the apostles ever had these specific giftings, okay? Not to say that healing hasn't occurred or that bad things haven't happened to Christians at some point and God miraculously delivered them. I'm sure that that's happened throughout history. But there's no one that has that guarantee. There's no one walking around like an apostle who can do all these things. And that the acts, specifically as far as preaching in tongues, that ceased as well, in the sense that none of us could just walk up to somebody and just not know Mandarin and just be, ti-ta-ta-ti-ta-ta, you know. We're not gonna do it. You know, you're not gonna figure it out. And your gibberish is certainly not a real language, okay? And it's real clear in the book of Acts that the speaking with new tongues was speaking a brand new language to that person. But it's a real language to others. Why would God do that? I don't know, so they could get saved, right? What would be the purpose of me speaking a made-up language that no one understands? That has no benefit. It's like completely meaningless. Why would God be like, hey, I'm gonna give you this special language that no one understands, you don't understand, none of your congregation understands, wouldn't this be the question? Why? And not only am I gonna give you this language, you're gonna look like a complete idiot while you speak in tongues, okay? Get over here, get over here. It's like, people are gonna think you're having a seizure when you're speaking in tongues, okay? So the Pentecostals, though, would be those that believe in the continuation, right? They're continuous in a sense, okay? So that means they believe that these sign gifts have continued beyond the apostles and they're a manifestation of that. But they have this problem of the fact that there's a broken chain of about like 15 to 1900 years where no one was doing it. It came back in Azusa Street in like 1908 or something, or 1906, I get the date mixed up some of my time. Sometime in early 1900s, okay, Azusa Street Revival, they finally got all these gifts back or something like that. Yet, there's not a person alive today that can walk into the hospital and clean it out, okay? It just doesn't happen, it's not reality. Now, if it did, then I would say, you know what, I'm wrong on doctrine. You know, this is still applicable today, you know? Here's a guy, everybody touches it, he's healing and he gets bitten by serpents and you know what? Like they're just shaking him off, no problem. I mean, you know? And he can walk up to any person at any point in time and speak their language, he's never learned it. He just bam, just Mandarin and Swahili and Tagalog and just, you got it. Just every Russian, just it doesn't matter. He's got it, just right on top of that. Not only can he do that, he can lay hands on anybody that he wants and they can do the same thing too. Think about that. Not only can he speak Russian, he could lay hands on me and then I could miraculously speak Russian whenever I wanted. So, let's really get the right ante here. You know, if there was truly somebody doing this, wouldn't we have to kind of reevaluate our theology and say like, I guess it's still applicable today. But you know what, if it doesn't match reality, it's not scripture. And I could prove that in the Bible, but God literally said, how do you know if someone's a true prophet of God? And he says, if it comes to pass, which means what? Reality dictates scripture and scripture dictates reality. They are a hand in glove. You cannot live in a reality where scripture is not true or vice versa, where you believe scripture that does not match present reality, okay? Because it will always match reality. God gives us the light. You know, the Bible is the light. Everything makes sense through the lens of scripture. It's not gonna not make sense or not line up. In fact, if your theology is not lining up with reality, you probably have bad theology. You need to change your opinion in connection with the scriptures, okay? So, if we go back to our chapter, Acts chapter 28, and I know it took a little while to explain all that, but I think it's a good time to explain it because we really don't see serpents anywhere else. We don't see someone getting bit by a serpent and surviving. It's kinda here, and I feel like that's a big one in this list because that one really separates the men from the boys as far as theology, right? I mean, show me the Pentecostals that believe that. So, you could almost have more respect for the snake-handling Pentecostals than the majority of Pentecostals today because at least their theology's consistent. At least they're saying, oh, we can really do this, but obviously, they're a bunch of scam artists and frauds, right? The other Pentecostals, they just kinda pick and choose how they get to do these things, okay? And they just make up these prayer languages and whatever, and it's just a big charade, but their biggest problem is the fact that they're just not even saved. Dr. Pentecostals, they think you lose your salvation. They think salvation's repenting of your sins. They think it's a workspace salvation, which further evidences the fact that all their sign gifts are fake and fraud and not real and not legitimate. The people that are saved really don't believe in that junk, okay, for the most part. Now, it says in verse number seven, it says, in the same quarters were possessions of the chief man of the island, whose name was Publius, who received us and lodged us three days courteously. It came to pass that the father of Publius lay sick of a fever and a bloody flux to whom Paul entered in and prayed and laid his hands on him and healed him. Doesn't that fit with Mark 16? He just walks in, doesn't even know the guy, just lays hands on him and just heals him. Why? Because Paul's an apostle, okay? We see any other people doing this kind of stuff? No, okay. Now, we have to understand, and it's kind of like reading between the lines a little bit, but it's like they have on this island like a group that's like a tribal group, but then they still have like regular civilization, okay? Hubulus must be part of like the normal civilization of the island, okay? He's like some kind of Roman city or something that's actually legitimate, not just a bunch of people in tiki huts or something like that, okay? So he's the chief man of that. He's the governor of the land or whatever. He's the ruler of the land. They end up running into this guy. He lets them stay with them at his house or something like that. Paul gets his father saved, and it says in verse nine, so when this was done, others also, which had diseases in the island, came and were healed. Again, if you truly can heal people, word's gonna spread, and everyone that's sick is gonna come find you, and they're gonna get healed, okay? That's why it's also preposterous that you have to tell people that you can do this. You know, when I leave Houston, I go up to 45, and I remember seeing there's a big billboard, and it's like, we do miracles here, you know? And it's like an arrow pointing to their church or whatever, and it's like, we heal people. And I'm thinking like, if you could really heal people, you wouldn't need this stupid billboard, you know? I mean, I don't care how small your church is, okay? I don't care, this church is not a big church. I guarantee, if I could just lay hands, or James or anybody who could just lay hands on someone, and they're just magically healed, we would have like 10,000 people show up for church on Sunday morning. Just in this room alone, okay? In a very short space, I mean, it would be lined up, it would look like the vaccination site or something, you know, down here for the government, or like the food stamp line, maybe it's more accurate or whatever, or you know, DMS or whatever. What is it when you get your driver's license? DPS, right? Department of Public Safety, you have to go down there, the line is like forever, right? That's what it would look like if someone could truly do that very quickly, where it would spread. We would just tell like five people each, but that would be like 100, and they would tell five people each, and it would just spread like wildfire, okay? And so the fact that he could say to this person, it's like everybody on the island's coming, and they're all getting healed, notice. It doesn't say like, well, some got healed. It's just they came and they were healed, bam. Why? Again, because he's an apostle. It doesn't mean that these people were saved, because Jesus healed everybody too, okay? It's just a sign gift. What's the point of the sign? It's to bring people to the gospel. God's just dragging people in to hear the word of God, okay? Apostle shows up in a city that he's never met anybody and he doesn't know the language. It's gonna be really hard for everybody to hear his message, but if he can miraculously speak their language and miraculously heal every single person, guess what? Everybody's gonna come hear that person real quick so they can spread the gospel real quick and get a lot of people saved. That's the whole point of the sign gifts, okay? But now that Christianity has spread through the world, God obviously hasn't ordained it that we would have these special giftings anymore. We have to learn the language. We have to study. We have to put a lot more effort and energy. But in all reality, do you even have to put that much energy into getting people saved? I mean, we live in a city of eight million people. You can preach till your heart stops beating, okay, and not reach every person in this area in just English speaking alone. So you don't, why do you need to speak Mandarin? Why do you need to speak all these things? Now, I'm not against learning languages. You know, I highly encourage people to learn Spanish if they live in this area because I would say about 20 to 25% of the people I run into in this city only speak Spanish. And so to me, I wanted to reach those people with the gospel. That's why I tried to learn Spanish. But you know what? It takes effort, energy. I didn't just, just like, oh, como estas, señor? Oh, muy bien, la veblia es puedo, huh? I had to study, okay, and I still speak like a gringo. All right, ask Jeffrey, all right? He can verify about my Spanish. But he's just healing people left and right, okay? They're just showing up, verse 10, who also honored us with many honors, and when we departed, they laid it us with such things as were necessary. So not only does it help that they're healing people that they bring to them, but a lot of people are very grateful for it, and they ended up helping them and giving them gifts and basically doing good unto them. And it really goes well for Paul because the Romans and Turians and stuff that are in charge of him, they like Paul. They like this guy. I mean, everywhere he goes, he's just healing people, and people are helping him out, and everything's going well, and everything he says is exactly right, and he's getting words and messages from God. And I mean, it's like, they like this guy, okay? He's blessed, right? You wanna be around Paul. Verse number 11, and after three months, we departed in the ship of Alexandria, which had wintered in the isle, whose sign was Castor and Pollux, landing at Syracuse, we tarried there three days, and from thence we fetched a compass and came to Regium, and after one day, the south wind blew, and we came the next day to Petulioli, where we found brethren, and were desired to tarry with them seven days, and so we went toward Rome. And from thence, when the brethren heard of us, they came to meet us as far as Api forum, and the three taverns, and when Paul saw, he thanked God and took courage. And when we came to Rome, the centurion delivered the prisoners of the captain of the guard, but Paul was suffered to dwell by himself with a soldier that kept him. So they go through their journey, they're passing different areas, they run into brethren, and can't ever underestimate how much brethren can encourage you, because he gets to see these guys just for seven days, and then he goes to another area, and it says when he saw them, they thanked God and took courage. It's encouraging to be around other like-minded believers. We need that encouragement to see them. And it's one thing to hear about it, it's one thing to talk a far letter, social media nowadays, things like that, but it's another thing to see someone in person, you know, and to talk to them, and to have those real-life experiences. And you know, the apostle Paul, even though he's a great man of God, he still also needs that encouragement. He still needs that camaraderie and that fellowship, and it helps embolden him. We see in his epistles, he's talking to his brethren to help pray for him that he'd be bold. And here's the thing, if Paul needs boldness, I know I do. If Paul needs courage, I know I do. If Paul needs people praying for him, I know I do. You know what I mean? And so we should not think like, oh, well, I'm good. No, no, no, if Paul needs stuff, we need stuff. And we need to be dependent on the Lord. We need to be dependent upon the brethren. We need to be dependent on church and the things of God, and to not get a puffed up, arrogant attitude thinking that we're good. And sometimes it takes us going on a dark journey or a tough road to realize our dependence, but at the end of the day, no matter where you are in life, we need to understand we're dependent, and that we're weak, and that we need to cast our care upon the Lord, and we need to have relationships with other Christians so that we can have the courage to keep up the fight. You know, we're in a fight. We're in a battle, and it's not gonna end until we lay our trophies down, right? The old rugged cross. You know, that song's really about taking up your own cross. You know, we're clinging to Christ's cross, but you know, that cross is a cross of shame, of approach, persecution, of hardship, of difficulty, and we lay it down to pick up what? Our rewards in heaven. But here's the thing, you don't get that until you die. Meaning what? You're gonna go through a lot of struggle and difficulty and hardship in this life till the bitter end, and that's why we need that courage to just keep fighting, keep doing right, and every one of us have our own struggles. We all have our own difficulties. Some of our lives, you know, are harder than others, and admittedly, some of our lives are really hard at times. Okay? Real struggles, you know? Struggles to not go back into sin, to not get carried away, to not take easy ways out, you know? Wouldn't it be easier to just be drunk until Jesus comes? You wouldn't have to worry about anything. You don't even think about anything, right? Just be on drugs, just be drunk, just go party, just go have bad relationships or do whatever. I mean, it could be easier than dragging yourself to church, okay? Then reading your Bible, then praying for other people, then ministering to other people, showing up at events, going soul winning. I mean, soul winning from a carnal perspective is really just a complete waste, right? I mean, I guess you get a little exercise, but I mean, in all reality, I mean, what do you get out of soul winning carnally, right? It's just you're spending your own time, your own money, your own gas, and you get insulted a lot. I mean, I guarantee you get insulted more than you get thanked. Sometimes you get thanked, you know, some people are appreciative of you preaching the gospel. More people are just really pissed at me for having knocked on their door, especially me and especially near steadfast baptism. I'm just saying FYI, all right? A lot of people don't like it. But at the end of the day, you know, we're not doing these things to reap carnal rewards. We're doing them to be pleasing unto the Lord, reap spiritual benefit. And ultimately, you know, the apostle Paul's main motivation was just souls. He just wanted to get someone's aid. And you know what? How much is it worth a soul not going to hell? I mean, how much suffering is worth saving one more person? Because no matter what you experience on this earth, it's not even five seconds in hell. Not even one second in hell. We don't even know how horrible that is. And you know, God is gonna put us through difficult tests and trials so that he can reward us greatly. So if you say, man, I have a really hard journey. Well, think about the fact that you have a big reward then up there in heaven. And think about the joys of being with the people in heaven that you pulled out of the fire that can look and say, thanks. I bet they'll be appreciative when you're in heaven. I bet they'll like it in heaven. I guarantee Jesus Christ is gonna be thankful for you pulling those people out of the fire. And he's gonna reward you greatly for it. And that's why we're in this battle. That's why we're in this fight is for people. You have to love people. You know, if you don't love people, then just go live a selfish life. Go do it. Just love yourself. You know, we're not supposed to be lovers of ourselves. We're supposed to lay down our lives just like Christ laid down his heart. And as we read this passage, Paul comes to the realization that if he's gonna get a lot of people saved, he's gonna have to change his approach, okay? Verse 17, it says, and it came to pass that after three days, Paul called the chief of the Jews together. And when they were coming together, he said unto the men and brethren, though I have committed nothing against the people or customs of our fathers, yet was I delivered prisoner from Jerusalem into the hands of the Romans, who when they had examined me would have let me go because there was no cause of death in me. But when the Jews spake against it, I was constrained to appeal unto Caesar, not that I had ought to accuse my nation of. For this cause, therefore, have I called for you, to see you and to speak with you, because that for the hope of Israel, I am bound with this chain. So according to Paul, why is he a prisoner? The hope of Israel. What's the hope of Israel? Jesus Christ, for the gospel, is he bound. Verse 21, and they said unto him, we neither received letters out of Judea concerning thee, neither any of the brethren that came showed or spake any harm of thee. We desire to hear of thee what thou thinkest. For as concerning this sect, we know that everywhere it is spoken against. Notice how Christianity in the Bible is described by the world. It's a cult and everyone speaks against it. Okay? Now, if we think about Christianity in this world, right? Is Christianity in this world abhorred? Honestly, no. Because it's actually the most popular religion in the world, especially if you include Catholics. If you include Catholics and Christians, I mean, Christianity is your number one religion in the world, and especially in America, I mean, almost everybody we run into, they're a Christian, right? But here's the thing. Let's compare that to this time frame. They don't really have Christianity, but you know what they do have is Judaism, right? In a sense, right? They have the Jews religion, they have the synagogues. And here's the thing. Does everybody hate the synagogue? No, not necessarily. It's a pretty popular religion, it's pretty well known, and it's not even necessarily a abhorrent religion to the world because if you think about it, the Romans are often trying to do things to please the Jews, they're working in coordination with the Jews, they make deals with the Jews. So obviously it's not a religion that can't get along with politics or with the world to some degree. Obviously they might not quite like each other personally or something, but for whatever reason, they're not like, you know, pouring them into trying to destroy them or anything like that. It's an acceptable religion to be out there, okay? And if we look at the world today, you know, mainstream Christianity is a popular thing, it's a cool thing, you know, it's Jesus, man. Wear a crucifix, have a cross or whatever. But real Christianity, you know what it's gonna look like? People are gonna call it a cult and they're gonna speak against it, okay? And you know what the real church is doing the real work? You know what they're called often? A cult, a sect, and they know everyone speaks against it. Why? That's what real Christianity should look like. Real Christianity should not be loved of the world because you know what, real Christianity is representing Christ. And let me give you a secret, Christ was not loved of the world. It's a secret only because no one knows that apparently. But it's not a secret in your Bible, the Bible just manifests it, it's really clear, it's called the Gospel of Jesus, he died. People killed him, they didn't like him. They killed him, especially the Jews. And another interesting parallel is how much the Jews hate real Christianity, really following the Lord, is the same way that Christians hate real Christianity. They get so angry and so mad. In fact, the people that have persecuted me the worst and just the biggest problems I have is always coming from fake Christians. There's obviously like the devils, minions, there's obviously like the dogs, okay? And they cause problems. And you don't hear me wrong. What I am saying is like the worst problems always coming from the fake Christians. They're the ones that are really riling people up. They're the ones that actually have a lot of cleverness and they know how to rig the system and they have people and connections and they're making deals. I mean the dogs, all they do is bark and pee on themselves and eat their own feces and stuff like that, eat their own vomit. Whereas these fake Christians, they're real dangerous and they're the real opposition. But for Paul, it was hard for him because he's thinking that the Jews are great. He's not realizing the Jews are not that great. Now, what's interesting about this chapter is they're saying we don't know anything about you, right? They're saying we didn't get any letters. We didn't hear anything about you. So they're a fresh audience in the sense that they haven't had anybody sit down and just open up the Bible and preach Jesus unto them yet. They're a completely fresh audience. They have no bias towards Paul, outside of the fact that he's locked up. I mean, he's got a ball and chain around his neck or his leg or something. But it's kind of a brand new audience. So you would think like, oh, okay, I have an opportunity to get these people saved. But you know, there's a common denominator between people that don't like the gospel, Jews. And we've been learning in the Bible what happens. When he goes to a city, they've never heard of Jesus. It's a fresh start, but who doesn't like it? The Jews. And then you go to a new city, and guess who doesn't like it there? The Jews. And who doesn't like it in this city? The Jews. It's like, hmm, maybe there's a pattern that Jews don't like the gospel. Because again, if it wasn't a religious thing, wouldn't you say like in some cities the Jews loved it, in this other city the Jews hated it. You kind of have a mixed bag, right? Especially since they're not being tainted by other Jews necessarily or other people. It's like, why is it every single time you go to a certain city, all the Jews hate it? It's because it's a spiritual issue. And those that are of the Jew, they weren't following the truth. They're basically hard-hearted, stiff-necked, rebellious. They're of their father, the devil, okay? And so it doesn't matter when you show them the truth. They're going to manifest who they truly are. They're of the devil. Now, not every Jew. Some Jews believed, obviously. But if we keep reading, he says in verse 23, And when they had appointed him a day, there came many to him, and to his lodging, to whom he expounded and testified, the kingdom of God, persuading them concerning Jesus, both out of the law of Moses and out of the prophets, from morning to leaving. You think I preach long. I mean, this guy's preaching all day, okay? It says in verse number 24, And some believed the things which were spoken, and some believed not. When they agreed not among themselves, they departed after that. Paul had spoken one word. So some did believe, okay? But in general, they pretty much all rejected, because it says, And when they agreed not among themselves, they departed. Now, when did they depart? It's interesting how this is read. It's gonna then explain what happened before they ended up departing. They departed because of, it says after that Paul had spoken one word. So they're saying, at some point, Paul ends up saying something specific, and that's why they all left, okay? So what was it that Paul said? Well spake the Holy Ghost by Isaias, the prophet, unto our fathers, saying, Go unto this people and say, Hearing ye shall hear and shall not understand, and seeing ye shall see and not perceive. For the heart of this people is waxed gross, and their ears will dull of hearing, and their eyes have they closed, lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them. Be it known therefore unto you, that the salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles, and that they will hear it. So he's like, after he said, Hey, you guys are stiff necked, you guys can't hear, you guys can't understand, you guys can't see, but for some reason these Gentiles get it, okay? As soon as they said that, it says this, verse 29, and when he had said these words, the Jews departed, and had great reasoning among themselves. So he's basically like, you guys don't get it, you don't hear, you can't see, but the Gentiles get it, and when he said that, all the Jews just laughed. They're just like, we'll see you later, nuts to you now, right? And it's like, we conclude the book of Acts with what thought? The Jews are not receptive, but the Gentiles will hear it. Now keep your finger, I'll show you that quote in Isaiah real quick. Isaiah chapter six. Isaiah chapter number six, right before the book of Jeremiah, kind of right there towards the middle of your Bible. Isaiah chapter six, look at verse eight, the Bible reads, also I heard the voice of the Lord saying, whom shall I send, and who will go for us, then said, I hear my send me. And he said, go and tell this people, hear ye indeed, but understand not, and see indeed, but perceive not, make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes, lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed. So all the way back in Isaiah, it's already prophesied that the Jews were gonna be a very stiff neck, stubborn, rebellious people, and when it says they see, but they don't perceive, and then they hear, but they don't understand, it's saying that, it's not that Paul didn't open his mouth, and say like Isaiah 53, and show them, you know, that he was wounded, and bruised for us, and you know, he's despised, and it wasn't that he preached, it wasn't that he preached the gospel unto them, it's that it just was, it just went over their head. They just, you know, you quote John 3 16 to them, and they're just like, go to church, go to church, you know. The Bible says eternal life, can you lose that? Oh yeah. It's eternal. Can you lose something that's eternal? No. Can you lose eternal life? Yes. You know. Salvation's a gift. Are gifts free? Yeah. Is the gift of God free? Oh, you gotta pay for that. You know, it's like, it just, you know, and isn't it crazy when you meet people like that? You're just thinking like, wow, like, what's wrong with you? You know. But that's just how it is. That's what it was like with all the Jews. It was just, you know, they just couldn't get it. And so Paul's just finally at his wits end, and he's filled with the Holy Ghost, and the Bible floods his mind, and he's just like, I get it. You guys won't get saved, but the Gentiles will. Okay. And if you think about it, this is a great ending to the book of Acts, because what's our next book? Romans. And then you have what? Corinthians, and Galatians, and Ephesians, and Philippians, and Colossians, and Thessalonians, and Timothy, and Titus, and Philemon, right? Then eventually you get to Hebrews, but he's just kind of like kicking the Hebrews, he's like, come on guys, get off of that stupid Hebrew stuff or whatever. Right? Why the book just, rest of the New Testament's all about who? All about the Gentiles. The whole Bible's about the Gentiles at this point, because the Jews just rejected it, you know? And basically, they were cut out of the branch, and we were graphed in, okay? They were tossed out, and it wasn't that they couldn't have stayed in that branch, it's just they chose to reject the Lord, and so they were just literally tossed out. Go back to Acts chapter 13, for a second. I want to show you that this was a theme in the Bible. Acts chapter 13, look at verse 43. Now when the congregation was broken up, many of the Jews and religious proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas, who speaking to them, persuaded them to continue in the grace of God. The next Sabbath day came almost the whole city together to hear the word of God. When the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy and spake against those things, which were spoken by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming. Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold and said, it was necessary that the word of God should have first been spoken to you, but seeing he put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles. Now we could have just read that, and it would have been like, now let's go to Romans. But for some reason, Paul just didn't get it yet, okay? So then we go to chapter 18, okay? And look at verse number five. And when Silas and Timotheus were come from Macedonia, Paul was pressed in the spirit and testified to the Jews that Jesus was Christ. I thought you gave up on the Jews, Paul, what happened? Verse six, and when they opposed themselves, and blasphemed, that sounds familiar, and blasphemed, he shook his raiment and said unto them, your blood be upon your own heads, I am clean. From henceforth, I will go unto the Gentiles. And then we keep reading the book of Acts, don't we? And it's like, it's like he just couldn't get it. It just, he just wanted to get him, he just so wanted to get him saved, right? And we see this in the book of Romans. Look at chapter 10, go to Romans chapter 10 for a moment. Look at verse one, brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved. He's just like, I just want Jews to get saved. In fact, I mean, he's so extreme to this that he would be willing for himself to be accursed. Go back to chapter nine. I say the truth in Christ, I lay not. My conscience also bring me witness in the Holy Ghost that I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart for I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen, according to the flesh, were Israelites. I mean, isn't that extreme? I mean, this guy just loves Jews, he just loves the Israelites, he just loves his brethren, and he wants them to be saved so much, but you know what, you can take a horse to the lake, you can stick his head in the water, but you can't force him to drink. And you know, Paul took those Jews to the lake, you know, the fountain of life, and it was gushing, everlasting water, but the Jews just wouldn't drink it. They just wouldn't come freely and take a drink of the everlasting life that Jesus is offering them. And it's a sad reality, but you know what, here's the thing, sometimes it's important to realize that so you just move on to the next person. And you know what, here's a good message when soul winning, when it's going like this, you just go to the next door. Go back to Acts 28, I think there's a few verses I didn't read there. It says in verse number 30, And Paul dwelt two whole years in his own hired house and received all that came in on him, preaching the kingdom of God and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ, or the Lord Jesus, yeah, the Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence, no man forbidding him. So, you know, after the Jews left, he still got to preach the word of God, he still got to get a lot of people saved. And you know, we don't wanna die on some hill trying to get one person saved that's just not that interested. We have to realize we have to move on, go to 1 Thessalonians 2, and you know, what God, Christian missionaries would get over Israel, my goodness, it's like, all they care about is sending missionaries to Israel. And it's like, have you read Acts? Have you read the, I mean, go to Mexico, they wanna get saved, right? Go to your neighborhood, they wanna get saved. Go to the Bahamas, go to the Caribbean, go to Africa, go to the Philippines, go anywhere else. And you realize people wanna get saved, go to Israel, it's just literally like pounding your head against the wall, okay? Well, they're God's chosen people. What does the Bible say about them? Look at what it says in verse 14. 1 Thessalonians 2, verse 14, For ye brethren became followers of the churches of God, which in Judea are in Christ Jesus. For ye also have suffered like things of your own countrymen, even as they have of the Jews, who both killed the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and have persecuted us, and they please not God. Maybe, can we get every Zionist in the world to just underline that phrase? They please not God, and are contrary to all men, forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles, that they might be saved to fill up their sins all the way for the wrath has come upon them to the uttermost. You know what? God does not love the Jew over the Gentile, he loves both. But you know what? Those that have not believed in Jesus Christ, God's not pleased with, whether they be Jew or Gentile. God doesn't think like, well, I'm really mad at the Gentile unbelievers, but I kinda like these Jew unbelievers, you know? No, no, no. He doesn't like either. He's not pleased with either. The wrath of God is abiding on them. They have to believe in Jesus Christ. God didn't like the Jews that killed Jesus or their prophets, okay? He destroyed them in, say, 8070, all right? And scattered them in the whole world. And notice that the Bible says they're not only contrary to God, they're contrary to all men. That's why the Jews have literally been kicked out of virtually every nation that they were scattered into, and now they're back in their own, and we have to support them, right? America is their greatest ally. But that's silly, because we're supposed to be a Christian nation. You know what? We're a fake Christian nation. And isn't it interesting that the fake Christians who they love, Jews. Isn't that kind of our full circle? Paul's persecuted by the Jews or whatever. And you know what? Fake Christians love the Jews, and you know what? They persecute us. And they hate God's real people, and they really hate the sons of God. They despise him just like Cain despised Abel, because his brother was righteous. And he wasn't righteous on his own account. He was righteous because of God's imputed righteousness through the blood of Jesus Christ. And that's what makes us brethren. That's what makes us saved, is what Jesus did for us. And we need to go out and preach his gospel and his glory to all those that will listen. Try to find the receptive people. How do we conclude acts? Go where the receptive are. Don't beat your head against the wall. Try to find people that want to get saved. We're not gonna go to the rich Jewish neighborhood in Houston first and start preaching them the gospel. We're gonna go to the poor slums over here, and we're gonna get some Gentiles saved. You know what I mean? Let's close in prayer. Thank you, Heavenly Father, so much for this chapter and this book of Acts. I pray that we would take the lessons that were learned here and apply them in our own lives. I thank you that you give us all the instructions that we need. I pray that we would just have the humility to realize that we need to be encouraged by our brethren and come to church and read our Bibles and realize that we can't do it on our own, that we need constant encouragement and strength. And I pray that anybody in this room that's going through hard times, going through a difficult time, that you would just fill them with your Holy Spirit, that you knew their joy, that you would help them realize their sense of purpose in this life. And even though they may continue going through struggles and difficulty and persecution, I pray that you just give them the courage to do so for the elect's sake, to get people saved, and that we'd realize that that's really our goal. After getting saved, our goal is just to bring as many people with us as we can. All the other stuff in our life, money and all these other things, just vain. There's no point into them. We should just try to live lives that are pleasing unto the Lord and try to get as many people saved. And I just pray that we would have the right heart and the right mentality and that we just love the lost. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Let's do our handouts again. Last song we'll sing, Holy, Holy, Holy. And our handouts, Holy, Holy, Holy, there on the first. Holy, holy, holy, Lord God almighty. Early in the morning our song shall rise to thee. Early in the morning our song shall rise to thee. Holy, holy, holy, merciful and mighty. God in three persons, blessed Trinity. Blessed Trinity. Holy, holy, holy, all the saints adore thee, casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea. Cherubim and Seraphim, falling down before thee, whichward and north and evermore shall be. Holy, holy, holy, though the darkness hide thee. Though the eye of sinful man thy glory may not see. Only thou art holy, there is none beside thee. Perfect and barren, love and purity. Holy, holy, holy, Lord God almighty. All thy works thou praise thy name in earth and sky and sea. Holy, holy, holy, merciful and mighty. God in three persons, blessed Trinity. God bless you, you are dismissed. Stay warm.