Bible Study: August 25, 2021

Last time we were together, we finished Acts 12 and got into the first few verses of Acts 13.

Just to refresh all our memories of what we talked about last time, we were talking about Apostle Peter. In the chapters 10 and 11, you'll recall about the calling of Cornelius and the three sheets and Peter's revelation of God to Peter that he was going to be calling Gentiles as well as Jews into the truth. As we got into chapter 12, we ran into Herod. King Herod was not a good king. He was looking to please the Jews for political reasons. We remember that he killed the Apostle James. When he saw that he pleased the Jews, he arrested Peter, put Peter in prison, and then we read about the miraculous delivery from prison that God brought about from Peter.

But then at the end of chapter 12, we talked a little bit about Herod as well. He had this incident and this relationship with Tyre and Sidon there in that territory. We went back into Ezekiel 28 and looked at the scriptures about Satan in relation to Tyre and Sidon and how Satan's spirit can infest the rulers of the world and the kings of the world. They do the things of Satan, and we read about that and the not pleasant death of Herod. We ended there with chapter 12. As we move to chapter 13, we're going to find the rest of the book of Acts is more centered on the work of the apostle Paul and Barnabas as they go into the Gentile areas and begin preaching the gospel there. So last time we went through the first five verses of Acts 13, and we talked about the church in Antioch. Can you recall from a map I put on last time, and I'll put it up again here in a little bit, we talked about that there's two Antiochs. The first Antioch was in Syria, the other Antioch is in Pisidia, and we'll get to that a little bit later.

In chapter 13, we see that the church in Antioch was kind of a melting pot. There were prophets, and you remember what the biblical definition of prophets are. There were prophets from Jerusalem, there were prophets from, let me see it, from Niger, there was someone from Cyrene, an Aeon who had been brought up in the company of Herod in the upper class, if he will. So you see Antioch as God begins calling people is kind of a melting pot of people there. It's not just Jerusalem, it's not just Jews, but it's people that God is bringing together. He's beginning to make the people out of individuals who were not a people before, all bound together by his Holy Spirit as you and I are. So I won't read all through the verse 5 again. It talks about where they were going. Well, let's pick it up in verse 6, and we come to Paul, and they come to the style of Paphos, and they encounter another sorcerer. If you remember back in chapter 8, we encountered Simon, he's called Simon Magus. He was a sorcerer, a means magician.

These magicians at this time would just do miracles, so people would look to them as godly figures, almost as if they were supernatural in a way. And I guess as Simon Magus, you know, as we learned in chapter 8, had developed this following of people who thought, wow, he is just, he must be, he must be of the gods because he can just do all these things that we can't explain. And so it was with this false prophet that in verse 6 of chapter 13 they come across. His name there, it says, is, and the Bible says he was a false prophet, the Jew whose name was Bar Jesus. Bar Jesus means son of Jesus. Jesus, you know, really Joshua back at that time was, you know, was a common name in Israel. So this, this man had that, had that name about him, the same as Jesus, which is interesting. And he happened to be the prophet of the proconsul there in that area. Now, proconsuls were appointees, I guess, of the king when you look and see what that position was. You know, we could almost replace that with governor today, and we know what a governor is. But he was a man who was high up in the, in the political system there in, in Rome. And he was over this area in, in Paphos, which was just so just on the southwestern corner of Cyprus, we'll see here in a minute. But here's Sergius Paulus. He has, he has this prophet that is with him.

And I guess the false prophet would almost see Sergius as his client, right? He's very protectable of him. And I'm sure if you were a prophet in that day and you had yourself allied with a government official, there were a lot of favors that were coming to you, coming your way, as well as all the acclaim and the pride to go with it. But this is, this is someone that, you know, the governor, the proconsul Sergius Paulus looks to me.

And the Bible makes the comment in verse seven that Sergius is an intelligent man. He wasn't one who, you know, just pulled, you know, when it says an intelligent man, one that would be given to have an open mind. I want to hear what is going on. I want to hear your story. And, and doubtless he had heard about the gospel of Jesus Christ. He had heard about Paul and Barnabas and, and, and this gospel that was going around, and he wanted to hear something about it from, from Paul and Barnabas themselves. So he calls for them and they come, they come and preach to you.

Now, doubtless, doubtless Paul spent a lot of time, you know, speaking to Sergius, Sergius, going through the whole story of Jesus Christ, his calling, the whole things that we've read before, the gospel, and proving that he is the Son of God. And as he, I don't know how to pronounce it, Elimus or Elionus in verse 8, who's the same man as as far Jesus up here in verse 6, as he hears it, as he hears it, he all of a sudden, I don't know about all of a sudden, but he begins to see, well, Paul is a threat to me. Paul and Barnabas are a threat to me. Sergius is listening to this story and he probably realizes this is a pretty credible story. If you're going to follow someone, if someone's going to be your God, it's probably not going to be Elimus, it's probably going to be Jesus Christ who has all these, all this prophetic support and the story that, you know, backed by witnesses that Paul is talking about. So Sergius, we find him beginning to see, not beginning, seeing Paul is a real challenge. If I don't do something with Paul and Barnabas, I'm going to lose my standing. And so he does with what people do. He begins to counter everything they say. He's going to contradict everything they say. He's going to challenge everything they say.

He's got to keep his name in there with Sergius, rather than just allowing Sergius to go and follow the truth that he's hearing. And it's a common thing that we see. And Paul, as he is preaching here, he begins to realize there's not anything he can say with Elimus there that Elimus is going to put any stock into. He is simply there and his mind is set. He is going to challenge anything Paul says and for the wrong reason. He's going to keep his client, Sergius, right? And so we, sometimes in our lives, you know, we're going to run into people who will hear the truth and they recognize it's the truth. They can't argue against it from any biblical standpoint. They can't come up with any scriptures that will disprove anything that you say, but they simply don't want to hear it. For whatever reason that may be. Simply they may not want to change. Simply they may not want to do what God says because it's going to change their lifestyle, maybe change their job. They have to give up something on the Sabbath, something with family, something they like to do. Whatever reason, they're going to just be obstinate that we will not listen to it. And this is the situation that Paul runs into with Elimus. Now, as we go through the book of Acts, you know, we've been talking about the very many things that we encounter here that we can learn and that we see God commends the apostles and the disciples of the early New Testament church that we should be building into our lives. If God commends something, it's what he wants us to do, too. And we learn something about personalities along the way as well. So Paul, as he's a newer apostle here, as he's faced with Elimus, he sees this man who is simply not going to listen anymore. And you can imagine, as you've been in conversations with people who may not just be in a religion, but people who, no matter what you say, they simply aren't going to listen to it. And they're no matter what the facts are. We actually live in a world like that today. You know, as there's some people who are adamant that everyone should wear masks, and they're not going to hear anything. We have an equal number of people who say masks don't do anything, and they're not going to change their mind no matter what studies you come up with. Anything in the world today, you can have people and whatever the facts are, they simply aren't going to listen. So if you realize there's no reason to be having this argument because you're not going to change your mind, I'm not going to change my mind. Here in the case with Paul, this is a religious, you know, scriptural discussion they're having, but Paul comes to the realization this man's not going to listen. So in verse 9 here, we see, well, in verse 8, you know, it tells us exactly why Elimus is withstanding and opposing Paul.

Elimus the sorcerer withstood Paul and Barnabas, seeking to turn the proconsul away from the faith.

He simply didn't want him to believe because he wanted to stay. He wanted his current position with with surgeries. And so Paul is frustrated. You can imagine how frustrated he is.

Saul, who was also called Paul, verse 9, filled with the Holy Spirit. So he was following what God was leading him to do. Filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at Elimus and said, O, full of all deceit and all fraud, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease perverting the straight ways of the Lord.

Wow, he calls him out. He calls him out. He just lets him have it because he sees the spirit that's in the spirit of resistance that's in Elimus is not of God at all. And so Paul lets him have it.

And Paul is going to encounter this type of people, as you and I will, down through his ministry. So he's learning in this incident that there's a time where it's just time to stop arguing. You can go on and argue for hours with some people. I know in my past, back a few years ago, there was a there were some people who would call the somewhat similar belief system that we have and another twist on it. And I got to the point after the second and third call, I thought I began to realize, okay, you're of this belief because I could tell by the scriptures they were giving and the questions they were asking where they were going. The first one I must have spent hours on the line with.

Finally, it came to the same point, to the same frustration that Paul did. This is going absolutely nowhere. You're not listening to a word I say. You're ignoring the scriptures. You're throwing scriptures out, but you're taking them out of context. Boom, boom, boom. They finally hang up.

I came to the realization after seeing where the conversation was going, it's not going anywhere.

I'm not going to waste my time anymore on this and whatever. And Paul comes to the same thing.

Now, it's a lesson for us to learn. And I think as Paul was instructing Timothy, take time to turn back to the book of Timothy, 1 Timothy. As he's instructing Timothy, a young minister, he talks about some of these things. So, this is instructive to us as well.

Because sometimes we think it is God's will that we would just spend three, four, six, eight hours arguing with people where simply their mind is absolutely closed.

And it's not going to profit anyone. So, if we look at 1 Timothy, 1 Timothy 1, and verse... Am I the right place? Verse Timothy 1 and verse...

Okay, let me get my glasses here. I'm obviously missing something here.

Must be 2 Timothy. Hold on. I had it right this afternoon. I'm not really sure what I did here.

So, let's go over there. Let's go to... Oh, I see. I see. Oh, yeah. 1 Timothy 6. 1 Timothy 6.

1 Timothy 6 and verse 3. If anyone teaches otherwise...

I don't think that's it either, but okay. Well, but this is in the same vein. If anyone teaches otherwise, and is not consent to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which accords with godliness, he's proud, knowing nothing, but is obsessed with disputes and arguments over words, from which come envy, strife, reviling, evil suspicions, useless wranglings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain. And he says, from such withdrawal yourself. Well, this would be what Paul was encountering with elements. This guy was only arguing for sake of his personal gain, but he was devoid of any truth. And what was going on there was a complete waste of time that was going absolutely nowhere. If we find ourselves in those situations, it's right, too, to just depart from those and not to let it go on, go on and on and on. Let me check something here.

Mr. Shaby.

Yes, sir.

I think that goes along with that also, is just remembering the fact that God's the one that opens people's minds to understand the truth. And I know for me, when I was coming into the church, I argued with my friends, I argued with my family, till we were all blue in the face, trying to convince them that they were wrong and trying to convince them of the truth. And if God's not flipping that switch, then it's not going to... it doesn't do any good to just sit there and keep arguing so that emotions get riled up and people get angry.

You're absolutely right. If God's not opening their minds, no matter how much talking you do, it's not going to open their minds. It has to be God who opens minds, exactly. And when we see it's not happening, you know, we can't think it's our fault. We're not saying the right words. It's just like God's will at that time. I do see where I was going to go in 1 Timothy. Let's go back to verse 4 of 1 Timothy 1. He says to Timothy, in his opening epistle here, in opening words, he says, Don't give heed to fables and endless genealogies. What do those do? Those things that are kind of away from the Word of God that just can be a lot of conversation but don't end anywhere.

They cause division rather than godly edification, which is in faith. So he says, don't, you know, don't do it. Don't participate in this idle talk because what you do is sometimes make the matters worse than if you just walk away and people know exactly, you know, where you stand. In verse chapter 4, verse 1, the Spirit expressly says that in the latter times, some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies and hypocrisy, and having their own conscience seared with a hot iron.

And then he lists some of the things, some of the tangents people can go off on, even by looking at the Word of God that they'll take them way up, you know, take them right out of the church, forbidding to marry, commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. And if we thought about it for a while, we could probably come up with some of the doctrines that we've heard, where people have spun something up and left the church because they have given heed to other people that are talking.

You know, in John's epistles, in first, second, and third John, he reminds us, just keep your nose in the Word of God. Keep your nose in truth. You know, back then, in second John, he makes the comment, don't even let people come to your door with a false doctrine, don't know Jesus Christ, don't know the truth, don't even let them in your house. And I've mentioned several times, you know, I know in sermons that, you know, that includes the internet. So many times people will get taken away by something they read on the internet, some little, what they think of some nugget of truth that can't be supported by the Bible, but it's like their minds get closed when they buy these things.

And it's a very dangerous thing. So when God warns us, stick with the truth, stick with the Bible, read, you know, read in what you hear, compare it to the Bible, and follow what the Bible says. And don't be looking for a new truth and new ideas elsewhere. God will lead us into the truth as he is ready, and as his spirit will lead us there. In 2 Timothy 2, verse 14, you know, Paul again reminds Timothy in this letter, he says, Remind them of these things, charging them before the Lord not to strive about words to no profit, to the ruin of the hearers.

You know, so there isn't always beneficial to go into these endless arguments, because sometimes it draws people further away, and they entrench themselves so much, and even others who may be hearing into a way where there's a point of no return, to strive about words to no profit, to the ruin of the hearers.

You know, we want to be cognizant of that. Down in chapter 1, verse 23, he says, Avoid foolish and ignorant disputes, knowing they generate strife. And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel. You know, a lot of times when you get into these things where it's, you know what the truth of the Bible is, and the other person is just simply rejecting it and not having any part of it. You know, it devolves into a quarrel because tempers get heated, and once, you know, but when there's, when there's the truth and people are receiving and they have the Spirit, we come to a chord when we look at the Scriptures.

And when there's this constant consternation between the two, it's time to, you know, back off. A servant of the Lord must not quarrel, but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility, correcting those who are in opposition. That means stating what the Bible says, making it clear what the Bible says, and leaving it at that if God perhaps will grant them repentance so that they may know the truth. Over in chapter four, chapter four, verse three, the time will come. You know, chapter three talks about the attitudes that are stamped on the earth in the end times, the last stage, you know, each of which these attitudes we would find in our world today, but in verse three going on, he says, for the time will come when they will not endure some doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers.

You know, this is what I want to believe. I will find someone who will tell me that I'm right. So I will have someone that will show me a scripture of the Bible and take this verse and prove to me what I want to do because I'm going to create my own will and pretend this the will of God.

According to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they'll heap up for themselves teachers and they will turn their ears away from the truth and be turned aside to fables.

And it's a very dangerous world we live in from every aspect these days, and certainly the messages that are out there, you know, when Christ gives us so many admonitions, he says, don't be deceived.

Even the messages that will come out from other churches could be very similar to what the truth is, but we have to know the truth of God to be able to follow the truth and not get lured away by something that appeals to our own personal senses and what we would want. We wouldn't want the word to get the God to say. Brother Shelby. Yes, sir. Before you, I'm going back to chapter 2 okay in verse 26. It says in this translation that they may wake up and escape from the devil's snare and have been taken captive by him to do his will.

Oh yeah, I didn't even read that. Yeah, very good. Yeah, very good. Yep.

Escape the snare of the devil, having been taken by him to do his will. You know, we can't forget.

We can't forget Satan is alive and well, and his message can be quite captivating if we let it be there. Yeah. Yeah, good catch, Savior. Okay, chapter 3, last verse, but something I think that we can take out of this, you know, that we should be paying attention to in verse chapter 3 verse 6.

It says, For this sort are those who creep into households and make captives of gullible women, loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts, always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. That's an interesting way that Paul puts that. They're filled with knowledge. They can turn to the scriptures. They can quote scriptures. They can memorize scriptures, but they never come to the knowledge of the truth. Now, what he's saying there is there's something that can befall all of us if we're not careful. You know, it is important that we know the Bible. It's important that we understand the flow of the Bible, that we read all of the Bible. It's important that we understand the message of the Bible, and as God's Spirit leads us to truth and understanding, that's all great. But if we don't apply the truth, it's basically useless in God's eyes to us, because the conversion is about putting into practice in our lives what we learn. Knowing doesn't mean anything, really, in the scope of it. It might make us feel pride to be able to say, oh, I know what you're talking about, that whole scripture, you know, this and that and whatever. But what God has called us to do is to actually do the truth. You know, we've talked about that many times. I was looking at the commentaries just to see what they had to say about this, and I thought Adam Clark had a pretty good idea, a pretty good explanation of it. So I put that up on the screen there, because it's something that we need to be, we just need to be cognizant of in our lives. You know, we, where God is going to open our minds to more truth as time goes on. And sometimes we can get stuck in an old thing and say, no, that can't be and whatever, but we have to follow what God says and then adjust our lives to what His will is, as, you know, He opens our minds to it. Here's what Adam Clark says. It says, there are many professors, relating to this verse 7, there are many professors of Christianity still who answer the above description. They hear repeatedly here, it may be, good sermons, but as they seldom meditate on what they hear, they derive little profit from the ordinances of God. They have no more grace now than they had several years ago, though hearing all the while, and perhaps not wickedly departing from the Lord. They don't meditate. They don't think. They don't reduce what they hear to practice.

Therefore, even under the preaching of an apostle, they could not become wise to salvation.

And that's an important thing. You know, when we read the Bible, it's very good to read it and study it, but there are times that we just have to stop and think about what we've read. We have to give God the time and His Holy Spirit in our minds, the time to contemplate what there has been, and give Him time, if you will, to kind of speak to us or His Holy Spirit to help us understand what it is that He's saying. How does this apply into our lives? How do we do this? How does this work in the 21st century? How does this apply into our lives as compared to what they were doing in the first century? Without meditation, without taking the time, without contemplating the Scriptures, we are just accumulating knowledge. It's the meditation. It's allowing the time to focus on these things and letting God, letting God's Spirit in us lead us to the change in our lives that we need to be. I also picked this up from another commentary, and I thought he did a very good job, too, of explaining this verse. He says many modern versions change the knowledge in verse 7 to acknowledge. So, they're always learning and never able to come to acknowledge the truth.

He gives this guy his name. He says, regarding this Greek word, in the New Testament it often refers to knowledge which very powerfully influences the form of religious life.

Now, in times past, we've talked many times about the New Testament word, pistoio, which is translated, belief. And believe in the Bible when we read it isn't the belief that we would have today. There was just all the kind of know that. That belief is such a deep belief that it leads us to a change in life. We can never read the same again. Like the belief in Jesus Christ should motivate us to something totally different than the lifestyle that we can no longer live the way we did before because we know Jesus Christ and we know who he is and we know what his plan is and we have to become like him, and we're motivated to do that. The same thing with the knowledge, coming to the knowledge of the truth. It's a deeper understanding, not just knowing the words, but knowing that those words are true, that they should change us. As it always says, it refers to knowledge which very powerfully influences the form of religious life, a knowledge laying claim to personal involvement. It hits us all directly and personally. Put another way, this word indicates not mere agreement with or admission of truth newly found, but of truth already affecting the seeker's life. The knowledge these women received was not affecting their lives for the better. Our challenge in life is not to become a tremendous reservoir of information that indeed may be true, but to control and rightly use what we already have while continuing to seek yet more. We acknowledge truth only when we use it in our lives, something these ladies were not doing. And he says, ladies, but something that people are not doing. You and I, those are words directly to us. We know the truth. They need, and if we're acknowledging the truth, and if we're believing it, we have to have our lives changed and affected by the words that we read. So, when Paul is talking here in Timothy, and he gives us this very big lesson, you know, that here is encouched in his words in chapter three for the end time, the very times that we live in. And back in the first century, if we go back to Acts 13, it was a time that they were learning. He was going to be talking here in chapter 13 to a group of Jews in the synagogue we're going to see who knew the Bible very well. Probably better than you and I did. They probably had whole sections of the Bible memorized. If someone said a verse, they could probably repeat that verse back to you verbatim.

But they were not allowing the truth that Paul was going to teach them to affect their lives at all.

So, if we go back to Acts 13, you know, we have this elements who is just simply not having it.

He's got his own ideas and simply, I will not listen. I'm not going to accept it. And he's got his own reasons in mind. Our reasons for not accepting something that's clearly in the Word of God may be the same as Elohimos. If it has to do with a job, it might be something different. If it's something else that we just say, you know what, I just don't want to do that. I simply am not going to accept that, and I'll justify it in any way I can. But here's Elohimos. He has blinded himself.

You know, he's heard Paul's discourse on Jesus Christ proving to Sergius who he is.

He's blinded himself. And Paul, if you will, pronounces this little curse, if you will, on Elohimos. He's made himself spiritually blind, and so he's going to be physically blind here for a little bit of time in verse 11. And now Paul says to him, indeed the hand of the Lord is upon you.

You shall be blind, not seeing the sun for a time. And immediately a darkness fill on him, and he went around seeking someone to lead him by the hand. Quite a witness to him. Then the proconsular, the governor believed. That's the word, pistoio, right? He got it. He understood what Paul was saying. He believed when he saw what had been done, being astonished at the teaching of the Lord. So he heard the words of the Lord. That was what, that was the word, that was the thing that astonished him. This is Jesus Christ. This is the Messiah. This is the Savior of the world.

He's been alive in our time. It was also mixed with this miracle as seeing Paul rebuke this man who was countering him every step of the way. And so we have no reason to believe that the proconsul didn't believe and changed his life. We have no indication he's not mentioned again in Scripture.

We hope he followed through on the belief that he had. So Paul, you know, after this incident, which is put in there, Paul and his party, they set sail again. So let me, as we're going to read through some, read through some cities here, let me put a map up for you again so you can kind of see what Paul's journey is. It says when Paul and his party set sail from Paphos, okay, that's down in the island of Cyprus over there on the western side. When they set sail from Paphos, they came to Perga and Pamphylia. That's pretty much north of where Paphos is. You can see that there. To Perga and Pamphylia and John, whose mark departed from them, returned to Jerusalem.

Now we don't know why Mark left at that time. No one really knows why. Maybe as Mark was seeing what was going on, you know, maybe it was just so overwhelming to him to see the work that he had been called to participate in and to be an assistant in there. Maybe he just needed time to go back and and assimilate everything that he had been seeing and gather the strength because later on we're going to see Mark come back. He's a very capable assistant to Barnabas. Peter speaks thoroughly of him and he wrote the book of Mark as well. Sometimes we just need to kind of assimilate what God is using us for and take some time to pause and ponder it and come back with the strength and commitment to do what God said. That may be what happened to Mark. We don't really really know. But when they were departed from Perga, which you see there, they came to Antioch and Pisidia. Now this is a different Antioch. You see Antioch of the Serio over there on the eastern side of the Mediterranean. Antioch and Pisidia there is to the north and they went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and sat down. And so on verse 15 we get a little bit of picture of what the service in a synagogue was like. You know, they read the law and the prophets. Today we have church services. We have sermonettes. We have sermons. We read directly from the Bible.

You know, they read directly from the law and the prophets. And then they had a little bit of time to discuss that. So as they finished the reading of the law and the prophets, the rulers of the synagogue said to them, saying, men and brethren, if you have any word of exhortation or any word of encouragement for the people, say on. You know, from time to time, you know, we have these discussion times too. These Bible studies are good times for discussion, you know, for people to kind of share ideas, comments, words of encouragement, or whatever. We don't do that every Sabbath during services, by the way that our custom has been. But once in a while, we do that after services and could do it more as occasions would suggest. But in verse 15, you know, Paul then stands up, and he begins teaching in the synagogue to the Jews that are assembled there. Now, they're not converts at that point. These are Jews, I guess Orthodox Jews at this point. Paul stood up, emotioning with his hand, he said, men of Israel and you who fear God, listen. So there's really two groups there. He's addressing the Jews that are there and the proselytes that are there.

Remember the proselytes who are named later, you know, they are converts to Judaism. Men of Israel and you who fear God, listen. And then he goes through kind of a history of Israel. Now, this is something as he's preaching that the people that are there in the synagogue know very well, and they agree with everything that he's going to say. They know well the history of Israel, they know Abraham, the whole nine yards, David, and Paul is going to go through the history because they're very familiar with the Bible, and then he's going to throw on them or hit them with the truth of Jesus Christ, the truth of the scriptures, and open their minds to some of the Psalms that are there that show Jesus Christ and the foretelling of Jesus Christ as the Messiah. So let's read through this.

Let's read through the words that he has, and we'll see a few things in here that maybe we will pause on, but you know the story as well because we know the story of Israel. Verse 17.

The God of this people, Israel, chose our fathers and exalted the people when they dwelt as strangers in the land of Egypt, and with an uplifted arm he brought them out of it. Now, for a time of about 40 years, he put up with their ways in the wilderness. Now, it's interesting the way, you know, Paul puts that or translated here, he put up with their ways. We know the story of Israel.

We know that they, you know, frankly irritated God on a number of locations. The guy would say over and over, this people is a stiff-necked people, they're rebellious people, they won't listen to me.

No matter how many miracles he did, no matter how many things he provided for them, they would still go against him and fail to believe. But God was patient with them. God tolerated them. God put up with them, if you will. Much like, you know, we might put up with our children, they might not always do the things, but we love them, and we put up with them, and God did the same thing. Now we know his plan with physical Israel, they didn't have the Holy Spirit, so they couldn't yield to God. And that's part of the lesson for us, that we may see God, and these, the people in ancient Israel had all these miracles and everything that God did, and they still didn't yield to him. Without his Holy Spirit, you know, we would be exactly what they were. So Paul puts it, you know, Paul puts it in that way. God put up with their ways in the wilderness.

In verse 19, when he had destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan, he distributed their land to them by 11. After that, he gave them judges for about 450 years until Samuel the prophet.

And afterward, they asked for a king, so God gave them Saul, the son of Pish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for 40 years. And when he removed Saul, he raised up for them David, as king, to whom also he gave testimony and said, I found David, the son of Jesse, a man after my own heart, who will do all my will. And there's a pretty good definition of what a man after God's own heart will do. He will learn to do what God says to do, and he will simply do it. He won't question, he won't say there's a better way, he won't worry about his welfare in the process, he will simply do it. No, Abraham, Abraham would have been a man after God's own heart as well. God doesn't specifically say that, but everything that Abraham, everything that God asked Abraham to do, Abraham did. As you read through the Bible, you know, he had this history of life that if God said, do something, he simply obeyed. And it led up to the ultimate test for Abraham when God said, now Abraham, I want you to take and I want you to sacrifice your son Isaac to me. And all that pattern of obedience and doing God's will led up to Abraham saying, yes, I'll do it. Didn't question him, didn't doubt it. He learned through the course of life that everything that God asks us to do is for a reason. Every event in our lives brings us, gives us an opportunity to become more who God wants us to be. It's an opportunity that he's building toward that final thing where he makes the determination that led us for Abraham and as for David, he would say, this is a man, this is a woman after my own heart. They trust me. No matter what I tell them to do, they'll walk through the lion's den. They'll go through the furnace of fire. They'll do whatever I say. They'll do whatever I say, because through life he leads us to that complete trust and faith in him. And that's what he says about David here, a man after my own heart who will do all my will. That's sure my goal, to come to that same faith and that same commitment to God and that same faith in him that no matter what faces us, we know that God wants what's best for us and what is happening to us and what we encounter is only designed to make us stronger and more loyal to him. Verse 23, from this man's seed, David's seed, according to the promise, God raised up for Israel a Savior, Jesus. After John, step beyond the Baptist, after John the Baptist had first preached before his coming the baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel. So he's now into modern history, if you will, with the people of Acts here. This is in their day and age. They have seen this happening. And as John was finishing his course, he said, who do you think I am? I am not he. I am not the Messiah. If behold, there comes one after me, the sandals of whose feet I am not worthy to lose. Now, it's interesting that, again, Paul says as John was finishing his course, you know, God had a purpose in mind for John. John, I think, has fulfilled that purpose as perfectly as a human could do under God's leadership and with his Holy Spirit. Jesus Christ, you know, when John was going to be beheaded, he said, you know, there's not a greater prophet born among women than John the Baptist. But there was a time, there was a time that John's life was going to end. When he was done preparing the way for Jesus Christ, God let him die. Not in a way that John the Baptist foresaw, you know, dying.

It wasn't part of his plan, you know, that when I'm done, when God is done with me, when I have shown God that I will do his will, I'm going to be beheaded, you know, to kind of please the King and his wife, and that's what we're going to do. But as God, you know, as he looks at you and me, he has a plan in mind for us. He knows who he wants us to become. And our job is to yield to him and let him mold us into who he wants to be. It's a different path for all of us. But there will come a time that our course is done, and God will say, you know, now I know. Now I know when he can sleep until the time of the resurrection and be resurrected, resurrected, you know, at the time of Jesus Christ's return. Paul was going to face this himself, you know, as we read later on in his epistles when he was in prison and he knew it was time for him to die. He had completed the job that God had given him to do, and he was at peace with it. I finished the race. I finished the race, and all of and you and I will do the same thing, and and they well know it as we, as we, you know, work up to our work up to the time of the end of our lives and when God has molded us and completed us into who he wants us to be. But he knew what his point place was, too. He knew he was there to prepare the way of Jesus Christ, and one of the things I remember always about John the Baptist is, is the humility that he had. You know, he had a following before Jesus Christ began his ministry. He had, you know, thousands that were coming to him, I guess, people coming to be baptized, listening to him, coming out to the Jordan River. He had disciples who were following him, and then as he saw Jesus Christ beginning his ministry, and his own disciples were saying, you know, look at this man, look at this man, and and John the Baptist said, he must increase, and I must decrease. You know, he could have been tempted at that time thinking, you know what, I kind of like the following of God. I kind of like the people following me. I want to keep doing this, but he was willing to do what God's will is and step aside, you know, for Jesus Christ.

It makes a lot of humility to do that because I'm sure there were the human emotions and human tendencies in him as well, that he had to just, you know, yield to God. It's his will, and whatever he wants to be done will be done. Yep, Rachibi, you have a very good point, dear. It reminds me of where Joshua was zealous for Moses, and Moses said, are you zealous for me? I pray that God's Spirit was upon all of the houses of Israel, and everybody would off of sight and be pleasing to God.

And so yeah, yeah, very, very, very, very good character. Okay, verse 26. He goes on, he says, Men and brethren, sons of the family of Abraham, and those among you who fear God, two groups of people again, the proselytes that are there as well, to you the word of this salvation has been sent. So he's giving a statement to them. This God has opened your mind. You're hearing today the truth of God. You're hearing something today that God has brought to you.

He has given you the word of salvation. Verse 27, for those who dwell in Jerusalem, and their rulers, because they did not know Christ, nor even the voices of the prophets which are read every Sabbath, have fulfilled them in condemning him. Now that's a verse you have to contemplate a little bit to see what Paul is saying, because he's making quite a statement there. He's saying the prophecies are there. You know the Old Testament. You know the prophets. You know the minor prophets. You know what the Bible says. You know the verses that talk about the coming of the Messiah, and he was among you. He was among you, but you rejected him because they didn't understand the voice of the scriptures. They didn't get it. They didn't get it, and ironically, even though they were the ones espousing that they were the people of God and they were waiting for the Messiah, they killed him out of their own pride, of their own envy, and their own desire to keep their own positions and do their own things. It's quite a statement that he is making there, but you know, we have to remember too. Jesus Christ, you know, in John 10 made the comment, my sheep know my voice. My sheep know my voice. They won't listen to the stranger's voice.

And you and I, we need to know the voice of God. We need to know the voice of the Bible.

There will be times coming in the days ahead that will be very deceiving, that can catch our attention to think, oh, that's the truth. That's the truth. We better know where the voice of the Bible is. We better be able to discern right from wrong, God from a false message, the truth from error, or, you know, a little bit of a little bit of error with the truth that makes it no longer the truth. That's what the Jews couldn't do, and the leaders couldn't do. They didn't get the voice of the Scriptures. You and I must do that. We must give rise to the voice, and we must take the time to meditate, think, and let God write these Scriptures and His truth on our hearts. They didn't, and they fulfill the Scriptures, including the Messiah, to death.

Very ironic thing. We don't want to be guilty of the same thing. God has opened our minds. We have the Holy Spirit. We know better. We know better, and we have God's Spirit that we can identify those voices and follow only His voice. Going on to verse 28, He says, And though they found no cause for death in Christ, they asked Pilate that he should be put to death.

And when they had fulfilled all that was written concerning Him, they took Him down from the tree and laid Him in a tomb. All fact. People there knew that. They knew the story. It had spread throughout the region what had gone on with Jesus Christ, His death, His burial, His resurrection. Verse 30, But God raised Him from the dead. He was seen from many days by those who came up with Him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are His witnesses to the people.

Remember in Acts 1, there were witnesses. There were witnesses that God said they have to be here who have seen Jesus Christ from the beginning of His ministry to the time of the resurrection.

And we clear to you, glad tidings, that promise which was made to the fathers, that promise which was made to the fathers, God has fulfilled this for us, their children, and that He has raised up Jesus as it is written in the second psalm.

You are my son. Today I have begotten you. Now, here's where Paul begins to use the scriptures and open their eyes to, here's a psalm that you very well know, speaking about Jesus Christ.

All the history that we've talked about, everything, you know, they couldn't deny anything that was said. And here he comes to it in Psalm 2, it's like, oh, Psalm 2. Well, let's take the time to go back and look at Psalm 2 and read through it. It's a short psalm, but since Paul references it there, and in light of what he's saying, and in light of what the gospel that's being preached there, and in light of the fact that the people there probably understood what Psalm 2 was, not just that one verse when Paul repeated it, but they pretty much knew what that whole psalm entailed. Let's read it and then see what it says. I can find Psalm 2 in my Bible here. Psalm 2. Okay, Psalm 2 verse 1. You'll probably remember Psalm 2 verse 1, because we discussed this not too long ago, as part of a section in Acts as well. It says Psalm 2 verse 1, Why do the nations rage? And the people plot of anything. The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together against the eternal and against his anointed, saying, Let us break their bonds in pieces and cast away their cords from us.

You know, the rulers, the autocratic rulers of the earth, they don't want people to have any god other than them, or their chosen gods. Down through history of man, you read even in the Bible, you know, the kings want people to worship them. And we look at Revelation, you know, we know the time coming ahead of us. It's going to be people, the world, the government's going to want people to worship the king, you know, the beast power. To look at the governments of the world around us, you know, Russia, when it was communist, China was its communist, they don't want god. They don't want religion as part of their, part of their government. The government is god. The government has control. The government tells you what to do. That's your god. They're the provider who replaces god. And so in Psalm 2.1-3 here, we see the rulers of the world. Remember going back to Tyre and Sidon and the spirit that's in the kings of the world, Satan's, let's break, let's break their bonds, god's bonds and pieces. Let's test away their cords from us. That's the time yet ahead of this world when the rulers of this world will be saying the same thing here. We don't need religion as part of our lives anymore. We're their religion. He who sits in the heavens, it says in verse 4, shall laugh. The eternal shall hold them in derision. Then he shall speak to them in his wrath and distress them in his deep displeasure. Yet I have set my king on my holy hill of Zion.

You can fight against me, you can war against me, you can talk against me, you know, Jesus Christ is returning and he's going to be king of kings and lord of lords. I have set my king on my holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree. The eternal has said to me, you are my son. Today I have begotten you. Ask of me and I will give you the nations for your inheritance and the ends of the earth for your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron. You shall dash them to pieces like a potter's vessel, predicting the return of Jesus Christ to the earth. And then he gives a word to the kings of the earth and he would give that word to us, right, in verses 10, 11, 12.

You know what's happening. You know where the world is going. You know that the word of God is sure.

Now therefore be wise, O kings. Be instructed, you judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear.

Rejoice with trembling. Kiss the son, or better put, embrace the son. And all that he stands for, embrace his teachings, put into practice his way. Embrace the son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way when his wrath is kindled but a little.

Blessed are all those who put their trust in him. Quite a psalm. Quite a psalm when you read it and understand that it's talking about Jesus Christ. Quite a psalm, as Paul is witnessing to the people gathered there in the synagogue that day. A psalm they would have been familiar with. And he's telling them, Jesus Christ, he's returning. He's the one that you need to follow.

He's the one that was predicted to come that you put to death. And in verses 34 and 35, he gives them another couple verses that made them pause and made them understand what he was saying because God was working with these people that were there. They were getting and understanding what Paul was saying. We're going to see here in a minute. Verse 34, Paul goes on and he says, and that he, God, raised him Christ and that God raised Christ from the dead, no more to return to corruption. He has spoken thus, I will give you the sure mercies of David. So he is going to show, because they all knew, you know, we die, you know, we're buried. He's going to say that more here in verse 35. But he quotes from Isaiah 55 here in this verse. And I think it's good that we would just turn back to Isaiah 55, since Paul quotes it, and read it as well. Again, it's not a very long chapter, but it's full of instruction for us and full of encouragement for us, just as it was to them that day. As Paul made the comment, I will give you the sure mercies of David, they likely remembered the rest of Psalm, or Isaiah 55 as well. Good for us to reverse it.

Probably wherever you go to the feast this year, you'll be hearing some of these words preaching a sermon on one of the days of the feast. But Isaiah 55 verse 1 says, Hope. Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters, and you who have no money, come, buy and eat.

Yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Receive the truth.

Receive God's Spirit. Receive what God freely gives us, but we have to receive it, and we have to implement it. Everyone come. Kind of reminds us of John 7, 37, and the end of Revelation, what Jesus Christ says. Anyone thirsty? Come, come and drink. He says in verse 2, Why do you spend money for what is not bread? Why do you spend your wages for what doesn't satisfy?

Listen carefully to me and eat what is good, and let your soul delight itself in abundance.

Incline your ear and come to me. Hear, and your soul shall live, and I will make an everlasting covenant with you. The sure mercies of David. Indeed, I have given him as a witness to the people, a leader and commander for the people. Surely you shall call a nation you don't know, and nations who don't know you shall run to you. Because of the Lord your God and the Holy One of Israel, for he has glorified you. Let's talk about a future time when he brings Israel back, and David is the leader of Israel, and he's referring to the blessings and the promises that he made to David. Verse 6, Seek the Lord while he may be found. Call upon him while he is near.

Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Isn't that interesting? He doesn't say the unrighteous man his sins and the unrighteous man his thoughts. You know, yield your mind, yield your complete being to God. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts.

Let him return to the eternal, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. And then he reminds us, you know, we may look at prophecy and say, well, this is how we think it's going to happen. We can speculate, and it's fun to talk about those things. But so many times, as we read in the Bible, and as we'll see, probably as we're seeing even yet today, and as we'll see going forward, it probably isn't going to turn out the way you or I anything, that the path that it's going to be. It'll all turn out exactly the way God says, but in a different way. My thoughts, God says in verse 8, are not your thoughts. My ways are not your ways, says the eternal, for as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. Or as the rain comes down, the snow from heaven, and don't return there, but water the earth, and make it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater. So shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth. It shall not return to me, boy. It shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it. So God is saying, you know, when I say it, it's going to happen. You know, you and I know, the prophecies of the Bible, they're going to happen. You know, with that, that should be a given. It shouldn't even be a speculation in our mind that they could be changed, or we will. God says it's going to happen. It's going to happen. It's going to end up exactly the way God said.

Our job is to yield to Him, follow Him right through the path, and learn what He wants us to learn along the way so that we're there when Jesus Christ returns. And He will show us the sure mercies of David, the blessings that He has intended for all of us, if we follow, if we become people after His own heart, just as David was.

Okay, let's go back to Acts 13. And again, anyone can break it anytime they want. Acts 13.

So, as Paul is finishing the story here and bringing the Jews in that synagogue to the realization and coming to the conclusion, Jesus Christ is the Messiah. He's giving them these verses. They're listening, they're hearing, they're heeding. And it continues in verse 35. He says, therefore, he also says in another psalm. It happens to be Psalm 16 verse 10, You will not allow your Holy One to see corruption. I won't take the time to read Psalm 16. You can go back and read that psalm and see how it all fits into what Paul is saying here and what the people were thinking that day. And as we're thinking as we read, you know, the synopsis of what Paul was saying here, and he draws the conclusion that even in that one verse, the Jews never really understood what that meant, apparently, but now they would know. You know, it says David. David, verse 36, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell asleep, and he was buried with his fathers, and he saw corruption, just like all men do.

Dust you are, and dust you shall return. They all know that. The body, the physical body, turns back to dust. Common knowledge among everyone, right? But not with the Messiah, not with Jesus Christ, not with the Savior. He would die. He would be laid in the grave, but his body would never see the corruption. And that was another proof of Jesus Christ, who is the Messiah, the one in the Bible identified in Psalm 16.10 that would not see corruption. So Paul compares David, who turned to dust, just like all of us, and every man that ever has lived has, and verse 37, it says, but he whom God raised up, I know who that is, actually Jesus Christ, he whom God raised up, saw no corruption. He was only in the, he was only two and for three days and three nights. His body didn't have time. When they went into the tomb, it was gone. It was gone. It didn't see corruption. Therefore, let it be known to you, brethren, that through this man is preached to you the forgiveness of sins. This man gave his life.

This man is the Messiah. This man is the one through whom the sins that we've committed, he paid the price. He paid the price, and there's no other way to salvation, as we read several times in Acts, than through Jesus Christ. So he's building to a crescendo and he says it's through this man that the forgiveness of sin is preached. And by him, verse 39, everyone who believes is justified from all things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses. So there he strikes at the difference of what they believed.

The Jews, and Paul repeats this in Romans, he repeats it in Galatians, he probably repeats it in every single one of his epistles. The Jews believe that salvation came simply through the obedience of the law. Now the obedience of the law, Paul clearly tells us, is absolutely necessary.

It's God's way of life. We have to do it. But all the obedience to the law, without belief in Jesus Christ, without doing the things and knowing that he is the one who freely gives, and God gives us freely the gift of eternal life, when we repent, when we're baptized, when we receive the Holy Spirit, when we're led by that Holy Spirit, when we become the people that God wants us to become, if we don't have that, all the adherence, we can kill no one in our lives, we can, well it's impossible to keep the God's law without his Holy Spirit anyway. The law of Moses, the law of Moses isn't the thing that delivers us and gives us eternal life, it's Jesus Christ. And there he strikes at what the Jews in that synagogue were believing. Right? So here he is, he's come to Jesus Christ, we must follow him. In him is salvation. By no other name is salvation other than through Jesus Christ in doing what he said to do. So verse 40, so he goes on, he says, Beware therefore, lest what has been spoken of the prophets come upon you. When we see the word beware, we want to stop, we want to think and think, okay, if it came upon them, that Paul is cautioning them, he's cautioning us too. Beware therefore, lest what has been spoken of the prophets come upon you. Behold, you despisers. Now, despisers are people who are just kind of, you know, you know, when God says, you know, you have to hate mother and father, you love less.

You despise is you who don't do the will of God. You might say that you love the will of God, but if you don't do the word, you despise it. You know it, but you don't do it. So, you know, you're not, you're not keepers of the law. You're not letting yourself live, you know, and be guided by the Holy Spirit. You despise the law if you don't do it. Behold, you despisers. He says, marvel and perish. And he's quoting directly here from the Pabakkuk 1 verse 5. Marvel and perish.

An interesting thing, an interesting combination of words there. For I work a work in your days, a work which you will by no means believe, the one word to declare it to you. Interesting words as we pause and contemplate that a little bit. Recognize that when Habakkuk first said those words, that Jerusalem was, or Judah, was still an independent nation. They had yet to have Babylon come in and conquer them and take them into captivity. And Habakkuk said, you know, we know Jeremiah preached to Judah for 40 years, told him to turn back to God, do his will. They didn't listen. They kind of disregarded everything that Jeremiah said. And Habakkuk said to them, behold you despisers, marvel and perish. Their society, their country was going to perish.

I work a work in your days, which you will by no means believe, though I told it, though it were to be clear to you. And Babylon came in and swept them away, took them into captivity.

The interesting thing here is we know prophecy, there's a duality in prophecy. Paul is saying, okay, that happened, that happened to the ancient Jews. Now we have the Jews here in Antioch of the city, and he's saying, beware that the same thing happens to you.

Beware that the same thing doesn't happen to you. Marvel and perish. For work, I will work a work in your days that if it were told you, you wouldn't believe. And he's telling us the same thing today. Marvel and perish. For I work a work in your days, and we know the work that God is working. We know the prophecies that God has said. We know God has opened our minds. We don't have to rehearse all those things. We'll rehearse them as we go through the fall of holy days. But for I work a work in your days, a work which you will by no means believe, though one were to declare it to you. You have to be tied to God. You have to be attached to the vine. You have to know the voice and follow it. Everything in this world will do anything they can to separate us from God, separate us from each other. But God says, sing class to him, and don't let the surprises and don't have a predetermined process in your mind of what is going to happen because we won't know.

All we know is we trust God and keep our eyes on him and follow it through him.

And Christ himself says, what's going to happen in these days are unlike anything that has happened ever before. So there's a lot that's going to happen. It's marvel and perish.

None of us want, you know, we'll marvel. None of us want to be among those who would perish.

So according to that, you know, he concludes the sermon. And it's quite a powerful way to for him to conclude. The people have heard, they have listened, and no one is going to refute what Paul says. In verse 22, it says, when the Jews went out of the synagogue. You know, it's kind of the words when you look at the words there. It means when they left the synagogue, it says the Gentiles begged that these words might be preached to them the next Sabbath. It had quite an impact.

They heard. They got it. It was like, look at the truth. Look at the Bible has come alive. Look what we're learning. You know, we're living in sometimes now where we can look at some scriptures and say, oh, oh, is that how that's going to come about? We didn't see it coming about that way. We didn't see the pattern of this and that and what may occur, and the twists and turns along the way. But as we go through life, like they do, we can look at scriptures and say, oh, oh, God is at work. That's what that has been prophesied to happen. We see where it is all headed. And they say, the Gentiles, even, we want it all. We want it to be preached to us next Sabbath. When the congregation had broken up many of the Jews and the devout prophet, proselytes were in that synagogue that day, they followed Paul and Barnabas, who, speaking to them, persuaded them to continue in the grace of God.

Repent, be baptized, continue in the grace of God, follow Him, remember what was being said here today, believe what's being said here today, and on the next Sabbath, almost the entire city came together to hear the word of God. Quite a thing, quite a message that Paul delivered that day. Quite a thing that God worked at. The people heard the message, but some of them, we find out, went back to their old way of doing things. As the Jews looked around, and we see the pattern of some people, like early in the chapter, we saw LMS who had his own ideas and his own position to protect. The Jews look around and say, whoa, whoa, Paul and Barnabas, everyone is coming to them. They should be following us. What is going on here? When the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy. Just like the Jews back at the time of Jesus Christ, the pilot could see and say, you know, you didn't deliver Christ to me because of anything wrong, he's saying.

You delivered Him to me to be put to death because you're jealous of Him. You see that people are following Him, and you want all that acclaim for yourself. Well, the Jews here in Antioch were doing the same thing. They saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy, and what did they do? They started contradicting everything Paul said. The week before, they kind of marveled at what he said. They agreed with it. Let's go back next Sabbath. Let's hear the same thing again. Let's all come together. Oh, but now that everyone is listening to this, this puts in their mind the power in Paul and Barnabas' discourse, not ours. And interestingly there it says, they were contradicting Paul, and they were blaspheming. They were doing harm to God's Word. They didn't know God's Word. They were speaking against it. Blaspheming isn't only coming out and raising our fists and rejecting God and screaming at a loud voice that we will never do God's will. We can blaspheme God's will by just not doing the things the Bible says.

Peter makes the point in 1 Peter 4 where he says, just by our actions among the people who know us, we can blaspheme the Word of God. If we promote ourselves as people of God and they see us doing dishonest things or whatever it is that we might be doing, you know, it's like that blasphemes the Word of God. It brings dishonor to his name. We're supposed to be people of character, people who are following God's way implicitly. So the Bible says here, the Jews, they were contradicting Paul, they were filled with envy, they were blaspheming, and they opposed things spoken by Paul. And so Paul and Barnabas, you know, there comes a time where you just got to kind of stand up and tell people exactly what they're doing and make it clear to them. Paul and Barnabas grew old, and they said, it was necessary that the Word of God should be spoken to you first.

But since you reject it and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, behold, we turn to the Gentiles. He makes quite a statement there. He makes quite a statement there as well.

He pretty much tells them, listen, Jews, you're doing this all for the wrong reason, but you're rejecting God. When you reject God, when you contradict, when you blaspheme, when you put your own position or put your own ideas or my own desires ahead of what God's is and use whatever it is to talk against Him or act against Him, since you reject it, you judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life. It's quite a statement. Quite a statement.

Something that we want to be attention to. God is calling us to obey Him with all of our heart, mind, and soul, that we are willing to give up whatever it takes in order to follow Him.

Certainly, for every single one of us, between now and the return of Jesus Christ, there will be things that we give up. None of us are going to go through this without having to sacrifice something that's important to us. The Jews weren't willing to do it. They weren't willing to give up what they thought their position in society was. Since you reject it and judge yourselves, they're due to themselves. Judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life. Behold, we turn to the Gentiles.

So the Jews received it first. Paul says in Romans 1.16, the message was to the Jews first, they rejected it, and then to the Gentiles. Now they're going to the Gentiles, is what Paul says.

So for the soul the Lord has commanded us, I have set you as a light to the Gentiles, that you should be for salvation to the ends of the earth. Now when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad. They glorified the word of the Lord. And as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed. You know, that word appointed is probably not the best word that could have been done there. It kind of speaks maybe to, you know, God was just giving them eternal life, you know, that he didn't predestinate them to eternal life. He was calling them just like he's called you and me. He wants to give us eternal life, but we have to do our part. We have to completely yield to him.

He wants us to be there, but he's not going to make us be there. We have to. We have to do the things that God wants us to do. Now some of the newer translations have replaced that word appointed with things like chosen. And as many as had been chosen to eternal life believed. And the new living translation says that. God's word and other newer translation says that as many has had been prepared to eternal life believed. So they realize that appointed could indicate that God was, you know, was just giving that to them. We know the, you know, that predestination. God doesn't predestinate us. Go ahead. I don't know how someone could get predestination to say that you're going to make it an appointment is made, right? You've been appointed to something. If you don't get here, are you going to get there? You have to get to the appointment, otherwise you've missed it. So, you know, they've been appointed to eternal life. They haven't received it yet, but they've been appointed to it. So we've got the, we have to run the race, we have been doing it to the end, we've overcome, and we get the eternal life. They've been called. The verse comes up a few other times that it's done there, appointed to. It's a little clearer in some of the other places you do, but some people will say that, you know, God gave them eternal life. But yeah, just so we all know, I know we're all quicker on that. God doesn't predestinate us to eternal life.

That kind of logic is really warped, because even in normal part of life, I have an appointment tomorrow. I know I have it, but if I don't get there, did I make it?

You don't get an industry work done if you don't get there in the morning.

And it's your choice, right? You pay the price.

Just kind of like the appointed times, right? The appointed times that we keep, the festivals each time. God gives them to you. That's a good analogy, actually. So, okay. Okay, 49. The word of the Lord was being spread throughout all the region. You know, again, you can imagine, as it was those, it wasn't only happening through the prophets, it was the people talking about it, right? We learned that it wasn't Jerusalem that took the message to Samaria and these other places, it was the people living in those areas that talked about what they believed and others believed as well. And so, throughout the region, as people understood the truth of Jesus Christ, they were talking about it as exciting to them. I mean, this is truth. This is truth. This is eternity. This is something that you don't find any place else. But the Jews did what the Jews did, man. The Jews stirred up the devout and prominent women and the chief men of the city. They raised up persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and they expelled them from their region. They just didn't like it, even though they got it, even though they understood, it was like it's more important for us to have our own synagogue with our own leaders. We don't want Paul and Barnabas, and we don't want to do what they have to say because it's not in our best interest. And it's kind of unfortunate, but that's the way of the world. That's the way of the world, and we're going to see that more and more too as religion and the truth, people usher out. First, other traditional religion, well, whatever, as God has it. Go ahead. I was saying that the part that jolted me is where it says they stirred up the prominent people.

And if the prominent people say this, then that must be the truth because they're the prominent ones.

We see that today, right? Prominent people among us, they have all the answers. The rest of us are at our job is only to follow, follow them, even though they may not truly have all the answers that they think they have. And they will eventually expel everything that disagrees with them, as we already see in a beginning with some of the censorship and other things that's going on, going on in fledgling form today. But in verse 51, when Paul and Barnabas leave, you don't find themselves depressed. Verse says, they shook off the dust from their feet against them, and they came to Iconium, and the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.

I think that as they're thrown out of Antioch, it might be, man, what did we do? Could we have done something different? Whatever. But you know, they're doing exactly what we learned about elements. The people closed their minds to God's truth. And you remember back in Matthew 10, when Jesus Christ was sending out the disciples two by two, and he told them, if you go into a house, and the house receives you, let your peace be with them. But if the house doesn't receive you, shake off the dust from your feet and go on, you know, and let your peace will return to you.

When people close their minds, or they're not receiving the truth, it's not our fault, you know, if I can put it in that type of term, either they close their minds and simply will not accept it, or God is not calling them yet. Paul and Barnabas, they leave the city, they know what happened, they did their job, people rejected it for their own reasons. But you notice they were filled with joy and the Holy Spirit. When we do God's will, there's joy. Even if it may not turn out the way that we think it should, there's still joy because we did what God's will was.

And that's, you know, that's the story of Antioch there. We'll stop there, stop there tonight and pick it up in chapter 14 next week. But yeah, if there's any any discussion, any comments, observations, anything at all? You know, this is... Yeah, Mr. Shaby, yeah, yeah, I think Paul was in Baldwin when, of course, he had to strike ill in his blind. And of course, that set a precedent example for other people. I think like in our lives too, you know, when we go through those experiences, like I think Paul was maybe involved and then as he went on his journey further, you know, to preach the truth and, you know, keep moving forward. I think we can get a lot of inspiration from that. If we succeed in one situation, God will be involved in us maybe to do even more, you know. Yep. And we have to be ready to say it, right? I mean, sometimes you just have to come out and say exactly what God and leave it. But God will want us to say and leave it at that. Let the people let the people be. They either hear it or they don't. That's right. Just leave it be if they don't hear it. Yep, exactly. And God's will or their will if they're the ones who reject it. Mr. Shavey, a question for you. Yeah, Bob. Actually, it's not a question. It's a just sometimes think and wonder because I've done quite a bit of reading about, you know, the Jews and why they rejected Christ. And I think one of the things that comes out of that is that some of the things that the Jews expected, Christ didn't seem to fulfill, like where he came from. Okay. They said, can anything good come out of? All right, what was it? Nazareth? I can't remember. Right. So they had some doubts based upon some scripture, even though they had the Torah, they had all of the prophecies, but they still had some doubts about Christ's authenticity.

It's crazy because I mean, how can you reject everything that he did? All right. But they seem to think that they were valid in rejecting that. Yet the Gentiles didn't have any basis for comparing, but they actually heard from Paul. All right. And what their culture or their background taught them. You see what I'm saying? So there was definitely, you know, a difference in the way they would pursue, they would perceive, you know, Christ and who he was and everything that he did and what they were taught. Yeah. I see what you're saying. The Jews, the Gentiles didn't have the background of all the details where the Jews would say, oh, we came from Nazareth, not Bethlehem, but they never asked the question either, right, to kind of find out they should have been able to look at the works. You know, Christ even said that in Matthew 11. Look at the works that are done.

Look at the works that are done and you'll see where the kingdom of God is near you.

Yeah, I hear what you're saying, Bob. But then you get back to also, and you get back also to, you know, the fact that they had the authority and they loved their authority. They love their authority and they love their position. They love their position. They weren't going to let go of it easily. Yeah, exactly.

Okay, anything else?

Okay, go ahead, Xavier. I was going to say, going back to John the Baptist and his humility and instructing his disciples, you know, he's from above, you know, he who speaks the word of God, follow him. And the reference to Moses and Joshua, it's in Numbers 11 verse 29, if anybody wanted to read it themselves. So, very similar, very similar attitude. Even Christ, because later on Christ says, you know, I'm the greatest among you, but what am I doing? I'm serving power for his and others. Yeah, Numbers 11, 29, I've treated Moses said to him, Are you zealous for my sake? Oh, that all the Lord's people were prophets, and the Lord who put his Spirit upon them. Yeah, it's the right attitude to have. Yeah, it's a very, very encouraging chapter for us to know, I think, what to do, what not to do.

And they have insight into when we run into these situations, you know, that it's okay to walk away. We don't have to stand, we don't have, it's okay to walk away when situations are hopeless. I shouldn't say hopeless, but you know what I'm saying. So when you're kicking against, yeah, that's right. You can't miss the go. We can, we can do more harm than good sometimes, if we say too much. You know what, yeah, you find that sometimes, right? Because people will put their feet in so hard that they will never come back again. If you're too hard, you know, you don't give them the opportunity to think about it and come back and stay at pace. So, yeah. Okay, well, let's sign off. Let me remind people in Jacksonville, you know, we'll have services. The plan is we will have in-person services in Jacksonville at 1130 this week. In Orlando, services are at 130 this week. So 130 in Jacksonville. Nope, I'm sorry. 1130 in Jacksonville, 130 in Orlando. Bible study next Wednesday. Hopefully we'll see all of you back here again next Wednesday, either in the afternoon or the evening. So thank you, everyone. Good night. Have a good rest of the week and a good Sabbath until next time. Thank you very much. Good night.