This tape is recorded at Calvary Chapel of
the Finger Lakes, taught by Pastor Bill Gallatin,
studying in the Book of Acts, Chapter 13,
beginning with verse 1.
We ask you, Heavenly Father, to enable us
to share faithfully your Word tonight.
And we ask your help, Holy Spirit, that
each heart might be encouraged, strengthened, and enlightened
with your truth.
Lord, you've promised us that your Word shall
not return void, that it would accomplish all
that you sent it forth to accomplish.
And Lord, your great love can be manifested
tonight to each heart who's come here to
sit before you at your feet.
We're your children, Father, and we desire to
be fed, to be encouraged, and we thank
you that you're so willing and so loving.
So encourage, edify, exhort, comfort, grant salvation.
Lord, there may be someone here tonight who
truly hasn't opened their heart yet to you.
They're being drawn in their mind, their intellect,
their thinking, and beginning to see that you
are the Lord and Savior of mankind.
They're beginning to see through the blindness that
Satan's had upon their lives for many years
that you really are a God of love.
And there is no other way.
And so we pray, dear Father, for whoever
that is, that you might set them free
tonight to experience your saving grace, to know
that all sin can be forgiven once and
for all, never to be brought up again.
The justification is free through Jesus Christ.
In His name we pray.
Amen.
Before we read chapter 13 or get into
it, we are at that point in the
book of Acts where now the apostle Peter
is going to kind of go by the
wayside, so to speak.
He's been the prominent apostle to this point
with James in Jerusalem.
But now we've had the conversion of the
apostle Paul.
And everything's going to shift to Paul's life.
Now, we know that Paul has revealed that
he was given the ministry of the gospel
to the Gentiles, or to the heathen.
And so God, by allowing persecution in Jerusalem
in the early portions of the book of
Acts, is now, through the persecution, forcing the
saints out in a spoke-type pattern, away
from the hub Jerusalem into the uttermost parts
of the world.
Now we know and see that the Spirit
of God is going to be moving to
the Gentile regions of the earth.
And we're going to pick up the life
of Paul now as circumstances through the operation
of the Holy Spirit and the providence of
God move Paul up toward Europe.
And God moves him through the major trade
routes of the Mediterranean, where all the peoples
of the earth and the cultures are mixing
and crossing each other in major cities, so
the gospel can be transmitted.
And at the same time, Paul has this
desire to reach his own countrymen, the Jew.
You remember when he wrote the book of
Romans.
His heart ached.
He was willing to be damned if it
would save his brethren, the Jew.
He had such a burden being a very
devout, orthodox Jew himself.
And to have the blinders taken away and
realize that the whole Old Testament speaks of
the Messiah, Jesus Christ, and the joy and
the release, the excitement of it, and to
see what blindness concerning Jesus Christ does to
a life, no matter how religious.
And again, we're going to find out that
the greatest persecutors of the Christians, just as
it is today, are devoutly religious people as
they see Christianity a threat to their religion.
They were never resisted or persecuted by the
sinners, so to speak.
But it was the organized religious people of
the different countries they went into that actually
were united with the local government, wed together
politically and religiously for power.
And then when the gospel began to invade
that, you can be sure Satan reared up
his ugly head.
The serpent went to work.
And we're going to see the actual confrontation
of Satan now to try and stop the
gospel from reaching the Gentiles and eventually getting
into Europe, which eventually spread.
And you and I sit here tonight because
of what we're going to read about in
Acts chapter 13.
Because of the Lord sending Paul with the
gospel to the heathen or the Gentiles, you
and I sit here tonight.
Satan was not able to stop it.
And there's a text that's just one of
my favorites that shows that no matter what
he tries, it can't stop the spreading of
the gospel.
In fact, the more he persecutes, the more
the gospel spread, the more the church grows.
As Jesus said, the gates of hell will
not prevail against my church.
Now, you see a lot of dead churches.
That just means that Jesus isn't running things.
It isn't his church.
You see a lot of dead people who
claim to be born again.
They can't even stay awake in a Bible
study.
I mean, they can't even lift their arms
in a praise session.
It's just usually because they don't belong to
Jesus.
They're just very religious.
I don't see how you can not be
excited and have this life and how Satan
can prevail against an individual who truly is
yielded to Jesus Christ.
As we'll find out, remember, John says, greater
is he that is in you than he
that is in the world.
My little children, it says you have overcome
them.
Who's them?
Well, the demonic spirits, the principalities and powers,
the spiritual wickedness behind the false prophets and
the governments of the world that try to
hinder a life that's radically sold out for
Jesus Christ.
And not ashamed to proclaim Jesus Christ or
live for Jesus Christ outside of a Bible
study or a church gathering, but every day
of their life.
And here's the Apostle Paul and the members
of the early church.
Now, before we start, look at Galatians chapter
one.
I'll show you.
Now, some fourteen years after this portion of
the book of Acts, Paul's writing to the
Galatians.
Now, in chapter 13 of Acts, the Galatian
church hadn't even begun.
But it's through Acts 13 and Paul reaching
this area that a church was planted and
believers began to grow, experience Christ, and then
it got a foothold that Satan could not
drive out.
And so now you have this whole area
of Galatia, which is today Turkey, where there
was a thriving church and Paul writes the
letter to the Galatians.
That was established some fourteen years later after
Acts 13.
And notice what he tells them.
He reveals to them in verse 15 of
chapter one.
When it pleased God, who separated me from
my mother's womb and called me by His
grace.
Wonderful to know that I can't earn my
salvation.
I don't have to be discouraged.
I can't earn my salvation.
The Lord Jesus Christ is willing to grant
it in His love and His grace.
He will grant anyone here tonight true salvation
if they desire it.
And Paul discovered that he was separated from
his mother's womb, that God had His hand
on his life even at the birth.
You remember that God spoke to Jeremiah as
the call came upon Jeremiah's life and he
felt that he wasn't ready.
He was frightened and usually when a person
is frightened and not sure of themselves, they
are ready.
They have been prepared and all the self
-confidence is driven out.
When you realize, Lord, this is so awesome.
Who am I?
Like Moses said when he was ready and
then tried to get out of it.
You know, when he realized this is bigger
than I thought.
You don't just walk up and smile and
talk about the Bible and then go home
and relax.
There are things that go on behind the
scenes that no one knows about.
The spiritual battles, the buffeting, the betrayal, the
real warfare in preparation and everyday life that
no one even has a clue that goes
on.
And he discovered that and he realized, Lord,
without You I can't make it.
I realize I'm nothing apart from You.
And God said, Jeremiah, it is proved that
conception and there's a person that exists even
before the sperm in the egg and God's
eyes.
He said before you were formed in your
mother's womb, before daddy's sperm hit the egg,
I knew you.
I named you and I have called you
unto a purpose for me to be a
prophet.
Doesn't matter what the Supreme Court or the
medical experts in Harvard and Princeton and Yale
and all the medical schools, what they're trying
to tell people when real life begins.
God says it begins in the womb.
It begins before eternity.
He tells us in Ephesians that before the
world began, before the foundation of the earth,
I knew thee.
I ordained my son to redeem thee before
Adam even fell.
Nothing caught God by chance or off guard.
The fall of man.
The deception of Satan.
God knew all about it.
He has foreknowledge.
He's omnipotent.
And He loved us so much that even
before we came into existence, whether you are
sitting here tonight because of a rape or
an adoption and you don't know who your
earthly father is, your heavenly father has known
you from before the foundation of the world.
And so don't hang your hat on all
of your poor background and oh, I didn't
have a chance.
God's saying tonight you can know your real
father in heaven and have eternal life.
And my saving grace and the work of
my spirit in your life can heal all
your past and you don't have to worry
about it anymore.
And make excuses for your failure today because
you had a bad upbringing or because of
who you are, what happened to you, or
you don't know who your parents were, or
you didn't have a lot of money.
God says today you're here and you're going
to have a new beginning.
I've known you before the foundation of the
world.
What does it matter how you came into
this life?
The important thing is how you go on
out.
And so what does it matter where you
used to live?
It's important where you're going to live after
you leave your body.
God's got a wonderful place for you for
eternity.
And it says there will be no remembrance
of all the pain, all the ravages of
sin.
God has such a wonderful way to heal
everything through his grace and his love.
And so Paul experienced this revelation.
He realized as he began to grow more.
Now Paul didn't know all these things on
his conversion experience.
One week after he got converted on the
way to Damascus, he just loved God.
And from that moment on he couldn't get
enough of God.
You know, he just needed more and more
and more.
And God is a rewarder of those who
diligently seek him.
And he grew in knowledge and grace and
began to understand the whole purpose of redemption
and his own existence.
And he had this marvelous hope that God
has a plan for my life.
God has a plan for every life here
tonight.
But many people don't come into that awareness
of it or desire to find out.
They just want goosebumps once or twice a
week and then they go their own way.
The Bible says God is a rewarder of
those who diligently seek him.
And if you dig deep into the treasure
house of his work, it says he reveals
things that are even more important and greater
than gold and silver that perish in this
world.
Things that can never be taken away from
you.
The riches of his revelation is truth and
his own person, his own presence continually.
His own revelation, you can understand and be
aware of his voice.
And know just as quickly as Abraham when
he called, you can say, here am I.
No matter what your circumstance, what you're going
through, you can recognize God's voice through all
the confusion and the babble of this world.
And you can say, here am I.
You know his voice.
You're aware of his presence at all times.
And you never have to be lonely.
Paul went on to say in verse 16.
As he called me by faith to reveal
his son in me.
Interesting.
He revealed his son in me.
That I might preach him among the heathen
or the Gentiles.
The heathen.
Here's this mighty, devout, brilliant, one of the
greatest minds of all mankind.
The secular world acknowledges it.
One of the five most brilliant minds that
have ever existed in mankind.
The apostle Paul.
That he might go to the heathen.
The Gentiles.
That shows you how much God loves us.
Loves you.
To use one of the most brilliant minds
that he ever created.
To develop the gospel of grace and bring
the revelation and truth and balance to the
world.
He was preaching that you and I would
be saved.
And yet to do it in simplicity.
As Paul said to the Corinthians.
I didn't come to you with enticing words.
But I came to you in simplicity.
He didn't come to some.
It's interesting he went from being a theologian
to just a Christian.
Bringing a simple truth of grace.
But he said, I was shown that I
am the priest of the heathen.
And immediately I conferred not with flesh and
blood.
So immediately he went to the heathen.
Into Damascus as Jesus Christ ordered him.
And began to preach.
Now in chapter two again notice what he
tells us.
Concerning he and Peter.
In verse seven.
He said, but contrary wise.
When they saw that the gospel.
Of the uncircumcision.
Or the Gentiles.
The heathen.
Now people get a negative feeling when they
hear.
That there are heathens.
Do you realize that we were all heathen?
I don't know if there's any Jewish people
here.
That know Jesus Christ.
But it looks like you all look pretty
much like you're a heathen.
I'm a heathen.
Now some people take offense at it.
All that means is you're a non-Jew.
You're a Gentile.
It doesn't mean you're some you know crazy
person that eats raw meat.
It just means you're a non-Jew.
And the heathen did not circumcise.
And so he is stating here.
They saw that the gospel.
Of the uncircumcision.
Or the heathen.
Or the Gentile.
Was committed unto me.
And the gospel.
Of the circumcision.
Was unto Peter.
Peter was called.
To the proud Jew.
Now isn't this amazing?
Here's this brilliant man.
With an I.Q. quality.
Atop the charts.
Make Einstein look like an idiot.
God doesn't use him.
For the proud Jew.
He uses his brilliant mind.
For the Gentile people.
Of the world.
Who are considered.
Just the offspring.
Of you know.
The human race.
In the Jewish land.
Now the proud Jew.
The elitist.
The educated.
Who is the.
Who preaches the gospel to them?
An illiterate fisherman.
Now God has ways.
I'll tell you.
I love the way God does things.
Just the opposite of what you and I
would think.
Just a Galilean.
A Galatean.
A dumb Galatean.
Let's go to Acts chapter.
13.
We see Paul now.
And the whole book of Acts changing.
And the microscope of God.
Turning some more.
And we're going to just highlight.
The rest of the book of Acts centers
around.
This.
Brilliant.
Mind.
That God had molded and shaped.
To be the apostle.
To the heathen.
Or Gentile.
And as you look.
If you have a good Bible.
You can follow the maps.
Of God begins through Providence.
Moving him up toward Europe.
Now that we're in the text.
church.
That was at Antioch.
That's up.
Near the Turkish border.
Northern Lebanon.
Syria.
Certain prophets and teachers.
As Barnabas and Simeon.
That was called Niger.
Notice how quickly.
The church.
The aspect of the church.
In just a few short years.
After Pentecost.
I've got been bringing people in from all
over.
The known world.
Then in the Middle East.
And again.
Just the beauty.
God's church.
Notice.
They were not all Jews.
You have prophets and teachers.
Such as Barnabas and Simeon.
And it's very possible.
If you look at Matthew 27 verse 32.
That this Simeon is Simon or the man
who the Roman soldiers as Jesus was carrying
his cross to Golgotha.
This captain with one of his fears and
he had to help Jesus Christ and the
very act of helping Jesus Christ.
He saw something just like the Roman soldier
when he saw how Christ carried himself on
the cross.
Behold.
This is the Son of God.
Well, it's very possible.
But this Simeon or Simon is the very
person who saw Jesus Christ and had to
help him carry his cross.
And we know he's a black man.
Niger means black and where you get the
word Nigeria comes from.
And so immediately because of Philip preaching to
the Ethiopian who went back to Ethiopia.
You can see the gospel all over the
northern portion of Africa and God using already
creating prophets and teachers, not just in Jerusalem,
but now in Africa.
And so you have Niger and Lucius of
Cyrene, which is the area of Libya today.
And Menaean, which had been brought up with
Herod, the Tetrarch and Paul.
So God's even saving people in this terrible
Herod, the Tetrarch family.
In other words, God is trying to reach
everybody.
He can save whoever he wants and plant
his people in some of the most despicable
families and some of the most evil situations.
You'll find a servant just like the young
servant girl who was taken captive, taken back
to Syria.
You remember, and she began, became the handmaiden
to the Syrian General Neiman, this great powerful
Syrian.
Why would God allow a young little teenage
girl to have her family butchered and then
taken prisoner into Syria, into Damascus?
And if you look at the amazing story
with Elisha, how God used this to spread
the good news of his love, the God
of the Jews of the Old Testament to
the Gentiles in Syria.
And here he's dying and all the wizards
and all the false prophets and all the
false gods of the Syrians can't help Neiman.
And all of a sudden this beautiful little
Jewish girl has no resentment or bitterness.
She's serving there.
And she says, well, there's the God of
the Jews where I come from.
He can help you with your leprosy.
You go on with this story and all
led to the salvation of this mighty general,
one of the most powerful generals in the
known world at that time.
As they ministered to the Lord and fasted,
if you want to really learn a lot
about fasting and the New Testament has much
about fasting, you can make a little reference
if you'd like to see the power that
fasting will bring into a life, read Isaiah
chapter 58.
We'll be getting to that on Sundays a
few months from now, Lord willing.
Maybe spend a Sunday morning on the power
and what fasting will do to break the
chains that bind people, free people from the
power of Satan.
And so many times the early church would
come into a situation seeking direction and go
into a fast.
If the willing fast and begin to minister
notice they ministered to the Lord so often.
I think we make the mistake we come
to the church to be ministered to and
we walk out without a blessing.
We forget that God commands worship.
God loves to be ministered to.
He loves thankful people.
One of the things that stirs God's anger
the most quickly is unthankfulness and murmuring.
Much in the Bible about that.
They ministered to the Lord.
It's a wonderful thing to minister to the
Lord, to deny myself and say, Lord, I'm
willing to fast.
You know, you're more important in my flesh
and I just want to sit in your
presence.
I just want to fast and worship you
and wait for the Holy Spirit just to
begin to move upon me and begin to
move upon my thinking, and I can begin
to respond to your great love for me
and fall more in love with you.
Benefits, tremendous benefits, and learning to minister to
the Lord, not just waiting for the Lord
to minister to me.
And so as they ministered to the Lord
and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, separate me
Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I
have called them.
Now as they're sitting, praying with each other,
just waiting on the Lord, probably with some
Old Testament scriptures of the New Testament scriptures
weren't in circulation yet.
Paul hadn't written any letters yet, worshiping the
Spirit of God began to move among them
and God revealed to them that he wanted
Paul and Barnabas to go up further and
go over to Cyprus, one of the main
trade routes for all the Gentiles who ruled,
crisscross each other in the Mediterranean from the
east to the west to Africa, up into
Europe, and then from there up into Turkey,
and so that quickly the Spirit of God
began to lead them and direct them and
instruct them as they were just ministering to
the Lord, worshiping the Lord.
Now, how did the Holy Ghost do it
was an audible voice more than likely through
the word in some way.
In some way, their knowledge of the word
in the Old Testament and the tremendous knowledge
of the Old Testament, especially Paul, even the
Galilean Peter, as you look at the book
of Acts, you see how much of the
Old Testament rolls out of these men so
they knew the word of God.
They read the scriptures and they prophesied much
and all the preaching of the gospel in
the book of Acts was from the Old
Testament concerning Jesus Christ and multitudes got saved.
They didn't even have the New Testament in
circulation yet.
The revelation they had was from all the
areas of the Old Testament that had Jesus
Christ in it.
And they led multitudes to the Lord by
knowledge of Jesus in the Old Testament.
Powerful, powerful truths concerning Jesus Christ all throughout
the Old Testament.
Interesting, the beginning of this month, all the
outreach pastors, we all got together, some of
the guys down from Pennsylvania, Ohio, the outreach
is in this area.
We just decided, let's just get together and
seek the Lord, just minister and wait upon
him.
See what God would tell us concerning 1998.
And so we got there and we had
nothing planned.
A couple of guys had guitars, Ken Lane,
Calvary Chapel, Syracuse, Tim from there in Franklin
and there were about 50 of us.
So we just sat down and we began
to get into the word and just pray
and worship.
To be honest, we didn't fast.
They prepared meals for us at the castle
and it still led to.
But as we began to worship, the Holy
Spirit began to move immediately and just minister
to each guy in their own particular church
as their certain issues began to encourage.
And I remember the last day we just
started Monday and by Wednesday afternoon, the Holy
Spirit was moving so powerfully, we began to
pray.
Anybody want to turn before we came back
to our churches?
It's amazing.
The night before someone said, you know, the
Lord spoke to my heart that brother so
-and-so and brother so-and-so are
supposed to get together and do something in
the James area.
And I just kind of hit it.
My heart is saying that there were two
brothers that have gone out and they're teaching
home Bible studies.
And at this point, you know, it isn't
taken off.
They're still removing boulders and rocks from the
soil and learning about the area.
But I just kind of hit my heart.
Oh, great.
You know, I kind of sense that.
But you don't want to say anything.
You don't want to influence anybody.
You want the Lord to really speak to
them in the word, if anything.
You don't want to, you know, think that
you're trying to manipulate someone.
You really want God to lead them in
incursion.
The interesting thing is that the day before
we left now, this is the night before
the last day we were laying hands on
people and they both came up and said,
Pastor Bill, God has spoken to us.
Now, this is the day after that someone
else had gotten that word.
The two brothers that were supposed to do
it, Chris Gardello and George Dunham in the
James Town area, but several miles apart, they
both came up together.
God has spoken to them.
The text in Acts that God has spoken
to us.
We are to get together.
He wants us to do something together to
confirm it exactly as the book of Acts.
And they were so excited.
You know, they were just aglow with the
Holy Spirit because they knew in their hearts
God had spoken and all we were doing.
No Bible studies.
Nothing.
People were just coming forth with scriptures, you
know, in the word.
We pray together.
We worship more.
Just spontaneous.
It was great.
And God began to speak in a powerful
way, and it just so happens that George
and Chris God spoke to them the same
text this time.
I want you to to do something together,
and then you were excited.
You don't know.
Well, maybe as you minister to the Lord,
maybe turn the radio off instead of trying
to get one of the great guys on
the station to minister to you.
Why don't you the next time maybe just
say, Lord, I want to minister to you.
I just want to sit before you and
tell you how much I love you, Lord,
how thankful I am for my salvation, how
thankful I am, Lord, for all the things
you've done for me over these past few
years.
Oh, I'm married now, Lord.
There for a while.
I didn't think I'd ever get married, Lord.
I'm so thankful.
My one son is saved now, Lord.
I just want to minister to you.
I just want to worship you.
You might be surprised how the Lord responds
to that and maybe gives you some new
direction.
One thing for sure, because God designed love
and designed us to respond to love.
He really responds to love for him.
Responds in a great way.
So God has picked these two men, and
when they had fasted and prayed, they laid
their hands on them and they sent them
away.
In other words, they just ratified what God
has done.
No special power anointing upon them, so to
speak.
They're just ratifying and agreeing together what they
saw God do because God spoke the Holy
Spirit directed, and so they being sent forth
by the Holy Ghost departed into Seleucia and
from thence they sailed to Severus.
So they left Antioch, went down to the
coast of the Mediterranean there on the Lebanese
-Syrian border, the main port, and then went
out that main shipping direction, went right to
Cyprus.
And that's that little island right beneath the
underbelly of Turkey in that portion of the
Mediterranean, which is a very important spot for
all the shipping lanes.
And so you have all races of people
from all cultures, all countries mixing there through
these ports, these great ports, you see, on
Cyprus.
And so they're going there to convert people,
you know, plant a church, share the gospel,
and then when people are coming out, they're
going to be confronted with the gospel by
the same people on Cyprus, and God's moving
by His Spirit, spreading the good news of
Jesus Christ.
Now, if He does that today, it could
be situations change and all of a sudden
you're forced to move to another state because
it is closed down, that section of the
factory working that, well, we're sorry because we're
closing the department, we're moving it to Arkansas.
I'm sure you'd want another state than Arkansas,
but it just so happens that, you know,
the taxes are low and the other guy's
not there now, so...
And God, maybe, you see, through the circumstances,
it puts you somewhere else and you get
to share your faith, your reality and the
love and the beauty of Jesus Christ, what
He's done for you, you see.
So many times, I think, we pray, we
say, Lord, use me, and then we pick
a spot, and God says, I want to
use you, and then all of a sudden
we think, well, I'm going to notify my
employer probably next summer, I'm going to let
the money build up, and next June, I
think we're going to take our scrap of
faith, we'll have a nest egg, and we're
going to move to New Mexico.
And in three weeks, you get laid off,
and the only place you have to go
is Alaska.
Lord, I don't want to go to Alaska,
I thought you wanted to be used.
The need's in Alaska.
I need you in Alaska.
I need somebody in Alaska.
And maybe God's answered your prayer and you
want to be used, and now all of
a sudden you don't want to do it,
and God's opened the door for you, for
tremendous blessing.
You think, well, I thought that God lets
you kind of pick and you desire and
you enjoy it, and then you pray, Lord,
make me willing, because he does say he'll
make his people willing in a day of
his power.
I've had to do that in my own
life, that all of a sudden I see
the providence of God moving in an area
that I didn't want for myself.
I don't have that in my plans, Lord,
and God says, yes, but they're my plans,
Bill.
But Lord, you said that, you know, we'd
be willing and I'd enjoy it, and David
said, I'd delight to do thy will, O
God.
I don't delight in this place, Lord, and
the Lord says, well, I also say that
I can make my people willing, Bill.
So there, you see, comes the prayer.
Am I willing to pray?
Am I willing to be made willing?
And it's amazing how he can do that.
And the blessings begin to roll in.
And so they're on their way to get
to Cyprus, and when they were at Salamis,
that's on the eastern end of the island,
they preached the word of God in the
synagogues of the Jews, and they had also
John to their minister, young Mark.
Now, at this time, Mark's probably in his
twenties now, you remember some ten to twelve
years earlier.
We know that Mark is the author of
the Gospel of Mark, who kind of was
tutored by Peter for a while.
He's a, you know, a cousin to Barnabas,
and in the beginning, and Mark has a
certain little cry bar he inserted in his
Gospel of Mark at the arrest of Jesus
Christ about this young lad who, when they
went to arrest him, ran away, and he
had nothing but a robe on.
And he was out there, you know, watching
the whole thing, and when they came to
arrest Jesus Christ and everybody scattered, they grabbed
this young man, and he ran away naked.
And many of the scholars feel that it
was young Mark when he was about twelve
years old or thirteen years old, but now
it's ten years later, and he's a young
man.
He is still with, you know, his life
is just, because he's a relative to all
the early saints and things going on in
his house all the time, exposed to Christianity,
you know, and knowing that God had a
call on his life, now he's with them
as an older man, or a young man.
And when they had gone through the island
unto Paphos, now Paphos is the city on
the extreme western tip of Cyprus, where the
main trade route goes through that city.
All the ships that go up to Europe
go from Antioch, all the trade routes come
up from Egypt and Africa into Jerusalem, up
into Lebanon.
They come down from Syria, Damascus, down to
the coast in Antioch, and then over to
Seleucia, and then from there over to Paphos,
and from Paphos your shipping lines go off
over to Italy or Greece or up into
Turkey.
And so you can just see how God's
going to use all this to spread the
gospel.
So when they had gone through the island
of Paphos, they found a certain sorcerer, a
false prophet.
Notice, all prophets aren't true.
Peter said in the last days there would
be many, as there were false prophets in
the Old Testament, there would be many false
teachers, and they will gather many.
They will draw multitudes, their crowds will be
huge, so they'll make merchandise out of you.
They usually get the crowds in such a
way and get them all hyped up, and
then it's usually a big play for the
money.
Peter said they'll make merchandise out of you
in the last days.
It's one of the signs of the last
days, false teachers.
And so they found this certain sorcerer or
magician, knowing the mysteries of the East, Eastern
mysticism.
They worship the stars, they would take drugs
to alter their conscience and open themselves up
to demon spirits.
They channeled and would have demonic powers.
So now here you have Satan stirring things
up to hinder the gospel.
So you've got Satan, demon spirits, evil spirits,
versus the Holy Spirit in the church.
And here's the first confrontation in the Gentile
world, so to speak.
Watch how this plays out, the power and
how wonderful it is to be filled with
the Spirit of God.
You never have to fear no matter where
He sends you.
So they found a certain sorcerer, a false
prophet, a Jew, whose name was Bar-Jesus,
or the son of Joshua, a very common
name, Joshua or Yehoshua, which in the Greek
is Jesus.
Very common name.
Which was with the deputy of the country,
Sergius Paulus, a prudent man who called for
Barnabas and Saul and desired to hear the
word of God.
And Elymas, the sorcerer, for so is his
name interpreted, or by interpretation, withstood them.
In other words, the Bar-Jesus was the
Jewish and Elymas is the Greek of this
man's name, the sorcerer.
He withstood them, seeking to turn away the
deputy from the faith.
Now here's an important man in the government.
If he gets saved, you see, Satan says,
well, this thing could spread.
I kind of control things now through the
government, by the laws and the religion of
the state of the land, and I can...sorcery
is legal.
It's just an alternate religion, so to speak.
Nothing wrong with it all.
We want to be tolerant, all faiths are
allowable.
Even the worship of Satan and sorcery, the
occult, maybe they're even teaching it in a
public school.
And so Satan sees this as a threat.
Light is coming, the truth of the gospel,
and so if this powerful man in the
government gets saved, Satan says, well, you know,
I'm going to lose some territory here.
I might lose control of the public schools.
Then Saul, who is also called Paul, and
here's where his name changes, his conversion, his
name was changed from Saul to Paul, filled
with the Holy Ghost, set his eyes on
him and said, Oh, full of subtly and
all mischief, thou child of the devil, Paul
wasn't about hurting his feelings, was he?
That wouldn't be politically correct if you said
that to a government official today, would it?
Thou enemy of all righteousness, wilt thou not
cease to pervert the right ways of the
Lord?
And now behold, the hand of the Lord
is upon thee.
Now, Satan's hand was upon him and he
had, you know, he mystified people, maybe making
predictions, so many that one or two might
come to pass.
You can make so many general predictions for
the whole year, you know, like Jean Dixon.
She makes her predictions for 19, you know,
98 and of all the people and one
or two might get close.
They all get divorced, right?
So if you prophesied that something was going
to get divorced, it's pretty, pretty good to
happen.
He says, Now behold, the hand of the
Lord is upon thee and thou shalt be
blind, not seeing the sun for a season.
And immediately there fell on him a mist
and a darkness, and he went about seeking
some to lead him by the hand.
Amazing power when someone tries to hinder the
gospel when the fruit of God moves tall.
Now, it's interesting now, Satan was using him
to blind people to the truth and the
Lord uses Paul to actually blind him.
And if people aren't careful, they miss the
grace of God in this.
Now, two things could have happened.
One thing this sorcerer better be thankful about,
that it wasn't Elijah, that it wasn't the
age of grace, because if it was the
Old Testament, that guy would have been a
piece of bacon, an infant, he'd have been
snuffed.
You remember when Ahab sent the soldiers looking
for Elijah after he returned from his experience
in the cave with the Lord, and he
sent out fifty men with the captain, and
they find Elijah sitting on the knoll of
a hill, and the captain says, I'll tell
the men of God, if you are, come
down here.
And Elijah said, If I be a man
of God, let fire fall from heaven and
destroy you all.
And before he even got out of his
mouth, wham, and they were gone, there's just
a hole in the ground.
Well, the news got back, and so the
king sent another fifty, go find that guy.
And so the next guy, the captain of
fifty, with his fifty soldiers, and they find
Elijah, he's still sitting in the same spot,
he says, I'll tell the man of God,
come on down here.
And Elijah says, If I'm a man of
God, let fire from heaven fall and consume
thee.
Kaboom!
Another hole in the ground, and they disappeared.
The king sent a third captain with fifty
guys.
He found Elijah.
He said, Did we talk about something, sir?
Can we discuss this as gentlemen?
Well here, you have two examples of God's
grace.
Now, first of all, he only blinded the
guy for a season.
He could have blinded him permanently.
And he didn't kill him.
He let him live.
It may be in his difficulty, he may
reconsider what he's doing with his life.
Many times God puts his hand upon us,
and we don't see the love in it.
He hasn't killed us.
He hasn't permanently destroyed us, and it's like
he's giving us an opportunity to think things
over.
Do you really want to continue the direction
you're going?
Aren't you tired of it yet?
And I'm sure that this guy, thinking of
all the power and the way he would
mesmerize people, influence people, all of a sudden,
that quickly, God can take it away from
you, and you're helpless, and he's got to
have someone lead him around now, maybe push
him in a wheelchair, or change your bandages,
or like Nebuchadnezzar, just all of a sudden,
a nervous breakdown in an instant, and seven
years of your life are just gone, just
a chapter out of your life, because God
just allowed it to get your attention.
And yet, he didn't kill.
He's saying, do you want to think about
where you're going, what you're doing, your attitude?
You see, God is willing to forgive.
He's not willing that any should perish, but
that all should come to repentance.
He does love, but he's more glorified in
forgiving and restoring than destruction.
That brings him much more glory.
So he went about seeking some to lead
him by the hand, this powerful, arrogant, demonic
-inspired person.
Then the deputy, when he saw what was
done, believed, being astonished at the doctrine of
the Lord.
I guess so.
Now, what took place here?
What was the confrontation?
This is so encouraging.
Turn to 1 John chapter 4.
This is what John wrote, actually played out
to show you and I that you have
nothing to fear.
Look what John writes.
Now, John's writing this some 30 years later.
He says in chapter 4, Beloved, believe not
every spirit, but try the spirits whether they
are of God, because many false prophets are
gone out into the world.
Hereby know ye the Spirit of God.
Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is
come in the flesh is of God, and
every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ
is come in the flesh is not of
God.
And this is that spirit of Antichrist, whereof
you have heard that it should come, and
even now already it is in the world.
You are of God, little children.
You have overcome them.
Who's them?
The demonic spirits energizing the false prophets.
You have overcome them.
Why?
Because greater is he that is in you
than he that is in the world.
When Paul made his confrontation with his demon
-inspired sorcerer, the greater power, the very one
who created the demon that was inspiring this
man, could just like that bring it to
naught.
Greater is he that is in you than
he that is in the world.
So it shows you, you never have to
fear Satan.
You respect him.
Always keep Jesus Christ between you and him,
and realize that when Jesus Christ comes and
dwells within you and seals you with his
holy spirit, it's permanent, it's forever.
And greater is he that is in you
than he that is in the world.
And you don't have to fear.
And that's why Paul could speak the way
he did, why he wasn't afraid.
He didn't say, oh, there must be hinders
here, let's just pack it in and leave.
He dealt with it instantly on the spot.
And now when Paul and his company loosed
from Paphos, they came to Perga in Pamphylia,
and John departed from them and returned to
Jerusalem.
So, young John Mark went back to his
home, back actually probably to Joppa, the port
of Joppa, and Paul and Barnabas went north,
right up to the underbelly of Turkey, which
is Pamphylia.
And now you see God is opening the
door in Europe, the heathen, the Gentiles.
But when they departed from Perga, they came
to Antioch in Pisidia, went into the synagogue
on the Sabbath day, sat down, and after
the reading of the law and the prophets,
the rulers of the synagogue, sent unto them,
saying, You men and brethren, if you have
a word of exhortation for the people, say
on.
You remember in Isaiah 61, 1 and 2,
when Jesus, who had grown up in Nazareth
in his local synagogue, as the custom was
after the rabbis would read the scripture for
that day, would open up to the people,
say, Do you have anything to share, add
to the text, or give them an opportunity
to share some portion of scripture?
And Jesus stood up, you remember, and opened
up Isaiah, the portion in red Isaiah 61,
1 that speaks of him.
And he said, This day is the scripture
fulfilled in your eyes, your ears.
And so Paul is given the opportunity.
And it's amazing what he does, probably just
a great, you know, sermon preaching the word,
much like Peter did on the day of
Pentecost to the Jews.
Now Paul has got Gentiles in the midst,
he's in the midst, he's in a Gentile
world.
And this is interesting, that's Paul's background, he
is a Turkish Jew.
And so God has sent him back to
the area, knowing his background.
He knows the culture, knows how to relate
to them, because he was educated in that
culture.
Notice what he does now, this great message
reminding the Jews of their heritage, and then
bringing them right to the point of Jesus
Christ.
Now an interesting thing, too, if you look
at all the instances where God gave the
apostles opportunity to share their faith with the
devout Jews, they never really attacked the Jews.
They just shared the scripture pertaining to Jesus
Christ to try and open their eyes.
I think too often in the church, people
go out on the attack.
Always on the attack.
Rather than just giving the truth concerning Jesus
Christ, giving the light and allowing that to
penetrate.
Then Paul stood up and, beckoning with his
hand, said, Men of Israel, and ye that
fear God, give audience.
The God of this people of Israel chose
our fathers, and exalted the people when they
dwelt as strangers in the land of Egypt,
and with a high arm brought he them
out of it.
They got their birth as a nation, as
they went through the Red Sea, a type
of the water breaking, and here's a people
being born, a whole nation, as God had
them bound for four generations in Egypt.
And about the time of forty years, suffered
he their manners in the wilderness, all the
grace and the patience of God with the
murmuring, complaining people.
Forty years of murmuring and complaining to such
a degree that most of the parents perished
on the way.
And when he had destroyed seven nations in
the land of Canaan, he divided their land
of Babylon.
This is very interesting to me, Satan had
seven nations or kingdoms aligned to stop Israel
from taking the rightful place.
If you look at Revelation chapter 13 verse
1 and Daniel prophecies, you realize the greater
power that Satan is going to use is
the beast, the seven nations that will be
aligned at the end of the age.
It's got ten heads, but there are seven
nations to try and stop Israel from taking
the rightful kingdom on this earth, the return
of Jesus Christ.
It's interesting to me, too, now the most
prominent seven nations in America, whenever they gather
together for the economies of the world, the
G7 powerful nations on earth that always gather
together once a year and discuss the interest
rates in Wall Street in the economies of
the world, and it's called the G7.
After that, he gave unto them judges about
the space of four hundred and fifty years
until Samuel the prophet.
He's given a tremendous Bible study.
He's taken through the whole Old Testament quickly.
And afterward they desired a king and God
gave unto them Saul, the son of Kish,
a man of the tribe of Benjamin, by
the space of forty years.
And when he had removed him he raised
up unto them David to be their king.
To whom also he gave testimony and said,
I have found David, the son of Jesse,
a man after mine own heart which shall
fulfill all my will.
Wonderful to know that God would say that
about David and David wasn't a perfect man,
but David knew how to repent.
And notice what God says, a man after
my own heart, because when he is convicted
of his sin he repents.
Doesn't mean you have to be perfect.
That gives me hope, because it's so far
from perfect.
And I fail, I make mistakes, but I
know that God is saying, oh Lord Jesus
forgive me, forgive me.
And God is so forgiving.
Of this man's seed have God according to
his promise raised unto Israel a Savior Jesus.
Now he goes all the way back.
Notice again the knowledge of the Scriptures of
Paul goes all the way back to Genesis
22 verse 18 where God gives the promise
of Abraham's seed that will bless all the
nations of the earth.
And that seed is in the singular, specifically
speaking of Jesus Christ.
The promise is going to come out of
the loins of Abraham.
Then God brings Isaac, then Jacob and the
twelve tribes, and then David out of Jacob,
of the tribe of Judah.
Of this man's seed have God according to
his promise.
But the promise is all the way back.
Actually the promise goes back to Genesis 3
verse 15 where God says Satan you caused
man to fall, but by the seed of
the woman I'm going to crush your head.
And when John had first preached before his
coming the baptism of repentance to all the
people of Israel, and as John fulfilled his
course, he said, Whom think ye that I
am?
I am not he.
But behold, there cometh one after me whose
shoes of his feet are not worthy of
this.
Men and brethren, children of the stock of
Abraham, and whosoever even among you seareth God,
to you is the word of this salvation
sent.
For they that dwell at Jerusalem and their
rulers, because they knew him not, nor yet
the voices of the prophets, which are read
every Sabbath day, they have fulfilled them in
condemning them."
It's amazing.
You can sit in a church, in a
synagogue, and hear the word taught over and
over again and have a closed heart and
it cannot penetrate.
Every Saturday, every weekend they'd go to church
and did nothing for him because their hearts
weren't open.
And yet in their reaction, God, no matter
what Satan tries to do to stop the
redemption of man, God's always using the wrath
of man to bring himself praise, as the
psalmist says.
And then Paul tells us in Romans chapter
8, 28, he works all things to the
good.
No matter what happens, whether it's a failure
or a plot, God works it to the
good.
For those who love him and are called
according to his purposes.
So no matter what you're going through right
now, if you love God, if Christ is
your Savior, no matter how difficult it may
be right now, you trust, you have hope
because God's going to work it to the
good for you.
He's going to work it to the good
for you.
I can remember when we first began to
pray, we felt God was leading us to
build a radio station.
Everybody says, you're nuts.
You don't know anything about radio.
I know.
God does well.
He's leading.
We had people leave the church, write me
letters.
You're doing it for your own ego.
You're wasting God's money.
Who knows anything about a radio station?
They did the same thing when we started
at Christendom.
They did the same thing when we started
Sunday services.
And so we felt led to just to
start praying.
And God began to give us the faith
and open more doors and more doors, just
like everything else he does.
And my gosh, before you know it, it
was happening.
And God honored it.
I remember we went to the town hall.
Satan was going to use the Macedon town
hall, because that's where we're going to build
the station and the tower.
Several hundred thousand dollars it would have cost
us.
But that's where the FCC gave us allowance
to build.
So sure enough, the planning board and all
the people were just against it.
We knew what was behind it all.
And they said, you can't build your tower.
And we were one of you know, we've
been allowed to purchase the construction.
So we gathered together and we filled the
town hall.
There was no more room in the meeting
place.
People from all around saying why Christian radio
would be good for the young people and
for the surrounding area.
And they went through the motions to hear
what we're saying.
And the place was packed, standing room only.
They had no real valid reason to reject
our desire for the permit to build the
station where the FCC said we could, over
there in the Macedon area in Palmyra.
It was spiritual.
And everybody gave their reasoning and parents stood
up, you know, just how excited they were.
And it would be good for the surrounding
area.
Good, decent music.
Good teaching.
You know, things that would help the young
people and help the community.
And they went through the motions of listening
and voted it all down.
Oh, we're on the gym.
Oh, man, that's a victory.
Well, in closing the door and building that
station over there, the engineer who was putting
it together for us, doing all the plotting,
used to fellowship with us.
Just so happen he has 40 patents of
Nassau.
His name is Bob.
And he looked at the computer and looked
at the map.
He discovered that the FCC made a mistake.
And the original boundaries and limits of where
we could build the station, there was a
tower on a hill right over here by
Victor.
And it was within a seven-mile range
of the building here.
And according to the law, if it's within
seven miles from the source of the power,
you can put your station right there, at
that spot.
In other words, rather than build in Palmyra,
we could do it right here in the
church.
And we already had a tower on a
hill, the highest tower in the area.
We saved $300,000.
Now, if God hadn't allowed the zoning board
to slam the door in our face, we'd
have had to go over there.
We'd have put the tower up.
We already had it projected.
We had the spot.
We'd have had to get all kinds of,
you know, spend all kinds of money building
a studio over in Nassau.
We saved all kinds of money.
It's right behind the wall over there.
And it spreads all over.
It's just so simple.
All we did was put the equipment in
a room over there.
God worked it to the good and saved
us hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Now, maybe God has closed the door on
you in some aspect of your life right
now, and all you see is that it
hasn't gone my way and I'm upset.
God doesn't love me.
Or it's Satan.
Well, even if it is Satan, so what?
I can guarantee you, if you'll soften your
heart and humble yourself under the hand of
God and submit to his providence in the
way things are working out against your will
or wishes right now, you're going to look
back and go, Oh, Lord, I'm so thankful.
Man, Lord, how'd you figure that out?
I never would have thought of that, Lord.
When you look back on it, I can
guarantee you he's working all things that you're
going through right now to the good.
That's his promise.
So no matter what the Jews were doing
to hinder the gospel in their rage and
anger against even the Messiah that God sent
and they crucify them, they still played right
into the hands of God for the redemption
of man.
Though they found no cause of death in
him, yet desired they pilot that he should
be slain.
And when they had fulfilled all that was
written of him, they took him down from
the tree and laid him in the sepulcher.
But God raised him from the dead.
You just can't keep a good man down.
I mean, Satan, I'm convinced Satan doesn't have
a hair on his head.
He's probably over all these years.
So frustrated.
He is.
Oh, he's done it again.
No matter what I do, God turns it
around.
I thought I had Bill Gallatin in it.
He got out of it again.
But the Lord, I thought I had him
in the palm of my hand in this
temptation and he got out of it.
I thought he was going to be just
so discouraged he'd quit.
And he didn't.
So many times in our lives, he thinks
he's got us and God just kind of
just goes, watch this and does something so
little and you just slip right out of
it.
You know, if God promises you'll protect us
from the snare of the power, God is
so powerful, so wonderful.
And he was seen many days of them,
which came up with him from Galilee to
Jerusalem, who are as witnesses under the people.
And we declare unto you glad tidings are
that the promise which was made under the
fathers.
God has fulfilled the same unto us, their
children, and that he has raised up Jesus
again, as it is also written in the
second from the art.
My son, this day, have I begotten me?
And when it says I have begotten, it
is not me.
He brought him into existence for being.
It speaks of the resurrection begotten from the
dead.
Remember, Jesus Christ is always existed.
He's the everlasting son that the Old Testament
speaks of.
It says that the only begotten son doesn't
mean it's the only son that God had,
even though he is the only son, the
beloved son.
But the word begotten means begotten from the
dead.
Resurrection, the resurrection term, not coming into being
and as concerning that he raised him from
the dead, not no more to return to
corruption.
He said in this way, I will give
you the sure mercy of David.
Wherefore, he saith also in another psalm, Thou
shalt not suffer by an holy one to
see corruption.
Others are rolling out of Paul.
Isaiah, the psalms for David, after he had
served his own generation by the will of
God, fell on sleep.
Notice the believer doesn't just doesn't die.
He just thinks the body just lies down
because the spirit will go to be in
the presence of God and the body just
rests in the grave, waiting for the resurrection
to be united together with his redeemed spirit
and soul.
Paul said, You know, I'm going to be
fixed.
I don't know what to do, but I
have this desire to depart and be with
the Lord.
And yet God says there's still the need
for me to be down here with the
people.
And yet I know that the absence from
the body is to be present with the
Lord.
And so David's spirit and soul went into
into paradise, but his body's lying in the
grave.
Wherefore, he saith or David, after he had
served his own generation, fell on sleep and
was laid under his father's and saw corruption.
In other words, the body.
But he whom God raised against saw no
corruption.
That's very interesting to me that Jesus was
in the tomb for three days and his
flesh didn't begin to decompose.
And you look at the account in John
11 of Lazarus.
Be it known unto you, therefore, men and
brethren, that through this man is preached unto
you the forgiveness of sin.
You can have all of your sins forgiven
tonight if you ask Jesus Christ to forgive
you.
And by him, all that believe are justified
from all things, no matter what your sin
has been, no matter what you've done in
the past.
God has devised a plan to the death
of his own son to justify you.
He punished his son that he might forgive
you and not destroy you to give you
eternal life to forgive you of all sin
and to treat you as though you never
committed a crime.
That's what justification is to treat you as
though you didn't do it.
There's no record of it.
No record of it.
Not hidden in a computer somewhere.
No record of it.
Your sins and your iniquities will be blotted
out, Jeremiah said.
Your sins and your iniquities will never be
remembered again.
As far as the East is from the
West, as he cast our transgressions behind his
back, and the East and the West never
meet.
You know how far away your sin is
cast when you put your faith in Jesus
Christ and ask God to forgive you.
And it's from all things.
There's no such thing as mortal, temporal, venal,
cardinal, or I don't know, the label that
some groups put on sin as though some
was worse than others.
No.
Sin is sin.
It's all the same.
And all is forgiven, because God sees the
precious blood of his son upon your life.
We're redeemed by his blood.
All things from which could not be justified
by the law of Moses.
Paul brings up beautifully in Galatians, chapter two
and three, that by the works of the
law shall no flesh be justified through faith
in Jesus Christ.
So Paul, not Paul, takes them from the
law and take them.
And here's this wonderful transition into Habakkuk and
starts quoting Habakkuk where Habakkuk finishes his prophecy
in chapter two, verse four, that the just
shall live by his faith.
In Ephesians 2, it says you're saved through
grace by faith, but that's not of yourselves.
It's the gift of God, which any man
should boast.
Even the faith to believe is a gift
of God.
He wants to save you so much.
It's faith.
But it's faith in what God has done,
not in what I can do.
What God has done for you through Jesus
Christ.
Because through the works of the law, my
own self-effort to be righteous, no flesh
will be justified.
The law was a schoolmaster to bring us
to Christ, to bring us to grace.
Paul brings up clearly in Galatians.
So then he calls us now beware.
Therefore, let that come upon you which is
spoken of in the prophets.
Behold, you despisers and wonder and perish for
I work a work in your days, a
work which you shall in no wise believe,
though a man declared unto you."
In other words, you see, he quotes Habakkuk.
Habakkuk prophesied, just as Isaiah has prophesied, that
because the Jews were hard in their heart,
as Isaiah said in Isaiah 53, who has
believed our report?
Jesus brings it out and quotes Habakkuk and
Isaiah in John chapter 12, and he declares
himself the light of the world.
To enlighten people that come out of darkness,
who've been blinded by the God of this
world, Satan.
They can see the light of the world
and see the light of the eternal truth
in Jesus Christ.
And he warns them, don't harden your heart.
The more you reject the truth, the blinder
you become, the duller your hearing is, the
more difficult it becomes, the older you get.
You keep rejecting, rejecting, rejecting, putting your faith
in Jesus Christ.
Saying, well, there may be some other way.
And so Paul says, beware, because you bring
yourself under a delusion and it gets more
difficult, and more difficult, and more difficult.
And when the Jews were gone out of
the synagogue, the Gentiles besought that these words
might be preached to them the next Sabbath.
Boy, they liked what they were hearing, never
anything like this before.
And when the congregation was broken up, many
of the Jews and religious proselytes, Gentiles who
had converted to Judaism, followed Paul and Barnabas,
who, speaking to them, persuaded them to continue
in the grace of God.
We want to hear more.
And the next Sabbath day came almost the
whole city together to hear the word of
God.
Now, Paul and Barnabas, being obedient, going where
God directed them, noticed the anointing and the
success as God blessed them for their obedience.
When the Jews saw the multitudes, they were
filled with envy and spake against those things
which were spoken by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming.
Immediately, we're losing control here.
We're going to lose people from our religion,
our hold on them.
They should have been rejoicing.
Multitudes are coming to the knowledge of Messiah
that they claim to know, and they claim
to be telling the people about.
When Paul and Barnabas waxed bold and said
it was necessary that the word of God
should first have been spoken to you, but
seeing you put it from you and judge
yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn
to the Gentiles.
As Isaiah prophesied in chapter 11, verse 10,
42, verse 6, about this Messiah, my servant
will be a light unto the Gentiles.
This root of Jesse, Isaiah prophesied that they
would reject him and he would become a
light to the Gentiles.
For so hath the Lord commanded us, saying,
I have set thee to be a light
of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for
salvation unto the ends of the earth.
And when the Gentiles heard this, they were
glad and glorified the word of the Lord,
and as many as were ordained to eternal
life believed.
Remember in Acts chapter 16, verse 14, when
Paul was up to Philippi and the first
convert there is a woman named Lydia, a
very wealthy woman, and they didn't have enough
to have a synagogue, but they, according to
Jewish law, if they had ten or more
people, they'd meet by the riverside on Sabbath
and just have like a prayer service.
And Paul found out about it, went there
and said he preached the gospel, shared Christ,
and the Lord opened her heart and she
believed.
As many as were ordained to eternal life.
Now, what if there's someone here sitting tonight
and you say, well, I'm probably not ordained.
I haven't gotten much out of this.
Well, if you have that attitude, you probably
aren't.
But if you're desirous to know Jesus Christ,
you see, that's the opposite side of God's
election and predestination of foreknowledge and sovereignty.
You need to respond and you'll find out
you're ordained.
God makes it possible that you can be
ordained, but you need to respond.
And the word of the Lord was published
throughout all the region.
But the Jews stirred up the devout and
honorable women and the chief men of the
city.
So these were Jews, actually Gentiles that were
converted to Judaism, were powerful in the city.
Again, the Orthodox Jews, to stop the spread
of Christianity, went to the magistrates of the
city who were Jewish converts from the Gentile
people and said, you know, these guys are
screwing up all kinds of trouble.
This is a cult and they're going to
just make all kinds of problems.
And notice how a devout and honorable person
who is very religious can be used as
an instrument to hinder the truth of the
gospel as they defend their old dead religion.
And sometimes even claiming to believe the same
way, but you can tell they're not born
again.
And so it worked.
And yet God used it to get Paul
and Barnabas to continue moving up into Turkey,
you see, spreading the gospel.
God uses many times the tribulation and the
persecution to keep us moving.
We want to settle down.
I just want a great big giant Bible
study here.
I don't want to move ever again.
God says, no, we're going to get another
little town, another little community, another little town,
and I want to use you.
And so it worked.
The Jews stirred them up and the authorities
persecuted Paul and Barnabas and expelled them out
of the coast.
Get out of town.
Get out of here.
We're not giving you a permit to preach.
You can't pass off tracks in our shopping
centers.
There's a zoning law here.
You can't build a church.
No Bible studies in this neighborhood.
There's a parking law and any other thing
they can think of to solve it and
just move you on.
And so they shook off the dust of
their feet against them and came and I
got them exactly as Jesus said to do.
They didn't argue and strive.
They said, OK, you know, off they went
into another place.
You know, it's interesting how the government subtly
stops through Christianity.
I don't know if you're aware of this,
how the government works, but remember all the
hoopla about the Pope being in Cuba?
The spread of Christianity?
I don't know if you're aware of this,
but there's been tremendous communist oppression and just
a squashing of the true gospel in Cuba
ever since Castro took over.
Much like red China on a larger scale.
So what God has got all throughout Cuba
is what is called the house church.
Spirit filled believers that have house churches and
it's exactly like the book of Acts.
And there's all over Cuba pockets of spirit
filled believers and active small groups, house churches.
You might be surprised.
I don't know.
You might be aware of this, but at
the same time to show you how things
can work and how people aren't aware of
things.
When the Pope entered Cuba and they made
the big deal and had his picture up
there, all the people gathering, you know, as
the government said, come to the plaza at
the same time that the Pope was going
around giving masses, the government was closing down
all the spirit filled house churches and the
Protestant evangelical churches at the same time.
Not one mention of it in the newspapers.
In other words, if we were in Cuba
when the Pope came, the government would have
come and red pegged our building and it
would have been illegal to gather here.
That was going on the exact time that
the Pope was in Cuba.
So what did they do?
They when they legally forced them out of
town, they shook off the dust of their
feet against them and came in again.
Exactly as Jesus said.
Now, notice when you're in God's will and
again, the gates of hell will not prevail
against my church.
Jesus said, greater is he that is in
you than he that is in the world.
Now, the whole group says the last word
and the disciples were filled with joy and
with the Holy Ghost.
The more the persecution, the more they eat,
the brighter you shine.
It's not like taking a, you know, a
real gold or silver and you buff it
and the buffing goes on in that resistance.
There's a physical line.
It begins to heat up and the greater
the buffeting, sometimes the more brilliant to shine.
And so no matter how they're being persecuted,
the spirit of God is just infusing into
them greater strength and greater power, greater joy.
A Christian loses his joy because he does
nothing.
They're so afraid, well, I might fail.
And so they don't try anything to protect
themselves from failing.
God says, step, step, and I'll honor it.
And so they hold back and won't do
anything because they're afraid to go.
I'll be safe.
At least I won't fail.
I won't do anything.
And invariably that person loses all their joy.
You've got to have the life of God
flowing through you.
And there's that constant joy and infusion of
new strength, new vision, new revelation.
And your heart stays on fire for Jesus
Christ.
And you go from strength to strength.
My heart goes out to people that I
have seen come to Christ in this church.
People that came to Christ with me in
California 25 years ago.
And today they're backslidden.
They're neutralized.
They have no more joy.
It's because they've been nullified by doing nothing.
And instead of more in love with Jesus
Christ, more excited about Jesus Christ, they're struggling
to even stay alive.
Just struggling.
You know, I wish I could get excited
again.
You see, you never have to get unexcited.
Jesus Christ is so wonderful.
The Holy Spirit is the well that's so
deep you never run out.
You've got to continually drink.
And there's something wonderful about the Lord when
he draws us into that relationship and that
love.
He creates a thirst that he'll fill the
thirst.
And I need more.
And so he gives more.
Wonderful.
No matter how you're persecuted or threatened.
It says the disciples were filled with joy
and with the Holy Ghost.
Shall we stand?
Lord, what a delight it is to serve
you, to acknowledge you, to be used of
you, to experience your love.
The joy that you bring to us through
the Holy Spirit.
Lord, how wonderful to know the greater is
he that dwells within us and he that
is in the world.
That we never have to fear.
Lord, we ask tonight that you might give
us that fresh filling of the Holy Spirit.
That we might bring you glory the rest
of this night, even tomorrow.
That as Satan seeks to tempt and nullify,
Lord, you're working it to the good.
Lord, you'll deliver.
You'll strengthen.
We praise you for that, Lord, that it's
not left up to us.
That we can work out our own salvation
with fear and trembling because it's you that
works within us to will and do of
your good pleasure.
We thank you for that, Lord.
So here we are.
We're weak, but yet, Lord, we are made
perfect in your strength.
So strengthen us, Lord, tonight that our lives
would bring you much glory.
That our lives, our obedience, our open acknowledgement
of you, our worship of you would magnify
your holy name.
Lord, we're not worthy to unloose your shoe
ratchet.
How thankful, Father, that you've asked us to
delight in salt.
What a privilege.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.
Thanks for listening.
We hope that Jesus revealed more of himself
to you through this teaching.
If you are interested in more teaching tapes
from Calvary Chapel of the Fingerlings, you can
receive a catalog and order tapes by dialing
1-800-483-WALK, that's 1-800-483
-WALK, or by writing to Walk in the
Light, P.O. Box 25099, Farmington, New York,
14425.
May Jesus bless you as you study his
word.