The book of Acts, God's
really directing Paul now.
You remember he, again by persecution, people
not responding in mass, yet God touching a
life here or there in important places.
We know in the Areopagus, a very powerful
man and woman, but then it ended in
the debate as, you know, the philosophers, the
Stoics, the Epicureans, wanted to debate with Paul
over Jesus Christ and the resurrection because they
didn't believe in those things.
And then some believed, and the way it
is today in mankind, some believed, some didn't.
Some said, well, we'll hear you again on
this matter.
And so after that, he moved down to
Corinth, which is one of the major cities
of the world outside of Athens and Rome.
Now remember, the world was under a one
world government at this time.
Rome had conquered the world, Pax Roma.
There was a, because of the power and
the military threat of Rome, there was a
peace all over the world, and it was
ruled by Rome.
And there was the Roman government over Greece,
and at the southern portion of Greece was
Corinth.
And it was probably the most famous city
on earth for its debauchery, its sensuality and
perversion of all the cities of the world,
a major city.
Now, it was right on an isthmus.
As you go down to the southern tip
of Achaia, which was Greece, you'd see a
five-mile portion of the country that separated
the Adriatic and the Aegean Sea.
And then it would balloon out beneath Corinth
into a large portion or remaining portion of
Greece.
It was the trading center of east and
west outside of Ephesus of the known world.
And your Arabian balsam would come through there
on the way to Italy and west into
Europe.
Your Phrygian slaves, the Arabs were, as they
do today, the Arabs were the leaders in
the slave market.
In fact, the leaders, in fact, the Muslims
today are selling by the hundreds of thousands
the black Africans as slaves.
It's a real flourishing trade.
UN doesn't say anything about it, but it's
still, the Muslims to this day are still
doing it in the Arabs.
The Babylonian carpets, the famous carpets would come
through, have to go through Corinth.
Egyptian papyrus, the Libyan ivory from Africa, all
these things, the Phoenician dates, the Cilician goat's
hair, the famous Cilician goats from Turkey had
that special fiber in their hair in the
oil that the people would make their tents
out of that could actually breathe, air could
get through, but it would retain heat because
it would be black and it would repel
moisture, snow and rain.
It's amazing, but fresh air would come through
and it would be like an air conditioning.
Amazing, the Cilician goats hair.
So, all these different cultures and all this
wealth pouring through Corinth.
Now, the reason they stopped at Corinth, the
port of Sanctuary on the eastern side, if
they went down below the southern tip of
Greece, the currents were so terrible, the word
was if a sailor went south rather than
through Corinth, they might as well say goodbye
to their families, you'll never see him again.
It was much like Cape Horn, and I
think in Africa, the deadly current says the
Aegean Adriatic Sea would meet in the Mediterranean,
and so no shipper would go that way.
In fact, it would even take much longer,
several days, even weeks longer to go that
way.
So, they would unload all their lading in
Sanctuary on the eastern side of the five
-mile Isthmus, and then they would have porters
that would haul all the goods across the
five-mile portion of land and reload it
in the ships and send it toward Rome
across the other side of the sea, the
Adriatic.
Now, because of all the different cultures and
the wealth, debauchery set in.
Not only did they have drunkenness, in fact,
in Greek theater all over the world and
in Rome in those days, whenever a Corinthian
was portrayed on the stage, he was portrayed
as a drunkard.
When someone was living a licentious, perverted life,
they're referred to as playing the Corinthian.
It was worldwide famous.
Not only were they perverse, but their religion
was debauched.
A thousand feet or more above Corinth was
a necropolis with the Temple of Aphrodite, the
goddess of sex, with over a thousand prostitutes.
And they would come down into the city
every night and ply their trade in religious
services, the prostitutes.
A Greek man had a wife, but she
was not allowed in the public.
She would stay home and raise the children
and cook and keep the house.
It was accepted in society the Greek man
would have a mistress, concubines for sexual pleasure.
It was accepted in society that the Greek
man also would have a beautiful woman just
to take around and be seen in the
public with him.
That was that society.
Another principal god that they worshiped was the
Roman god Bacchus, or the god of alcohol
and sexual pleasure.
So here's a society after Paul leaves Athens,
the city of the great universities of the
world, now the Spirit of God leads him
in God's providence down to the most debauched,
sensual, perverted, wealthy city of the world other
than Rome.
Now it's interesting, you remember when Paul's writing
to the Romans in chapter 5, he says,
where sin abounds, grace does much more abound.
Now it's interesting, as Paul was in this
city and began to see the culture and
what the people allowed, the freedoms that they
have, he wrote two letters, you remember five
years later after he has left and initially
started the gospel in Corinth, you remember he
is writing to Rome and he writes in
his Roman letters and he describes the Gentile
world under the one world government as he
saw it depicted in Corinth.
So turn to Romans chapter 1 to show
you what Corinth was like.
Paul described it, writing and describing the Gentile
world as he was in Corinth.
Verse 22, he says, professing themselves to be
wise, they became fools.
They were very intelligent people.
Again, remember they had great universities.
If you travel and one of the greatest
sources of income of Rome and Greece are
the archaeological remains of Paul's day, the buildings,
the genius of their engineering, their buildings.
If the Lord leaves the door open, we're
going to Ephesus, we're going to visit a
city of marble larger than Canaan and Dagua
and see the very judgment seat where Paul
defended himself from the silversmiths.
We're going to be able to walk the
street.
It's amazing.
I've been there before.
It takes your breath away, the beauty of
these cities that remain today.
But since professing themselves to be wise, they
became fools.
They changed the glory of the uncorruptible God
into an image made like corruptible man and
to birds and four-footed beasts and creeping
things.
In other words, they became tolerant.
They were an advanced society and they allowed
all faiths, all religions.
There were no such thing as hate crimes.
All paths led to God.
And so to have a society, they were
tolerant of everything.
And they began to depict God in all
kinds of various forms.
Wherefore, and idolatry always leads to sexual perversion.
When a society leaves the truth concerning God,
a society becomes perverted.
Sexual perversion is the next stage.
So God gave them up to uncleanness through
the lusts of their own hearts.
When Satan can get someone into idolatry, then
Satan can draw someone into some religion, into
some sexual perversion.
Because that religion that Satan has designed will
allow it and promote it.
And so then there's no conviction of sin.
Sin is thrown out of the language.
And so they began to defile themselves.
They dishonored their own bodies between themselves.
They changed the truth of God into a
lie.
Now, remember, Paul's writing this from Corinth.
He's living in Corinth, seeing it.
This is the great Roman empire, the one
world government that ruled the world.
And they changed the truth of God into
a lie and worshiped and served the creature
more than the creator who was blessed forever.
Amen.
They became more enamored with nature than with
God who created the animals.
For this cause, God gave them up.
In other words, no more conviction.
God turned them over.
They became reprobate.
In other words, God considered them worthless, many
of these people, as human beings.
He gave them up for their vile affections.
For even their women did change the natural
use into that which is against nature.
Lesbianism was rampant.
They began to tolerate it.
And then so the young children began to
experiment with it.
It began to be portrayed in their entertainment,
in the Greek theater.
So, lesbianism spread.
And likewise, also the men, leaving the natural
use of women, burned in their lust one
toward another.
Men with men working that which is unseemly.
And notice this, and receiving in themselves the
reward of their error which was necessary.
They deserved what they got because of their
sodomy and their homosexuality.
They deserved the disease and the trouble they
brought upon themselves by living like animals.
And even as they did not like to
retain God in their knowledge, God gave them
over.
In other words, they're worthless as human beings.
To a reprobate mind, to do those things
which are not convenient.
In other words, as remember, Isaiah declared the
sin of Israel, remember, before this.
It says that the Jewish citizens, as they
departed from God, went the same road.
It says they declared their sin openly as
Sodom.
Now, these are very intelligent people.
This is Corinth.
This is what Paul sees when he gets
there.
This is the fruit of a one world
government under Rome, with tremendous universities, tolerating and
giving everyone freedom to do their own thing.
Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, not much
marriage anymore.
A lot of sex, but no marriage.
Wickedness, covetousness, selfish greed and desire for more
money.
Maliciousness.
People could be very, they were just malicious,
angry, violent, nasty, dangerous, full of envy, murder.
Murder was rampant.
Debate, deceit, malignity, whisperers,
backbiters, haters of God.
Religious, let's see, haters of the true God,
tolerant of all religions, but the one true
religion toward God.
Despiteful, proud, probably had stickers on the back
of their camels and their burls, I'm proud
to be a Corinthian.
Inventors of evil things.
All you had to do was look at
their, the Greek theater, the perversion, disobedient
to parents.
The family began to break down, and so
parents lost control of their kids, and kids
lost their respect for their parents.
Without understanding, covenant breakers, you couldn't trust anybody
with their word.
Without natural affection, you know, even nature picks
someone from the opposite sex.
But these people were so sick, they didn't
have natural affection even for their own babies.
Because of Roman law, if a man didn't
want his baby, he would just throw it
out in a field for and it was
legal, Roman law.
Or he'd throw a baby that he didn't
want into a pool of lampreys.
It's documented.
This is the Corinth that Paul walked into.
Highly intelligent people, implacable, unmerciful.
That's Corinth.
That's why it says, when they saw a
human being, they say it was just out
of control.
They say, he's a Corinthian.
He's playing the Corinth, Corinthian.
Now, he's in Ephesus, and this is after
the church is formed, five years later, and
he writes back to Corinth.
And this is interesting.
Turn to 1 Corinthians to show you that
grace does abound.
There are people that will respond to the
gospel.
So turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 6.
And this is five years later.
After the third missionary journey through Corinth, the
church has been established, home Bible studies, and
people are leading people to Christ.
And Paul is writing back to the city
of Corinth now to encourage them, to remind
them of something.
The church was letting its guard down.
You remember the Corinthian church, when they began
to experience the Holy Spirit, became more enamored
with the gifts and the external things of
the Spirit than Jesus Christ Himself.
And the church got carnal and out of
control.
And so Paul had to write the Corinthian
church the longest letter to correct them for
their error, because they didn't know how to
operate.
They never learned to walk in the Spirit.
They were enamored with the sign gifts, and
their services were always being disrupted and chaotic
and confusing.
And because they couldn't control their own lives
and yield and learn to walk in the
Spirit, even though they had the gifts of
the Spirit, then they couldn't control their flesh.
And so here you had people that were
experiencing the gifts of the Spirit, but were
still having drinking problems, they were fornicating, they
were gluttons, and all they wanted to do
was party.
And so Paul's writing again to this very
city.
He's writing back to Corinth, and notice what
he tells them in verse 9.
Know you not that the unrighteous shall not
inherit the kingdom of God?
Be not deceived, neither fornicators.
Now remember, he saw when he first went
there, you know, five years earlier that we're
going to see tonight, they were all involved
in this.
But many of these people responded to the
gospel.
Now it's five years later, and so many
people say, well, you know, I don't know
if I'm in this Christian thing anymore.
And maybe they started to fool around with
the wrong crowd again.
Or maybe they weren't as choosy as they
should have been with some of their friends,
and they began, instead of changing their friends
to Christ, they were starting to let their
guard down and go back to the old
life.
And so Paul's hearing about it, and it's
creeping into the church in Corinth, and they
were doing nothing about it.
They knew what was going on, and maybe
the, you know, the local pastor of that
church or the leader of that home Bible
study was so concerned about people keep coming
to his house, he knew what was going
on.
He wasn't teaching against it or being honest
and faithful with the Word of God.
But he'd hurt someone's feeling, and maybe they
wouldn't show up next week.
And so here Satan is getting a foothold
again in a place where Paul risked his
life, and the Spirit of God began to
touch lives.
He says, hey, be not deceived, neither fornicators
nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor
pedophiles.
It's translated effeminate, but it's effeminate because of
the people, the type of a person that
would go after a little boy.
There were pedophiles accepted in a Corinthian society.
Nor abusers of themselves, a man got homosexuals
again.
Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards.
Notice he didn't call it a disease.
God doesn't see these things as a disease
or you're a victim.
Nor revilers, nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdom
of God.
And such, now look it, here's the glory
of the gospel.
These people say, oh, I can't change.
My psychiatrist told me I was born this
way, and I can't change.
No, a person doesn't want to be changed.
They want to continue on the way they
are, and they want God to accept them
the way they are.
No, you can change.
Paul says, such were some of you.
That's us.
That's me.
That's you.
Paul's writing back to him and says, some
of you were living this way.
Don't go drifting back or fooling around with
those people again.
Don't put yourself in that dangerous position to
have those old things stirred up again.
Make no provision for the lusts of the
flesh.
You've been delivered from that.
Some of you, but you are washed.
You gave your life to Christ.
You've been washed in the blood of Jesus
Christ.
He's cleansed you and forgiven you of all
sin.
You are sanctified.
God has set you apart.
He's responded to your sincerity, to wanting a
new life, realizing that it's sin.
It's not a disease.
No matter what your society, no matter what
the Corinthian society or the Corinthian Constitution says
your legal right as a Roman citizen is,
and the privacy of your own home.
The Bible says you won't see the kingdom
of heaven.
And you came under conviction, Paul says, and
you changed.
You were washed.
You were sanctified.
You are justified in the name of the
Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our
God.
This is the city that he's going to,
Corinth.
This is the society.
This is the Gentile world that the gospel
is going into.
Where sin abounds, grace does much more abound.
What an opportunity to share Christ in a
debauched, sick society.
And that's where Paul was, Corinth.
And he found a certain Jew named Aquila,
born in Pontus, lately come from Italy, with
his wife Priscilla.
Now, isn't it wonderful that when we are
led by the Spirit, we respond.
God always has someone there.
It just seems like, wow, fellowship.
God will always have someone there for you
to fellowship with.
He won't isolate you.
Remember, Jesus said, where two or more are
gathered in my name, I am there in
your midst.
And knowing that truth, Jesus, when he sends
us somewhere, you can be sure you're going
to bump into someone.
You'll be like-minded.
You'll have that unity of the Spirit.
You'll be able to fellowship.
May not be a church yet, but he
may want to start it with you in
your house.
Remember, it wasn't until 300 years later that
churches actually began to have buildings and auditoriums.
The church for the first 300 years was
just this beautiful body of believers gathering from
house to house, all over cities, spreading all
over the world.
It wasn't easy to rent a building, you
see, because the Christians were the ones that
were the hateful ones, the narrow-minded ones.
They were pushed out.
They didn't get the jobs.
They couldn't own the property.
They wouldn't be able to rent the buildings.
And so the church met from house to
house on a regular basis.
And it didn't take long.
Paul no sooner got there, he's alone at
this point, and he meets them.
God has someone there coming from another direction.
You can be sure he'll have someone there
for you.
The reason he was there, now notice this,
because Claudius, that was the emperor of Rome
at that time, had commanded all Jews to
depart from Rome and came in.
So here God's using persecution in Rome to
send Aquila and Pontus down to Athens.
They don't know that, you know, and this
is what I like about the Lord.
Now sometimes God may, in a marvelous way,
speak and tell you, now I want you
to go in such and such a city
because such and such is there, and I
want you to meet him.
No, God in this particular case, and here
again, God has so many marvelous ways to
direct and bring people together.
Now, he didn't tell Paul to go to
Athens because he was going to have Claudius,
you know, make an edict to drive the
Jews out, and he was going to send
Pontus and Aquila to meet him there.
I'll have someone there for you, Paul.
No, he just said, go to Athens.
And the same thing with, you know, Pontus
and Aquila.
They didn't know that God had their future
all in it.
This is the neat thing.
You don't have to worry about the future
with God.
You may not know what the next day
holds.
You may not know what the next week
holds, but God does, and God's got it
under control, you see, and he knows who
you need to meet.
He knows what circumstance to design to protect
you, to keep you always, and he will.
You never have to fear.
He may not tell you who the person
is, but he'll have that person there.
Now, boy, what a way to go.
You know, oh, we're being driven out of
our home.
We've lost our home, and we're, oh, you
know, Rome.
Where are we going to go?
What are we going to do?
And you meet Paul, the apostle Paul.
God has it all lined up, you see,
and maybe if he had just simply, in
a dream, in a vision, said, Pontus, I
want you to take your wife and go
to Athens.
No way.
It's the devil.
I just finished the addition on the house.
I just got a raise.
What do you mean you want me to
leave?
That's not the Lord.
No way, and so what's God do?
He forces it sometimes, because he says, any
other way, you won't respond to me, and
it may seem painful and negative and frightening,
but God's still got it under control for
your benefit.
You never have to worry.
Just trust.
Obey, and God always rewards that.
He rewards faith tremendously with his own person,
and so they get down there, and they
meet Paul.
It just happens to be a coincidence.
They both have the same trade.
They're tent makers, and because he was of
the same craft, he abode with them and
wrought, for by their occupation, they were tent
makers.
Isn't this neat about Paul?
Here's a man that he, if he didn't
have any money, he didn't take an offering
for himself.
He didn't write a book to make a
quick buck, because he was well known.
You know what he did?
He went out and got a job.
Until God provided some other way, he went
and got a job as he traveled.
I remember not too long ago, a young
man.
He doesn't live in the area anymore, and
he didn't understand, evidently.
He came to me, and he was so
concerned.
It just felt like the people at church
didn't love him and didn't respect his efforts
to be the pastor.
And I said, well, what's the matter?
He said, well, they just don't understand what
I'm going to do for them.
He had a job at Kodak, and he
quit it, and there were 12 people in
the church, and he was upset with them,
because they weren't meeting his financial needs, weren't
paying him a salary, finding him a place
to live, and paying his insurance, and taking
care of his wife and kids.
Twelve people in his church.
Since then, he's tried it again, and it
hasn't worked.
Now he's got a job somewhere.
He's back doing what he should be doing,
working and providing for his wife and kids.
But the Apostle Paul, if he didn't have
any money, he went out and got a
job.
You remember he said to the Corinthians, I
would not be accountable to any of you.
I don't know if I'd buy a tent
from him, because you know he didn't have
very good eyesight.
I mean, I imagine some portions of that
tent would really be breezy.
But he worked, and he was an older
man.
He wasn't a young 20-year-old.
And he didn't manipulate the people to give
him money, because he was anointed.
He went out and he worked.
And then when he wasn't working, he went
on the weekends.
When he had time off, he reasoned in
the synagogue every Sabbath.
Again, Paul's, you know, the way he worked,
to the Jew first and then the Gentile.
His tremendous desire and concern for the Jew,
his own people, to know Messiah, to know
who Jesus Christ was.
And he persuaded the Jews and the Greeks.
And when Silas and Timotheus were come from
Macedonia, Paul was pressed in the spirit and
testified to the Jews that Jesus was the
Christ.
And so he even had more.
Now, if we, if you look at the
scriptures and the other letters Paul has written,
they had, when they showed up, they had
a love gift for Paul from one of
the churches, the saints in Macedonia.
And he said, not that I even looked
for it, but since I've got it now
and my needs are being met, I can
go to full-time preaching again now.
And so here Paul's really out in the
streets now, in the synagogues on Saturday, in
the streets, going after the Greek Gentiles, preaching
the gospel.
And when they opposed themselves and blasphemed, he
shook his raiment and he said unto them,
your blood be upon your own heads.
I am clean from henceforth.
I'll go unto the Gentiles.
Now he pulls from, you remember in Ezekiel
chapter three, verse 17, I think through 21,
Ezekiel was called to be a watchman for
the nation Israel while they were in Babylon,
to warn them of the coming judgment.
And God said, I've called you to be
a watchman.
And if you warn the sinner of the
coming judgment faithfully, I will not require their
blood at your hands.
If they reject your message, if you fail
to warn them of my coming judgment, their
blood will I require at your hands.
But if you share the truth and warn
them of the consequences of their sin and
the coming judgment, and if they can turn
to me, even if they disregard it and
you have no results, their blood will not
be required upon your head.
And so Paul's drawing from this, he's saying,
you know, I'm not going to be responsible
what your life ends up as.
You've heard the truth.
I've been faithful to share the truth with
you.
If you perish, if something happens, it won't
be my fault.
I've shared the truth.
And Paul was so frustrated, you know, because
if they would come to the knowledge of
Jesus Christ, what it could do for them,
the deliverance, the power, the life.
And he departed thence, and he entered into
a certain man's house named Justice, one that
worshiped God, whose house joined hard to the
synagogue.
And Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue,
believed on the Lord with all his house,
and many of the Corinthians hearing believed and
were baptized.
And I would imagine, I would venture a
pretty safe guess that when he writes five
years later back to Corinth, that the people
he's writing to were some of these very
same people.
These very same people that when he initially
went to Athens, heard the gospel, and their
lives were turned around.
And he said, some of you were this
type of a person, and you've been set
free, you've been justified, you've been washed.
Stay clean.
Stay in the blessings of the Lord.
Enjoy the blessing of answered prayer, of fellowship
with your Father in heaven, with peace that
passes understanding, with the freedom of fear.
You know, my heart goes out to Christians
that are tormented.
Always the anxiety of the future when they
can have such rest and peace because of
their relationship with the Lord.
Don't let Satan take that from you.
Don't fool around.
Stay in fellowship with the Lord that you
won't have the anxiety and the fear of
the future as a believing child of God.
That the blessings of God can come upon
you abundantly.
And no matter what happens in your life,
then God says, you know, I promise you,
I'll give you peace that passes understanding.
You'll have the assurance of my presence.
You won't need to be discouraged or fearful.
You'll know that I'm with you.
God wants that for all of you, all
of us.
Now notice even Paul gets to a point,
and I'm sure he's reflecting back since he
first had the vision, come over and help
us.
Remember, he's not really well accepted in Jerusalem.
In fact, if you really study the life
of Paul, he didn't have many friends.
He was so in love with Jesus Christ,
so faithful to speak the truth of Jesus
Christ, he made lots of enemies.
And a lot of the enemies were people
in the church and even his own countrymen
because, you know, he's left the faith, he's
left Judaism, and he's, you know, forsaken Moses
in their eyes, accepting this Jewish Messiah, Jesus.
And so by the time he gets there,
remember, he's already been stoned to death.
He's started several riots.
He's on the go.
He doesn't have a wife to go home
to and cry and have her pray for
him.
He doesn't know where his next bed's going
to be.
And it's probably just getting to the point
where he's going, is it worth it?
Am I going to make it?
Is this what God wants me to do?
And there are legitimate doubts sometimes as a
believer.
God understands these things, and he'll never, and
this is a wonderful thing, and Paul again
writes back to Corinth, and I'm sure Paul
is speaking to them and always through his
own experience, he says, God will never give
you more than you can bear.
And with every temptation he allows to come
into your life or difficulty, he will always
make a way of escape for you.
God, you know, will never overdo it to
the point where you'll be discouraged.
The smoking flax he will not put out.
A bruised reed he will not break, Isaiah
speaks of the Lord.
How gracious he is.
He'll never push us beyond the point where
we can't, you know, maintain.
He's perfect in his designs for our life
to cause us to need him, to want
him, to cause our prayer life to increase,
to know more of him, to realize more
of his personality, who he is, what he's
like, to be aware of his presence, assured
of it.
And these things he designs causes that to
happen in our life.
Now notice, here's Paul.
Now, the very statement that is made here
shows that he was coming to a point
in his life, he says, I don't know
if I can go on.
You ever felt like that?
I don't know if I can go on.
There are people, you know, people are lying
about him.
People are rejecting him.
Instead of responding to the gospel, he's being
arrested, run out of town.
His friends are turning on him.
Sometimes he feels alone.
He's in the midst of this sensual, debauched
society.
And Satan's probably saying, why even try to
hang on?
Enough of this holiness.
Why don't you just let go a little
bit and relax?
Just have a couple of drinks and just,
you know, have at it.
Is it worth it?
And notice, here's the faithfulness of the Lord,
and the Lord will be just as faithful
with you and I.
Then spake the Lord to Paul in the
night by a vision.
He said, be not afraid.
Well, that absolutely proves that Paul was afraid.
Maybe he felt like, you know, maybe what's
next?
Am I going to be thrown in jail
again?
Satan has a way that when your trial's
over and God begins to work, you know,
things calm down for a while, and you
start to see things stir up again, and
you go, oh no, here we go.
What's, now what?
What's next?
What's God going to do next in my
life?
And you wonder, what's Satan, what's he going
to allow?
And Satan has a way of coming and
saying, man, God's really going to wipe you
out this time.
You've got a trial coming.
You aren't going to make it in this
one, you know.
And it can almost paralyze you.
You go, that's it.
I've had it.
This is as far as I go with
faith.
I don't want to go anymore.
I just want to take it easy until
the rapture.
And you get a little gun-shy.
You think, I just don't know if I
can go through another thing like this last
one I went through.
The thing is, you got through it.
That's what we forget.
And Paul was there, as James writes, even
concerning Elijah.
Remember, we are subject, we are men, women,
subject under the control of the same passions,
the fears.
We're human, and God understands that.
Now, many times in my own life, I've
discovered that where there's an area of self
-confidence, God begins to allow a breakdown.
Where I won't trust in myself, or I
think it's going to be easy, or some
area where I'm taking it for granted, God
designs something to force me to depend upon
Him, and a weakness comes out that I'm
not aware it was there, because I've been
avoiding it.
And I can deceive myself into thinking I
have more strength than I really do, because
I'm avoiding, I'm running from it.
And so God knows that.
And sometimes He'll design something, and He'll bring
out the weakness.
Never be afraid of the thing He's bringing
out of you, because once He brings it
out, it's gone, and He replaces it with
Himself, with His victory.
And once He replaces it with Himself, you
never have to go through it again.
And you always come out stronger, conform more
into the image of Jesus Christ.
But you see, many times I'm guilty of
self-confidence, because I'm avoiding certain things, and
I think, well, hey, I'm on a roll,
things are easy, and I'm not growing, and
I don't realize it.
The weakness is still down in there, and
I'm not identifying it, I'm not admitting to
it, I'm just avoiding every situation that might
reveal the weakness, because I don't want anybody
to know about it.
God says, no, I want to use you
more.
I want to give you more faith.
I've got more for your life.
And so God designs something, and all of
a sudden, my self-confidence is gone, and
the weakness comes flying out, and it's like,
Lord, I don't like this.
God says, when I'm finished with you, you
will, because it'll never be in your life
again.
I'm going to replace it with more of
Myself, and you'll be more effective as My
child.
And the very thing you desire, the very
thing that you may see in some older
saint or someone else that God is using
that you know you don't have now, it'll
be in your life.
And you don't have to be afraid about
admitting being afraid.
That's not my problem anymore.
You know, Satan gets you out of this
lie, well, that's not faith.
It takes more faith to be honest than
to lie about how you really are, because
God knows already you're scared inside.
Why not just admit it?
Because He'll come to the rescue.
Be not afraid, but speak.
You see, he's probably, you know, wondering, you
know, am I gonna make it?
Am I gonna get out of this city
alive?
Am I gonna survive this thing?
And notice what he says, but speak, and
hold not thy peace.
Don't be afraid.
So evidently, Paul's getting to the point where
he's saying, you know, I'm just gonna cool
it.
I just can't handle the stress anymore.
I can't handle the rejection for the people
that get saved.
I can't handle the lies.
I'm tired of it.
It's getting the best of me.
And God knowing that saying, I will not
give you more than you bear, and God
himself came to him in the vision.
He said, I am with thee.
Man, that's all you need to hear.
I am with you.
That's all Moses needed to hear to spend
40 years with a lot of whiners and
complainers, unthankful people, because the Lord
said, I will be with you.
I'll go with you.
Remember Moses said, hey, if you don't go,
I'm not going.
I am with thee, and no man shall
set on thee to hurt thee.
Now I'm sure, you see, Paul was thinking,
I'm gonna get stoned again.
My body's a mess already.
I've got scars.
I'm crippled.
I'm half blind.
I've been scourged, beaten.
I have nowhere to live.
I'm losing my friends.
I'd like to have a wife.
I'd like to have a house to go
home to, to relax a little bit, and
so he's probably really having a difficult time.
The Lord says, Paul, I'm with thee.
No man shall set on thee to hurt
thee, for I have much people in this
city.
Remember, now look at, we just read about
that city.
He hasn't led everybody to the Lord yet.
He hasn't met everybody yet, but God says,
I have much people in this city waiting.
They need your life.
You don't know who they are yet, and
Satan's doing his best to discourage you, to
drive you out, or get you to quit
through fear.
I have much people.
Now, who are these much people?
They're the elect.
They're the people that God has known from
before, the foundation of the world, that are
there in that city, in different places, in
different parts of the government, and at different
social strata, are waiting to hear Paul preach
and respond to the gospel.
I have much people in this city, where
sin abounds, grace does much more abound.
So, what does that tell us?
Oh, I'm not going to work here.
There's another believer in the plant.
I'm not living in this neighborhood.
I'm the only Christian here.
It's amazing what we do.
Yet, in the same breath, we go to
a meeting.
We get all charged up by a real
great speaker, and we say, and he says,
we want to see someone who wants to
be used of God, and they raise their
hand, and then God says, I'm going to
move you to a neighborhood, and you're going
to be the only Christian family on the
block.
Start sharing with everybody.
Oh, there's another believer here.
This is Corinth.
There's too many sinners here, but that's what
God does, you see.
That's what Paul was facing.
Oh, no one's going to get saved in
this town.
You see what's on their television?
You see what they listen to on their
radios?
Look at the way these kids are dressing.
They got so much metal hanging out of
their body, it's the only way they don't
get electrocuted is walking under a power line.
I mean, and look at the adults.
Violent, angry, nasty.
I want to go somewhere where everybody will
listen and accept it.
No, where sin abounds, that gives God the
opportunity through you, through me, to share our
faith even more, because He has much people
there.
See, they may be perverted.
They may be sick, but God loves them.
He hates what they're doing, but He loves
them, and the gospel can set them free.
This is what did you and I.
You see, well, you say, well, I was
never like that.
You may have been a slave to your
own morality.
You may have been under your own self
-deception of your own morality, because you didn't
do some perverse thing like someone else.
And Satan had you just as trapped as
the guy that was out of control.
He had you trapped in a false sense
of security, because you don't do certain things.
But we all need to be set free,
because remember, Paul, right into the feet, and
said, we were darkness.
Every single one of us belonged to Satan.
Pawns, whether he made us an upstanding citizen
involved in the community, or in a social
program, or lying in the gutter, Satan had
each one of us run in his kingdom
with his morality, his philosophies, his businesses, keeping
his system going.
Anything.
You could build your building, build a park,
be a good painter, be a good philanthropist,
do social work, and help the poor, and
feed the hungry, but still you don't know
Jesus Christ.
And you're trapped in a false security of
morality, and Satan can send you to hell
just as quick, with a white collar around
your neck, as a priest, or a minister,
or a social worker, as the drunkard, or
the drug addict, or the sodomite.
If you don't get to Jesus, he's got
you, no matter how religious and moral you
are, you see.
So Paul says, sin is abounding, but my
grace can abound even more.
The message of the gospel, the cross, that
Jesus Christ died for people like this, people
like us, me, you.
And that's the light, that's the beauty, that
God would love someone like me.
That God was willing to become a man
and die for me.
And then doing it in the past, dying
for me, knowing he's going to offer me
salvation, and allowing me to do what I
did for 30 years, and still plan to
save me, and love me, and forgive me.
How can you figure that out?
Who can comprehend that love?
You see, the deception is, in the beginning,
is, well, I must not have been that
bad.
That's why God saved me.
No, I was very bad.
I had an Adamic nature, very easy
to sin.
I was a born sinner.
I came forth from my mother's womb, speaking
lies.
And sin did my mother conceive me, David
said.
And so God says, Paul, no one will
harm me.
Please speak your faith.
Please speak to these people.
Please let someone know that you know me.
And he continued there a year and six
months.
It could be it had been an hour
and six minutes, he was ready to leave
town.
He may have been thinking of buying a
ticket in Centuria and going to Ephesus then.
But you see, God is so faithful.
We ask to be used of God, and
then we run from an unclean situation, where
God maybe has placed us, to reach the
very people around us.
Thinking, and maybe Paul thought, I don't have
the strength.
I'll give in to the sin.
Maybe that could have been his fear, too.
Satan's too powerful.
I know my flesh.
I know my weakness.
But when you're in God's perfect will, you
see, nothing can harm thee.
So whatever the fear was, whether he'd fail,
whether he'd be beaten again, he was just
tired, God said, Paul, I'm with thee.
And whoever you are tonight, he's with you.
I'm with you.
I have much people here.
And it's all Paul needed.
That's all you really need, see, is that
one little touch from the Lord.
And man, he continued there a year and
six months, teaching the Word of God among
them.
And so five years later, look at the
fruit.
Five years later, he's writing back to them,
and many of them are walking with the
Lord.
A church, houses, house church, people all over
the city.
Now, are you still with the Lord?
Would Paul's letter in Corinthians apply to you?
Are you struggling?
Are you starting to go back after what
God's done for you years ago?
Is Corinth starting to get a hold on
you again?
Or can Paul say, some of you were
like that, but you're not like that anymore.
I thank God I'm not like that anymore.
I thank God for the work of the
Spirit.
His faithfulness to keep me, and He's faithful
to keep you.
You don't need to run.
And God may be putting you somewhere where
you are right now, and they need to
see your love for Jesus Christ.
To see that you love Jesus Christ so
much, you're not going to watch it.
You're not going to listen to it.
You're not going to talk that way.
You're not going to dress that way.
Not to be self-righteous and be high
and mighty and make someone feel bad.
You're just going to live for Christ, and
they're going to see it.
And you can share the gospel.
Say, yes, Christ can change you.
If you want to change, Christ has the
power.
The cross has the power.
The cross defeated Satan.
You don't have to live this way if
you don't want to.
You don't need any more deliverance than just
coming to Jesus Christ.
He did it for me.
He'll do it for you.
And He loves you enough that He wants
to do it.
Because He says, He who comes unto Me,
I will no wise cast out.
There's no ritual, no routine you have to
go through after you get to Him.
Just come to Him.
Get to Jesus, and I will not cast
you out.
And when you get to Jesus, then it's
a new life.
Shall we stand?
It's very assuring, Father, to know that we
can be at a point where we're fearing
and doubting, discouraged, and yet you'll be there
just as you were for Paul.
And greatness doesn't free us from weakness and
fear and doubt.
No matter how you've used us, Lord, there
are those times when our humanity gets the
best of us, and we're left to ourselves
and realizing our own weaknesses.
We thank you, Father, that you have a
design for that, and that you'll always be
there for us.
When we're afraid, when we're doubting, when we're
discouraged, you'll never forsake us.
You're a wonderful, loving, heavenly Father that has
sent your Son, Jesus Christ, to die for
us.
To shed His blood for us, to cleanse
us from all iniquity, to deliver us from
evil, to justify us, and present us without
fault to you at that day.
We thank you, Lord, that you will keep
us.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.